Rick Steves Village Italy in 14 days
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Assisi
Day 4
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Basilica of Mary of the Angels
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Basilica of St. Clare
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Free time and Lunch
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Basilica of St. Francis
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Return to hotel for for short rest
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Depart for San Pietro a Pettine
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Truffle hunt demonstration
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Group dinner featuring truffles
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We arrived at the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels) on a bright sunny morning. The Feast of St. Francis was in a few days. The city becomes even more crowded than usual as the celebration nears, so Tricia and our local tour guide adjusted the plans for the day to try to avoid the crowds of the bigger tour buses. The church was quiet as Tricia guided us through the basilica teaching us how St. Francis found his calling to serve the poor and how he established his order of the Franciscan monks.
Inside this church is the Porziuncola, which is a small piece of the church from Francis' monastery. This tiny chapel is protected and preserved inside the massive basilica. We were not allowed to take pictures inside St. Mary's but there is a video clip on Rick Steves' YouTube channel that shows a beautiful look inside.
Click first photo in each group to enlarge entire gallery
Now that we were introduced to St. Francis and learned how his story began, we boarded the bus and headed up to the hill town of Assisi. Mario parked the bus below the city and we were able to enjoy the spectacular view and take pictures of this iconic town. Mario then delivered us to the top of the city and we all walked into the busy village of Assisi to continue our journey.
We toured the Basilica di Santa Chiara. Chiara, Clare in English, was a friend and follower of Francis. Clare founded the second Franciscan order, the Poor Clares. This basilica is home to the tomb of St. Clare and the Crucifix that Christ spoke through, asking Francis to restore his church. No pictures were allowed in the basilica.
We were free for a quick lunch before we gathered again to walk to the other end of Assisi to the Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. We were introduced to Giuseppe, our local guide and expert on the Basilica of St. Francis. Giuseppe was a very entertaining fellow. He taught us more about Francis, the basilica, and its importance to pilgrims throughout history. We got to spend more time with the fantastic artist Giotto whom we first met in Padua. His frescos are used to tell the stories of the Bible and the life story of St. Francis. We were not allowed to take photographs inside. Here is link to Rick Steves' visit where Rick shows us the beauty of the basilica.
Back to the bus we went for the short return trip to the Villa Pambuffetti. We had a bit of time before heading to our truffle hunt and dinner at San Pietro a Pettine. Some people walked into Montefalco for some shopping, but most of us stayed back to rest, check emails, or just enjoy the beautiful villa. I do wish we could have spent more free time at the Villa and in Montefalco. Both were very lovely.
Departure time for our trip to the truffle farm was 5:30 PM. The sinking sun was casting a lovely light over the Umbrian hillside that was covered with olive trees, vineyards, and pastures. As we rounded one of the curves in the road, we were given a great view of the town of Trevi sitting high atop her hill.
We learned about the history of San Pietro a Pettine while sitting in the estate's 13th century chapel. The current management is the 3rd generation to work the business and maintain the forest of oak trees. The rare white truffles and more common black truffles grow near the roots of these oak trees. Truffle in Italian is tartufo.
The truffle hunting was more of a demonstration than actual hunting. Our group watched as the activity happened in a flurry of running, sniffing, and digging. Bruno would release the truffle dogs and they quickly returned with a truffle held gently in their mouths. The dogs seemed to love the activity and quickly exchanged the truffle for a tortellini as a reward. It was a lot of fun to watch.
