The Italian Roadtrip continues….. Castiglione del Lago
Tuesday 20 June - We’re now on a little road trip heading towards Rome, to arrive on Thursday. Cristiano once again came to our aid and drove us back to the carpark with all our gear, and also his admiration for us travelling for months’ with so much luggage!!!! And we were off on our drive to Castiglione del Lago a little town in the province of Perugia in Umbria.
As drives go, it was hard to beat – we bypassed Florence and kept to the small roads as much as we could, passing through some tiny villages amongst the most beautiful green rolling hills of vineyards, pines, cypress and olive trees. The quintessential Italian countryside. We stopped in Greve in Chianti, the largest town in the Chianti region, but still pretty small by our standards, to find somewhere for lunch. A quaint town with a lovely Square, however given the amount of very visible luggage in the car we decided not to park and leave it, but to put together a picnic for ourselves and enjoy the scenery around us. It was a far better plan and rather lovely sitting in the countryside with our focaccia bread and parma ham and cheese, together with the remains of our truffle oil from Bon Marché in Paris! Continuing the drive we passed through the villages of Castellina in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Montevarchi - all as lovely as their names suggest!
We arrived in Castiglione del Lago around 6pm and checked in to our little hotel. It’s lovely and has the bonus of a swimming pool which we couldn’t wait to get into for a dip after sitting in the car for a good part of the day. Then it was off to explore. Lake Trasimeno is the largest lake in central Italy and Castiglione del Lago has a charming old town centre which is within its medieval walls with a wonderful view of the lake and its pretty little marina.
It was very quiet as we walked up the many steps (yes, those thighs got another good, painful, workout) to the top of the town, Tuesday is a quiet day here and many of the restaurants were closed, and sadly the shops were closing too as it was nearly 8pm. However, we happened on what has to have been the loveliest restaurant in town and were quickly seated on their outside balcony, overlooking their beautiful gardens and the lake. Couldn’t have been more perfect. A G&T with strawberries (not tried this before, but now definitely on my agenda for when I’m home) and a glass of local red wine for Geoff followed by a delicious dinner including some of the famous Trasimeno green beans. A perfect Italian night!
Assisi
Wednesday 21 June – we had a bit of a lounge about this morning as our next stop is Assisi and only about 1½ hours’ drive away. It was great just sitting on the terrace and catching up with emails and my blog. We left just before lunch and found a lovely little restaurant where we ended up eating more than we planned and then headed off to Assisi.
Also, in the province of Umbria, Assisi is the birthplace of St Francis who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208 and St Clare, who with St Francis, founded the Poor Sisters which later became the Order of Poor Clares after her death. The 19th Century Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was also born in Assisi.
You’d be hard pressed to find a more picturesque little town….framed by the long, undulating hills of Umbria and the forests of Monte Subasio it is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Italy and a real gem. Like Bologna, cars are not permitted to park in the town centre, so after finding our way through the tiny and in some parts, very narrow, little streets, we reached the hotel and dropped off all the bags and then headed back out to park the car. Map in hand and knowing we only had a short visit here, we headed straight for San Rufino Cathedral, known as Assisi Cathedral. Built on top of an old Roman cistern in the 13-Century and dedicated to San Rufino after he converted Assisi to Christianity in AD 238, he was later martyred and his remains still rest in a Roman sarcophagus in the cathedral, the font here was where both St Francis and St Clare were baptised and visited by both Pope Benedict in 2007 and Pope Francis in 2014.
A walk through the beautiful little streets took us to our next stop, the Basilica of Santa Chiara (St Clare). Clare came from a bourgeois family and had escaped an arranged marriage and devoted herself to a contemplative life when she was 18 years old. She joined Francis and his Friars. Francis cut her hair as a sign of her penitent condition and Clare later settled in the church of San Damiano and was later joined by her mother and sister and fifty women. She founded a group of sisters, the “Clarisse” – Poor Clares - and they lived in poverty devoting themselves to prayer. The Basilica is dedicated to her and in the Chapel of the Crucifix, we were able to see the the original crucifix of San Damiano. Santa Chiara is also buried in the crypt here.
Assisi is a town with religion very close to its heart and there were many chapels and churches, and we could hear mass being said in a number of them as we walked around the town around 6pm. We also saw many monks and nuns walking around the town – including the group in the photo below. The monk was taking photos of all the nuns as they exited after the service and he was delighted when Geoff offered to take a photo to include him too.
The sun was setting, so after having had a quick look around the outside of the Basilica of St Francis which was shutting for the night, we decided to return in the morning and had a lovely stroll through this picturesque village. We stopped at the Hotel Giotto to have a cocktail on their terrace – what a view – it was absolutely stunning. Having had such a big lunch, and sitting in such a delightful place, we decided not to bother with dinner and stayed on the terrace listening to church bells marking off the hours before negotiating the labrynth of cobbled streets, and a lot of steps, back to our hotel for the night.
Thursday 22 June - The most famous and probably the most impressive attraction in Assisi is the Basilica of St Francis, it’s massive! Construction started after St Francis’ death in 1228 and was completed in 1253. It is divided into the upper church and lower church. The Upper Church – the Basilica Superiore is covered with 28 frescoes by the painter Giotto, each a scene from St Francis’ life.
The lower church – the Basilica Inferiore, houses frescoes by Cimague, Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini who were heavily influenced by Giotto’s work. Also in the lower sanctuary is the Cripta di San Francesco, the monumental tomb of St Francis of Assisi. While the upper church is a celebration of beauty and life, the lower church’s dark rooms and sparse decoration reflect the spirit of St Francis and his Franciscan order. Strangely enough, we both found the lower church’s decoration far more uplifting than that of the upper church, maybe because the ceiling was so much lower and you felt the frescoes all around you, as opposed to the very high ceilings in the upper church. There was a Mass being said in the crypt with quite a number of worshippers in there so we were unable to see St Francis’ tombstone. An interesting fact….St Francis’ remains were hidden immediately after he died to keep them from being plundered by relic hunters. His final resting place was unknown for 600 years until being rediscovered in 1818. Today his remains have the dubious distinction of being an entire saint’s skeleton that isn’t missing any parts due to grave robbing.
And that’s it. We’re off to Rome and another delightful reunion with Clarissa and my granddaughters Stella and Chloe, and we’ll be there in time to meet them off the school bus.
