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

Rome 2

Dear All,

I was longing to go to an Enlgish-speaking Mass on Sunday, so Helen and I bussed off to the Oratory and were part of a double circle of people (no more than 50) in a gem of a Church, and everything in English. What is more, they had nibbles after Mass and we stood around and chatted as we sipped wine/juice and chips/nuts. Very nice. There were a couple there I had met on the bus trip the previous day, including Fr Stuart, from Melbourne, known well to Fr Tony who was on my Sangre course. I took a photo.

1) Sr Helen & Fr Stuart after Mass (he wasn't the celebrant. He has been studying in Rome and is on a break2) This was the celebrant's chair for our Mass and in front of it was a free-standing altar-table. Behind it in the picture, you can see the main altar in the Church.

3) This is quite some Holy Water font! Those angels are about a half a metre high.

We also checked out the Pantheon, which was built by the Romans. It is a church and there are notices inviting suitable behaviour, but the crowds make any sense of 'church' difficult to achieve.

1) You can see the notice about this being a Church.

2) The dome was an engineering marvel, with a central hole to let out the smoke from the burnt sacrifices offered within the space when it was a Roman temple. Now the hole just lets in the rain, but it would also help general ventilation.

3) A side chapel within the Pantheon.

We wandered around various streets and had a lovely lunch at an outdoor restaurant. The waiter was suitable aloof - the normal style in Rome, as far as I can gather. He did a good job. We saw various fountains and buildings of interest.

1) We had lunch at one of the restaurants down the further end of this piazza.

2) One of the many fountains of Rome.

3) The Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

I must conclude the Rome section by giving you a little idea of the place in Rome where I stayed with the Sisters of our Generate. The building, as most in Rome, is several stories high, and there is a lovely garden maintained by a gardener. The Community is very multinational, but English is the common language with most speaking it. We had a Barbecue evening meal for one Sister's birthday, hence the outdoor photos.

1) A small section of the grounds in front of the house. Unfortunately I lost my good photos of the house!

2) Sr Gerardine (Australia) and Sr Chantal (Uganda)

3) Srs Relida & Dominica (PNG), Sr Kateia (Kiribatis) and Sr Bernadette (Australia). There were also 3 sisters from Indonesia and 1 from Brazil, plus 2 more Australians.

That finishes the Rome section of my journey except for Assisi, which is worth a blog on its own and is still to come. Bye for the present. God bless! Rita

Castello Orsini-Odescalchi & Sutri

Dear All,

It is quicker to start a new blog than to keep adding to an already long one. Just a few pictures of THE castle! Tom and Katie were not mentioned by the tour guide until someone asked in a reception room which was all set up for a wedding reception, "Is this where Tom and Katie had theirs?"and she answered "Yes!" and added nothing. The castle itself is beautiful and I will just put in a few photos:

1) This is taken from the street below - doesn't show the full extent at all, but you can see the towers and the vines. 2) This is the room set up for a wedding reception. The busts are all the notables of the Orsini family. 3) The bear was the emblem of the family and this statue greeted those etering via the stairs1) This was a ''men's"room - very large and packed with delightful things like lances, arrows, axes for executions, armour and also a 'horse' with fully-armed rider. The walls were adorned with frescoes of naked/semi-clothed men in various combat situations. 2) The courtyard was well up in the castle. 3) The kitchen, as you would imagine, was large and suprisingly well appointed. Outside this room, and separated only by a bench, was a large room with the preserved heads of a variety of animals adorning the walls. Apparently the slaughtering of the animals was done in this room and a drain carried the blood away to be used as fertiliser.

Our final stop was at a town called Sutri where there was an amphithteatre, completely carveout of the local tuff volcanic rock (filled with air bubbles and soft enough to carve).

There were also Etruscan tombs, most of which had been used for agricultural purposes over the centuries because they were large caves in the tuff cliffs. But, carved much deeper than the others is one which first belonged to wealthy Etruscans, was used by the Romans, was later converteed into a temple by the Mithraic cult and was finally adopted by the Christians. It dates from the 13-14th century. We visited this and there were still frescoes on the wall dating from the earliest Christian times. Aparently the Christians had a habit of building their churches atop Mithraic shrines because it often threw persecutors off the scent!

1) A view inside the amphitheatre. The openings are into tunnels which run around the stands a bit like those in modern stadiums.

2) This is the opening to the ancient Christian church built in a Mithraic temple.

3) A fresco inside the Church. Remarkably well preserved.

I'll start another blog to cover what Helen and I did on Sunday, and my trip to Assisi on Monday.

God bless. Rita

Rome

Dear All,
One more day and Rome will be a memory along with everything else. I have found my stay here in the house to be a happy one, but I have only the foggiest ideas how about Rome 'works'! My first day here, my 'tourist guide par excellence', Sr Helen invited me to come down to the Vatican with her as she had some business to transanct. It was Wednesday, Papal audience day, and the crowds were filing in to the ticketed seats down the front of the square. As we went around the back fence, I saw a good spot to look for the Pope's arrival (in about half an hour) and Helen went on to her destination. When she returned we noticed people were going past a couple of police near us to enter the square itself, so I did this and Helen headed home. I had all the bus numbers written down, but it hadn't seemed long coming there so I suggested (airily!) that I would walk home! I would only have to stay on one side of the street, once I went through the tunnel out of St Peter's. Helen agreed and checked that I knew a few points, then headed home. I went in much much closer to the action - although the Pope was really just a dot on the horizon as you will be able to see in the photos. Then came prayers and information and speeches in various languages - on and on.

After perhaps an hour I wandered off down the street that goes straight out the back of the square (don't ask me the names of anything!) past lots of tall youngish African men hawking sunglasses, handbags, watches and suchlike. (They are probably all illegal immigrants and lay their wares out of large sheets of material. When the police appear they scoop them up and throw the bundle over their shoulders and disappear - very quickly - only to put them out again once the police disappear. It is like cat and mouse! I came to the Castel Sant' Angelo and took lots of pictures, then went around behind a beautiful Palace and to the Tiber bank again, crossing on a bridge to the otherside then back to a bridge near where the street with the hawkers was to return to St Peter's in time for 1 pm entry to the Basilica.

The queue stretched more than half way around the perimeter of the 'square' but it moved steadily. I chatted with 'Jeremy' from California about George Bush (in Rome the next night and causing big traffic disruptions), about nuclear weapons at Los Alamos, about the Peace Movement ...... etc etc. Eventually we reached the door and both went our separate ways. There were many many many people, but it was relatively quiet. Large tour groups followed a guide who held a woolly microphone-looking arrangment up on a stick in front of him/her and had a head speaker on while the followers all head ear plugs inserted. [We, like sheep .....!] followed silently, hanging on every word. I just mooched and gazed and took quite a few photos without hindrance (as everyone else did too) and wandered where I would, except where it said I couldn't. We queued to stroke St Peter's foot and I thought about all the hands that had done just that over thousands of years. The whole place lived up to expectations and was quite wonderful. About time for the pictures:

1) An exciting moment! I have arrived at St Peter's 2) The constabulary are not going to waste their energy walking about! That was the day a German man (later taken to a Psychiatric Centre) dived head first into the Popemobile behind the Pope as he went past! Of course he was pounced on immediately by at least four security guards while the Pope looked as though he hadn't even noticed! (It was on TV) 3) If you are very smart and sharp eyed and enlarge this photo you MAY be able to find evidence of the Pope's presence in his Popemobile somewhere over the front left (where the chap dived into his vehicle!) I should have prizes for anyone who finds him (either the Pope or the German)

1) This castle has had periods of growth and addition since it was first built by the Emperor Adrian (?) a couple of centuries before Christ. You can see tourists peering over balconies and through windows, but I didn't go in.

2) This was the Palace I toured around. Very nice little place!

3) This is a sample motley crowd on the bridge where I returned. Don't miss the statues at the end of the bridge and the hawker of T-shirts or something on the near right.

1) Here is the famous Tiber, with a view of the Vatican Hill (I think) in the background.

2) I had plenty of time to photograph the queue stretching all around the circle towards the Basilica Entrance. 3) As I emerged from the look inside St Peter's, there were a couple of Swiss Guards out in view, and, what is more, they were acting quite humanly. I had to take a picture!

I was already a bit footsore and weary when I headed for home. I found the right street and started along it, discovering two major things: 1. It was uphill all the time, and never flattened or went down; 2. It was a very very long way.

It took me over an hour during which I had several periods when I lost faith in my directions and went off track temporarily or asked people with my non-existant Italian. But, at last, HOME SWEET HOME! I let myself in, headed straight for my room, removed my shoes, and lay horizontal for half an hour before I moved! It took me all evening to recover. The next day I stayed home and did the other blog.

Helen and I ventured forth on Friday and visited the Church which is the Mother Church of all the Catholic churches throughout the world: St John Lateran. I took lots of good photos which I have lost! (The camera is becoming problematic - not to mention its owner). Then we headed off to some catecombs and Helen read a book while I followed an English-speaking tour through one. That was interesting, but I couldn't take pictures underground.

1) Statues of all 12 apostles adorn the interior of St John Lateran. Each can be identified by the instruments of his own martyrdom/death which he carries. Can you identify this one? [Answer at the end ... perhaps!] 2) This is on the wall at the front. See the Papal insignia of keys? This is the Pope's Church. It used to be the place where the Pope did everything, in the days before St Peter's. 3) The entry path to the catecomb I visited.

On Saturday, Helen had booked us onto a bus with a 'Generale Secretaries' group she belongs to. Most were English speaking and either Sisters or Priests. It was a really interesting day. We had 4 major stops:

1. A place north west of Rome - Cerveteri- where there are Etruscan tombs. 2. A beautiful mediaeval village Aguilla, beside Italy's 8th largest lake, Sabatino, a major source of Rome's water supply.
3. The wonderful Castle where Tom & Katy married last year! We actually went for other reasons - it is an incredible castle.
4. Sutri, where there is a Roman (or earlier) amphitheatre and an ancient Christian Church which occupied a space used for Mycaean religious ceremonies - safer than in the usual places during times of persecution.

1) There were lots of these large round mounds which they had built up for their tombs.

2) In the sides of these, tunnels were created with rooms on either side and ledges for the bodies. The sister is an African.

3) Some of the group taking in the sights. The two behind the front one may have been the two Indonesian Sisters who went from here.

The lunch break at Aguilla was full of delight as Helen and I explored the picturesque village afterwards. I took an abundance of photos because every little winding cobbled street seemed to be more charming than the previous or had breath-taking views. Of course, the weather was perfect.

1) That is not a bitumen surface! That is the beach!!!!! No wonder these umbrellas and deck chairs are all along there (all occupied except here) because you couldn't lie on that grey stuff they call a beach!

2) A view of part of the old section of Aguilla.

3) Helen & myself against a water backdrop (taken by a kind German tourist who offered his services.

1) Typical of the little floral items everywhere in the most unlikely places.

2) Glimpses of the lake in the distance

3) Cute! Cute!

1) Every medieaval town had to have its castle. This one houses a restaurant.

2) We say 3 sets of Brides and Grooms during our lunchtime, obviously there for special photos. (Perhaps they married at the Castle, which was only half an hour's drive further around the lake)

3) This was one of the most beautiful flower displays we saw.

Time has run out. I am unable tonight to finish the next sections, but it will probably have to wait until when I return to Australia!!!!! Tomorrow (Monday) I catch a bus at 7 am to go to Assisi for the day, returning quite well into the evening. Then on Tuesday, I have to head off to the airport at about 9.30 am. Perhaps I will get a minute to put some more on, but at present the prospect looks bleak. Bye for now. God bless! Rita