Slow Way Festival: Celebrating Italy's Walking Pilgrimage Routes
Italy's inaugural Slow Way Festival took place in Assisi from June 16-19, 2019, bringing together walking enthusiasts and pilgrims to celebrate the country's growing network of slow travel trails and spiritual journeys.
A Piedi Per Il Mondo
The Slow Way Festival: Building a Walking Routes Culture in Italy
Italy's first Slow Way Festival took place in Assisi from 16 to 19 June 2019, organized by Nicola Ucci, director of the International Religious Tourism Fair.
The magnificent Palazzo di Montefrumentario provided the backdrop for the proceedings, one of many remarkable treasures in this unique city. The festival featured numerous conferences and roundtable discussions, with prominent speakers and personalities gracing the programme. Strong representation from municipal, provincial and regional institutions underscored a shared commitment to developing pilgrimage routes and fostering sustainable, slow-paced development across Umbria.
A roundtable titled "Walking Routes Across Europe: Learning from Best Practices" opened the four-day programme, bringing together influential figures from the European walking and trekking community:
- Mauro Maiani, Ambassador of the Republic of San Marino and Representative of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe;
- Paolo Caucci Von Saucken, President of the Italian Centre for Compostela Studies and Rector of the Confraternity of San Jacopo di Compostela;
- Massimo Tedeschi, President of the European Association of the Via Francigena;
- Thomas Dahms, President of the European Association of the Via Romea Germanica;
- Robert Azais, President of the French Federation of Hiking.
These diverse perspectives foster a valuable exchange of ideas, allowing all participants to broaden their understanding and develop increasingly effective tourism products and experiences. As always, the numbers tell a compelling story, offering the clarity and perspective needed to understand the full scale of what we're witnessing. Sometimes, when we're too close to a situation, we struggle to see the bigger picture.
When discussing walking routes, the numbers are striking. The Camino de Santiago certified 327,000 pilgrims in 2018 alone, compared to approximately 30,000 on the Via Francigena. Yet quality of data is equally important: Camino de Santiago figures are verified—every pilgrim collecting the Compostela certificate at the Oficina del Peregrino in Santiago de Compostela completes a detailed form with personal and pilgrimage information. By contrast, Via Francigena numbers, as Tedeschi himself acknowledges, are estimates at best. Establishing reliable measurement tools is essential for understanding a phenomenon and developing sound strategies. Without knowing who uses your "service" and why, you cannot address their needs or drive meaningful improvements. A critical next step is implementing a robust data-collection system for the Via Francigena as well.
Robert Azais and the French Federation of Hiking offer a model worth emulating—an outstanding example of active, slow tourism accessible to all who love walking. We were impressed and inspired by his involvement, both by the sheer scale of the GR network across Europe and its proven success in generating sustainable economic development for communities of all sizes.
His presentation shared some impressive figures:
- 180,000 km of marked trails;
- 230 up-to-date hiking guides;
- Between 16 and 18 million hikers using trail sections annually;
- 14 million occasional hikers;
- 34% of hikers are French, aged 15 to 70;
- Average daily spending of €50 per hiker.
These numbers demonstrate the French Federation's rigorous approach to measuring the phenomenon and underscore the enormous potential for territorial development that Umbria and Italy could unlock by investing in this sector.
Numbers matter, but equally essential are the ideas and vision that should guide our future direction. It's not enough to know where we stand on the climb; we must be clear about where we want to go and what steps to take to build the world we desire. This awareness shone through in the speakers' commitment to anchoring their perspectives in a broader European context. We're at a moment in history when we need to discuss Europe not merely in economic and administrative terms, but as a repository of shared values and cultural heritage—foundations that unite us all.
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