Assisi’s Christmas of “Il Poverello”

ven the holiday decorations in the medieval hilltown of Assisi – citta’ della pace – bear witness to San Francesco:  simplicity is the theme.  Over twenty-five years ago, Pope John Paul II chose Assisi as the perfect site for his peace gathering, inviting here 160 world religious leaders for interfaith dialogue;  “Il Poverello”, San Francesco, born here at the end of the 12th-century, is known worldwide as an emblem of peace, poverty and simplicity.
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Look Up to See Assisi’s Artworks

As Christmas approaches, many an elderly Assisi nonna is telling her grandchildren about Gesu Bambino’s arrival when she was a child: the children left out hay for the donkey of il Bambino and pasta dolce for Gesu. The pasta dolce and fieno were gone when the excited children crept down in the morning – but clumps of donkey droppings were outside the door – and the grateful Bambino had left tangergines, a handful of walnuts, maybe a few chocolates. What excitement!
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La Madonna di Citerna Comes Home

The tiny northern Umbria village, Citerna (pop. 3500), – ever heard of it? – will now be highlighted on the Italy map of any art-lover (and not only): after years of painstaking restoration, the early 15th-century polychrome sculptural wonder of Donatello, aptly named “La Madonna di Citerna,” has come home – to the village church of San Francesco. With the fanfare a queen merits.
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Turkey Goodness, Pino-style

Pino’s way to season a Thankgiving – or Christmas – turkey is a far cry from those U.S. “butterball” birds, complete with inserted thermometer to tell you how long to cook it! When we farmed, Pino slaughtered one of our turkeys, then plunged it into boiling water to loosen the feathers: the plucking and gutting was up to me. I’d do the stuffing, Pino did the basting…and then that turkey was roasted at Ristorante da Giovannino down the road: those birds were too big for our wood-burning stove oven!
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