|
[Tuesday 11 June 2013]
Visit Assisi—Santa Chiara Hotel, Chianciano Terme, Siena
Day 163 Wed 12 June 1Kings 7, 2Chron 4
Janet was up at 6.45am, and while she used the bathroom I got as far as slide 83 in the
PowerPoint presentation of photos from Sunday (06:58). The shower was in the bathtub, and the hose and head were part of the bath-tap assembly. But the bracket to which to attach the head in order to stand under it was missing; there was just a threaded recess in the wall where it should have been. So I decided just to wash at the sink today. We went down to breakfast at 7.30am.
Janet occupied the back seat of the bus again, despite there being a suggestion to rotate who sat on the front seat, and an offer made to us to occupy it today. We departed
ca.8.30am.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 08:23:22
Views from the coach — outside Hotel Santa Chiara, awaiting departure
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 08:44:00
Views from the coach
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 08:49:50
Views from the coach
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 09:21:06
Views from the coach — Lake Trasimeno
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 09:22:46
Views from the coach — Lake Trasimeno
First stop was at Santa Maria degli Angeli, just
outside Assisi, and we made our way from the parking lot to the basilica of
the same name. In the square just before crossing to the basilica, we saw a
bank with an ATM outside. We decided to make a more substantial withdrawal
this time — €150 — which to our relief proceeded quickly with no
problem at all.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:05:00
A stop in Santa Maria degli Angeli
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:12:24
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:13:58
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli
I’d just taken the photo below when a nun wordlessly
indicated to me the nearby “no photos” sign, which I hadn’t noticed.
There was a tiny church in the centre, around which the basilica was built;
this predated St. Francis but was given to him ca.1208 and
became his home and the centre of the Franciscan monastic order.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:15:48
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:15:48
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli — detail: the Porziuncola, St.
Francis’ home
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 10:23:34
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli
We bought chilled drinks from a kiosk bordering the
parking lot, then returned to the coach and proceeded to nearby Assisi. We
were deposited at a coach park and ascended an escalator then up steps
leading to the Porta Nuova.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:18:44
Entering Assisi by the Porta Nuova
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:19:44
Entering Assisi by the Porta Nuova. Note the Scaligeri-style swallowtail
crenellation.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:21:22
Via Borgo Aretino
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:22:52
In Via Borgo Aretino, looking back at the Porta Nuova
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:25:58
Arch at the end of Via Borgo Aretino, leading to Via Santa Chiara
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:27:56
Basilica di Santa Chiara (Basilica of Saint Clare)
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:28:10
Basilica di Santa Chiara (Basilica of Saint Clare)
We went in the Basilica of Santa Chiara. No photos
were allowed in there, as before in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli,
but down in the crypt, where no officials of the church were, I took a
couple.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:34:14
Basilica di Santa Chiara (Basilica of Saint Clare) — crypt
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:35:44
Basilica di Santa Chiara (Basilica of Saint Clare) — tomb of St. Clare in
the crypt
Janet had noticed that bottles of Pepsi Light
were to be had at the cheapest price she’d seen so far in one of the shops
on the way, but when she stated her intention to buy some before we rejoined
the coach, I told her that we wouldn’t be going back that way. I had the
map that Jane had issued, so I’d looked at it and made a mental note as
she indicated the point at which we’d be picked up. Janet didn’t have
the map, so she hadn’t paid any heed to the instructions. So I unfolded my
tripod seat and sat in the Piazza Santa Chiara, waiting while she went back,
quite a long way, she realised, to the shop near the Porta Nuova.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:40:24
View from Piazza Santa Chiara
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:40:24
View from Piazza Santa Chiara — detail: mediaeval fort Rocca Maggiore
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:41:26
Another view from Piazza Santa Chiara: arch leading to Corso Mazzine
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 11:44:14
View from Piazza Santa Chiara in the opposite direction: façade of Basilica
di Santa Chiara
In the next street from the Piazza Santa Chiara, we
decided we’d better find somewhere for lunch.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:15:58
Looking back in Corso Mazzine towards the arch
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:18:30
Café in Corso Mazzine
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:47:18
Piazza del Comune
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:47:48
Chiesa Nuova
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:50:06
Vintage cars in Piazza del Comune
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:50:42
Vintage cars in Piazza del Comune
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:53:44
Via Portica
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:57:26
Via Arnaldo Fortini (left)
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:58:26
Via San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 12:59:28
Via San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:00:02
Via San Francesco, just beyond the arch
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:00:44
Just beyond the arch, looking left
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:04:18
Via San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:04:18
Via San Francesco — detail
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:08:32
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi at the end of Via San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:10:54
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:10:54
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi — detail 1: the upper basilica
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:10:54
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi — detail 2: the lower basilica
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:13:42
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi
We only had time for a very brief visit in the
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, entering the upper basilica, finding
our way to stairs to the lower basilica, then out again. So we didn’t have
time to look in detail at the frescos, the various chapels, and the crypt
with the tomb of St. Francis. And because no photography was allowed, I have
no real memory of what it all looked like.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:17:04
Courtyard of the Sacro Convento, a friary connected to the Basilica of San
Francesco d’Assisi
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:23:46
Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi: Side entrance to the lower basilica
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:35:20
Via Frate Elia; right turn to the Porta San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:36:58
Looking back to the Porta San Francesco
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 13:37:42
Going down to rejoin our coach; ahead: Porta San Pietro
Janet had been getting a bit anxious about the
lateness of the time when we were trying to find our way from the upper
basilica to the lower one; but when we were out in the “cordoni”-paved
Piazza inferiore San Francesco, she decided that there was time to use the
loo under the colonnade there. We were back at the coach a minute or two
before the specified 1.45pm, but there were two people who hadn’t shown
up, and didn’t in fact do so till 2.20pm. Our opinion was that we should
have left on time without them!
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 14:23:58
Views from the coach — looking back at the Basilica of San Francesco and
Sacra Convento
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 14:24:46
Views from the coach — looking back at Assisi
On the way out we’d passed one side of Lake
Trasimeno, and we went along the other side on the way back. We stopped at a
small town on the lakeside and visited a bar/gelateria. I had a cone with
“fragola” and “pistacchio” flavours. Jane was familiar with
“pistachio” in English, but hadn’t encountered the Italian spelling
and pronunciation; the vendor confirmed to her that it was pronounced with a
hard “c”.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:02:52
Grebe on Lake Trasimeno at Passignano
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:03:26
Grebe on Lake Trasimeno at Passignano
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:03:58
Passignano sul Trasimeno
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:04:10
Passignano sul Trasimeno
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:16:44
At a gelateria in Passignano sul Trasimeno
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:25:24
Passignano sul Trasimeno
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 15:32:12
Passignano sul Trasimeno
Jane had mentioned an additional excursion this
evening for (so many) Euros to a wine-tasting at Montepulciano, but when she
called for a show of hands no-one responded.
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 16:02:56
Views from the coach — Montepulciano
Wednesday 12 June 2013 — 16:04:58
Views from the coach — Montepulciano
Sometime en route I wrote “Wooded hills, not bare as
much of the UK”. On the Italian hills and mountains, where trees could
grow, they were allowed to. I had in mind something I heard some years ago
on the TV, where a proposal to reforest some of the hills of the Lake
District had caused controversy because it would spoil their
“traditional” scenic beauty — even though they were originally
forested before being cleared for farming. Copied today’s photos from the
camera (16:48–16:49). Finished pasting the photos from Sunday in the PowerPoint
presentation (17:27); pasted its rubrics into “2013.doc” and pasted
photos above them (to 18:51) — with occasional breaks to ease my back,
stiff from stooping down. Ca.6.15pm I commented, “It sounds like
rain when those leaves rustle” — the leaves of the trees lining the
street below. Then I looked out and saw that it was raining — quite
heavily. There was a sound that Janet took to be thunder, but I didn’t
think it was. Made links from the pasted photos to the PowerPoint
show (to 19:16). We went down for dinner at 7.30pm. Among those serving were
the tall skinny brunette girl, who was on reception when we first arrived
and handed out our keys, and a blonde girl whose voice and vocal delivery
reminded me of the way Mila
Jovovich spoke in the movie The
Fifth Element. The skinny one pressed me for payment for the bottle
of beer I’d taken from the fridge there in the restaurant yesterday, and
the one today; I hadn’t realised it was pay-as-you-go, I’d assumed that
one would settle the bill at the end of the stay. Later, washed out my
travel-socks [knee-length elastic socks that I wear to reduce oedema around
the ankles] in the bathroom sink, hand-wrung them, and hung them up in the
bathroom. Started editing photos from yesterday (21:23–22:07) — twelve
in all, including some cropped duplicates.
[Thursday 13 June 2013]
|
