![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Alright! Alright already. So I forgot to bring a camera. So I was going to buy a digital camera and forgot. So buying a digital camera in Italy would be exhorbitantly expensive. So you want to see pictures ...
Fine. I'll steal other people's holiday snaps and stick them here. Like, like ... well, look at the end of the post. I'll add something.
We'll see if that works.
Yesterday I took the train south from Verona to Assisi. The country gradually became more and more hilly and honestly more lovely as well, as I made my way into Umbria. Village after village perched on hillsides, some with medieval walls still surrounding them. Every two or three stops I'd want to get off and explore the nearby town, but I managed to refrain. And I was glad I did. St. Francis sure picked a nice place to be from! The city clings to a hillside. More hills lie to the north, and a small agriculture-rich plain lies below. The bus from train station takes you 5 km up the hill to the town, and, from the Piazza di Unita Italia, big backpack on my back, I set off to find a place to stay.
The street plan seems to me to be basically medieval, alas with the addition of cars even on the cobbled roads. Venice spoils me quickly, having no cars, no scooters, no bikes, nothing but boats and feet. Italian drivers careening around tight corners scare me. Tourists driving Italian cars around tight corners scare me more. I witnessed two accidents today with tourists (I think, judging by guidebooks and expressions of confusion) hitting other parked cars while trying to park or leave their parking spots. Not hitting them hard, mind you, but definitely having trouble manuvering on steeply sloped hills and narrow streets.
Yesterday I walked a lot, and am still feeling the effects in my tired body today. With my heavy pack I trudged up to the middle of the city, turned right at the sign for 'camere' and stopped at a nice house which, my trusty "Let's go Italy" guidebook informed me, had 'affitacamere', rooms for rent. Indeed, for 20 euros a night I have a nice room with bathroom, including a small TV. Enterprise (the new Star Trek series, for those who might not know), really isn't much better in Italian. But the Miss Italia 2003 is quite lovely. Um, anyway, I found a room. I spent the evening walking along the medieval walls, heading up the castle (you can see it in the picture) and going inside. There, you can walk through a narrow corridor sure to invoke claustrophobia in the most ardent spelunker. The ceiling is about 5'9" (I could just stand up), and the walls tight. The spiral staircase at the end of the long passageway winds up for what seems a long time, but emerges on a tower from which one can see the whole region. The evening was perfectly clear and cool, and I spent a long time aloft, smiling foolishly.
Today, after scourging the body with the hiking around yesterday, I indulged the mind. There are large religious houses at the western and eastern (sort of) ends of the town. One for Francisicans, and one for the Poor Clares. St. Francis lived in the early 13th century, and was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. At some point he had a profound religious experience, and decided to devote his life to the imitatio christi - an imitation of the life of Christ. This meant giving up all his possessions, travelling, and preaching. The movment he founded, and eventually won approval for from Pope Innocent III (played by Sir Obi Wan Kenobi in the movie), transformed late medieval Christendom. The order became tremendously popular and weathly, and various people wanted to build foundations - a problem for a group devoted to ridding themselves of possessions. Anyway, the houses at Assisi were somewhat controversial, but the church and order spared no expense, and they are stunning. The catherdral San Francesco holds a good library (for Francisciana) which I am going to try and get into in a little while and read indexes, and a series of extraordinary frescos by Giotto. These, famously, depict the life of St. Frances from conversion to posthumous miracles, and are lovely. So too are the many other frescos in the upper hall, and the museum holds many medieval reliquaries and paintings which nicely illustrate the development of pre-Renaissance Italian religious painting.
At any rate, Assisi is astoundingly beautiful, relatively cheap (everything is cheap after Venice), and if I had a car I could spend many days wandering about the Umbrian countryside.
But instead, tomorrow, I go to Rome. As a personal preview for Rome, I am going to stop by the Temple to Minerva that dominates the central Piazza in Assisi, and was used as a government building for most of its existence.
All the best.
David.
P.S. Here, if I get the code right, is a picture of Assisi.
Fine. I'll steal other people's holiday snaps and stick them here. Like, like ... well, look at the end of the post. I'll add something.
We'll see if that works.
Yesterday I took the train south from Verona to Assisi. The country gradually became more and more hilly and honestly more lovely as well, as I made my way into Umbria. Village after village perched on hillsides, some with medieval walls still surrounding them. Every two or three stops I'd want to get off and explore the nearby town, but I managed to refrain. And I was glad I did. St. Francis sure picked a nice place to be from! The city clings to a hillside. More hills lie to the north, and a small agriculture-rich plain lies below. The bus from train station takes you 5 km up the hill to the town, and, from the Piazza di Unita Italia, big backpack on my back, I set off to find a place to stay.
The street plan seems to me to be basically medieval, alas with the addition of cars even on the cobbled roads. Venice spoils me quickly, having no cars, no scooters, no bikes, nothing but boats and feet. Italian drivers careening around tight corners scare me. Tourists driving Italian cars around tight corners scare me more. I witnessed two accidents today with tourists (I think, judging by guidebooks and expressions of confusion) hitting other parked cars while trying to park or leave their parking spots. Not hitting them hard, mind you, but definitely having trouble manuvering on steeply sloped hills and narrow streets.
Yesterday I walked a lot, and am still feeling the effects in my tired body today. With my heavy pack I trudged up to the middle of the city, turned right at the sign for 'camere' and stopped at a nice house which, my trusty "Let's go Italy" guidebook informed me, had 'affitacamere', rooms for rent. Indeed, for 20 euros a night I have a nice room with bathroom, including a small TV. Enterprise (the new Star Trek series, for those who might not know), really isn't much better in Italian. But the Miss Italia 2003 is quite lovely. Um, anyway, I found a room. I spent the evening walking along the medieval walls, heading up the castle (you can see it in the picture) and going inside. There, you can walk through a narrow corridor sure to invoke claustrophobia in the most ardent spelunker. The ceiling is about 5'9" (I could just stand up), and the walls tight. The spiral staircase at the end of the long passageway winds up for what seems a long time, but emerges on a tower from which one can see the whole region. The evening was perfectly clear and cool, and I spent a long time aloft, smiling foolishly.
Today, after scourging the body with the hiking around yesterday, I indulged the mind. There are large religious houses at the western and eastern (sort of) ends of the town. One for Francisicans, and one for the Poor Clares. St. Francis lived in the early 13th century, and was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. At some point he had a profound religious experience, and decided to devote his life to the imitatio christi - an imitation of the life of Christ. This meant giving up all his possessions, travelling, and preaching. The movment he founded, and eventually won approval for from Pope Innocent III (played by Sir Obi Wan Kenobi in the movie), transformed late medieval Christendom. The order became tremendously popular and weathly, and various people wanted to build foundations - a problem for a group devoted to ridding themselves of possessions. Anyway, the houses at Assisi were somewhat controversial, but the church and order spared no expense, and they are stunning. The catherdral San Francesco holds a good library (for Francisciana) which I am going to try and get into in a little while and read indexes, and a series of extraordinary frescos by Giotto. These, famously, depict the life of St. Frances from conversion to posthumous miracles, and are lovely. So too are the many other frescos in the upper hall, and the museum holds many medieval reliquaries and paintings which nicely illustrate the development of pre-Renaissance Italian religious painting.
At any rate, Assisi is astoundingly beautiful, relatively cheap (everything is cheap after Venice), and if I had a car I could spend many days wandering about the Umbrian countryside.
But instead, tomorrow, I go to Rome. As a personal preview for Rome, I am going to stop by the Temple to Minerva that dominates the central Piazza in Assisi, and was used as a government building for most of its existence.
All the best.
David.
P.S. Here, if I get the code right, is a picture of Assisi.
