Assisi

When you think Italy you, think either Romans or Roman Catholic churches. There are hundreds of churches in Rome alone, any small village in Italy has at least one church, possibly two or more. The network of control and faith or superstition is relentless. I was raised a Catholic, went to Catholic schools and had to sit thru innumerable services where we were told we would eventually burn in hell....unless we did as we were told. On Mondays, the nuns would know if you didn't show up to church because they went thru the envelopes where you were supposed to tithe......my mother, to her credit, gave me all the envelopes for the year with a dime in each and I was told to hand them in when my name was called out for not attending.......now, had we been in Assisi I'm pretty sure there would not have been an issue about those envelopes. Yes, it's a huge Papal Basilica, yes, it's filled with priceless art by the likes of Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti and Pietro Cavalini, a virtual textbook on Roman and Tuscan painting of the proto-Renaissance and yes it's part of the vast network that is the Catholic Church, but Assisi, at least when we were there, felt different. It wasn't 

St. Francis' fault they built this huge building and it seems his followers are more interested in actually praying than collecting cash.....we had a young friend with us who said matter of factly, and correctly, that this was the first church she had ever been in...I can say the same for that matter.

A view of the town from the front of the upper church

The Basilica and monastery built into the hillside

The side walls

The front of the basilica

The garden with the statue of St. Francis returning from war

The cloister

The usually closed gate 

Inside the cloister. It rained while we were there. A huge cold downpour out of nowhere....and out of nowhere a monk came by, saw us all huddling under an eve and made the guards open the gate so we could cross under the loggia. That was very sweet.

The side of the wall to the lower church

The lower church is covered in paintings. This is just a small, yes, small, side chapel.

Where the Saint Francis of Assisi is buried above the altar. They've taken out the front bricks so you can see the stone sarcophagus 

The upper church has a marvelous crucifixion by Cimabue

The upper church with the Life of St Francis by Giotto.

They ask that you not take pictures, so I didn't take many of the interiors.