Another wonderful breakfast to start the day. Mom and I are happy to be on the ground floor of this hotel. Much easier to find our room. Walk through reception, turn right, then left and there we are. Our view is overlooking the soccer field and of course, a church or two. I may have mentioned this before, but there has always been a learning curve with each hotel room. This one was no different. This was the first room where the door didn’t lock automatically. It wasn’t until this morning that I discovered the was a light above the bathroom mirror (it was a light strip that was a bit recessed—ended up hitting a switch I thought was for the hair dryer—poof! A light came on!). Not one hotel is the same.
After breakfast we closed up our bags and rolled them out to reception. Dropped off the key to our room and moved outside with more of the group. Sara indicated Sauro would be parking across the street (thank goodness) shortly. He arrived within minutes and we were tossing our bags into the storage. Our extra bag (duffel) went into “deep storage” as I was going to leave that with the bus for this set of nights.
Off we go on our journey to Assisi. To be clear, Lower Assisi first. This is where Francis of Assisi had a vision of Jesus Christ in a small chapel of San Damiano. Shortly after this he renounced his father and his patrimony; his father now was God and only God. He had renounced the riches of his family and now lived as a pauper. He would beg for stones to restore the chapel of St. Damiano’s. He spent several years rebuilding ruined chapels around the area. As time passed, Francis would spread the teachings of Christ to whomever would listen. In 1209 he and his 11 followers (friars) travelled to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. After the Pope had a dream of Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lantern (the cathedral in Rome), he made the decision to endorse Francis’ order. This was the official found of the Franciscan Order.
It is documented that Francis had over 40 miracles attributed to him. Most were people who had died and then came back to life. Or there were medical miracles; such as a man who severely damaged one of his eyes; but appealed to his faith in St. Francis and his eye was instantly healed. Francis of Assisi died in 1226.
Ok, enough background for St. Francis. The first stop was at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi. Of course there was a bathroom break here. Public bathrooms cost money to use. This one was only ½ of a euro. The more interesting part was there were a couple of the military guards standing at the entrance of the bathroom. I understand they were there for the Basilica, but it does make one wonder when they are at the turnstile to get into the bathroom!
This basilica houses the small chapel of San Damiano. This chapel is the most sacred place for Franciscan monks. After St. Francis’ death, friars started building small huts around the chapel; then some adjacent buildings were constructed. As time passed, the small space was not enough to house all the pilgrims coming to the chapel. Pope Pius V ordered the buildings removed except for the Chapel of the Transito (the cell where St. Francis died) and the original chapel. In 1569 construction began on the basilica. The interior of the basilica is covered with frescos. It is a very solemn place and for the most part silent as there were several people there praying.
Mom and I walked around the basilica and marveled at the frescos. We went downstairs to view the cell in which St. Francis died. The entire basilica is such an amazing place. I don’t want to say I felt something there, but I certainly seemed to be more at peace while we were walking through the basilica.
After this somber tour, we met Sara and heading back for the bus. Our next stop? Upper Assisi. This is a hilltop town with steep streets and stairs. It was first founded around 1000 BC by the immigrants known as the Umbrians. Within 600 years, the area was taken over by the Etruscans and then the Romans about 200 years after that. The town would be overtake and ruled by many different kings over the following 1000 years. In the 13th century, the town began to expand outside the confines of the Roman walls. In the next century came the plague of the Black Death (1348) where over half of the inhabitants died.
Are you tired of the history lessons yet? I find myself wanting to learn more and more of these cities/towns. I promise I’ll not go on much more about this. Sauro drops us off in a parking lot outside the city (no buses are allowed in the city). We take an escalator up to the entrance of the city. From there we walk up/down hills to get to the Piazza del Comune. Sara walks us to the market where we pick up sandwiches and water for lunch. She then gives us our time to meet and location. We have about 1 ½ hours to explore the area.
It starts raining while we are eating our lunch. About half of our group stands under a wide arch to stay dry.
The rain continues and soon I hear thunder. The small squall blows over, so Mom and I walk to the piazza to the Temple of Minerva, which is now the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It is very blue inside. A small church with a few painting and a statue of Mary behind the altar.
After taking a few moments of reflection, we exit the church and see the rain has returned again. We cross the piazza and seek cover under another arch. Finally we decide to strike out; rain or no rain. I had brought my umbrella so we did have that (for what it was worth…it barely covers one person much less two). We did a little shopping; rain and wind forcing us into shops we might not have considered otherwise. Ended up and a little shop that had desserts and gelato. Mom got a cannoli. I bought something that looked like a slice of cheesecake and also a little cream filled horn. Unfortunately we were disappointed in our purchase. Mom’s cannoli was either stale or just not what she expected. My slice of chocolate something was basically a inside of a truffle candy, but very firm. I needed a coffee or milk to go with it. The little cream filled horn was good.
We meet our group at the designated time under another arch at the piazza. It’s now raining very heavily and lightening flashes across the sky. We met our local guide and he talked for a little bit about Assisi and the history. Finally, the rain stops and we venture out to start the walk to the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi (St. Francis). The work on the basilica started shortly after St. Francis was canonized in 1228; completion was in 1253.
The walk to this basilica takes about 15 minutes. We stop along the way for our guide to point out certain building or give us pieces of the town’s history. It’s mostly downhill, some places very steep and the stones in the road slick from the recent rain.
We arrive at the basilica and are told no photos are allowed, or filming. Ok then. Understandable but disappointing. Guess I’ll need to find a book documenting the art contained within. Our guide brings us inside and starts expanding about the life of St. Francis. We viewed the crypt of St. Francis. St. Francis’ remains have been moved several times. During the last move in the 1970’s, they did some testing of his remains and determined he had died of a rare form of leukemia. He was only 44 when he died, after living a life of poverty and penance. He spent much of his time fasting and otherwise treating his body poorly.
We also took quite a while to view the frescos depicting the life of St. Francis. There were about 18 frescos starting from his birth to after his death. The tour took about 2 hours and there was so much information we were given I can’t even begin to recount it here. I have given a bit of it above (condensed for your reading pleasure).
After the tour was over, we used the bathrooms (again, costs to use, but still better than not having one to use!). I had to laugh; we walked past the men’s room which had no door on it and there was a huge window overlooking the valley below. The women’s restroom? A little tiny hole in the wall about 4×4 inches and some chicken wire covering the outer side to keep the birds out. While we were in there, one of our group told Sara she better talk to us quickly when we we back on the bus…because it was going to be a nap-fest very quickly. Sara laughed and said: “I know; I’ve already seen half of you yawning!”
We make our way to the bus (more downhill walking). We settle into our seats, do our buddy check, and off we go. The rain begins again in earnest; thunder and lighting are also there for a spectacular show. Sara started talking right away, giving us information about times for our wine tasting, dinner, and also our room names. Yes, names. We are in the “Wine” building and our room name is Malvasia. I don’t remember much after that. The ride from Assisi to our agriturismo was about two hours. I’m guessing most of us dozed for a least an hour or so on the way. The next thing I remember is Sara saying: “You’ll really be impressed with Sauro’s driving here!” And she wasn’t wrong. The town we traveled through had narrow roads and tight corners. Made it through without a scratch.
Arrival at the agriturismo is dampened by rain. Lots and lots of rain. Umbrellas up; we grab our bags and are directed to our rooms. Much to our surprise, this is more than a room. It’s like a one bedroom apartment. Full kitchen, separate bedroom and a nice bathroom. Also a secluded patio with a table and three chairs. It was time to start the dance of “what switch does what” which I believe we figured out fairly quickly. You do have to put the keycard into a slot to get the lights to turn on. Clever.
We freshened up and meet our group for a short tour and lesson on grape growing/wine making. Some I was familiar with after living in Dundee. One thing I didn’t know but was glad to learn was why there are rose bushes planted at the end of the rows of grapes. Apparently they are a barometer of how healthy the soil and the air is. If the rose start to become distressed, or show signs of disease, it tells the vineyard manager something needs to be adjusted. This is an old fashioned way of monitoring the vineyard; now they have other ways of testing the soil and the grapes.
After our brief lesson about the grapes, we walked to the olive oil processing area. The owners of this place purchased two years ago a olive processor to make extra virgin olive oil. It was smaller than I expected. There was no demonstration, just telling us about the process and the machine. Our guide is the husband of the owner, I got the impression he was more involved with the olive oil production than the wine production. Of course, they do have a winemaker who has been here about 10 years now.
Moving on from the oil room to the winemaking area. There are about 10 stainless steel vats in a large room, over half were full with either white or red wine from this year’s harvest. This winery does not produce a massive amount of wine. After we were educated on the process of making wine (some only processed in the steel vats and some is aged in oak barrels) we moved to the wine tasting room. Since I don’t drink wine, I simply observed. There were 4 glasses at each place setting; also some snacks to consume with the wine.
We spent about 30 minutes in the tasting room, and then walked to the restaurant for dinner. It was a set menu, so we just sat and waited for the courses to be served. It was all very good! During dinner Chelsea and Norm presented Sara with a massage gift certificate for here. She seemed truly surprised and honored.
The first course was Flan di Pecorino con Salsa di Piselli e finocchietto (Pecorino cheese flan with bean sauce and fennel). I was a little nervous about the bean sauce but it was all delicious!
The second course was Risotto alle Zucchine e Provala Affumicata (Zucchini risotto with smoked provola cheese). This was excellent! Am tempted to try this one at home.
The third and main course was Filetto di Maiale con Salsa al vino rosso e sfromatino di palate al timo (Pork fillet with red wine sauce and potatoes, thyme flan).
The fourth and final course was Cannolo Siciliano con Ricotta e Arancia Candita (Sicilian Cannoli filled with ricotta cheese and candied orange). It was much better than the one Mom had earlier in the day.
Of course by now it’s 9:30 and most of us are exhausted. We slowly leave the restaurant and some of us stop at the reservation desk to make appointments for our spa treatments tomorrow. Mom signed up for a manicure and I’m getting a facial.
We hike up the hill back to our room; watching lightening flash across the valley miles away. Mom and I sort our stuff and get things laid out for the morning. Breakfast served at 7:30!
This little agriturismo is the closest I’ve felt to home and it makes me a little more homesick; the grapevines are so familiar I can’t help but wonder what it’s doing at home. Are the leaves starting to turn now? I know the nights are getting colder at home…
Ciao Ciao!
