Today we woke up to the most amazing breakfast that I have had at a hotel before. There was blood-orange juice, eggs with bacon, tons of different fruit, various pastries, bread with cheese and meat, oatmeal, and plenty of other stuff that I didn’t even get! After that we walked out to the bus to leave for Perugia. Since we haven’t seen any hill towns filled with churches this trip, this city was a real treat! But in all seriousness, today was a fantastic change of pace and I thoroughly enjoyed it.When we got there we got to take a “MiniMetro” up into the city, followed by a series of escalators. This was a glorious way to enter the city, the snaking pathway was much more fun inside a vehicle than on our feet. When we got up to the top we took a few small side streets before coming into the main Piazza of the town. It was a pretty great area; there was an awesome fountain in the center of the space and some nice old buildings framing the space. After talking about the town for a little while we left to head for the church at the very tip of the city wall.
To get there we took some pretty fantastic streets, saw some great buildings, and got to walk on top of one of the old aqueducts that ran through the city. The coolest part was how new houses had adapted to this makeshift road, adding little bridges from their second (or third) floors to connect to the aqueduct. After leaving that path we continued uphill for what felt like an eternity, until finally we came to a very peaceful courtyard bordered by the city walls and the church. The best part about this particular church was that it was finally different; it was built during a time of reform within the church regarding the position of man within this realm as well as his relation to heaven/God. This shift caused the switch from the Latin Cross (a lower case t), which emphasized hierarchy and a special place for the altar to the Greek cross (a +), which looked to place mankind on an even plane directly below the heavens. In my opinion, this switch (although short-lived) was pretty great, because all of the centralized churches I have seen have been pretty fantastic, and the way you interact with the space is much more fluid and free.
Anyway, after some exploring inside we went back to the courtyard and sketched for a little while. From there we left to visit another major Piazza towards the center of town. Along the way we got some pretty great views down alleyways of the surrounding landscape, as well as a fantastic church that we walked past (we stayed behind to check it out). After some more walking we finally made it to our destination where we talked for a little while before splitting up. Richard, Joe, Sam and I decided that we wanted to make it to the complete other end of the town (it is very linear) to see the Basilica that caps the other end. With that goal in mind we began wandering through the small streets on the way through the heart of the city. On our way we stopped at the ruins of a giant fortress that used to sit in the center of town. The most interesting part about these was the fact that all that is left is the subterranean levels, while there is now a building above it. We explored the dungeons and almost triple-height pathways underground for a while before exiting from the bottom level much farther down the hill.
After some confused wandering we ended up in a track that sits on the site of what we believe was an old racetrack, a pretty great reuse. After getting our bearings straight we walked down and around following a major roadway (pretty exciting!). Along the way we saw a pretty nice modern home, some great views into the valley that seemed to be an infinite number of layers of homes, as well as some awesome stairways (that seems to be a common theme here). Finally we arrived at an Arch that marked the grand entrance to the boulevard that led to the Basilica. The street led to a split in the road, one way led down to a public park space that was designed to continue the axis through until the edge of the town. This was pretty interesting, since typically the endpoint is the church with the public space in front. After completing the axis for ourselves we walked back and up to the Basilica, which turned out to have been transformed into an agricultural school.
It was pretty nice there, and we got to explore a nice cloister as well as a pretty great green space that seemed to be some kind of teaching space with different plants and historical items labeled and lined up. After we awkwardly strolled through what appeared to be the students’ public space (plenty of snake-eyed stares…) we left the space and returned to the main street that followed the center of almost the entire town. By this time it was past 2 and we realized we hadn’t eaten yet so we decided to head back to the center to eat and chillax until we met with the group. But of course we were distracted multiple times by interesting buildings and nice spaces (one such space was a seemingly perfectly square cloister of a converted church that was actually a rhombus, but thanks to perspective it was imperceptible outside of plan).
Adding to our failure in eating was our impeccable timing; when we finally made it back to the main Piazza, nearly every restaurant was closed. So we settled for some kebabs while sitting on the steps of the art museum (not really settling in my mind, but whatever). After we finished we walked back to a gelato place that we saw with a line coming out of the door. The flavors were much more simple than those at Yoghi, but much better as well. I had a dark chocolate (and I mean DARK chocolate), hazelnut, and pistachio cone. The dark chocolate was probably the best I have ever had, so bitter and at the same time so good (there was even an extra dark chocolate, which I can’t even fathom).
We ate our gelato and strolled back to the Piazza, where we ate and rested our weary feat for a while. Next up was the art museum, which thanks to Italian Heritage Month was free to visit! While I do like to look at religious paintings, there is a certain number of Baby Jesus and Dead Jesus works of art that I can stand before getting bored (this museum was literally filled to the point of hilarity). But I still enjoyed the visit because the spaces of the museum were pretty fantastic: lots of subtle level changes and views into other rooms, as well as great lighting. One room was even directly behind the giant clock on the front of the façade looking into the Piazza outside.
After wandering around there for a little while we left to sit outside and wait to meet. But thankfully the main church across the way emptied out so we were allowed in. This was literally the best church I have seen here, and second only to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The decorations were not only mind-bogglingly detailed, but also impeccably preserved. The vaulted ceiling was extremely high and the columns supporting it were at least five feet in diameter. A friend and I were thinking about this church and how amazing it really is that the world could be filled with unbelievable spaces such as this that no one has ever heard of, I think it is pretty sad but also great that these surprises happen everywhere. The worst part about this ignorance was the way the area was treated: those typical American tourists (we architecture students are travelers) were sitting on the steps drinking waaaay too much beer and making quite a scene, which really ruined the experience of the Piazza for everyone else (no wonder the world hates us…).
Finally, the group reassembled and left for our journey back down to the valley below. The tram ride was a blast, the cars went much faster down than they did up, and we were on the bus (sleeping) in no time. Once back in Assisi we found out that we couldn’t park outside our hotel anymore so we had to go clear to the other side of the city and walk back (ugh!). After the last journey through the city we made it home and collapsed in our room.
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