PART 3: Walking through Assisi
Wednesday September 25:
While we were in Chicago I had been developing the symptoms of a
cold or flu. Sometime during the night
it came on full force. We were supposed
to meet Joe for a tour of the Basilica at 9:00 AM. I did not make it; in fact I didn’t get up
until 11:00. Bonnie took the tour.
Just after noon she returned.
She had bought a nice leather purse at Il Tapiro, a leather shop whose owner
was a friend of Joe’s. Only 60
euros. It looked nice; I’ll take her
word.
She also raved about the Giotto frescos in the basilica. The basilica has been restored and the
frescos cleaned and restored since the 1997 earthquake. The basilica, built between 1228 and 1232 is
considered the first gothic church in Europe.
The façade is much cleaner and simpler than later gothic churches we
will see in other cities, which were built in later centuries.
The gallery of frescoes shows 28 scenes from the life of St
Francis. They line both sides and the
rear of the basilica and were painted between 1297 and 1300. Francis died in 1226. The frescoes are important for the clarity
with which they present the life of Francis, and for the realism and humanity
of the characters in them. Until Giotto,
painters were considered craftsmen whose works were expected to conform to
stylized representations of saints, angels, and God. Giotto innovated, making popes, saints, and
Jesus look like real people. His
masterwork is the frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua, completed around 1305.
It depicts the lives of the Virgin Mary
and Jesus, and is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the early
renaissance. Many consider him the first
renaissance artist.
Taking pictures inside the basilica is not allowed - frustrating, because you really want to get
a personal record of what you are seeing.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on the frescoes.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Saint_Francis_cycle_in_the_Upper_Church_of_San_Francesco_at_Assisi
Bonnie went with me to the basilica about 5 o’clock, and I was as excited
about the frescoes as she was. It was
also exciting to see the basilica, both the upper and lower churches, because
of my experiences with the Franciscans.
Pope Francis was coming to Assisi in about a week (on October 4
the feast of St Francis) and to the side of the basilica carpenters were
constructing a platform for the celebration.
After Bonnie returned from the basilica we decided to see some
other Assisi sights. First off was lunch
at the Duomo Caffe on the Piazza Rufino:
two Panini and acqua minerale frizzante for only 10 euros (about 15
bucks) and the sandwiches were made on yummy ciabatta rolls – my favorite.
Across the Piazza Rufino is the Cathedral of San Rufino (where the Bishop of
Assisi lives), the church where Francis, St Clare, and many of
Francis’s first followers were baptized and where Francis took off all his
clothes in front of his father and the bishop, to show them he meant business
when he said he wanted to live a life of poverty. (See panel 5 of the Giotto frescos.) This is a Romanesque style church dating from
the 11th century and its lines (both inside and out) are much more simple and
clean than almost all of the churches we will see in Italy. The interior as it is today, dates from the 17th century.
Rufino was the first bishop of Assisi and was martyred and buried
in this piazza in the 3rd century. He (not Francis) is the patron
saint of Assisi. Francis is one of the
patron saints of all of Italy. No doubt
Rufino and the early Christians were courageous people, and to remind later
Christians of that, two statues were placed at the door of the cathedral
showing lions eating Christians.
The Piazza del Commune is Assisi’s town square, great for people
gathering and watching. It was about a
three-minute walk from our hotel
Don't be fooled by imitation look-a-likes. This is not the real St. Francis - just somebody who may or may not possess all his faculties. But he was there every time we went through the piazza, usually kneeling and leaning on his staff, with a bible set in front of him
Dominating the piazza is the old Temple of Minerva (from the 1st century BC) which was converted into a
Christian church in the 9th century. It
is now called Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom.
Inside, the church is 17th century baroque in style. The Romans conducted some kind of bloody
sacrifices here. To the right of the
altar on the floor you can see drain holes that carry the blood away. And to the left the plaster has been removed
to expose the original wall of the Temple.
Four streets lead from the Piazza. Some are commercial, some residential, but all
narrow (maybe 20 feet wide) with very little car traffic, so you can safely
walk down the middle, which is good because the sidewalks are very narrow and
only a few inches above street level.
Most of the streets that led off these four main ones were very narrow,
and car traffic was often not possible. The homes on the residential streets
are set behind 6–7 foot stone walls, and you can only guess what kind of
houses are behind them.
The walled narrow streets also make for some nice effects at sunset.
Assisi was and still is a walled city. The only way to get in was via one of the
gates. Here is the Porta Perlici on the
east end of town.
At 7:30 we met Joe for our last supper in Assisi. His teaching would end tomorrow, and we would be heading for Siena. We ate at Ristorante il Menestrello. This place catered more to tourists than Metastasio, but the food was still good. What amazed us was the owner’s desire to show this restaurant’s place in Italian history. He calls his restaurant medieval, and, to show that, he has removed the present day floors in one room, dug down a few feet and exposed Roman ruins dating from the first century BC. The dug out area is covered with glass, so diners appear to be floating in the room.
We would see this digging down and covering with glass many
times. The Italians are proud of their
antiquities and delight in showing them off.
