In Italy, the patron saints of cities, towns and villages are feted with joy, emotion, grande passione and splendid celebratory events rooted in local traditions and history. In Umbria medieval gem, Narni,…
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In a recent telephone chat with Roberto Nini, we reminisced about our first meeting. In 1997, I had taken the train from Assisi to Narni to study the art and history of…
Yes, there can be “egg hunts” even in Umbria for Easter – but actually, prior to Easter. Finding the eggs is not an amusing and entertaining game for the children but a…
Yes, Christ dashes in Bevagna on Easter Sunday – quite literally. That is, the Cristo risorto (“Risen Christ”), Bevagna’s treasured 16th-century statue. Every Easter Sunday morning, members of the Confraternita della Misericordia (the Confraternity…
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…
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…
Near Foligno in central Umbria, a small town of only about 400 residents takes center stage – quite literally – on Good Friday each year as over a hundred people unite to…
Gubbio’s majestic 14th century, Palazzo dei Consoli towers proudly over Gubbio, magnificent from wherever you see it in Gubbio… …and from May 1st 15th, the Palazzo hosts three treasured “visitors”: the…
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…
St. Francis is inextricably linked to Gubbio – apart from the famed episode of the wolf – and the town has more than one church dedicated to San Francesco di Assisi. As…