When I got on the little bus to go to the tour starting point, there were three young women on the bus already. They had been in Piazza San Pietro yesterday in the rain for the Angelus, when I was. Today they were going to Pompei. Three other young women got on the little bus at another stop. They had been to Pompei yesterday, and were on the same tour to Assisi as me.
It took quite a while to get to Orvieto by tour bus. When we arrived, our tour group rode the train car up the side of the hill to the bus stop in Orvieto.
Train car we rode up the incline to Orvieto
View out the front of the train car
Facade of the Cathedral at Orvieto
Cathedral at Orvieto shows facade and side.
At the top of the rail, we took a city bus to a stop in front of the Cathedral of Orvieto. The facade was very ornate. There was a fee to enter the Cathedral. There had been no fee in any of the churches I entered in Rome. The inside of the Cathedral was very much like the left side which you can see above, with alternating layers of dark and gray stones. There were two side chapels inside. The one I remember was ornate and displayed a corporal that was involved in a Eucharistic Miracle in the middle ages. The details of the miracle evade me.
Orvieto had been an Etruscan city that was destroyed by the Romans in the 3rd century BC. It wasn't rebuilt for several centuries. It sits on the top of a plateau hence the train car ride up the side.
Street in Orvieto
I had the opportunity to wander the streets of Orvieto for a while. There were many pedestrians. In the picture above you can see a row of arches. These are at the side of the church of St Andrew. It has a very nice wooden sculpture of St Andrew.
View from the top of the train car stop
Second View from the top of the train car stop
When we got back to the bus stop at the top of the train car ride, we had a few minutes to wait for our guide, and I got a couple of pictures of the countryside around Orvieto.
After lunch we continued to Assisi. We entered Assisi walking through the "new gate", which did not exist at the time of St Francis. It was built around 1300 AD.
The New Gate to Assisi. Built circa 1300 AD.
Street in Assisi
Gate to Assisi at time of St Francis
Church of St Clare
Our first stop was at the church of St Clare. Her body is entombed here. You can see the Flying Buttresses on the left side of the church. St Francis was initially buried in this church, while they built the Basilica on the other side of the city, where he is currently entombed.
View from Assisi
View from Assisi
Where St Francis was imprisoned by his parents
Fountain in town square -- Assisi
Basilica of St Francis
The Basilica of St Francis is two churches on top of each other.
The upper one had frescoes of the life of St Francis. St Francis is entombed beneath the altar in the lower one. There is a chapel beneath the lower church for prayer at the tomb of St Francis.
Most interesting to me were two chapels in the lower church. The first was a chapel to the Immaculate Conception. I grew up in the Parish of Immaculate Conception, and attended Immaculate Conception School.
Additionally, I lived for 29 years in the Diocese of Syracuse NY, whose Cathedral is the Immaculate Conception. Further, the Basilica in Washington DC is the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which has a beautiful blue dome you can see from miles away on the Metro.
Even more significantly, there is a chapel to St Martin of Tours adjacent to the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
Field in front of Basilica of St Francis
Tau Cross and Peace in Latin
View of the exit from Basilica.
Papal Mass on Feast of St Francis
held in the area on the right.
In Assisi I prayed in four churches, one of which had two churches, one on top of the other and two chapels that had great significance for me. In Orvieto, I prayed in two churches. A good day.
Great views!!!
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