A day in Assisi

I'm tired tonight, so I'm not going to deal with pictures, but I'll post some later (and Ashley has already put some up for you as an appetizer).

A little interpretation of Ashley's post:  "some churches" were the Cathedral of Assisi, which had a rather large crypt in which St. Francis is known to have prayed (how completely neat is that?), as well as some beautifully ornate vestments and relics, as well as Roman fragments from earlier excavations.  The crypt also incorporates a presbytery from late Roman times, if I interpreted the rather minimal signs properly.

A thought for the evening --- I think that we sometimes overexplain in American museums.  They have the opposite issue here.  I go through these places (as do the kids) wondering, "Why is this here?  What is the significance?  To what time period does it date?  Where was it found?".  To the kids' credit, they spent plenty of time in the museum observing, rather than wanting to be elsewhere.  They were really interested in the displays.

That was the Cathedral.  Then we had lunch at a rather overpriced spot -- it's rather hard to find a "true" Assisi because the town is virtually given over to tourism, which is rather sad.  On the other hand, it's so nifty that -- as a tourist myself -- it's hard to refuse to go and participate in the tourism!  Such a catch-22.

After lunch, after having been assured by the restaurant owner that the Rocca Maggiore (Major Castle -- Primary Fortress) was worth checking out, we ascended at least 59 flights of steps.  Okay, I'm kidding.  But there were a lot.  I thought Todi had a lot of stairs.  Todi is the baby pool, and Assisi is like the ocean. 

We made it, huffing and puffing, to the top of the ridge -- to find a wind that didn't stop and was strong enough to blow you over.  And a view.  A glorious view.  But wait, there's more!  We actually got to explore the castle with no intervention (no shushing docents, no security guards with bluetooth headsets).  Stone spiral staircases up and down the towers.  Dormitories.  Fireplaces.  A long, narrow passage to an outlying tower/fortification.  A really magical place that felt like a...FORTRESS.  A real one.  While there were obviously portions that were ruined (this place dates to the 1100s), it was intact enough to be extremely satisfying to explore.  The kids loved it.  And we were the only ones actually in the place -- we could see some people walking dogs here and there, but other than that, it was deserted.

Then we went to St. Clare's church -- as in, the founder of the Poor Clares.  The church is lovely, inside and out -- with ornamental marble exterior, complete with flying buttresses, and beautiful frescoed interior.  The crypt included relics made by St. Clare (among which was the most enormous alb.  One wonders for whom it was made -- a giantess, I think) or used by St. Francis.  Her sarcophagus was available for viewing from behind glass.  The crypt in this church is absolutely remarkable.  The stonework has to be seen to be believed.  Marble inlays, frescoes, you name it -- it's there.  Truly, I wonder what St. Clare would have thought of her body being surrounded by such opulence when her life was spent in utter poverty.  Pushing that thought aside, though, it's a beautiful spot.

At this point, it was already 4:30.  So we had a snack, meandered through the town to the bus station, and made our way home.  It was 7:30 before we made it to the piazza near the house, so we grabbed some pizza at our favorite pizzeria, and ate it at home.  We discovered that our pizzaiolo's name (the pizzeria guy's) is Massimo, and the cashier is Cristina.  They're both really sweet.

Word for the day:  Pisolino -- a little nap.