© Richard Randall

As I mentioned earlier we went into Rome on several occasions during our holiday, each time exploring and appreciating more of the amazing architecture, monuments, people, foo,d and lets not forget the clothes!

We had rented the villa for the whole duration of our visit to Italy, this meant that we clocked up a lot of miles in the car visiting other places of interest outside of Rome. Having a fixed base at the villa in Bracciano, as opposed to being more mobile, and staying in different places every couple of days, meant that we got up and out early most mornings, so that we could get on the road and arrive at our destination early enough to make a full day of it. Bracciano, where our villa was is north of Rome and that was the general direction that we headed in when we had days away from 'home'. In no particular order we visited Pisa, Assisi, Puglia, and Florence, as well as many other gorgeous places. Poor old Richard, he was our chauffeur, he drove such great distances, and he did practically all of the cooking whenever we ate at the villa. We did eat out a lot, it would be a shame to visit Italy and then not enjoy the local cuisine. We ate so much delicious fresh food, most of which was very healthy. Although it did seem that whenever any of us ordered a snack like a panini or sandwich, it always came with lots of cheese added even when we hadn't ordered any. Surprisingly neither Richard or myself put on any weight whilst we were away, I guess it must have been all of the exercising as we did a lot of walking. We don't eat any more when we are away then we do at home like some people do though, although in Italy it could be very easy to overeat as everything is so tempting.

PISA

Leaning Tower of Pisa

I think Pisa was the furthest place we visited as a day trip, and obviously our main reason for going there was to see the leaning tower. As the Italians like to think of themselves as very skilled engineers it has been said that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built deliberately to tilt. As it is one of many leaning towers in Italy, this does seem to be true. Then there are the Roman roads, aqueducts, the invention of cement, the Pantheon, the dome of St Peter's, so it does seem unlikely that these leaning towers are just down to bad craftsmanship. There are many theories written about this subject all of which present an interesting case whichever you believe to be true. Anyway all leaning aside, early one morning we set off for Pisa. The drive took about four hours. When we arrived in Pisa we were lucky enough to find parking easily, and very close to the tower. A short walk from the car and we arrived at The 'Field of Miracles' (Campo dei Miracoli). This is an expanse of lawn where the Pisans' built the cathedral, situated at the northern edge of the town inside the walls. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was begun in the mid twelfth century, the cathedral in 1063, and the Campo Santo in 1278. You can buy a ticket called the 'biglietto cumulativo' if you wish to visit all three of the monuments instead of paying for each attraction separately. The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 190 marble and granite columns, and stands 328 feet tall. Having seen many pictures of the tower before, I was surprised at how small it appeared. I guess whenever I had seen a picture before they consisted of just the tower and not the other nearby monuments, so the perception of scale was hard to define. The tower has been under extensive, and expensive (millions of dollars) repairs for many years to shore it up. There were quite a lot of people visiting the tower when we were there, but not so many that it spoilt the view. There were lots of stalls in the field of miracles selling leaning tower inspired tat, ornaments, lamps etc which seemed surprisingly popular with other tourists. Whilst in Pisa you could visit The Bapistry, (Open Daily 8am-7:40pm in summer and 9am-5:40pm in spring/autumn and 9am-4:40pm during the winter). The Bapistry is the largest of it's kind in Italy. The architect responsible for the Bapistry was Master Diotisalvi (God Save You). Inside, the baptismal font is by Guido Bigarelli, and the pulpit by Nicola Pisano's which was made in about 1260. Also worth a look is the Cathedral, (Open April-Oct Mon-Sat 10am-7:40pm, Sun 1pm-7:40pm; winter Mon-Sat 10am-12:45pm, Sun 3pm-4:45pm). On the south transept the twelfth century Porte San Ranieri has a pair of bronze doors by Bonanno who was one of the architects on the leaning tower. There was a fire in 1595 which destroyed most of the original art along with the roof and most of the Cosmati pavement. The pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in 1300 was disassembled after the fire and left in crates forgotten. Once we had spent a few pleasurable hours wandering around the field of miracles we headed off to look around some more of Pisa. We walked round the narrow streets which were considerably quieter than where we had been, a lot less people. The day seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were back in the car heading for 'home'. We were all definitely going to sleep well that night, after the early start and the motion of the car making us sleepy.

ASSISI

Assisi was much nearer to our villa than Pisa, but we still managed to make a full day of it. Unfortunately the day we visited Assisi the weather was not that great, it was fairly drab and rained on and off all day. Assisi is a beautiful medieval town high up on a spur of Monte Subasio with amazing views over the countryside of Umbria. Obviously the main pull of the town is The Basilica de San Francesco, and everything in Assisi is related to Francis. St Francis, known affectionately as IL Poverello; the Little Poor One, lived from 1182-1226. He was born to a wealthy cloth merchant Pietro Bernardone, and baptised Giovanni but he was always called Francesco by his Francophile father. He was captured during the Assisi war against Perugia and spent a year in prison. On his release from prison he gave all he owned to the poor, preached his message of poverty and humility and soon attracted followers. Francis refused to take priestly orders but in 1209 he received authorization for his community from Innocent III. During his career Francis spent a lot of time travelling through Spain to Morocco preaching as he went. Francis' songs and canticles were among the first vernacular verses, and the foundation for a thirteenth century literary movement. The movements most famous work was the Fioretti; The Little Flowers, believed to be in part, written by Francis. In 1221 Honorius III sanctioned the Franciscan Rule of poverty, chastity and obedience. Francis subsequently received the stigmata and died two years later. The Basilica di San Francesco (Open Daily summer 6:30am-7pm, winter 6:30am-6pm). Francis had said that when he died he wanted to be buried alongside the criminals on 'Infernal Hill'. Brother Elias his lieutenant did not wish to ignore his wishes, and so when Francis was canonized in April 1228 he began work on a two storey basilica on the hill. The hill was renamed the Hill of Paradise and although not every member of the order agreed that the project was suitable for a holy man so wedded to poverty, brother Elias and Pope Gregory IX who laid the cornerstone, triumphed in their creation of a work of art and Franciscan memorial. Inside the lower church there are beautiful frescoes by thirteenth and fourteenth century masters. Although the interior is very dark you can illuminate these frescoes as long as you have plenty of coins to hand. There is a fresco by Simone Martini; The Life of St Martin, and the Life of Mary Magdalen (1314) by Giotti. In the crypt lie the tombs of Francis and four of his followers, they were discovered in 1818 after being sealed off in the fifteenth century to protect them against the relic stealers, Perugia. At the Museo-Tesoro della Basilica (Open April-Oct 9:30am-12 noon and 2pm-6pm Nov-Mar) you will find many items of interest. There is a thirteenth century French ivory Madonna, and a tapestry of St Francis among other finds. The upper church is surprisingly bright after the darkness of the lower church, and is home to two major medieval frescoes, they were damaged by the earthquake but remain intact. These frescoes show Francis' life, by Giotto and scenes from the old and new testament by Pietro Cavallini. Whilst we were walking around Assisi we could see a lot of damage to the buildings from the 1997 earthquake. Although at that time there had been major renovation all over the town, there were still some buildings with scaffolding and the sound of men continuing the restoration work. Whilst we were in Asssisi we must have eaten lunch but I cannot remember where or what we ate, but I do remember that there were a number of restaurants serving delicious sounding food, such as the Buca di San Francesco, Via Brizi 1, Tel: 075 812 204. The restaurant is underground in a medieval cellar serving dishes such as cannelloni, Assisi style pigeon and fillet steak cooked in the finest red Umbrian wine. Another tempting place is the Il Medio Evo, Via dell'Arco dei Priori 4, Tel: 975 813 068. This restaurants serves lovely antipasti with Umbrian prosciutto, pasta with truffles and guinea fowl cooked with grapes. There were also some places selling pizza and other snacks at reasonable prices. If something sweeter is more your thing then there were lots of places selling gorgeous looking strudels and other cakes.

Caribbean

Sundries

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