Back from the Silence

I've been laid low the last week and a half or so, So at least I have an excuse for the lack of blogging. I'm feeling a little better today, so let's try to finish off the travelogue from last year.

This day illustrates another aspect of the Italian adventure: having Lorna experience some of the places that I had seen in '72.

A trip to Assisi on our own would have been more adventurous, but bus trips have countervailing advantages. So we decided on the bus day-trip.

We were picked up by taxi at the Termini station and taken over to the office, across the street, more or less, from Santa Maria Maggiore.

A lovely day to ride through Umbria. Our first stop is Orvieto. In California we would have said that the city is situated on a mesa. The touristy way to get up there is to take the tram.


But there's a road up there since, once we got to the top, we used the bus service to get to the cathedral, the centrepiece of our visit.


The facade is beautiful and fascinating (don't those two go together?). The story of how the cathedral came to be built is also interesting, but a warning is owed to the more, um, spiritual among the readers. Catholicism is way too incarnational for the taste and sensitivities of some. Read on at your own peril.

Eucharistic miracles are plentiful in church history. The ancient belief in Christ's Body and Blood being made present in the Eucharist has challenged many, including those serving the Church as priests. Long story short, a pilgrim priest from "Germany" (so how come his name is Peter of Prague?) has his doubts about the Real Presence resolved when the newly consecrated Host starts bleeding, leaving bloodstains on the corporal. The startled priest goes to nearby Orvieto to see the Pope who orders the cloth to be kept in the cathedral. He orders the city to upgrade the church to reflect the importance of the relic and so we have this wonderful edifice to admire. And now the Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi every year as a result of this miracle.

The frescos by Fra Angelico and Signorelli were breathtaking.

We return down the tram to the bus and cross the hilly Umbrian countryside to Assisi.


First we start with the multilevel Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, the renovations of which were completed this year. Again, frescos by Ciimabue and Giotto are worth contemplating. We then walked across the town


to the Church of Saint Clare (a gorgeous pink colour).


We return to the bus and go down the valley to see the Basilica, inside of which, interestingly, the original church (the Porziuncola) assigned to Saint Francis is housed.

A good deal of this day, from Basilica to Church to Basilica, was spent talking is hushed tones and gawking. A pilgrimage day.

I'll pass over the unpleasantness between the driver and the guide. Suffice it to say that there are occasional incidents that illustrate the vices of hyper-masculinity. Otherwise a lovely and edifying day.

"Tomorrow" we feast our eyes and minds at the Villa Borghese, then climb down into the catacombs.