Si see A ssi si: Simon sees Assisi

For Christmas 2000 I decided to join Page & Moy again, and take my first look at Toscana.  Staying at the hill town of MONTEPULCIANO, excursions were made to historic places within Tuscany, but not exclusively so.

During Christmas we escaped from Tuscany crossing over the border into the "green heart of Italy"; Umbria.  Here on a very wet and grey day we visited ASSISI, going first to the convent beneath the hill town and finally into San Francesco's town on top of the hill with its magnificent Basilica.

I cannot describe to you the emotions of coming face to face with the Giotto frescoes in the Upper Chapel of the Basilica.  Having studied these groundbreaking works as mere A4 photos, to stand face to face with the monumental reality was incredible - literally beyond credibility.  I remembered too the earthquake only a couple of years before that had shattered Assisi and brought down the roof of the Basilica.  I never expected to see these works at all, and was quite overwhelmed when my eyes alighted on their splendour.

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Looking down from Basilica San Francesco

A Si in Assisi