Cammino di San Bartolomeo

The Cammino di San Bartolomeo is a 100 km route connecting the places tied to the cult of the Saint in both Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, traversing fascinating landscapes of enchanting natural beauty. Past Fiumalbo, the trail winds through the Pistoia Apennines, past the Abetone Pass and the picturesque villages of Cutigliano, Popiglio and Piteglio, until it reaches Pistoia and the church of San Bartolomeo in Pantano where the path ends.

Since the Middle ages, the places along this route have shared a strong reverence of Bartolomeo, one of the twelve apostles. In both Fiumalbo and Cutigliano a church is named after Bartolomeo, and both towns proclaimed him as their Patron Saint. The festival in honour of San Bartolomeo is held on 24th August every year. In Spedaletto, an ancient hospital was dedicated to Bartolomeo and served as a hospice for pilgrims. In Pistoia, visitors can admire the church of San Bartolomeo, an evocative church originally founded during the Lombard domination of Italy. The distinctive tyles on its façade inspired the symbol of this route. Along its itinerary, the Cammino di San Bartolomeo crosses historic paths such as the Via Romea Strata and the Via Romea Germanica Imperiale, which are connected to the routes leading to the main pilgrimage destinations in the world.

The path is not only characterized by the cult of the Saint, it is also an itinerary through natural landscapes rich in biodiversity, with unique peculiarities that make the mountains in the Province of Pistoia a natural area of great importance.
Walking along the Cammino di San Bartolomeo, we can rediscover how rewarding it can be to explore this land at a slow pace, and how it can bring back fond memories of stories, tastes and traditions so profoundly shaping our culture still today.

For technical details about the difficulty of each stage, advice on backpack, information on public transport, you should contact the reference association.