The day after our arrival, we joined the program for a field trip to Assisi and Perugia, just about 1 ½ hour bus ride from Cortona.
Assisi is a medieval town and the burial place for St. Francis. Its main site is the Basilica di San Francisco, which is quite impressive. Like many other buildings in Tuscany, the basilica is perched into a hill side with sun flower fields bellow its valley. The structure is quite large with three very distinct levels: (1) the crypt, found at the lowest level, contains the tumb of St. Francis; (2) the mid-level contains the “lower church”, with several frescos by Pietro Lorenzetti and a small museum with St. Francis personal belongings; and (3) the top level with a beautiful Gothic Upper Church with an impressive choir and more frescos. Apparently the city was hit by a earthquake in 1997, but they have done a great job restoring it.
The kids loved Assisi. They had heard about it from Mrs Shouse, their first grade teacher, and they loved visiting St. Francis museum. Chloe made sure we saw St. Francis’ robe and slippers. Cute! We had a simple but delicious pizza for lunch with a very thin layer of pomodoro, cheese, and black and green olives; and we spend the rest of the morning walking through Assisi on our way to Sta Chiara’s church on the opposite side of town.
Perugia, like Cortona, is also a very old Etruscan town. We spend our time at the old city center. We visited the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, with a very large collection of paintings from 13th to 18th century. We also visited the Etruscian Pozzo (well), the Fontana Maggiore, and the Cathedral of St Lorenzo — btw, Lorenzo gets a kick every time he sees his name, which is quite often I may add.
But the hight-light of the day was the antique market on the main square. The kids were starting to fade in the afternoon, so we took a break at a nice shaded bench at the square. We picked a good spot. Within a few minutes, we hear someone screaming “Ladrone…Ladrone”, and we were given front-row-sits to a very dramatic and funny chase.
Lorenzo and Chloe both have their own digital cameras now, and they must have taken about 100 pictures each. (I wonder where that comes from.)
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