Assisi? That's Easy!

We’ve visited Assisi dozens of times, walking in the historic footsteps of St. Francis under the expert guidance of a local tour guide. And it never gets old or stale.

Flying buttresses of the Church of St. Claire inside of which is the famous crucifix of San Damiano that inspired St. Francis to rebuild the church.

t took us a couple of years to “discover” Assisi after moving to Cannara, a village dominated by its hillside neighbor just 20 minutes away. Our previous visits there had always been to the famous basilica of San Francesco, a monumental cathedral that was commissioned just two years after the saint’s death in the early 1200’s and finished a ridiculously short period after it was started (something like 50 years, as opposed to the normal centuries long timeframe for most cathedrals in the middle ages and renaissance. Same old same old – It’s difficult to find good builders, nowadays). The basilica, really two complete churches – an upper and a lower basilica for those who have a hard time making up their minds – is one of (if not the) the jewels of the late middle ages/early renaissance, its frescos by Cimabue, Simone Martini and Giotto not only depicting the life of St. Francis but signaling a sea change in the history of art, just as Francis’ life signaled a sea change in man’s relationship to God, each other and the natural world.

Apart from being a magnet for art lovers and historians, the basilica is one of the Christendom’s holiest places, a place of pilgrimage and reverence. And where there are pilgrims there is, in addition to Indians and turkey, religious trinketry, if such a word exists (and my spell checker says it does). Lots of trinkets. Stall after stall, store after store of small tiles, rosaries, monk figurines playing cards, getting drunk on steins of beer and generally doing anything but following the path laid down by their founder. So our initial impression of Assisi was mixed. Great church, interesting frescos, tourist trap.

But a little perseverance paid off and over time we started discovering more and more to like about Assisi, peeling back layer after layer of this Roman settlement (an apt metaphor giving our home in Cannara), from the startling Temple of Minerva, a wonderfully preserved Roman temple in the main palazzo, to various hangouts of young Francis. And each visit to Assisi yields up yet another new treasure.

But on a day like today, just two days after St. Francis Day and a historic visit by the Pope who bears the saint’s name, when the crowds in town were still large and still excited as a result of the papal visit, it was enough just to share the experience of Assisi with our friends from Washington, to listen to the story of St. Francis recounted through the eyes of our wonderful tourguide Cinzia, and to take in the gleaming beauty of this shimmering city made of pink and white stone that has endured for centuries, dominating the side of Monte Subasio and not so much casting a shadow over the valley below as extending its hand in friendship and embrace.