On foot in the Matese: the Hermitage of Sant'Egidio and the drovers' roads of Bojano

There are places in Italy where almost no one goes, and the Hermitage of Sant'Egidio, above Bojano, is one of them. You climb up from the town along the flanks of the Matese to just over a thousand metres, where a small stone church leaning against a refuge has withstood the wind and the silence for centuries. Its origins go back to a distant age, among the early centuries of the Middle Ages, along the ancient road that linked the fortresses of Civita Superiore and Roccamandolfi. It is not a picture-postcard monument: it is a place to reach on foot, at a leisurely pace.

The isolated hermitage

For centuries access was possible only on foot, along a mountain path; only in recent times has a road come close to the site. This isolation has preserved its atmosphere. Up here there are no queues, no ticket offices, no tourist coaches: there is the beech wood, the limestone, the odd pilgrim and the sound of your own footsteps. Tradition links the hermitage to the figure of a saint who is said to have lived here in solitude, but it is the landscape, more than any legend, that leaves its mark.

The transhumance drovers' roads

Bojano, at the foot of the mountain, is one of the cradles of the ancient people of the Samnites and rises exactly where the great transhumance drovers' roads passed. These broad grassy ways, travelled for centuries by the flocks between the mountains and Apulia, are today an almost forgotten heritage. The Pescasseroli-Candela drovers' road crosses these places and offers, between Bojano and Sepino, a flat and easy stretch along the meadows of the Matese.

Walking through history

And here lies the beauty: walking along a drovers' road means moving on a road centuries old, where the grass has replaced the flocks but not the memory. In a few hours you pass from the sources of the Biferno to the high pastures, crossing Samnite and Roman ruins like those of Sepino, and you return without having seen a single organised group.

The slow pace

Visiting the Molise Matese means choosing the slow pace that respects the land: bringing water and suitable shoes, leaving no trace, stopping in the small towns. It is the Italy that stays to one side, and that precisely for this reason deserves to be reached on foot.

Getting there

The Hermitage of Sant'Egidio lies on the slopes of the Matese above Bojano, in Molise. Today you can get close by car along the Civita di Bojano road, but the last stretch must still be walked; alternatively, numerous marked trails climb up to the hermitage, among them the classic itinerary that starts from Pianelle crossing the beech wood. The reference railway station is Bojano, on the Campobasso-Isernia line; the most convenient airport for those coming from afar is Naples-Capodichino.

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