Tuesday our last day touring in Italy, we had the pleasure of guided tours of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Tivoli Gardens.
We met our tour guide at the gates of the walled city of Assisi, it seems all ancient cites of Italy were walled or they did not survive.
We really did not stroll the city today, it was all about St. Francis.
St. Francis is the Patron Saint of Italy, he gets top billing. The basilica was constructed in the 1200s and is really two churches an upper and a lower plus a crypt was added later.
Again our local specialist, xxxx, gave us all the high lights of St Francis and the Basilica. We could not take pictures inside, but the walls are covered with St Francis's life story in Fresco. Since the general public at the time could not read, it was the only way to tell the story. Each Fresco is also captioned in Latin, as our guide put it, it was the 1200s version of a movie with subtitles. The basilica suffered major earth quake damage in 1997, part of the roof with Fresco came down. It took five years but they mostly repaired it, including piecing most of the Fresco back from 80,000 pieces in the rubble.
We we came out of the basilica, the fog had rolled in and any hope of the gorgeous views we saw the night before were squashed.
We saw some signs that made you wonder....
In most towns in Italy if you want to use the public restroom they charge, typically 1 EU, so most of the time we wait until we are in a cappuccino shop since it is about 2 or 3 EU for cappuccino and that gives you the right to use their bathrooms.
The bathrooms and hotel rooms in Italy are very compact...small. As Fabrizio puts it, "when you get to your hotel, sometimes you need to decide am I going to open my suit case or the bathroom door, since you really can't do both". The older the city the smaller the rooms.
From Assisi we boarded the bus for Tivoli, to see the Villa d'Este and have our final group meal.
When we got off the bus we were greeted by our final local specialist, Marco. He gave us a few tips on how to cross the street in Tivoli. You don't wait for a car to let you cross, they never will, you just occupy the lane, don't make eye contact and bless them with an out stretched hand. If they really appreciate the blessing they blow their horns. This is how we got from the bus to the Villa, it worked.
The Villa and its gardens as we know it now are actually the work of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. He was the son of Lucrezia Borgia and the grandson of Pope Alexander VI, and after failing to be elected pope in 1550, he was instead appointed governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III. Unfortunately, he felt that the governor’s residence, which happened to be a section of a Franciscan monastery, was severely lacking for someone of his status, and he then set out to create a villa and garden suited for “one of the wealthiest ecclesiastics of the sixteenth century” (himself). He used the gardens to impress and lobby to be Pope, which he never achieved. He is remembered as a greedy cardinal.
The gardens are really something to be seen, there are manicured foliage, statues, and fountains everywhere. On a hot summer day, it was a place for the wealthy to cool off. It is said that the Cardinal used it primarily for entertaining in an effort to improve is political future.
Only about one third of the fountains are running today, it must have been really amazing in its day. All the fountains work on pressure from the elevations above the gardens and the water is recycled through each successive tier of fountains.
The promenade of 100 fountains...
The gardens are guarded by monsters...
Fountains, fountains, fountains.
Five hundred old cypress tree.
The garden has many levels, eventually you have to go up.
Spectacular views.
After the gardens we were bused to a local restaurant in Tivoli. It had nice views of the valley below.
You could even see Ancient Roman Ruins on the opposite hillside.
The restaurant was basically carved into a hillside..were were all good as long as there are no earthquakes.
Our table picture, with Aemon and Phillippe both from Australia.
Waiting for our bus to pick us up for one last ride to the hotel.
Our bus driver, Fabio, was a master at the wheel and our bus was a four month old Mercedes, a very sweet ride.
As usual, we gathered in one of our rooms, discussed the day and reviewed photos at the end of the day.
Wednesday we shuttle to the Airport and home...last I checked it was snowing...
Tutte le cose buone devono finire.
Daniella was another hospitable specialist and battled the cold and fog with us. Fabio is a very skilled driver, glad we had transportation in the city streets.
ReplyDeleteIl Ciocco seemed to be built in the side of the mountain, where we ate was down below the front entrance.
Another wonderful day in Italy! As usual, thanks for sharing...
ReplyDelete