Assisi

Mar 5th

So today we got up a little early and drove an hour and a half ish to Assisi. Nbd right? Ha. The drive was beautiful as we passed these lush valleys with the morning mist all around and beautiful lakes with cliff top towns dotting the mountainsides….wow. So, the actual drive up the mountain to Assisi and like as we were coming up to it was breathtaking. There were clouds hovering atop of the mountains with white snow capped peaks sticking up through the clouds and then right in front of us the most beautiful town going up the side of the mountain. We learned awhile back that the cities and towns are built with stones from the mountain that they are built on so it is really cool to see how the buildings blend well with their environment. First we went into the monastery that Saint Francis rebuilt right on the outskirts of Assisi. It was a very humble monastery, but the frescoes were very pretty and it was just humbling to know that Saint Francis of Assisi spent so much time in this place. The courtyard was very beautiful as well and the view down into the valley was gorgeous from the monastery that was situated amongst the olive groves. After we had walked around the nuns staying there allowed us to use this little side chapel to sing some songs. We learned a couple songs in Italian and Alessandro played guitar and a girl on our trip played her violin that she brought. It was a really cool little worshipful time in a tiny chapel that had beautiful acoustics right in the monastery that Saint Francis had rebuilt. Wow. K, if you don’t know much about Saint Francis you should just Wikipedia him. Pretty cool guy. Sadly it was raining today so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beauty of Assisi, but the town was so beautiful. We walked into a huge piazza in the center of town and ate our sack lunches in a stairwell out of the rain. A few of us decided to stop in the café for un cappuccino e un cannolo (1 cappuccino and 1 cannoli…long pastry that is filled with something…I got one that had chocolate coating on the outside with nuts stuck to it and then a chocolate hazelnut crème in the center…yeah it was amazing with my cappuccino. It was almost like a ferror rocher on steroids). Next we went to Saint Francis’ Basilica. Wow. The outside was beautiful and the inside was even more magnificent. Every square inch was painted…not even kidding. Giotto painted the wall frescoes in the main basilica (basically means rectangle main area of a cathedral or whatever). Giotto is like the guy who Michelangelo and a bunch of great painters copied. He was like one of the first guys to really shock the art world. Prior to Giotto everything was flat and dimensionless….people floated in the picture and did not look very natural. Giotto kind of broke free from this medieval style of art and kind of started the Renaissance period with dimensions and naturalism. It was cool after seeing some of these super famous frescoes in art books and such actually seeing them in person. We had over three hours there so I was able to really just sit in front of them for a long time and think about them. I wish I knew more about art, history, and architecture so that I could appreciate them even more, but it was still really cool. The upper basilica was probably my favorite, but then the lower basilica (pretty much another whole cathedral underground) was just as gorgeous. The ceilings were vaulted underneath and every square inch was painted. There were numerous famous artists that painted the frescoes in the lower basilica. Amazing. I want to go back to Assisi some time when it is not raining to really give it photographic justice. The landscape and beautiful architectural lines everywhere in the city made it very exciting for a photographer. I had my camera’s ISO cranked up to 1600 from the vigil the night before though and since I usually keep it between 100-400 I didn’t even think to check it today and so 90% of my pictures until the very end of the day are super grainy :/ Live and learn I guess.