Travels with Craig and Jeri: Corsica/Tuscany Day 15

Day 15: Umbria: Cycling to Assisi

Day 15: Assisi

Fortunately, the weather forecasters are just as bad here in Italy as in the US. The morning was cool, but beautiful (a bit more wind than we’d like, but we’ll take it with the sun). Our route talk this morning included audiovisual aids that Carlos set up during breakfast, showing us graphically, hills, rough roads, gravel, etc.

Off we went, first to Spello,

then up to Assisi, famous as the birthplace of St. Francis in 1208, the founder of the Franciscan Order of the Catholic Church.

Assisi is a medieval hill town dating back to around 1000 BCE. There are many significant structures that date back to Roman and post -Roman times.

The town is dominated by a large medieval castle called Rocca Maggiore, construction of which was begun by Cardinal Albornoz in 1366.

Views from Assisi

St. Francis was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, the privileged son of a wealthy Italian cloth merchant and a French wife. He joined a military expedition against Perugia during which he was captured and then spent a period of time as a prisoner of war. He became quite ill during his imprisonment and after his release, began having visions. The story goes that during one of these visions God asked him if he would rather fight for rich merchants or for God. That was one of those questions that probably had only one right answer. So, he renounced his wealth, giving everything (including his clothing-PTSD???) to the poor and convinced the Pope that he should allow Francis to start an order that would minister to the poor and downtrodden, a very novel concept for the 13^thcentury.

The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (St. Francis) is the centerpiece of Assisi today. Outside, there is a statue of St. Francis on horseback. The Franciscan monastery, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun  immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253. The upper church houses frescoes of scenes in the life of St. Francis previously ascribed to Giotto, but now thought to be by artists of the circle of Pietro Cavallini from Rome. We never made it to the lower church which has frescoes by the late- medieval artists Cimabue and Giotto. The Basilica was badly damaged by a 5.5 earthquake on 26 September 1997, during which part of the vault collapsed, killing four people inside the church and carrying with it a fresco by Cimabue. It was closed for two years for restoration.

We had the option of spending the afternoon in Assisi and climbing up to the castle, or grabbing a bite to eat, and riding. We elected to ride. We first found a little pizzeria and enjoyed a quick pizza slice with Liz and Winn before we started back down the mountain.

Rob encouraging us to ride

The afternoon ride began with a ride down the mountain from Assisi on a bike trail that had some gravel (which we knew about thanks to the route talk), so we took it slowly and enjoyed the scenery. We rode quite a bit ith Liz-we rode about the same speed, except on hills where she was quite the jackrabbit .

On the path we came across olive farmers picking their crop by hand.

Eventually made it to the valley floor. In ancient times this was a large lake , now beautiful farmland.

Tonight we had dinner at a farmhouse about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. The farmhouse was owned by a family for may generations, and they have now turned it into a sort of B&B.