7 dec

After a bloody cold night – frozen windows do create lovely iceflowers – we headed into the promise of Arezzo. Cut all the available churches down to two, but had to peek into all the stores that sold christmas ornaments. Julie and I love Christmas, including the ornaments of which we try to buy a new one every year. Something we hardly ever seem to agree on, so we buy one each, our tree is getting more full every year. Of course there will be no tree this year, but I am not going to dwell on traditions again.

Arezzo arose to its promise of the falling evening before. No music corps this time, but policemen on horses, where do you find those outside of football stadiums where the horses intimidate even the most drunk fans.

And then drove on to Assisi. We just wanted to get a glimpse of the city.

What to say? Of course we are tourists, at least some of the times. But we are travelling outside of the tourist season, so we don’t really want to be bothered with other people visiting these obviously remarkable sites.

Assisi doesn’t have a tourist season, it has a tourist year. We walked around for about two hours. There was not one bakery, not one normal butcher, not one decent book store, although I managed to find a half decent one in a back alley. Some places that are very interesting (Carcassonne, Rocamadour, Assisi) have become too attractive for its own good. Tourism has sucked out all the blood out of its veins. There’s enough money pumping around, but these cities are becoming shallow imitations of its original self anymore. No wonder the travel industry focuses on Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The tourist attractions are sometimes really confrontational. Walking back from one church we saw a guy in bewildered clothes and on bare feet walking up the street. I followed him for a while. His legs were swollen red, it was no cheap tourist fake – although Julie thought his shags looked ‘well ironed’. And then there was the most awful hunchback I’ve ever experienced in my life . The poor woman was so crippled her feet almost hit her head when she hunched forward. I was not sure if this was part of the experience, completely honest, or also fake. Guess it is the second, but I will check on them we will visit next time. They can not be keeping walking up these streets.

There is enough to admire in Assisi though. We had a quick look at the church that focuses on Santa Clara. We had never thought about her before we called our daughter Claire, and might have been prevented from doing so when we would have known more about Clara. Quite a pain this girl, with way too much narrow minded focus on God for my taste. She even detected her own family, which is sinful if you ask me.

And then there is the magnificent church dedicated to St Francis, the santliest saint of all of them, I think. All those frescoes are just delightful. The church seems to have survived the 1997 earthquake (and its umpteenth renovation) well.

We’ll get back there, because I am sure we haven’t seen everything yet. I am planning to be diligent in studying the city and St Francis’ life for the coming week. Might have a walk here and there. All relaxed stuff, having exchanged Merlin for the comfortable life of a little apartment a little bit outside of Assisi (just as cheap as an Italian campground, which are not even open during winter!). If it wouldn’t be winter, and if there wasn’t a persisting fog around, we might even be able to get a glimpse of Assisi from the little terrace we have.

Still, Francis is one to admire. Wealthy parents, an easy upbringing, but he gave it all up for a life dedicated to the sublime virtue of poverty. Gradually he got tangled up in the web of Vatican Catholicism, that he had wanted to stay out of. But then again, there is a new pope named Francis who delivers some kind of common sense and hope through the catholic community. He’s popular in Assisi. There are plenty of statues available from this new pope. Not as many though as from St. Francis. ‘Haven’t seen a good one yet’, Julie said after a few hours glimpsing into souvenir stores. We’ll find one though. Probably as a dear Christmas tree ornament.