What did a world-champion Tuscan cyclist have in common with two Assisi printers? A couple of things: all three have been recognized as Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel. And…
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I first met Don Aldo Brunacci in 1975 shortly after Pino and I moved into our Assisi countryside farmhouse. At that time, I had started teaching English to children – as a…
When I think about Graziella Viterbi, I always remember that bright twinkle in her eye, that spark. That spark was there when she met Pope Francis in 2016 during his Assisi visit,…
Did you know that the 101st edition of the Giro d’Italia (“Italy Tour”) – one of Italy’s Grand Tour cycling races – started in Jerusalem (on May 4, 2018), not in Italy?…
In the 16th -century, Perugia was described not as just one of the loveliest cities not just in Italy but in all of Europe. Perugia was graced with seventy imposing family towers,…
The facade of Perugia’s medieval splendido city hall, Palazzo dei Priori is graced by steps fanning out that lead up to the Sala dei Notari (Notaries Hall). The flight of steps – created in…
Perugia’s most prestigious medieval guildhall? Certainly that of the Nobile Collegio della Mercanzia (the Noble Merchants Guild), already active in the early 13th-century at the peak of the independence of Perugia’s comuni (city-states). Il Nobile…
In the showcase of architectural gems that grace the city of Perugia, Palazzo dei Priori (“Palace of the Priors,” i.e, the medieval governing body of the city state) is arguably the crown jewel of…
The most powerful guilds in Perugia were those of the “Mercanzia” and the “Cambio” (Merchants and Money-Changers), due to the importance that guild members were able to acquire in the civic life…
In 1872, Henry James spent a week in Perugia, Umbria hilltown and one of the region’s two provincial capitals, lauding this medieval gem as “city of the infinite view.” I always wondered when…