We were up early and packed for Rome. Plans were to make the 3 hour drive to Assisi, spend 3 hours there, then travel 2 more hours to Rome.Assisi is beautiful. It reminded me a lot of San Gimignano with compact streets and tall towers. One church there pre-dates Christ (as a building, not a cathedral! It used to be a pagan temple.) Throughout the town you see the Franciscan friars and nuns, distinctive because of their robes with three-knotted belts, representing their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. St. Francis worked to heal and change the church from the inside out. His tomb, underground at the basilica, is beautiful, surrounded by the tombs of his contemporary friars.
The lower church, built two years after his death, is a beautiful but dark place. It has many side chancel areas, carvings, paintings, and frescoes. It was not large enough to accommodate the number of pilgrims who came to see him, so a larger church was built above it. It has glorious 13th century frescoes depicting not only Biblical scenes, but scenes from the life of St. Francis.
Overall, the experience of being at the Basilica of St. Francis was quiet and moving. To think of the number of prayers and petitions said there throughout hundreds of years is astounding. Second only to the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, this is a popular stop for pilgrims wanting to pay honor to their saints. It was also a lovely place to spend an hour.
After our time in the basilica, we were off to the capital city of Rome (or Roma, as the Italians call it.) It was founded in 753BC on the Tiber river. Legend has it that Romulus and Remus, twin brothers fathered by Mars through a Vestal Virgin founded the city. What you find in Rome is interesting- many legends combined with mythology and some history lead you to not know where truth ends and fiction begins.
Rome is interesting- the old bits are sometimes just lying around in pieces, or new parts have been built to include the old parts. We took a night tour of the city, seeing many of the ruins lit in a beautiful way. We threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain. We saw the Pantheon and the Colosseum. We also got a fantastic view of St. Peter's lit up across the river.
Tomorrow will be a longer day. At least the hotel room is bigger this time!
I really enjoyed your photo album on facebook, reading the story is even more wonderful! [but what did you eat?]
ReplyDeleteIt got boring- pasta and pork! But not the gelato! Actually, we had a really good pizza in Assisi!
ReplyDeleteWhat history. And they have everything so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSame thing in Scotland and England.
I remember the Italians ate their pizza with a fork. Nowadays?
Not sure lol.
I would like to see Rome one day. (-:
ReplyDeleteJanet, I didn't see pizzas eaten with forks, but two things stood out about them. First, they never put meat on a pizza. Veggies only. Second, they bring you a whole pizza, not cut into slices. Oh, and we never had beef the whole week. Not even in sauces. They use pork- tenderloin, pieces in sauces- we even had pasta with bacon sauce (I thought of you when I saw that, Guy!)
ReplyDeletelinguine?
ReplyDeleteJust about everything we had was ziti or penne pasta.
ReplyDeleteMomma Mia! They giva youa the cheapa stuff!
ReplyDeleteProbably! We never had spaghetti, linguini, or fettuccine!
ReplyDeleteStrange no having spaghetti when in Italy eh?
ReplyDeleteIt was! And odd having bacon sauce instead of sauce made with hamburger!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a Serene place to spend time at
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard this much religious history since Catholic grade school. lol
ReplyDeleteYou would make a great tour guide for a tour of Italy filmed and put on DVDs. You would be easy to understand and you're really good at remembering everything.