ASSISI FOR ME SI.

This morning we got up and took a 2.5 hour bus ride to Assisi. This past week I had gotten multiple raves about this spiritual hot spot, so I decided to check it out. The first rave came from my Food & Culture Professor. She is Jewish and went to Assisi with her husband last weekend. She said for her Assisi was an extremely “spiritual experience”, even though she practices Judaism. I had to see for myself what this town was all about.

It was pretty overcast and drizzly all day, but the views were still beautiful. The town is on a bunch of high hilltops, so the views are vast. The concrete of all the buildings are colors of coral, light pink and sandy yellow.

The first sight we saw was Basilica di St. Francesco. This church is made of white marble and the view is spectacular. The mist was flowing all over the Tuscan countryside below and the clouds were parted just to enough to have rays of sun coming out from the sky. Very…celestial....

Once we got inside, it was an overwhelming church. There were things I expected - paintings, sculptures, ornate stained glass, pews and flowers. But on the sides were these sort of little rooms to pray/meditate in. I put a coin in the offertory box and a candle was automatically lit for me. lol. Nifty.

Downstairs was the tomb of St. Francis. His tomb is not visible. It is enshrined by ornate metalwork behind the altar. It was so quiet and everyone was in pews praying, so I did the same. Very peaceful actually. I went into the gift shop after that and got a Franciscan rosary. Supposedly there is a difference between the Franciscan rosary beads and regular rosary beads? The dude who was selling me the 5 euro beads was trying to explain in Italian, but he was too fast for me. Next was the “Basilica Superior”, the upper basilica. In here are more fabulous altars and pews and stain glass. The real highlight for me was the frescos done by Giotto, about 6 on each wall, depicting the life of St. Francis of Assisi. These were truly awe inspiring. Also the ceilings. Yes. The ceilings. They were all covered in deep azure paint, with some of it chipping off, revealing a base of regal turquoise. Covering this were gold stars. The ceilings were soooo high! Standing alone in such a quite beautiful space can make anyone feel spiritual. I think this is because you feel super small while surrounded by so much overwhelming beauty. Then you start to think about all the people who made the place and all the people who have been there before you. And why, why are all these people coming here and what are they searching for? And that’s when you feel blessed to even be in such a special space and look up at the high rafters covered in blue and gold stars and say to yourself, “Somebody up there likes me.”