ASSISI: CHURCHES

Assisi, a beautiful town in the hill country of Umbria, Italy, is all about St. Francis.  Of course.  The man was born in 1182, and beginning when he was in his early 20s he turned his back on a comfortable lifestyle and chose to devote his life to care for the poor and for God's lower creatures.

The town includes three major religious venues, the Basilica of St. Clare, the Cathedral of San Rufino, and the Basilica of St. Francis.  During our time in Assisi we visited all three.  I have to say, however, that I have no photos of the interior of any of them and precious few of their exteriors.  My recollection is that cameras were forbidden on the interiors.  I'm not sure why this rule was imposed, as generally it was not imposed elsewhere on our tour.  The dearth of exterior shots stems from the fact that conditions seemed to conspire against me.  This is what I did get.

Basilica of St. Clare

There was a spacious plaza in the front of the lovely red and white striped facade of this church, but it was consistently filled with tourists milling about and I had little time to get any shots, much less clear ones.  I finally gave up and contented myself with this detail shot of the striped stonework.

Cathedral of San Rufino

I did manage to get a nice side shot of the entrance to this beautiful church.

I also wanted to get a symmetrical shot of the cathedral's front facade.   However, even though there was a large plaza in front of the church, workmen were engaged in setting up some sort of exhibit and they had parked a large truck not far from the facade.  As a result, I simply didn't have room to capture the entire facade of this relatively large church.  So I contented myself with a shot of the main entrance and was fortunate to include an individual walking across the plaza in front of the entrance, providing perspective.

I also captured this group of nuns who I think were either on vacation or on a pilgrimage.

Basilica of St. Francis

There is a great, sloping, striped plaza leading up to the Basilica of St. Francis, and I had fantasies of getting a photo capturing that plaza along with the basilica itself.  That was not to be.  There were vehicles parked--and other paraphernalia strewn--all along the plaza, so my fantasies of an "award winning" shot were dashed.  Instead, I contented myself with a shot of just part of the plaza looking down from above.

Not bad but not the same.

I did catch a mundane shot of the back of the basilica reflecting the exterior of its semicircular apse.

I also got a shot of the front entrance, again including a figure, in this case departing the church.

Interestingly, at a number of venues during our tour, we encountered militia who were carrying serious equipment.  I got this shot and was then told by a fellow traveler that when she pointed her camera at these guys, they warned her by gesture not to take any photos of them.

Finally, I did catch a few shots of the basilica that I converted to black & whites that I thought might give a feel for the venue.

The figure standing underneath the stairway was our terrific, intrepid tour director who was watching for tour members to meet up before our departure from Assisi.

John