Saturday, 8 August, Assisi
It’s a very quiet place – makes you wonder where people live
and shout and enjoy themselves...at the same time it is beautiful and well
taken care of and a pleasure to be here.
This morning I went at about 6.30 to the Basilica of San
Francesco and listened to the monks pray and sing – the Mass, I presume.
Everything is in Italian here, so a lot of my experience is a guess as to
what’s going on. You can figure out enough to not get run over and get fed, but
beyond that the details are missed a bit.
Assisi is up on top of a hill looking over a valley of
fields and olive trees. The train runs through the valley here, but coming up
from Rome we climbed through mountains, hills and some plains – went through
some very long tunnels. I didn’t mean to take the train up here, I meant to
take the bus, but no one could tell me where to find the bus, so I ended up on
the train. That was pretty easy and quite nice, though the distance from the
ground up the steps to the train carriage is a steep experience for hefting an
18 kg suitcase – to bear in mind for the next Europe trip!
I walked and walked for about two and a half hours yesterday
afternoon (after I tried siesta and it didn’t really work), up the streets of
Assisi (mostly they go up), past lots of pizza and gelateria places, plus many,
many souvenir shops. Found an organic wine and pasta store (didn’t sample then)
– was trying to wait to get on the local time schedule for eating and sleeping.
Overshot the way back to the hotel and ended up going down the hill out of the
walled old city, down a km or so to the next big gate in the wall (and I mean
big – huge stone gates from the 13th century or so), then back up –
and up means steps because a lot of it is too steep for just pavement.
The only birds I’ve seen here are pigeons/doves, and you can
hear their cooing all day. I saw one other bird that looked like a noisy minor,
but I suspect the pigeons take the territory, or I haven’t been here long
enough to see other birds. There are lots of niches in the walls that the
pigeons like.
Along the walking paths and roads, Assisi is a study in
wooden doors, big single and double doors of all patterns. The frescoes in the
churches are beautiful. I went into a temple to Minerva from Roman times, which
had been converted to a church to Lady Mary – all that was evident from
Minerva’s time were the columns out the front. Saw the tombs of St Francis and
many of his disciples.
The hotel rooms are very nice, simple, the beds about as
wide as a camp bed, and quite comfortable. The bathroom is all in one like the
Danish ones – the shower is in a corner but the water spreads out and washes
the whole thing if you’re not careful. It’s everything one could need. The
window opens up fully with two large door-like windows, no screens, as there do
not seem to be any bugs. It’s lovely to have it open out and to feel you’re a
bit outdoors even though in the room.
In contrast to a caraway seed and a glass of water (Gale’s
prediction of our monastery-like experiences at GPIW), the breakfast this
morning was yogurt, pastries, fruit juice, butter, jam, honey and a coffee bar
where you could have whatever you like – I liked cappucino. I can see that I
will need to find another form of Italian meal than pizza or bread and
something, because I can feel the weight of those options. Tomorrow the meals
will start as part of the conference, so presumably there will be a few
options, and today when my friends arrive, we’ll go out and I suspect picnic
somewhere, which should be fun. Doju has promised some hill trekking. I did
find a non-alcoholic beer last night at the restaurant, made by Kronenberg –
good bubbles and taste! Had a big salad (green!) plus a ‘Monks Pizza’ – not
sure why ‘monks’ except that it was vegetarian – spinach and ricotta....
The plane trip over was fine. On the first leg I had three
seats to myself, a true blessing, and I got some sleep. On the second leg
(Bangkok to Rome), I had an aisle seat, which was fine. On the way back I need
to figure out how to get more water – Thai wasn’t as attentive as United in
that department (I suppose it could have been the difference between economy
and business class, now that I think of it), though I’m sure I could have asked
more often and would have been well served.
It’s interesting being somewhere where English is not used
much – the natural quiet of Assisi is enhanced by the fact that I don’t
understand most of what is being said even when I do hear some people speaking.
So it’s a little like being invisible as I walk around, in a little quiet
bubble. Takes you inside to see what’s going on. . .no doubt what is supposed
to happen here.
I finished reading a book, ‘Clare of Assisi – Heart Full of
Love’, a very insightful book about her philosophy of love, how she was inspired
in her work, and what poverty really means (she says it means truly
acknowledging that we are dependent upon one another and on God). I think
that’s on my mind, too, in this quiet place.
I’ll download some photos now and when the internet shows up,
I’ll send this to you. Lots of love to you all!
