Assisi

9/30/2007 8:56 AM

Assisi, home to the world famous St. Francis of Assisi and his followers in Christ, the Franciscan Order.

The Basilica of San Francesco

Our trip to Assisi began Friday morning at 7am with a quick meeting and then a slightly hurried bus ride to Termini Station. We planned to meet another traveling partner at Termini, however her bus was running late, so we went ahead and purchased the tickets and headed for the train platform so we could hop on the train as soon as she arrived.

We all met our traveling partner, and good friend Holly a few weeks ago at the Church we attend on Sundays. Holly hails from Dallas, Texas, but decided to study abroad in Rome for this semester under the auspices of the American University of Rome. Although she had been to Assisi before, Holly insisted that she would love to travel with us and see the town with a small group of friends, instead of with a large hoard of students and tourists.

As usual, our train was ready to leave, and we were not. It was 8:14, the scheduled departure time for the morning train to Assisi, and we still had not connected with Holly at Termini. Brian and I decided to go ahead and take the 8:14 train, and Ben graciously waited for Holly and the next train which left at 9:30. Brian and I made it to Assisi and met with the woman who was nice enough to rent us an apartment for 4 for only a single night. With the help of the ever-cheerful Samia, who sadly left all of us at the Rome Center, we were able get the apartment for a great price, breakfast included, plus some great Italian practice.

Once we had all arrived in Assisi, we traveled up to the historic town center by bus from the train station. We decided to walk up to the Medieval castle that was perched on top of the hill above Assisi. As we started to climb higher and higher, we noticed the paved walk we were following began to shrink. Suddenly, we were confronted with nothing more than a small winding gravel footpath that seemed to be heading in the correct direction. We decided we were all up for an adventure, so we continued to climb. It was an amazing experience to travel from a twisting medieval street with buildings that seemed to overhang precariously above to an almost completely secluded mountain hike in little under 20 minutes. After climbing and twisting our way up the side of the mountain, we finally arrived at the Rocca Maggiore, or large fortified hilltop. We discovered that for a small fee, we could explore the ruins of the Rocca Maggiore. The ruins were fantastic! All of the prototypical elements of a castle complex were available to explore. We climbed up into a small turret and even climbed inside a monumental wall that led to yet another turret and a breathtaking view of Assisi and the surrounding hills and valleys.

On our way up to the hill to the Rocca Maggiore, we stumbled upon the Temple of Minerva, which was transformed into the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. After exploring the hilltop for several hours, we decided to continue our visit with visits to some of the most famous churches of Assisi. First, we headed to Santa Chiara, with its very unusual flying buttresses and the incorruptible body of Santa Chiara. Although a very interesting Italian Gothic church, the flying buttress that support the left side of the church are more comical than anything else. There placement and monumentality of the buttresses when compared to the rest of the structure is actually quite laughable. We then visited San Francesco and viewed the famous Giotto frescoes of the life of St. Francis of Assisi. We also visited the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the Basilica of San Rufino and finally the church of San Pietro. The interior of San Pietro was very striking after viewing the beautiful frescoes of the earlier churches, San Pietro's interior was strictly composed of the unadorned masonry construction of the Italian Romanesque style.

After a full day of exploring, we headed back down to the modern town of Santa Maria degli Angeli where we arrived by train. We found a wonderful restaurant and ate a very nice, hearty meal and then headed to our beds at our rented apartment. The next morning, we lazily made our way back to the train station and back to Rome for the rest of the weekend. Having three day weekends while in Rome is perfect. It really allows everyone to have the time to travel and see some amazing sights around Europe and especially Italy without disrupting any of our studies.

Brian with Santa Maria degli Angeli

Ben and Brian at the Rocca Maggiore

Inside the monumental wall at the Rocca Maggiore

The Temple of Minerva, Transformed into the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva