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In the Province - Via Matildica del Volto Santo (Matildic Way of the Holy Face)

The Via Matildica del Volto Santo (Matildic Way of the Holy Face) is a route that retraces the ancient network of itineraries that crossed northern Italy in the longitudinal direction within the territories of Countess Matilda di Canossa.

Information

The route is 256 km long, of which 140 km in Emilia-Romagna, and crosses the lands where the signs left by Matilda and her ancestors can still be read, following the footsteps of Sant'Anselmo da Lucca (itinerant bishop with Matilde who moved from Lucca to Reggio Emilia and then to Mantua) and of San Pellegrino, the Scottish prince who retraced the same path followed by San Colombano, starting from Northern Europe.

The track was part of the wider European road network that connected the Vatican to the Germanic and Northern European kingdoms.
The route today links Mantua, Unesco city and perhaps the birthplace of Matilde, to Lucca, where the Holy Face is housed going through the villages of Guastalla and Gualtieri, the ancient capital of the Bentivoglio family (now included in the list of the most beautiful villages of Italy), to reach the town of Reggio Emilia and then towards the Castle of Canossa, San Pellegrino in Alpe, the spiritual hermitages of the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, a Mab Unesco reserve.

The path then goes down towards the hills of Tuscany in Garfagnana, to reach the town of Lucca.

Online route

Sito web - Website La via Matildica del Volto Santo