Before leaving, Mimi wrote in our guest book, “ This was definitely the highlight of our trip…(and)…to be honest, I never want to leave this place.” And while staying here in one of our Assisi countryside apartments in April, Mimi and her lovely family of five joined us for a rural banquet in our…
Just 7 kilometers west of Pisa, an 11th-century Romanesque basilica stands solitary and solemn in an open field: The medieval basilica San Piero a Grado (also known as the Basilica di San Pietro Apostolo) is fascinatingly unique for various aspects: the lack of a facade but with two apses in one apse, the first stone altar ever erected…
Farfa: a short word, just two syllables, for indicating vast splendor. Named for the Farfa River (a tributary of the Tiber) flowing nearby and cited by Ovid, Farfa is site of one of the most significant monuments in central Italy of the late Middle Ages, the Abbey of Farfa. The first edifice on site of the…
Even after living decades in Italy, the discoveries remain endless. And small out-of-the-way hill towns can astound. As does the first site of Toffia: Not long ago, Pino and I headed for the weekend just south of Rieti to the area of western Latium, la Sabina, Our primary destination was the Abbey of Farfa in…
The stunning Certosa Monumentale di Calci (near Pisa – and often known simply as “la Certosa di Pisa“) was founded in 1366 for a group of Carthusian monks. The architecture of the Pisa monastery is a veritable footprint of the Carthusian rule: the interlinking distribution of spaces and rooms reflects the rapport between the…