A true British Gentleman, host & now friend Roy, opened his home in Assisi to me a couple of days ago. I had longed to see Assisi in person since news on TV of the earthquake in 1997. I recall seeing in the news that part of the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Francis had collapsed; that this Basilica was constructed only two years after Saint Francis death in 1226.
Now I was nearby…in Foligno after a three-day educational tour of Umbria… midway between Rome & Florence.I had never been South of Tuscany, had never seen Umbria: the hill towns of Spoleto, Trevi, Montefalco…and Assisi. What a gorgeous and romantic place. It pulls at you and beckons you to please come back soon.
 Our InTouch Travel host Roy, and his friend Mauro (Roy does not drive) drove me the 18 km from Foligno to Assisi. I was full of excitement. It being a Sunday the hill town was full of tourists, hold it, Italian tourists mostly. Roy took me up and down steep hills, through narrow alleys, dark corners to light flooded populous plazas. I think I saw it all but Roy assures me I saw not one tenth of it… We started at the Porta S Giacomo, went to the Basicilia, the lower and upper one, and followed the Saint’s life in the commentary on Giotto’s cycle of frescoes, walked to the Piazza Commune to wonderful viewing points.
Our walk ended up at Roy’s gorgeous apartment, a 10- minute walk from the main square. It occupies the lower level of a 700-year-old building which was built onto a Roman ruin. He sleeps under a 2000 year old Roman arch. Formerly this was a habitation for animals; now it is a welcoming home, furnished with antique furniture and his collection of Roman, Byzantine, medieval and Renaissance works of art.
Roy told me that his beloved housekeeper had prepared a wonderful apple pie in my honor. Between a British four o’clock tea and Italian dolce, Roy insisted in putting a heavy silver necklace (made in 1525 by a German silversmith named Gelder) around my neck. Then he began to tell me passionately about the full life of the 12th century Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order of "Friars Minor" as I leaned back on his old sofa and prepared to listen contently to a twenty minute story. Roy seemed to me a little bit like a Saint himself: very giving and gracious and most likely as humble as Saint Francis was.
When Mauro, his personal friend and driver met up with us later, between the two of them I learned in no time everything from the first Umbris to the Etruscans, Romans, to Saint Francis up to the Middle Ages. They went out of their way and drove zigzagging back to Foligno with stops at San Damiana and Spello to just show me how rich the art & history of the centuries they are surrounded with on a daily basis. I was impressed when they bantered about what date was correct: Was it in 735 or 739? I listened and listened and could not help observe that all day I was a listener (!).
They both pulled me right into their own local lives, their art & histories; their passions & interests; their present and being annoyed about local authorities that concerns a road closure of 200 meters, requiring a detour of 2 km which is hard to explain to tourists; local stores that are urged to sell higher quality items and trinkets; their future on how many more subjects Mauro and Roy are eager to share with me even though I am not a particularly studious person when it comes to their fascinating world of art & history —- that this day became the highlight of my trip!
I made two new friends in Italy’s Umbria. I know I can knock at their door tomorrow or the next day and I am sure they will greet me happily as their new friend and embrace me once more as one of them.
“The Lord give you peace”!This was the greeting he St. Francis always gave, most sincerely, to everyone, to men and women; to anyone he met or passed on the road. – Thomas of Celano, First life of St. Francis, 1228.
This is how Roy and I parted “The Lord give you peace!”
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Paris' fashion season is over for another few months. For two weeks twice a year, the most secluded part of the complex under Paris' most visited museum becomes a bustle of activity: After a walk through a long hall (that itself would take a stadium of fans to fill) that itself used to be the the Louvre's moat when it was a fortress, a fact made evident by the vestiges of stone defences lining one side of its length, we come to a room filled with lines and crowds of people waiting, chatting, gossiping, most of them showcasing the latest trends, and a few with "designs" of their own. It's odd to find two of the things I love most about Paris in the same spot: History and Fashion.
La Place du Carrousel as a square ceased to exist from the early 18th century, as, left to abandon after the Crown's move to Versailles, it was eventually filled with city growth, but from the mid-19th century it regained its form upon Napoleon III's Louvre renovations. The square's underground remained largely unexplored until the Carrousel du Louvre underground complex construction began from 1983: inaugurated ten years later, the shopping mall's lesser-trodden halls today hold united the area's name and origins: a foundation in fashion.
