Assisi – it is a little mountain medieval town in the hills
of Umbria. We had to travel from Venice along an autostrata (motorway) until we
reached the hills (mountains) and once again going through scenery that
reminded us of the Napier-Taupo hills. It was funny cause Gary (tour guide)
said to look at the little windy road that you could see under our motorway
(3lanes each way) and how bad it was. We said that was what all hill roads in
NZ were like! Americans quite horrified that buses could go on them! Dave
counted 12 tunnels altogether.
Lovely little towns nestled amongst the hills with sheep
(about 10 in a flock) – Americans – ooooohhhh1 –and a few grape vines.
It was not a nice day (cloudy, few drops of rain) so nice to
be in the bus for most of it. We had a morning tea and lunch stop (fast-food
pasta!) so the day was broken up.
The bus is big, wifi (can do my blog on the bus!) toilet.
Lots of leg room. Gary gives a running commentary as we go by sights of
importance.
We arrived at Assisi about 3pm. Windy road up the mountain
side with an amazing view of St. Francis Basilica above us.
It was built over 6 years (2 years for the bottom – lower
basilica and 4 years for upper basilica). Made of pinkish Umbrian brick. It is
the spot where St. Francis buried. He lived in Assisi early in his life (father
a richish man and angry when St. Francis gave up wordly goods to follow
teaching of Christ).
We had to park bus down below and a van was there waiting
for big bags. We had to walk up narrow steep street for about 10mins to get to
our hotel. It was a gorgeous medieval building (once again it used to be a
monastery). Our room had a small balcony facing out over the Umbrian
countryside below. Lots of agriculture and fields and hills.
At 4pm we met our local guide who walked us to the St.
Francis Basilica (once gain soldiers, security x-ray machines).
You could not
take photos inside, silence was demanded (tho. Accredited guides were allowed
to talk quietly over their microphones into our vox (little boxes around our
necks with earpiece to hear guide). We started at lower basilica – a church
with little light but a few lead light
windows. His tomb was there and a few people including priests kneeling in pews
and reading bibles. The silence made it all the more reverent I thought.
Upstairs was the more spectacular. Big bright arches into the middle of the ceiling. Lots of blue
and pink colours. A couple of early earthquakes had destroyed a few wall
pictures that had not been replaced. All around the walls and ceilings were
paintings straight onto the walls of St. Francis’s life in chronological order. That made it easy for
our guide to point out majors in his life. Also large pictures of the life of
Jesus in chronological order. Beautiful bright blues of the sky, buildings of
the times in each one, gold-leaf halos shining around the main characters.
Quite outstanding!
Afterwards we had 2 hours to walk around the town. A rabbit
warren of little streets, buidings made of brick, little shops mainly selling
religious souveniers. We walked up a steep street with 2 other people to the
main square and then onto another church j(Santa-Maria) where St. Francis used
to go to when he was little). Had a biscuit type roll, cananoli with cream in
the middle. (Recommended by the New Yorkers –but not all that nice).
A photo in the sunset overlooking Umbrian hills and Assisi –
just magical.
We had dinner at the hotel – underneath in the huge type
wine cellar area- with 5 courses again. Boy the weight is not a-shifting!
No comments:
Post a Comment