theFoords From aFar: Ascent to Assisi

This morning the special Venetian porters packed our suitcases onto a little trolley cart and took our suitcases back to the bus while we walked along the canals and over three bridges with our hand luggage.

We drove around the Venetian lagoon wetlands and then to Ravenna where we were supposed to view a church with beautiful mosaics. Our tour guide explained that this church had the Christian symbol of the fish in an acrostic poem made from the words: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, (ICTYS) i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, making the Greek word for fish "ichthys." But sadly it was closed to visitors as there was a wedding on.

Well, at least the coffee and chocolate cake in the café next door was nice!

We then travelled through the picturesque Apennine Mountains that run through the center of Italy to Assisi.

This was going to be interesting as the Pope was going to be visiting the next day and we didn’t know what would be closed off.

Our hotel accommodation had already been changed. Our “Mumma” was busy ringing on her mobile phone to find out what was still open but in typical Italian fashion no-one really knew anything! She told us the story of St. Francis and his conversion to Christianity after being very sick, becoming a monk and dedicating his life to penance, brotherly love (helping the poor and sick) and peace. Then we found out the lower church which was built on the place where St. Francis died was closed already and so was the upper church which is supposed to have beautiful frescoes on the life of St. Francis. Even worse news was that the next day we would have to get up really early (5.45 am) to be packed and breakfasted so we would be out of the area before the Pope’s arrival! We met our tour guide and wandered through this charming old town.

There were many nuns and monks in the town for the big visit.

We heard one monk speaking with an Aussie accent! Turns out he is one of only four of this order in Australia and had to get special permission to be able to attend as the powers of be didn’t want to recognise his “colours”’ ( a typical Aussie rebel thing – he started his own branch).

We found that the Basilica of St. Clare was still open. Clare was a young heiress who was so moved by Francis preaching that she sought him out and asked to join him and so the order of Poor Ladies was formed. It was a bit grisly to see the macabre blackened body of Clare in her crypt! There were already a lot of police standing around not doing very much called Carabinari and barricades and seating were being set up. There were lots of souvenir shops on the street so you could buy some St. Frances trinkets. I’m sure he would be horrified to see all the glitz and glam allocated to him as he lead a very spartan life and this is the exact opposite of how he believed people should live their lives.

At last we saw our hotel – just right on the square of where all the ceremonies were to be held the next day. After all the security hype we had just walked through the whole area without anyone checking our backpacks!

Setting up for the Pope's visit

Our hotel had the most amazing view of the rolling hills and patchwork fields of vineyards and olive trees.

That night we had a beautiful meal on the terrace gardens and our Mumma organised some Campari cocktails and bottles of very good local wine as compensation for missing out on some of the local sights. We stayed up late talking to our new friends. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea considering our early start the next day but it was such a magnificent evening and no-one wanted to go to bed. Our hotel used to be an old monastery – I don’t think they had changed the mattresses as the bed and pillow since then as they were as hard as rock!!!