Thursday, October 31, 2013

Assisi...the home of St. Francis

During our stay in Assisi we spent a lot of time in the countryside but also explored the town which we really liked.

This is Piazza Commune, the main square, where we spent a lot of time in that corner cafe watching the world go by.
 
There are religious orders all over town as this is the second most visited pilgrimage site after Rome.
 
St. Francis was born into a wealthy family in 1182 and after receiving a vision abandoned his riches to live as a poor man while founding the order of the Franciscan monks and all over town there are reminders of him.
The door to his ancestral home, part of which is still intact.His father forbade his son to follow a religious path and would often beat him and lock him up in a cell inside this house. However Francis followed the spiritual path that was set before him and set out to preach the gospel.
Here are some of the images of St. Francis that I captured...
With St. Clare, one of his followers who founded the Order of the Poor Clares.
St Francis in the forest.
Assisi is a hilltop town and as you approach the town high on the hill the first thing you see is the Basilica of St. Francis which took 30 years to build and was consecrated in 1253. The church was built to celebrate the life of St. Francis and a final resting place for his body. Earlier this month the Pope who took St.Francis's name celebrated mass here.
The Basilica is huge with a lower and upper section and a large inner courtyard.
St Francis coming back to Assisi after a journey abroad.
All the surfaces of the upper section are covered with frescos, the ceiling was a beautiful shade of blue.
The lower section of frescos tell the life story of St.Francis, here he is giving his clothes back to his father to pursue a life of poverty.
This picture depicts his famous sermon to the birds as he had a special infinity for the natural world....
And of course there is the tomb...

On the other side of town there is Rocca Maggiore, a 14th century medieval castle that was built to protect the town from its' enemies. It was a beautiful day so we decided to climb the hill to have a look...

Beautiful views of Assisi and the mountains
We also visited another site, St. Francis's hermitage which was 4 km above the town. Here he and his followers would retreat for prayer and mediation and it indeed was a beautiful spot.

Many places to sit and be still.


 
And if you go up you have to go down...

Never a dull moment so we took a cooking class as well...
Don was a pro at the pasta.
Working on my knife skills as I chopped the nuts for dessert.
Our sausages...
Dinner is served...

A few more pictures of Assisi...

Singing in the courtyard...an African group got out the drums and started singing and dancing to many Hallelujahs.


A first century temple right in the middle of the town.

There are fountains everywhere.
And finally while walking the narrow lane ways of Assisi we saw this pretty wall with autumn vines...
Assisi, a quiet and peaceful town sure to revive your spirit in many ways.













































 




 



 

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Truffle hunting in the Umbrian mountains

We were picked up early by Mac, a NZer married into an Italian family, and driven to the family land high in the Umbrian hills.

We passed many towns built on the sides of the mountain.


We continued on past all the villages to the top of the mountain which was over 3000 feet.

 

Fall has arrived in the mountains with spectacular colors.

 

The Chiacchiarini family along with a few other families bought this mountain top acreage from the Church in 1490 and have lived and farmed it ever since, yes that is a long time. In the summer the hills are full of sheep who have now been brought down for the winter so there were only a few cows left to graze.

These are the Chianina cows which provide the meat for the famous Florentine steak.

We were there with 5 other people to spend the day with the family, looking for truffles, cooking and eating.


Lucca is the hunter and with his dogs started out for the hunt...



So we followed to see what we could find....

 
The dog has sniffed out something...
Here it is a black winter truffle that grows wild in the area. There are three kinds of truffles that people here use for food with the most rare being the white truffle. This black one costs 1500 dollars a kg so it isn't cheap either.

On we go looking for more...

Mac explaining the truffles to us.
Now for breakfast on the mountain...
Starting with Prosceco and Pecorino cheese made by the family from their sheep's milk, the older the cheese the more crumbly and delicious.
Fresh, scrambled eggs with grated truffles...
Now that is a good start to a great day...

Now back down the mountain to the little village that is home to the family and is their summer home. In the winter they go back down to live in Montefalco which is a village in the valley. This mountain village has maybe ten houses.



 

There are only a few buildings in the village and one of them holds the communal oven which is used for baking bread and cooking.
The Italians have a strong connection to their ancestral lands and hold on to them through many generations. When the man dies, by law the inheritance is given half to the wife and the other half is divided to all his heirs so the land gets chopped up through every generation but few children ever sell their share.
So even though this village is very small it is now owned by many families who hold on to their piece of land. This family is redoing an old barn to become a residence for another generation. Each house contains many small rooms to accommodate the different families.
The great, great uncle and the youngest of the family gathering greens for our meal.

We spent the rest of the day with the family, helping with the past, eating and enjoying their company.
This is Francesca, her husband Mac and her father Dante. We are in the communal pasta making shed.

Of course there is antipasti for everyone.

Getting help cutting the pasta

The pasta being served and it was good!

The next course was guinea fowl, meat stuffing and potato.
Then homemade sausages from the BBQ served with the freshly picked greens.
Dessert was an autumn cake made by Nonna with all ingredients from the farm including the chestnuts.

We loved sharing our meal with the whole family...


Don was entertaining this end of the table.

This was a very special day, one of the best we have had on this holiday, an opportunity to go into the mountains, spend time with the family with no pretensions and have a genuine and intimate glance into another way of life.