The Story of Assisi Part 19

Never had the town been so deadly still as on the 2nd of August, when the inhabitants had gone down the hill to the church of the Angeli where they sought to obtain their indulgences now the pilgrims had departed. Very quietly they knelt on the marble floor during the High Ma.s.s, silently they prayed, and with slow reverent steps they pa.s.sed in and out of the Portiuncula until the Vesper hour, and the beautiful, calm evening then found them gathered round the altar of their saint. "Pray, ye poor people, chant and pray. If all be but a dream to wake from this were loss for you indeed."

FOOTNOTES:

[112] St. Francis called the Portiuncula Santa Maria degli Angeli, but now the name is more connected with the large church. See p. 97.

[113] St. Dominic was present at this famous gathering, and the _Fioretti_ gives a curious account of the way in which he watched the doings of a brother saint, at first a little inclined to criticise his methods, so different to his own, but finally being won over by the franciscan doctrine of absolute poverty.

[114] Those who know the teaching of St. Francis (see _Fioretti_, chap. xiii.) will feel how the saint would have fought against this device for the expiation of sins, invented by the priests of Southern Italy. No Umbrian has ever sunk to such depths of self-abas.e.m.e.nt, and during all the first days of the "Perdono" festival they keep aloof, waiting till the pilgrims' departure before obtaining their indulgences.

APPENDIX

To visitors who stay at a.s.sisi for more than the usual hurried day, the following notes of walks and excursions may be of some use. A few of them have been already indicated by M. Paul Sabatier, in a paper printed at a.s.sisi, to explain the sixteenth century map of the town found by him in the Palazzo Pubblico, of which a copy hangs in a room in the Hotel Subasio.

_In the Town._--The public garden on the slope of the hill above the Via Metastasio is a delightful place. It was the ilex wood of the Cappucine convent until the present garden was laid out in 1882 by Sig. Alfonso Brizzi, when the friars' convent became a home for the aged poor.

_From Porta S. Giacomo._--(_a_) A new idea of a.s.sisi is obtained by following the mountain track from the Campo Santo round by the quarries and below the Castle to Porta Perlici. Looking across the ravine of the Tescio and up the valley of Gualdo and Nocera is a vision of Umbrian country in its austerest mood. Even if the whole of this walk cannot be taken we recommend all to follow the broad smooth road leading to the Campo Santo for a little, as the view of San Francesco and the valley beyond is very beautiful. (_b_) By taking the Via di Fontanella (see map), straight down the hillside, the picturesque bridge of S. Croce is reached in about twenty minutes. M.

Sabatier recommends the ascent of Col Caprile just opposite for the fine view of a.s.sisi, but those who do not care for an hour's climb would do well, having seen the old bridge and its charming surroundings, to retrace their steps, and after about two minutes turn off to the right through the fields along a narrow footpath leading to a bridge over the Tescio and a farmhouse. Following the right bank of the torrent we reach the Ponte S. Vittorino (see map), and return to the town by the old road skirting the walls of the franciscan convent and emerging opposite the Porta S. Francesco. Want of s.p.a.ce prevents more being said than to urge all visitors to go this walk, which is little known and will be found one of the loveliest they have ever seen. Every step brings something new; banks of orchis and cyclamen, glimpses of crimson and yellow rock in the brushwood by the hillside, the soft blue distance of the valley beyond, and above all, innumerable views of San Francesco, seen now with a bridge in the foreground, now framed in by the curved and spreading branches of an oak, and at every turn carrying our thoughts away to valleys of Southern France and fortress-churches crowning the wooded hills (see ill.u.s.trations, pp. 215, 220). To realise the variety of scenery to be found in Umbria we must come to a.s.sisi and hunt out her hidden lanes and byways.

_From Porta Perlici._--(_a_) Out of this gate, turning to the left by the city walls, is one of the roads leading to the Castle; the others are clearly marked on the map. (_b_) The carriage road to Gualdo and Nocera goes for some miles along the valley, but is not completed.

_From Porta Cappucini._--(_a_) The Rocca Minore is reached by a gra.s.s path going up the hill just inside the walls. A fine view of the eastern slope of a.s.sisi is obtained (see ill.u.s.tration, p. 10). (_b_) The Carceri is about an hour's walk from this gate, donkeys are to be had in the town for the excursion, or a small carriage drawn by a horse and a pair of oxen can get there, but it is the least pleasant way of going.

_From Porta Nuova._--(_a_) A pleasant though not the shortest way back to the town, is the one which skirts round the hill inside the mediaeval walls from this gate to Porta Mojano, and then outside the walls through the fields past the Portaccia to the carriage road just below Porta S. Pietro. (_b_) The ascent of Monte Subasio occupies about two hours and a half, though quick walkers will do it in less time. There are several paths which anyone will indicate to the traveller. The easiest, though the longest (about four hours), is the one mentioned by M. Sabatier, the road to Gabbiano and Satriano, which branches off to the left from the Foligno road not far from the Porta Nuova. After walking along the Gabbiano road for an hour, a lane leads up the hill for another hour to the ruined abbey of San Benedetto (p.

82). The path skirts the mountain to Sa.s.so Rosso, three quarters of an hour, the site of the fortress of the family of St. Clare, and then one hour and a half brings us to the southern slope of Mount Subasio called the Civitelle, where the craters of the extinct volcano are to be seen. The highest point (1290 metres), is reached in another half hour. The view is very fine; Nocera and Gualdo lie to the north, Monte Amiata to the west, a range of snowy mountains to the south, Mount Terminillo, the Sabine Appenines and the mountains of the Abruzzi, and Mount Sibella to the east. The return to a.s.sisi, without pa.s.sing the Carceri, takes two hours. (_c_) The road to San Damiano is marked on the map; it is good but very steep, requiring oxen to draw the carriage up the hill on the return. On foot it is only a quarter of an hour from the gate. (_d_) A long day's drive will take the traveller to Spello, Foligno and Montefalco, but it is a tiring excursion and only a faint idea can be obtained of these beautiful Umbrian towns. It is better, if possible, to give a day to each, and to see Bevagna, with her two exquisite romanesque buildings, on the way to Montefalco.

_From Porta Mojano._--(_a_) To follow the path taken by St. Francis, when carried from the bishop's palace to the Portiuncula (p. 111), just before his death, we must take the road leading from the gateway to a small chapel, and turn to the right down a lane marked Valecchio on the map. St. Francis either pa.s.sed through Porta Mojano or the Portaccia (now closed), but from here we follow in his footsteps straight down the hill to the hamlet of Valecchio, set so charmingly on a gra.s.s plot among the walnut trees, with part of its watch tower still standing (p. 104). In the plain we come to cross roads; the one on the left leads to San Damiano in about forty minutes, that to the right to the leper hospital (now known as S. Agostino), whence St.

Francis blessed a.s.sisi for the last time (p. 111). (_b_) From the gate a few minutes brings us to a path crossing the fields to the left, to the old church of S. Ma.s.s...o...b..ilt in 1081 by Lupone Count of a.s.sisi to serve as a chapel to the monastery, now the dwelling place of peasant families. (_c_) From Porta Mojano a lane leads straight down to the plain, and just before reaching the high road where it crosses the railway at right angles, the chapel of S. Rufino d'Arce--the real Rivo-Torto--is seen in the fields to the left (see pp. 93-95). By the side of the lane close to the railway line is the chapel of Sta. Maria Maddalena (see pp. 93-95). This is about half an hour's walk.

_From Porta S. Francesco._--There are several drives. (_a_) Perugia.

(_b_) Bastia, the first station on the railway between a.s.sisi and Perugia, possessing a triptych by Niccol da Foligno. A beautiful view of the river Chiaggio is obtained at the bridge of Bastiola. (_c_) A road from the Angeli branches off to Torre d'Andrea, where there is a picture by a scholar of Pinturicchio. But more delightful is the chapel of S. Simone a little further on, built right in the midst of the cornfields, whose walls are covered with frescoes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. (_d_) A beautiful drive is to the Rocca di Petrignano, a hill-set village above the Chiaggio. To fully recount its story, the picturesqueness of its rock-cut streets and the charm of the chapel upon the heights, whose walls are covered from floor to roof with votive Madonnas and saints, would need a chapter to itself.

It has been enthusiastically described by M. Broussolle in his _Pelerinages...o...b..iens_, but it may be well to remark that he calls the Rocca di Petrignano, for some unknown reason, the Rocca d'a.s.sisi.

(_e_) It is an hour and a half's walk to the church of S. Fortunato, across the bridge of S. Vittorino, recommended by M. Sabatier in his list of excursions. The way side chapel of S. Bartolo, with its interesting apse is pa.s.sed on the way.

It would be well to get the Italian military map, Fo. 123 (either at Seeber, Via Tornabuoni, Florence, or at D. Terese, Perugia), if the pilgrim to a.s.sisi wishes to explore the country round a.s.sisi.