Borgo Tuopina to Todi …onwards to Umbria, a hilltop convent and Assisi

 

October 4th

A gorgeous sunny fall morning and we hustle to get our stuff together,  today we move on to Todi about 160 kilometers south of our current location.

Arriving in Todi we are supposed to meet our host at the Perugina Gate which is the entrance point to the Centro Historico and of course the ZTL. Our meet-up is at 14:00, we arrive early to an utter madhouse as students’ parents, cars, and buses are in what looks like a feeding frenzy…we later learn school is over at 13:30 > we were there at 13:25, brilliant!! We retreat down the hill and return at 13:50, WOW > not a soul there…Laura arrives soon thereafter and we follow her to a parking lot where we transfer our luggage to her car and we RACE through the teeny-weeny lanes to our home for the next week. Lovely lady…we get by on a mix of Italian, French, and hand signals, and all is good. For the next week, we are staying in the Convent of Lucrezie which has been converted into condos (2nd pic below shows the location of our unit)…

 

October 5th

Another sunny morning, as we head off to Asissi which is about 45 minutes from Todi. We walk down to the parking lot (there is a funicular but it is out of order). Pretty straightforward drive, on arrival the goal is to see the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi and check out the town.

 

St. Francis became a mystic at the age of 19 after having visions of Christ and Mary. He abandoned his well-to-do life and started preaching sermons focusing on simplicity and poverty. His movement grew quickly into the Franciscan order. Currently, the Franciscans are the 2nd largest Catholic order numbering some 15,000 monks worldwide. The basilica is huge and grand with an interesting peculiarity – it consists of two floors – Lower Church and Upper Church. Both have cruciform plans and each of them was consecrated as a separate church. Inside the basilica, you will find 13th-century frescoes by Giotto and Cimabue, and others, portraying the life of St. Francis of Assisi. You are not permitted to take photos inside …so a few of the pics below have been copied from other sites for context.

 

We then walked up the hillside for an overview of  Assisi ….it is a very calm and pleasant town, only the main street leading to the basilica as can be expected has lots of curio shops selling “religious” items. 

It is a nice walk looking into people’s backyards, olive tree groves, small gardens, etc., …

….and every now and then some ‘hidden gems’ below  a small chapel with a nice fresco:

And from the top of the hillside some nice views of Assisi and the fort at the top…

All in all a great beginning to our stay in Todi which is one of those towns where you could see yourself staying a while and writing, painting or simply musing about the state of the world.