We landed at the Rome airport – actually Leonardo da Vinci
International Airport at Fiumicino, down on the coast near Ostia at the mouth
of the Tiber River, ten or twelve miles from Rome itself – at about 07:10 local time.By 08:40 we had finished passport control and
claimed our baggage, and met our Italian “escort,” Debra–actually a British expatriate married
to an Italian – who works with Magnificat Tours. She had us on the bus and
headed to our first destination, Assisi, the home of St. Francis, by 09:30.Our
bus-driver for the entire trip will be one Luigi.We are a total of 46 pilgrims, mostly from
Louisiana – Natchitoches with Fr. Ryan Humphries of the Minor Basilica of the
Immaculate Conception; a group from Vacherie with his friend Fr. Chris Decker of Baton
Rouge; and a few outliers from Lafayette, New Orleans, and even a father and son from
Little Rock, Arkansas. And Alexis, the representative from Magnificat.
The trip took about three hours, punctuated by a “comfort stop”
along the way. Debra pretty much talked
the whole time. The countryside is
stunning, and much more hilly than I imagined it. Heck, by Louisiana standards, it’s downright
mountainous, but there are extensive flatlands too. It’s easy to see how lush it is – and would
have been in the ancient world, making the Romans so self-consciously
farmers. We crossed and recrossed the
Tiber River a number of times along the way.
On the other hand, although I knew that by the time you get to
Assisi, you’re in what are effectively the western foothills of the Appenine
mountains, and that the town itself is literally multi-tiered, I still wasn’t
quite prepared for the reality. The bus
park is at the bottom of the city; we had to walk up quite a ways, making a big
loop around walking a steep incline.
Although Debra said it wasn’t “too steep,” and we would “take it slow,”
I don’t think those words mean the same thing to her as they do to me! It was quite taxing. Both Anne and myself recalled a similar
uphill walk in Oban, Scotland, back in 2010.
But we made it, and were checked into our hotel, the Hotel Giotto, by
about 12:30.
The view from our room
Magnificat booked us into a fine hotel [LINK], and Anne and I have a
top-floor room on the corner, giving us spectacular views out two
directions. Unfortunately, it’s two
(really three) floors up from the lobby – and the elevator will only take you
up part of the way. So it was more
climbing. But we made it, settled in,
reorganized our stuff from travel mode to daily mode, and had time to rest
for just a few minutes before we had to be back down to the lobby to meet for
14:45 to be taken out to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. There we got to hear Mass, said by Fr. Chris
(assisted by Fr. Ryan), in a small chapel devoted to St. Clare. The spiritual part of the pilgrimage began,
with plenty of tourism blended in with it. Unfortunately, they allowed no pictures in the Basilica itself, and the
Virtual Tour I found online is only of the exterior from the plaza [LINK]. But here's a good short video about it by Joan's Rome of EWTN:
Like just about everything else we’re seeing, Santa Maria
degli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels) is of immense historical significance. It’s a huge church, built around the small
church of the Portiuncula (modern Italian Porziuncula) – literally.
The latter is intact within the nave of the former. The Portiuncula is a little 9th-century
chapel that by the time of St. Francis in the early 13th century was
in dilapidated condition, restored by Francis, and essentially “rented” by him
from the Benedictines of Mt. Subasio (not
Subiaco) for a basket of fish each year – which the modern Franciscans still
pay – to be the mother house of his prospective religious order. It’s where the Franciscan order began, with
Francis gathering with his followers, and in 1211 it’s where Francis received
Clare into the religious life and thus began the Poor Clares. Finally, it’s the site of Francis’ own death
in 1226 – at his own request to be taken there when he knew he was dying.
After a tour of the Basilica, a trip through the gift shop,
and a quick trip across the street for my first taste of gelato (Italian ice cream – very
smooth! – there will be more!), we traveled back to the hotel. Anne and I took the walk slower this time,
hitting some shops along the way – I got my requisite tee-shirt and coffee mug
for Assisi – then I started working on this.
Hotel Giotto Dining Area
A three course dinner was at 19:00 – early by Italian
standards – pasta, chicken, then a dessert, all good, with wine (of course),
and plenty of good company. Anne went
back to the room and I worked in the lobby (better wifi signal) on checking in on my courses and finishing up
this blog post. Bed is looking really attractive.... [20:58 Italy time]
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