Day 6

Day 6, September 20, 2007

Hi all.

Today we arrived in a new place and the internet arrangement is poor - so I will be posting this from the next place in a few days if possible.

This morning we left our first “home” in Tavarnelle en route to Assisi. On the way we visited yet another 12th century church and Abbey - Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo.

It is said that Charlemagne, enroute through this area with his army in 781, was detained because his men were suffering and dying of some strange disease. The locals told him about an herb which would cure his men, which it apparently did. He founded the first monestary here in gratitude in that same year. In fact, it seems there was already a small church which had been built by a local person and dedicated to Sant Antimo, whose relics were venerated here, in 715. In 770 the Benedictine monks began an addition which was under construction when Charlemagne happened by. He decided to set his seal on it and thus take undeserved credit for its existence. What stands now is a small rather rough Apse area, which was the original church, partially surrounded by the now restored version of what the Benedictines designed and completed sometime after 770. The church is relatively small but beautiful inside and out. It is built with a stone called Travertine as well as some recycled material from other buildings including some marble and alabaster. The builders lightened things up a bit by insert many small carvings of human faces and animals on the outside walls.

The monks allegedly sing Gregorian chants in the morning, but we missed them, so picked up a cd in the ever present gift shop.

This is a beautiful church set in equally beautiful surroundings. The photos include the cathedral from a distance, one closer showing the rather rough round original church, inside the nave and a small face outside. The blog site size limits has not allowed all of these. I forget which ones I have included now so you may have to try to guess which is which.

After lunch in the town S Quirico d’Orcia we went on to Pienza, a town of about 2000 people and the home of Pope Pius II. In 1450 or so, he decided to spruce up his home town. He hired an architect who applied the principles of Pythagorian perfect ratios to build the cathedral, a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance architecture and the Pope’s residence, the Palazzo Piccolomini, on two sides of the town square. He was provided with limited space and a short time frame to complete these large structures which were finished in about 3 years. The rush to complete led to inadequate infrastructure in the cathedral the front of which has been sinking, revealing large cracks and an obviously sloping floor! The only photo it would accept is one of the cathedral here, I think.
From here we set off for San Francesco’s (St. Francis’) city of Assisi - another amazing place.