Assisi - WOW!

Monday, April 18, 2016
Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Coming to Assisi, you approach from a fairly flat plain with the entire town climbing up the mountain. The Basilica of St. Francis is at the lower left end and then the town goes all the way up to the top where the remains of a colosseum is and even farther up to the major fort and the minor fort. Considering the thousands and thousands of people who come here (and who seem to be here today and it isn't even high season), Assisi is not very big. This photo is just of the Basilica. Taking photos from the moving car doesn't always work well.
 





 




 
Since I pick hotel rooms on the internet the night before we go there, we never know for sure where we'll be. But I picked one that looked good near the Basilica and I scored!! The only bad thing is that our view is of the bus station. But if you lean out and look to the right you can see the Basilica bell tower, the car park is under the bus station, and our hotel is right around the corner (less than the length of my driveway uphill) through the Gate of St. Peter, so we didn't have to haul our stuff up up up up the hill. And I scored a triple room for the price of a double so we have more room. Armando likes to open the windows and sit in the easy chair with his feet up watching the people. It's raining right now so it's a good time to rest.
 

































 

 
After checking into the hotel, we walked up a little way to the Basilica. Wow! It is actually two churches - the lower church which was built first and the upper church built on top. Both churches are filled with amazing frescos and decorations. No photos allowed inside but Armando snuck a few. (I told him this is a church and so he must follow the rules or go to confession.)  
 
 
 
 
 

 
 


























 

The guidebook says this place is second only to Rome as a place of worldwide Catholic pilgrimage. The Basilica was started shortly after St. Francis' death. (He lived 1182-1226). Of course the irony is that St. Francis would probably have hated all this. He didn't want huge churches built, he was a humble man who wore a simple robe, lived in a hut and traveled around preaching. The last thing he would have wanted was a grand basilica built in his honor. The guide book says even his wishes for his burial place - the Hill of Hell where criminals were executed, to again show his humility, was renamed the Hill of Paradise after his death. He is now buried in a crypt below the lower church. But maybe at least he would be happy to know that so many people come here to pray and to remember what he preached, so if it takes a grand Basilica then maybe he would accept it. We decided to come back tomorrow for a more thorough tour of the complex.

From there we walked up Via S. Francesco to the cathedral. We passed the Chiesa di Santa Maria dopra Minerva which basically means Santa Maria's church built on top of the Roman Temple of Minerva, which was here in St. Francis' time. There is a fresco in the Basilica of St. Francis standing in front of it.  
 

























Eventually we got to the Cathedral. This is the site where St. Francis and St. Clare were baptized, but in a church that here before the present one. The baptismal font is supposed to be here, but we couldn't find it. We went down into a museum / cave-like place where you can see part of the old church, and perhaps Roman ruins as well. Many churches were built on top of old temples.
 






 


























From there we had great views of the castle high above, but no way could we hike up there. And then back down again.  
 














 
 
Then down to the Basilica of St. Clare. Another beautiful church containing her remains. This church is more simple - the frescos were (gasp!!) whitewashed over in Baroque times. Again, St. Clare founded the Order of the Poor Clare nuns who live in poverty. What would she think of this?

The Crucifix of San Damianos, the crucifix that St. Francis prayed to that spoke to him and told him to go and rebuild the church, hangs in a chapel in this church. There is a copy of it in our St. Francis of Assisi church in Memphis. It's amazing and moving to see the real one. I swear we took photos of this church and the cross, but can't find the photos.

Photos of Assisi:

 
 





































 
Walking up one of the hills we came upon "Francesco's Olive Oil and Wine Shop". The sign outside said "Please come in and taste now the best olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Later you will not feel like walking up again. Don't miss this chance". Francesco was there so we had a nice chat - he lived in the US for 27 years but now lives here. He gave us a taste of his olive oil - so light - didn't even taste oily. And the balsamic vinegar was wonderful. He explained all about how it's made and why his is the best.
 
 
 

 





 





































 




 
 






 
 

Okay, so you engineers and architects and students of medieval buildings - what are these metal things? We've seen them all over Italy, not just here in Assisi. They can be up high or down low or in the middle. There can be one or two of them or many more. Our best guess is that somehow they bolt through the building to a beam to hold the beam in place to stabilize the building. Any other ideas?
 














 


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Comments

Marvin Nordwall
2016-04-22

What a wonderful presentation of your trip. It has been better than being there.

2025-02-16

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