Hill Towns trip: Assisi, Italia

10.23.2008

Assisi, Italia

Assisi is a very small town, and is mainly a pilgrimage town for people going to see St. Francis. The town is laid out along one main line, with smaller streets off shooting, but the main traffic takes place along the spine. We had the afternoon to just explore on our own, and I ended up wandering by myself. I quite like exploring European towns by myself, as mentioned in the Urbino entry. Anyway, we all started out together at the Basilica di Santa Chiara, which had beautiful, very old looking frescoes on the ceilings. Photos weren’t allowed, so my contraband ones are pretty off-angle and shaky, but oh well. Some people stayed there to sketch, and some just took off. At this point I set off wandering on my own. I knew I wanted to go to S. Francisco, but as this was on the opposite end of town, I decided to stop in whatever floated my boat along the way (mainly pottery stores and churches, churches, churches).

My first stop was S. Stefano, which I almost missed because it was so tiny. It was nestled into the hill among some housing, which was all organized along a windy footpath down the slopes. The interior of the church consisted of a single nave; no aisles, no transept, and only a tiny semi-circular apse. Simple pointed arches held up a wood and stone roof-this place looked really old!

Next I made my way to S. Francisco (Saint Francis), which was clearly the focal point of the town. I didn’t realize before arriving that there are actually 2 churches, one on top of the other. The upper church had a single, very tall nave with beautiful frescoes all over the place (watch, this will become a theme…I am, after all, in Italy…). The lower church was also covered in frescoes, and was very low. It had some windows at the tops of its walls, but was overall quite dark. This part was much more crowded than the upper church, as it was the way to access the crypt of Saint Francis. I walked around for a while, then eventually made my way down to the crypt. I got yelled at for trying to take a picture, but eventually managed to get a sweet contraband one out of my purse of the ceiling, vault, and a hanging cross, which actually came out really cool.

I went outside and walked through a colonnade, then made my way down to San Pietro, which was an awesome old church. The interior was very plain stone with no decorations. In the curve of the dome you could see the individual stones stepping in and in until the reached the top, which had a tiny oculus. I wandered around for a while, then headed back outside, setting off to once again explore. Before I could get beyond the stairs, though, a man came over to me and asked if I would like to see the church’s crypt. I figured why not and said sure! I then realized that he must have been the church caretaker, because he went down a tiny set of stairs, pulled out a ring of keys, and unlocked a door for me. We went down into the crypt together, and he explained to me (this was all in Italian, too) about how people come to the crypt and touch the tomb that was in the middle of this tiny room. Some people touch it with their hands or sometimes even elbows, and he had me rub the stone.

I then noticed a doorway to the left (away from the basement of the church) and asked what was in there. It turned out to be the church’s museum, which was not religiously affiliated, but housed African sculptured, photography, many statues and paintings, and wove around under whatever building we were under. It was clear that the museum wasn’t currently open, because some statues were wrapped up in bubble wrap and packing tape! Clearly they were being shipped or had just arrived, and I wasn’t supposed to be in here, although I ended up getting a half hour tour of the place. Zeno, the caretaker, showed me around, and showed me a very old well (if I translated correctly, it was from the first century) where people throw coins for good luck. He explained the history of many of the objects to me, including 2 small (maybe 6x6 inches) paintings by Dali! All of our conversation was in Italian, and I probably only spoke 2 English words the whole time (although I was definitely doing more listening than talking). By the end of my visit, he told me that I had a wonderful Italian accent, spoke well, and was giving me many goodbye hugs. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of the whole semester! I left the church positively glowing and set off to explore some more.

I went into a few other churches that weren’t as memorable, and had fun poking around in some of the shops. The main street of Assisi was quite touristy, so it was nice to explore the more local side streets. After meandering for a while, I found myself on the road that led to the top of the hill, where an old fortress stood, and decided to head that way. The fortress, named Rocca Maggiore, was from the 1100s originally, although it had been added on to in the 1400 or 1500’s. A 4 € ticket got me inside all of the tunnels and towers (student discount actually worked, usually they only discount Italian students), so I went inside. After going through the entry tower, I came upon the central stronghold, which included the rooms for eating and sleeping. I made my way to the top of the first tower, the keep “maschino”, and ended up running into some of my fellow classmates. We descended, and went to the next tower, which had access to a tunnel, which lead to the next tower (which was the last one still standing). The second tower had modern stairs inserted and no sign of any old stairs anywhere. I read on a sign that this was intentional; they only used ladders, which could quickly be removed in case of an attack. We went down the tunnel, which was no more than 24 inches wide and barely taller than my head. It was long, too! We eventually got to the last tower, named the polygonal tower, which had an amazing view. We could see the whole fortress complex, the entire town of Assisi stretching from our left to right, and the surrounding Tuscan landscape. It was absolutely beautiful, and of course I took tons of pictures. The only way to exit was to go back through the tunnel, as there were no doors out of the tower (what a fire hazard!). The rest of the group was lingering at the top of the tower goofing around, so I once again set off on my own, since we all had different agendas anyway. Once outside the fortress, I met up with another classmate, Kristin, who hadn’t done the fortress but said she had spent most of the day at the top of the hill, just looking around and enjoying the view. We walked down the hill together, and ended up having a coffee at a café with our professor. In true European fashion, we sat outside just chatting, sipping our cafés, and nibbling on the mystery tart D.Bell ordered. Having felt like we had seen most of the town (not even kidding), we hung out at the café until it was time to meet back at the bus. I got a few postcards along the way, and then we left. The drive through Tuscany was beautiful, and it was fun to turn around and look back at Assisi, clinging to the side of its little mountain.

PICTURES: the inside of S. Stefano, and the view from the fort