OUR TRIP TO ITALY APRIL 2007 - ASSISI

The next day we were again on the move now to the middle part of Italy where we will go to two Medieval cities ASSISI and SIENA both of which are World Heritage Sites under the UNESCO proctection and funding. It was a long journey with breaks along the way. OM the way we saw many olive and grapes farms.
Assisi is a town in Italy in province of Perugia, Italy, in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Mt. Subasio. It is the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208, and St. Clare , the founder of the Poor Clares. Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows of the 19th century was also born in Assisi.
Now the site of many a pilgrimage, Assisi is linked in legend with its native son, St. Francis. The gentle saint founded the Franciscan order and shares honors with St. Catherine of Siena as the patron saint of Italy. He was a son of a rich man who disowned him in front of all the town's people for joining the Catholic priesthood. He is remembered by many, even non-Christians, as a lover of nature (his preaching to an audience of birds is one of the legends of his life). He is the patron saint of all Animals.
The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (St. Francis) is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed 1253. The lower church has frescos by renowned late-medieval artists Cimabue and Giotto; in the Upper church are frescos of scenes in the life of St Francis by Giotto and his circle.
On September 26, 1997 Assisi was struck by an earthquake. The Basilica was badly damaged (part of the vault collapsed, killing four people inside the church and carrying with it a fresco by Cimabue), and was closed for two years for restoration.
Santa Maria Maggiore, (St. Mary the Greater) the was the earliest extant church.
The Cathedral of San Rufino (St. Rufinus), with a Romanesque façade with three rose windows and a 16th-century interior; part of it is built on a Roman cistern.
Basilica of Santa Chiara (St Clare) with its massive lateral buttresses, rose window, and simple Gothic interior, begun in 1257, contains the tomb of the saint and 13th-century frescoes and paintings.

Besides the main Basilica of St Franscis was a small town with many shops selling souveniers to tourists and pilgrims. There was a place for taking taxis and buses. There were many roads and alleys to be explore in the town.

Welcome to our Tour Of Italy April 2007- Vatican Museums

Vatican Museums is one of the most important Museum in the world housing very important masterpieces from Egyptian Age to late Renaissance.

The museums are composed of several sections:
The Gregorian Etruscan Museum
was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1837 and mostly contains objects that starting from 1828 were found in the excavations of the ancient cities of southern Etruria , then part of the Pontifical State.

The Pinacoteca
was inaugurated on 27 October 1932 in the building especially constructed by the architect Luca Beltrami for Pope Pius XI.

The Missionary-Ethnological Museum
was founded on November 12, 1926 by Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) . It was established in the Lateran Apostolic Palace up to 1963, when the Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) had it transferred to the Vatican. It was opened to the public in 1973.

The Raphael Stanze
("Raphael's rooms") in the Palace of the Vatican form a suite of reception rooms, the public part of the papal apartments. They are famous for their frescos painted by Raphael and his workshop.

The Sistine Chapel
is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in the Vatican City. Its fame rests on its architecture, which evokes Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament, its decoration, frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists, including Michaelangelo whose ceiling is legendary, and its purpose, as a site of papal religious and functionary activity, notably the conclave at which a new Pope is selected.

Finally after a half hour queue, we entered the entrance of the Vatican Museums. We passed through the large crowd, entered the Gregorian Museum, then the Raphael Stanze and up to the Sistine chapel. The sculptures and painting were incredible particularly those by Raphael and Michaelangelo. Walls and ceiling were filled with frescoes such as the Creation of Life and the Last Judgment. Words cannot describe the beauty of the Renaissance Arts. Only photos taken were able to capture a small percentage of what we saw with our naked eyes.