Avventura Felice 2012: Umbrellas in hand, we're off again

This time we are headed north to do our "Grand Tour". We left Rome Friday morning by train to Cortona, about 200 miles north. There we picked up a car and are going to spend up to 2 weeks travelling to Venice, Florence, Bologna, Pisa, Sienna and points on route, inbetween and possibly beyond.

Our first 2 nights we spent at Passingiano on Lake Trasimeno, between Cortona and Perugia. The view from our window is quintessential Tuscan/Umbrian countryside with ruins, olive orchards, rows of grape vines, umbrella pines, straight and narrow cypress trees and the lake in front of us. The only thing missing is the "Tuscan sun". It is dreary, overcast and a bit cool.

Saturday, armed with our umbrellas, we headed off to see Assisi. It is cold and miserable, but we are going to do it. Assisi is the home town of St Francis of Assisi. He was made a saint shortly after his death in 1226 and a basilica in his honour was built in quick order after his death. He was the son of a rich cloth merchant who gave up all his worldly goods to help the poor. He started the Franciscan order of monks. St Francis was made the patron saint of Italy i n the early 1900s. Assisi lay in a state of neglect from the 1600s until 1926, when the celebration of the 700th anniversary of his death brought 2 million visitors to the town. Since then it has become one of the important pilgrimage sites in Christendom, with ever increasing numbers of tourists and pilgrims visiting annually.

Our first stop of the day was n Santa Maria degli Angeli, which is that the town at the base of the mountain on which Assisi is situated. There we visited a basilica of the same name. It was celebrating its 800th centenary. Imagine our surprise when we walked into this church and there inside was a much smaller humbler church. The basilica was built between 1569 and 1679 and encloses the 9th century little church, the Porziuncola, the most sacred place for the Franciscans. It was here that the young Francis of Assisi understood his vocation and renounced the world in order to live in poverty among the poor and thus started the Franciscan movement. As vast numbers pilgrims came flocking to Assisi to receive the “Pardon of Assisi”, the small cathedral space of the Porziuncola became completely inadequate to house all these pilgrims. The necessity grew to build a church incorporating the Porziuncola. The buildings surrounding the shrine were all taken down by order of Pope Pius V (1566-1572), except for the Chapel of the Transito, the cell in which St. Francis had died. Construction of the basilica started on 25 March 1569. No pictures were allowed inside the basilica, but I did manage to find some on the Internet that show the church within a church.

Now an outside picture

Had some lunch, warmed up by a fireplace, had a latte, and were ready to face the weather again. So up the hill to Assisi we went. What a magnificent setting, even on a cold, miserable rainy day. I can only imagine what it must look like with the sun in full cooperation. Our first stop was the .rock fortification Rocco Maggoiria that dominates the hill above the town. From here we got a great view over the town and the valley below. Bill spent about an hour walking through this fortress. I did not join him because there was a lot of uneven ground, slopes and steps to climb. I was nervous about slipping and falling because I can do that almost at the drop of a hat theses days, plus I get too short of breath if I have to climb a lots of stairs (although I am getting better at it these days).

Here are some of Bill's fortress top pictures.

Then we headed down into the town site and the Basilica of San Francisco.

The basilica, which was begun in 1228, is built into the side of a hill comprises two churches known as the Upper Church and the Lower Church, and a crypt where the remains of the saint are interred. The interior of the Upper Church is an important early example of the Gothic style in Italy. The Franciscan friary (Sacro Convento) and the Lower and Upper Basilicas were started in 1228. Simone di Pucciarello donated the land for the church, a hill at the west side of Assisi, known as "Hill of Hell" where previously criminals were put to death. When Francis of Assisi was nearing death, those about him began preparations for his burial in state in the Cathedral at Assisi. But Francis said No. He desired to be buried, as he had lived, alongside the criminals, sinners and outcasts. Today, this hill is called "Hill of Paradise". The body of St. Francis was brought in a solemn procession to the Lower Basilica from its temporary burial place in the church of St. George, now the Basilica of Santa Chiara of Assisi. The burial place had been concealed for fear that St Francis' remains might be stolen and dispersed. This burial place of St. Francis was found in 1818.

No pictures were allowed inside, so again I had to get some interior shots from the internet for you.