This 93-Mile Italian Hike Leads to Medieval Monasteries—and Lunches Cooked by Nuns

I quicken my pace before the rain starts. Passing below oak, chestnut, and beech trees beginning to turn fall colors, I walk past stone villages and the carved images of saints erected in the Middle Ages to protect locals from the Black Death and other misfortunes. Finally, I reach the rustic Ristorante San Martino, a restaurant on the edge of Palanzano.

There’s nothing my soul wants more than a hearty, hot meal. Within minutes, a steaming plate of cappelletti—hat-shaped, filled pasta in broth—appears before me, together with some food I didn’t order, but the owner delivers with the expression of someone who won’t take it back. “My husband made it this morning,” Simona Zappoli says of the focaccia. “Try it.”

I’m in Italy, yet I’ve never felt so far from the country’s urban crowds, Aperol Spritzes, and carbonaras. Instead, I’ve set out to discover a different side of the nation, heading toward the gentle central mountain range of the Apennines. Here, I will follow an ancient 93-mile trail called the Via di Linari that snakes among medieval monasteries, abbeys, a national park, and countless understated, family-owned restaurants and guesthouses.

In the Middle Ages, the Via di Linari offered travelers, pilgrims, and traders an alternative route across the mountains toward the Mediterranean Sea and Rome. Stretching across Emilia-Romagna, the trail diverts from the better-known Via Francigena pilgrim path in Fidenza, on the Padan Plain, passes through Parma, then winds across the Apennines into Tuscany. It takes its name from the medieval Linari Abbey, located on a mountain pass, which once provided travelers with food and shelter. The abbey fell into disrepair in the 15th century, and the trail faded into obscurity.

Photo by posztos/Shutterstock (L); photo by Domenichini Giuliano/Shutterstock (R)

Six centuries later, a hike along it offers glimpses of medieval monasteries and abbeys—and of a different, less crowded part of Italy.

This is the nation’s backcountry: rolling summits and vast, silent expanses that have been a land of passage and spirituality—both Christian and pagan—for millennia. It was the refuge of indomitable people throughout history: local tribes once took to the hills as they battled the Romans and, more recently, Italian partisans hid between these peaks to organize against the fascists during World War II. Most of the monasteries and abbeys in the region date back to the Middle Ages, when Germanic tribes founded them to maintain and control passageways, roads, and remote areas after the fall of Rome.

My journey starts in Parma, a lively but slow-paced city one hour by train from Milan and Bologna. I walk between leaning medieval stone towers, packed cafés, and Romanesque churches to reach my first ecclesiastical waypoint, the monumental San Giovanni Evangelista Abbey. The huge complex dates back to 980. Abbot Francesco La Rocca leads me through vast cloisters and a library, explaining that the building’s beauty was the work of men who tirelessly toiled to shape these buildings—when they weren’t praying. “Monks did not choose the most beautiful places,” he says. “They chose places, then made them beautiful.”

That night, I stay in the stone hamlet of Torrechiara. Here, travelers can visit the 15th-century Castle of Torrechiara, as well as the town’s abbey—and feast on a lunch prepared by the nuns who live there. I opt for a hearty dinner of Parma ham and culaccia cold cuts with torta fritta, a popular local fried bread, all enjoyed with lambrusco, the local sparkling red wine. I check in at the cozy Locanda del Borgo down the road, a boutique hotel within the castle walls.

The next day, leaving the Padan Plain behind, I venture into the mountains to meet Luca Fantuzzi, a freelance hiking guide who organizes tours in the Apennines—including along the Via di Linari and in the Appennino Tosco–Emiliano National Park. “I also work in the Cinque Terre [National Park], but that’s work,” Fantuzzi tells me. “The Apennines are a passion.” He loves the small pleasures this landscape offers: the food, the solitude in nature, and the no-frills establishments.

Photo by Gigi Peis/Shutterstock

The route heads southwest from Palanzano, ascending through dirt roads in the woods and toward the Appennino Tosco–Emiliano National Park, the Lagastrello Pass (where the descent into Tuscany begins) and the ruins of the Linari Abbey. I catch a glimpse of the Romanesque Badia Cavana monastery, an ancient complex dating back to the early 12th century. At the nearby monastery of Santa Chiara, the three remaining nuns have been cloistered for decades, secluded from the comforts and hassles of modern life. They only recently started using money and speak to me from behind bars to mark their distance from society.

Fantuzzi guides me through the woods of the Valleys of the Knights, evocatively named after the consortium of medieval noble families that once resided in fortified structures high in these mountains and set up semi-autonomous rule over the region. With the rain arriving, the cappelletti, lambrusco, and focaccia at Ristorante San Martino feel like a blessing. We muse about the area and its relative obscurity compared to Italy’s other, more popular mountain range—the higher, glitzier Alps. “A writer once wrote that the Alps are higher and take you closer to the universe and God,” Fantuzzi says. “The Apennines, lower, take you closer to people.”

Useful tips for hiking the Via di Linari

The Via di Linari is best hiked in spring and fall, when temperatures are mild. The trail takes nine days to walk and can be strenuous: Sections never cover more than 12 miles, but the terrain is sometimes mountainous. The official start is in Fidenza but shorter itineraries start in Torrechiara and reach Palanzano and the Valley of the Knights within five days. Tour operators such as AssaporAppennino offer bespoke programs, with transport to reach preferred stages.

Several websites, including the Emilia-Romagna trail site maintained by local authorities, provide a list of accommodation options for travelers, including hotels, homestays, bed-and-breakfasts, mountain huts, campsites—and monasteries. More luxurious hotels are located near Parma and Langhirano.

Emilia-Romagna runs an “Open Monasteries” initiative each autumn, when monasteries and abbeys along the Via di Linari open their doors to visitors for free over select weekends. Outside these times, private tours can sometimes be organized via phone or email. AssaporAppennino can also assist in organizing visits.

Photo by Federica Melegari/Unsplash (L); photo by Noriegax/Shutterstock (R)

Other activities to try in Emilia-Romagna

The Via di Linari sits in Emilia-Romagna, home to some of Italy’s most famous dishes. Food is a big component of the region’s identity: Every household has a slicer for its Parma ham and families argue about the right fillings for cappelletti.

Artisan producers of centuries-old delicacies are located throughout the region. Saliceto, a women-led, family-owned Parmigiano Reggiano maker in Langhirano, offers tours and tastings in English. Nearby Conti is a family-owned Parma ham producer that offers site tours and tastings. A short drive from Parma, small-batch balsamic vinegar producer Acetaia Picci is run by Marco Piccirilli, a former pilot who gave up flying to focus on making Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia, a regionally important vinegar aged up to 25 years.

For travelers wanting to explore more of the region’s outdoors, Luca Fantuzzi leads two-day summer hikes in the nearby Appennino Tosco–Emiliano National Park, where you can soak in views of the Mediterranean Sea from 6,500 feet up.