Santa Severina → Petilia Policastro

Stage information

Difficulty: challenging. Difficulty recorded in the catalogue.

26 km from Santa Severina to Petilia Policastro by way of Roccabernarda. Sandstone paths run past centuries-old olive trees and dry stone walls cut into the rock, with the smell of mint and rosemary; hermits from the Near East once chose these places. Roccabernarda has a water point and makes a good place to split the stage, near the ruined Convento di San Francesco among olive and orange groves. Petilia Policastro keeps its Byzantine layout, and the Santuario della Santa Spina guards a thorn from the crown of Christ.