Umbria’s Treasures - Part two
Friday 28 September
Perugia and Todi today.
We had Maura as guide again and she’s very good and passionate about Umbria and the Umbrian & Etruscan history. She told us she has two boys named Leonardo and Michelangelo!
Perugia is a large ‘city’ – 150,000, but we only went into the Historico Centro. We had escalators that went through the really old town and old fortress. Apparently there was a very militant Pope, Paul III, who wanted to double the tax on salt, so the people rebelled and made unsalted bread, which they still bake today – and its delicious!
Anyway, Paul got annoyed with them, so conquered the town and then built his fortress – not a church or palace – on top of their town! The old town is preserved underneath and we, and everyone else, can walk around and through it. Reminded me of the underground church in St Emelion in France.
When the Pope was deposed, the townsfolk were so angry with him that they destroyed the fortress, but the foundations are still there. Also, some old stones and archways from the Etruscans have been preserved.
There were some nice fountains and flower gardens near our meeting point, so Eddie & I sat there for a while as it was too hot to walk about in the sun. Rather humid too. It threatened rain several times but did not eventuate.
Perugia is a nice university town. A man was playing a ‘spinet’ type instrument but he hit the strings with little hammers and played popular classical music – very nice.
Maura was a lecturer at the university with a degree in French & English literature. Later she completed a two-year degree in teaching Italian as a second language, so she was very knowledgeable and entertaining.
I the afternoon we went to Todi. From the bus park we went up in a little funicular – tram/elevator car. This was fun!
The town is very small with only one main piazza which was decorated with Christmas trees and lights! We thought they were certainly keen, but no, they had been making a movie and the decorations were for the Christmas scene.
We had a nice Arancia Rossa outside a wee cafe in the square, and then walked down to the church with many steps leading up to the doors. This is dedicated to Jacoponi who was never really made a saint but the townsfolk think of him as one, and his tomb is in the church.
A lovely church, and they had beautiful choir music piped through and I thought it a very nice, beautiful & peaceful chiesa. It was in process of being renovated. A shame some of the frescos are so worn they could not be repaired. As I said before, I’m not religious, but I do feel the ‘specialness’ of these church spaces – the feeling that this is a place of refuge, contemplation, spirituality and rest from daily life - A haven of peace. “Pace et Bene” as written on the St Francis plaque we had bought in 2010.
Tonight was a free night so we did not have to rush our showers. We took our time, then wandered up to the Piazza Grande. We ended up having pizza at the same place we had lunch the other day as we did not want another 3 -4 course meal! We had a glass of vino de casa which was a lot nicer than the wine tasting at Montepulciano. Also had a slice of almond tart. Then we strolled back down to Hotel Giotto. A lovely evening and we are sad we have to leave tomorrow.
Saturday 29 September
Had to pack up this morning and have cases out by 7:30am. I listened and recorded ‘my bells’ this morning. I tried the other day but I was sitting on the bed, inside and it sounded muffled when played back, so this time I stood at the open window. There were also flocks of birds flying around – swifts? Swallows? And they were ‘cheeping’, so I hope their sounds are recorded also.
We went down to the bus a little earlier than the others as I decided I wanted a calendar. I had looked at Tuscany and Umbria calendars, but as some of the photos were places we had not visited, I decided I needed an Assisi one. When we drove out yesterday, I noticed some in one of the little booth-shops at the edge of the parking area.
We found a nice one for €6. The woman was enthused about Assisi and negative about Roma when she found that was where we were going. She also, when she asked which coach was ours, raved about Fabio!! He certainly has the right name! We said ‘Arrivederci’, and she replied – ‘You’ll be back!’
We stopped at Spoleto. What a lovely town to stop in for our last taste of Umbria!
We did not drive into the town but up a hill – sacred Hill or woods. Maura called it “Monteluco”.
The road was narrow and winding, and on a corner we encountered a bus coming the other way! Fabio had to back around the bend to a straighter part so the other driver could squeeze pass! There was only a millimetre in it!!
When we got to the top where we were going to walk, Fabio was to turn the coach around so he could meet us later on the other side of town. There were some road/path works that was fenced off. He reckoned there would be no room for him to back and turn around, so Maura rang her ‘office’ to get someone to ring the police. However, the Chinese gent of our group saw that the fences could be moved closer to the diggings, so Eddie and a couple of others helped and they moved them out of the way so Fabio could then get the bus around. Maura rang her colleague back to ask her to recall the police. As it happened, the police had not answered the phone so no one was coming anyway! Good thing it wasn’t a true emergency!!
Maura said she brought us this way so that the walking would be downhill. What she didn’t say was that we would walk over a lovely old stone bridge over a gully – Ponte della Torri – because two of the pillar holding up the bridge were actually guard towers that were hollow inside with steps from the valley floor. When we walked over and around the corner and looked back, it looked like a viaduct – very old and classic.
We then walked slowly down into the old part of town, passing old Etruscan walls – large blocks with no mortar, with later roman additions on top – smaller, even blocks with mortar.
We arrived at the Piazza Duomo with wide steps down to piazza and church. This was dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta and was financed by a rich Roman family - Barbarini whose symbol was three bees, and that emblem was above the door and there were also a number of bees carved/sculptured onto the walls inside the Duomo.
Another beautiful church, made more so as there was lovely singing. I thought at first it was just piped music as at Todi, but no – a group of seven young people and a guitarist were singing in one of the side chapels – stunning setting and sound!
The artist who did the mosaic on the outside and the fresco around the altar was Filippo Lippi (1467-69) he was a monk but fell in love with a woman (a nun) who had a child that they named Filippino Lippi. Both father and son were painters/artists. In the painting at the back of the altar the artist had depicted himself and his son standing around the dead (sleeping) Mary before she was raised as Queen of Heaven – painted above the altar.
The painting of Mary when she was visited by the Angel shows a beautiful young blonde woman, and the belief is that this was his lover. He did not renounce his monkhood and died still a monk, but apparently also always lived with her. “And why not?” Maura asked, “After all, Love is Love!” the Italians seem to be able to forgive anything if ‘amore’ is involved!
We then walked through the Piazza del Mercato where there was a nice clock which I came back later to photograph, as we had to keep up with Maura at this stage.
Going out of the piazza, we passed under part of the old Roman wall and gate (also photo’d) and then onto the Piazza della Liberta where we saw, through apertures in the wall that were ‘gated’ with iron railings, the remains of a roman amphitheatre.
Then it was free time to wander and eat.
Eddie and I walked down the Corso (main street) for something to do, but then came back to the Piazza and sat in a covered outdoor seating area. We had a nice lunch of salad and a shared antipasti plate plus a very nice (again) glass of vino rosso di casa. Two of the singles, travelling together, also ate here but at a different table. They got me to take their photo!
While we were waiting for our food little Sue came and sat with us, also ordering the salad. We had a nice time chatting and eating. Then Jean joined us and we got into esoteric topics. Very interesting and relaxing pranza.
Then it was a 1.5hr drive to our Hotel on the outskirts of Rome, so it would be easier for transport to the airport.
At 6pm we were all off again for our farewell dinner in Roma, by the River Tiber (Tivore). It was an eating theatre and had 4 opera singers entertaining us between courses. The tenor and the soprano were the best. The blonde I didn’t really like until she did the ‘flirting’ song from “Carmen” and went around the tables singing and flirting with the men in the audience, including ‘our’ Antonio! She was an over-the-top ‘dramatic’ actress. She reminded me of the blonde in the film ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ who re-enacted a scene from a Fellini movie.
The MC did a comic routine ‘shaving’ a member of the audience while singing a song from ‘Barber of Seville’ – very funny. Later, he did a song with, first the soprano and later women from the audience, that the tenor would then come and ‘steal’ them from him! So, although at first I thought we have far better singers back home at the University – and we still do – it was more than OK entertainment.
When we got back it was goodbye all round. Could not get an email from my cousin’s ‘twin’, nor did she offer a postal address, so that brief interaction with her was/is to be all we have. My cousin never responded to my email asking for a photo, so I could not compare nor show it to her.
Only had brief interactions on this trip. I guess that’s the way it’s to be. Some people are only in our lives for a short time. (Update: we still exchange emails with wee Sue).
Sunday 30 September
Its now 4pm. I’m writing this in the Hotel Lobby. Its raining so I’m glad we decided not to go into Roma on the shuttle bus.
I tried to get onto the lobby computers this morning after breakfast – some of the group are still here – but logging on to the wireless network would not work so we went back to our room and packed and wrote some of this journal. Its easy to forget what we did and when, even though it was only a couple of days ago!
We brought our cases down at about 11:15am and tried the computer again, but no... So we went for a walk down the road and had lunch at McDonald’s! No other cafes in the area as its all rather industrial. Latte macchiato and wrap. A notice said they had free wifi so I tried, but ‘no go’! When I asked if I needed a password to connect the girl told me I needed an Italian Sim Card and phone no. to connect!!
So back here to the Hotel. This time I did get through onto the web and got as far as getting up our boarding passes, but could not find the print command. A porter (?), not the English speaking one on Reception, came to help me. He didn’t at first understand what the problem was and he kept telling me to put in my ‘nome’ (name) etc etc. NO PRINT I repeated ( yes I’m became another of those English speaking people who think if its said loud enough he’ll understand?!). I also made motion of paper coming out of machine and he realised and found the ‘print’ command which, in Italian is ‘Stampa’ – I really need to learn it more!! But it wouldn’t work. We went back to the reception man and after a brief Italian interchange I was allowed into another locked room. But again, problems – when the Emirates site (he pronounced it ‘emerataze’) tried to retrieve our booking the computer kept freezing. I pressed control/alt/delete twice, then he came back and did the same . Finally, he tried it with ‘Foxfire’ and it worked. Yay!!! It was printing out, rather slowly (colour printer) when he came back to see how we were getting on and, looking at the slow printer he did a rolling motion with his hands and said ‘Faster, faster!’ and then laughed. So did I. Both of us did the ‘thumbs up’ together, and when I said ‘grazie’, he replied ‘Prego’, and with a friendly wave he was gone. I haven’t seen him since. An Italian computer ‘angelo’.
As I had paid for an hour of internet I then used it to get my emails on my tablet – and my cousin had responded! Photo attachment wouldn’t work anyway, so I replied to her and said that her ‘doppelganger’ had gone – no forwarding address. They are definitely a pair in their mannerisms and inaptitude with technology!!
Now, no sniggering about me calling the kettle black – I was not inept, the system plus the language (my lack of) worked against me. I’m a computer ‘genius’ at home – honest J
Eddie went and got us an arancia rossa which I am now sipping, slowly ... 3.50 euro for a small glass – and it tastes watered down!!
Our idyllic sojourn is almost, no is, obviously at an end.
I have my Tau pendant, my owl, my memories and photos and ‘imprinted’ in my memory is the final view I had of Assisi on Monte Subasio. Farewell San Francesco – a piece of you and your world will be coming home with me. Besides, it is only “Arrivederci” – we will be back, I know it in my soul/heart/centre.
The above is the end of My Assisi Journal. I did not want to include the prosaic, drawn out, NZ bound travel. The included ‘free’ airport transfer was a nerve-wracking experience. It was pouring with rain and our driver was an old wrinkled man, together with his even wrinklier wife sitting beside him and keeping up a tirade of Italian conversation, while he drove as though we needed to arrive in the next few minutes regardless of safety! I do NOT like speed in cars, and this was the worst car trip we have ever had. We tried to tell him we have plenty of time and not to rush but he either didn’t understand, or chose not to. He changed lanes with little or no warning to other drivers and he was over the max driving limit. I clasped my Tau pendant and ‘prayed’ to St Francis to keep us safe. When we did arrive at the airport in one piece but with shattered nerves, I had to have a sit down and a coffee!! We did send our concern to Globus when we got home, suggesting they look into the transfer drivers they use.
The rest of our travel home bound was long and tedious but definitely not hair-raising. Our plane left Rome at 10pm Sunday 30 September local time and we got into Auckland NZ, at 2pm Tuesday 2 October, local time. Then we had 1.30 hr minivan drive to our home town. A total of 27.5hrs travel plus a 4hr layover in Dubai.
We decided that we would not travel to the Northern Hemisphere again for a while as the travelling part is a ‘killer’. Its now been 3 years and after transcribing these tours I feel the travel ‘bug’ returning, so maybe next year??.....
For now, it’s “Goodnight from Me and Goodnight from Him”.
Post Script: How's this for Serendipity? We 'found' our new home April 2013 and the surname of the person who sold it to us was 'Francis'! It was meant to be!!