Greccio anctuary and Chapel are fundamental stops on the S. FrancisWay, the "chapel" in particular is, according to tradition, the place where S. Francis was used to retire in solitary prayer, during his stay in Greccio, the sanctuary where he represented for the first time a living nativity scene.
You can get there, as well as going up from the sanctuary, also along an itinerary running on the watershed between Hilly Tiber Sabina and Appennine Sabina: once this route was a strategic pass on the way to Rieti. Starting from "Prati di Cottanello" karst plateau, you get immediately immersed in history and in the pastoral / peasant memory. Everything recalls transhumance (cattle moving seasonally on the mountains). Casette di Cottanello, in Prati, is a place where a sort of "sedentary" transhumance used to took place: the shepherds / farmers of the village of Cottanello and the neighboring villages spent the whole summer here in Prati, having, as their dwelling, the stone houses, perfectly inserted in the environment and cultivating by themselves, leaving the animals to graze. The pastures at about 800m today, as from the Middle Ages, are frequented by numerous animals: horses, cows, sheep and goats are often found in the company of wild pigs. The road that crosses this landscape winds through ancient trees, meadows shaved by pasture, woods and karst pools. It is very probable that San Francesco also went down to Sabina following the path that is followed, in the opposite direction, to go up from the Cottanello meadows to the chapel. In this route you will cross beech woods with centuries-old specimens of monumental beauty and reached the top, near the chapel, from the top of the nearby Monte Macchia di Mezzo, the eye can range 360 ° admiring the ridge of the Sabine Mountains, which separates Sabina dal Reatino.
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