As you enter the 13th-c. Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, head to the right to see the baptismal font where St. Francis and St. Clare were both baptized; following this tradition,…
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After over a year’s work by skilled young fresco restoration experts in Assisi’s stunning Basilica di San Francesco, the late 13th-c. fresco Cimabue fresco la Maesta’ has returned to splendor: The unveiling…
For the past thirty years in late December, the Umbria Jazz Winter festival livens up the medieval hill town of Orvieto, bringing in the New Year with a musical blast of jazz,…
Although Ray Gelato’s surname means “ice cream” in Italian, there was nothing “chilly” about his group’s performance in Orvieto at Umbria Jazz Winter this past December. Pino and I joined in the…
Called “Hispellum” by the Romans, majestic Umbrian hill town Spello perches on the lower slopes of Mt. Subasio…. …surveying below the Valle Umbra Nord. 500 square meters of the mosaic floor of…
In the flowering backstreets of Assisi,…. ……friends and neighbors of all ages gathered on a mid-June afternoon to chat over boxes of flower petals as busy hands swiftly de-petaled flowers of myriads…
For four days in early May, the assisani welcome the month of floral abundance, fecundity, fertility and celebration of the rites of spring with passione. La Magnifica Parte de Sotto (Lower Assisi) will compete wtih…
After learning about the straordinario Maceo Angeli in a guided visit to his medieval home (January 2023), I was taken over by a veritable “Maceo passione.” I simply needed to know more about this extraordinary assisano (who…
Assisi’s school children well-know the significance of that Giorno della Memoria (“Day of Remembrance” (or “the Day of Memory”) – and a good group participated this year in Assisi’s annual January 27th…
In elegant ancient Roman garb, blonde-haired Greta told me with pride about her performances in Bolsena’s July 24th celebration of the lake-side town’s patron saint Cristina, I Misteri di Santa Cristina (those scenes…