Catching up after three days in Assisi!

August 7 – August 9, 2010 – Assisi, Italy

We arrived in Assisi Saturday afternoon without any problems. Assisi is a small town of approximately 3,000 people sitting on a hillside. (Side note: I realized that the population of the island of Venice is only about 30,000). There are many cathedrals and churches in the Assisi. Our apartment is right across the street from the Cathedral of San Rufino. In fact, our bedroom window overlooks the Piazza outside of the church. The other window overlooks more of the town and the rolling hillside. San Rufino is the site of the church where St. Francis was baptized and also St. Claire. It seems incredible that two people from the same church and living during the same time could be canonized.

Only cars belonging to residents are allowed in the town, so we parked in a parking lot on the edge of town and walked to our apartment. It was a nice stroll downhill, but we soon found that when going anywhere in town you quickly encountered many uphill climbs. During the afternoon we were entertained by a wedding going on at the church. A Porsche convertible was driven into the piazza right outside of church for the couple to leave in. It drew many spectators, even a couple of Franciscan Monks who had their picture taken sitting in the car.

Our bedroom with a window looking out over the Cathedral and the other looking over Assisi and the countryside.

As the wedding was drawing to a close many high school age kids began to walk down the hill towards the church. The girls were all dressed in black dresses and the boys in white shirts and black pants. They were all carrying musical instruments. We soon found that they were going to perform an outdoor concert in the piazza. We talked to a few of the kids and found out they were high school students on tour from Belarus. We had a perfect view from our window. What a neat thing to have happen on our first night in Assisi. Hopefully, I am getting a picture from Ian to include in this blog as I did not get a great picture from my camera (maybe I will have it by the next time I blog - we are having speed problems). Hopefully, you can get a little sense of it from what I have posted. Mary Kay and I went to sleep listening to several concertos performed by the symphony orchestra. What a night!!!

The Belarus Student Symphony Orchestra in the Piazza of San Rufino, from the window of our bedroom in Assisi.

St. Francis Basilica and Statue

This morning Mary Kay and I took a walk through some of the town. We got our exercise, that is for sure. After eating a lunch with the others we walked to the Basilica of St. Francis. This is actually two churches, one built on top of the other. The Lower church has the tomb of St. Francis and was built two years after his death in 1226. The Upper Church was built on top of it approximately 500 years later. The churches are serene places and have beautiful fresco paintings of St. Francis’s life. Tomorrow Mary Kay and I plan to take a walk about 3 miles outside of town to a monastery in a small wooded area where St. Francis and his followers went to “imprison themselves in prayer.” It is supposed to be unchanged since St. Francis’s times. We are really looking forward to that time and will include many of you in our prayers there, especially those with special needs. (Note: we didn’t get to take the walk yet, but we will sometime before the week is over). In our reading about the area we came upon a quote from a nun who has spent over a decade in Assisi. One of the questions she was asked was, “Do you think Assisi is changing?” She laughed and said, “When they wanted to make all the changes in the year 2,000, the Jubilee Year, our Lord said, ‘I must stop everything.’ They had lots of projects to build new accommodations to house the people coming for the Jubilee Year, but the Lord said, ‘No!’” That was around the time an earthquake hit Assisi. Although there are a good number of tourists here, the town is rather quiet and serene. It is nothing like Venice. It has a good feeling to it.

Another small trip we will take before the week is over is a three block walk to the Basilica of Santa Chiara. This church is dedicated to St. Claire a fervent follower of St. Francis. The church contains her tomb and the Cappella del Crocifisso, the cross that spoke to St. Francis. A heavily veiled nun of the Poor Clares order is usually stationed before the cross in adoration of the image. St. Francis has always been one of my favorite saints and this has already been a special few days.
Continued – Monday and on to Spoleto

During the Sunday afternoon we did a discussion of our hopes for travel over the next week. We have decided that Monday is a trip to Spoleto a town not far from here. I will tell you more about it below. Tuesday will be Rome, Wednesday – Ancona, which is an East coast town, Thursday will be Florence, Friday is open, and Saturday we will return to Rome to spend the afternoon and evening before we fly out.

Above is a view looking down from the aqueduct

Spoleto is a region known for its cheeses and wine, as well as a Roman era aqueduct that is the foundation for a bridge built in the 14th century. It was an awesome site knowing that much of it was built in the 1300’s, along with the original aqueduct that would be over 2,000 years old. We once again walked up, and up, and up to reach the aqueduct. Or course, all the way to the top there were many stores selling their wares. Shoes, clothing, jewelry, cheeses, wine, were a constant attraction to Mary Kay, Ruth, and Sharon. We came home with some very large containers of olive (I hope they don’t leak in our suitcase), truffles, cheese with truffles, olives, sausage made from boar’s meet. All of this made a really nice light evening meal. We also had some great beer – a 660 ml bottle. The biggest I have ever had. I am nursing it as I finish this blog.

Tomorrow Mary Kay and I will celebrate our 42nd Anniversary! We are so fortunate to have had the life we have had. As in everyone’s life there have been some sad times, but those are far outnumbered by the joy we have from our family and all they mean to us. Mary Kay found a saying a few years ago that we have on our wall with pictures of all our grandchildren (number 17 is due any day) – it simply says

All Because Two People Fell In Love –

Since I am writing this, I get to say this – Mary Kay I Love You!!! More than you could ever know!!

Do Something for Others Today – Peace – Arrividerci

Jack and Mary Kay