Deruta, an Umbria small hilltown south of Perugia….. …..is a veritable open-air museum peppered with maiolica touches in the piazzas, on the walls of homes, over shop entrances,in the backstreets and even…
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In preparation for my ZOOM presentation May 8, 2021 on Deruta, I needed to see the Museo Regionale della Ceramica, but for now, that museum – like many – is closed due to COVID…
What’s absolutely essential to the production of bellissima glazed earthenware, maiolica? Passione. I very recently spoke to five young women in “la citta’ della ceramica,” Deruta – each one carefully masked – as they worked with painstaking…
Probably built upon Roman foundations and later devastated by the Goths in the 6th-century and later by the Lombards (6th-8th centuries), the ancient names of Deruta (Ruto, Ruta, Rupta, Direpta Diruta) all…
Yes, it IS grandiose the 16th-century Franciscan Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli rising up majestically on the plain below Assisi. At first site, one wonders about the reaction of St. Francis, Il…
Assisi spreads out serenely on the hill backdropping the Assisi’s War Cemetery where over nine hundred white tombstones stand stalwartly in straight, evenly- spaced rows. like the rows of the proud soldiers…
I hadn’t missed Assisi’s evocative morning Good Friday procession in years. Until last year, due to COVID restrictions. And, ahimè – alas – there won’t be a Good Friday Processione del Cristo Morto (“Procession…
I dropped in recently at Assisi’s Cathedral of San Rufino: I needed a couple photos. Built in the 12th-century on the site of the martyrdom of Assisi’s first bishop and patron saint…
Easter liturgies have incorporated early forms of performances and role-playing – varying from short text passages to long presentations – since the tenth century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Passion plays…
Gubbio is fully medieval, exclusively medieval. Very little has been taken away or renovated for it was built at a prosperous time of fortune and wealth. The houses flanking Gubbio’s winding medieval…