Assisi then home via Hong Kong

Dear All,

Since the shops in Rome close up on Monday, it was a good day to take a bus to Assisi. There were some anxious moments when, having booked over the internet on a suitable, English language, Assisi via Orvieto tour, no voucher arrived on my email site. I considered options - could take a train and just find my own way around. But, on Sunday afternoon, about 6 pm, the company phoned - they couldn't get onto my email site! I gave them my bigpond mail address and everything was sweet! Next morning, voucher in hand, I headed (with Helen kindly accompanying me to make sure I reached the address safely) to the company pick-up point and boarded my bus to Assisi. I was very pleased.

There were only about 24 people on the tour so there was the chance to pick the most suitable seat and swap sides when the sun was annoying. I settled down happily and enjoyed the scenery. At first it was smoggy, but soon the countryside looked clearer and verdant fields, cropts and villages became common, giving way eventually to rugged mountainous slopes.

1) It was smoggy as we left Rome. 2) The countryside became very pretty. 3) This was Orvieto - a medieval town renowned for its beautiful Cathedral. We got up to the top on a Finulaire then a small bus! The Orvieto Cathedral is the centre of a very beautiful Corpus Christi Procession. This is because the Cathedral contains, in a reliquary, the cloth which was stained with blood when a doubting priest in earlier times experienced the miracle of real blood flowing onto the Altar during the Mass! I didn't get in to the church to see the reliquary, but some did. The exterior of the Church, particularly the facade, is stunningly beautiful. The body of the Cathedral is striped brickwork which reminds me of Moroccan buildings. Here are a couple of the better pictures - the sun was in the wrong place!

1) & 2) Two sections of the front of the Cathedral. You can see how beautifully decorated it is.

3) A side view showing clearly the 'stripey' brickwork and the rear of the facade.

The route from there to Assisi wound through rugged hill country and was pure delight. There was a lake and many scenic towns. On the outskirts of Assisi we visited a famous ceramics factory and were shown the process and wares then exited through rows and rows of products and souvenirs.

1) A section of the Lake with a medieval town on the hill in the distance.2) Another roadside view of some villages and the mountain 3) Our Ceramics employee shows us the company's wares.

At last Assisi came into view. Since all the Church buildings close for a couple of hours at 12 noon, we drove through the town, up to a high part, and walked up to a restaurant for a very nice 3-course lunch served on damask cloths with damask serviettes by blad-clad waiters and with a view over the town through the windows. Then we met at the bus and tackled Assisi properly. First we went up to the Basilica of St Clare which houses her body and the Crucifix through which Christ spoke to St Francis, asking him to restore his church. No photos are allowed int he Churches, and we filed through in silence. Many stopped to pray in various places. We queued to see St Clare's incorrupt body - it is waxed over, but her features are clear. What was very clear to me was that she was quite tall! This surprised me, as height wasn't a feature of people of her time.

1) The Basilica of St Clare. 2) We walked to it from behind, under the arches.3) There were great views over the town from the space in front of the Cathedral.

I can't give you great views of inside the Cathedrals in Assisi as photography is banned inside just about all of them! But there was still plenty to look at. 1) This lovely bas-relief is over a doorway (the Basilica of St Clare, perhaps?) Notice in the background are the tower and columns you can see in the picture on the right.

2) Here our guide tells us of St Francis birth in the (now Chapel) behind her (see the window). It was a stable, used to house oxs and donkey, which is strangely fitting for Francis' birth.

3) The Pantheon-like building was a Temple of Minerva, built in the 1st century, but now it is a Church. Can you see all the white plastic doves, suspended on wires, above the square. The tower is the 'People's Tower', dating from the 13th century, and is not connected.

We walked through narrow streets to the Basilica of St Francis, which has quite a complex of buildings attached to it. There is a square of grass in front of it (no walking on the grass!) and the word PAX plus a St Francis symbol put on it with coloured plants, in front of a statue of a humble Francis on a horse.

1) As we drove into Assisi we could see the complex which is built around the Cathedral of St Francis.

2) Here is the facade of the Basilica. 3) And here you see the statue of the humble Francis on his horse.

1) One of the picturesque streets through which we walked to the Basilica

2) The St Francis symbol and the words PAX on the grass. You can just make out the staute of Francis on the horse in the background.
3) Our final visit was to this Church - Basilica di S.Maria degli Angeli. In it are to be found the little room where Francis died, and the Portziuncula, which is the actual building in which Francis gathered his followers to preach to them and found the Franciscan movement. These are both complete buildings within the church building - the actual buildings, maintained and decorated suitably to evoke their memories. Unfortunately, my photo cuts out the dome and the golden statue on top of the pediment.

In the way that our small world works, I discovered that an Australian couple on the bus were from Australia, .... from Adelaide, ....from Newton, .... and the man had been one of the Catechists in the Sunday School I ran in Newton Parish when I was there 1992-3. I thought he looked a bit familiar! They were delightful company. The photo I took of John and Jane in the bus on the way home does them justice, I think.

The trip to Assisi was an excellent way to finish my visit to Rome, and to Europe. It was most enjoyable and inspiring. I spent most of my 45 minutes free time at the Basilica of St Francis in the little lower floor Chapel where his remains lie - along with many, many other people who came and went with great reverence. I also visited a Museum there and looked through the main Basilica area where marvellous frescoes depicting incidents in the life of St Francis adorn the walls. Everywhere there were lots of people. Everywhere there were notices requesting silence, and most people cooperated. I am glad I went to Assisi. The Parish in Adelaide was an Italian centre and the Church was St Francis of Assisi church, so perhaps I imbued some devotion to St Francis there. Fancy meeting people from that Parish on the bus.

HONG KONG
The next day a taxi took me for a 'thrilling' (Italian-style) fast trip to the airport and I boarded a Cathay-Pacific flight to Hong Kong - about eleven and a half hours away. The seats had the most room of all my flights but the TV screens were not up to the standard of the QANTAS ones on the 13 hour flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. I had arranged to meet a couple in Hong Kong, and, although the husband had been sent to India on business, I was looking forward to meeting the wife and their new daughter. They were also from Newton Parish!

At Hong Kong airport, Nunzia and I missed each other for more than half an hour because I walked up and down behind her while she looked steadily at the arrival doors! Eventually I decided to check out the woman at the far end of the waiting area, our eyes met, ..... bingo! She took me to their unit on the 31st floor of an apartment tower in the New Territories. There I met Ella who had not yet left for school and looked out at a marvellous view which included planes arriving to land. After Ella left and we had some breakfast, Nunzia and I caught a train (which travelled under under the sea across that stretch of water in the photo!) to the City, had a look around, and caught a bus back. There was time for me to have a sleep and a shower before we went to airport for tea and I went through customs to get the place to Australia. I'll put in a couple of photos:

1) Nunzia and Ella at the Unit.

2) The view through the window of the unit.

3) The railway station near their place. Very clean (all of Hong Kong is clean) and very very modern.

1) As we waited for a bus back to the Unit, we had plenty of time to admire the traffic in HongKong city.

2) It was a bit hard to get all the Tower where their unit is into my photo. Count up 31 floors. These towers are very new and have a community area near them with shops and train and buses.

3) At the airport - Nunzia, Ella and Moi. I thought I wasn't very big but Nunzia makes me look gigantic!

That is the end of my blogs. There is a great deal more that could have been written, but will not be because life is back to 'normal' now and there won't be much opportunity. However, I will copy my blog and save it so it will keep a few memories alive for the future. Thank you for reading it. God bless! Rita