deruta and assisi were on the schedule for today. we had to wake up at 530 am to be ready to go! ohh my gosh... im tired of waking up so early. but it's worth it in the end. we left at around 630 am and i slept the whole bus ride to deruta. once there, i was expert of the day and gave my little talk on deruta and its pottery. majolica, which is a tin-glazed pottery, is exported worldwide from here. we started out in the town going from shop to shop searching for ceramics! it's amazing all of the different designs there are. some of my favorite are the peacock feathers, and the raphael-like grotesque figures of dragons.
ceramic guitars
it takes 3 months to paint them and they sell for like 3,000 euro
after we went through the shops we headed over to the majolica factory. this factory has been around forever... and it has always been in the same family. they have exported to saks fifth avenue, neiman marcus, and williams-sonoma. now they only do business with williams-sonoma because the owner is good friends with them. they told us that saks and neimans are going out of business. you would have thought they told cydney one of her family members died by her reaction to this news.... they gave us a lot of information and demonstrations though!
you can see the raphael grotesque figures here
i love them
showing us how they make bowls
done
that's the owner on the right
after they finish forming the piece of pottery, they have to let it sit for 15 days, then they trim and shave the excess clay, and then let it sit another 15 days to let all of the water absorb in to the clay. if they fire the pottery any sooner than this, then the pottery could crack.
work room
he made a vase for us!
it seriously took him like 3 minutes
finished!
coco and cydney pretending to pee on the ceramic fire hydrant
old picture!
spraying this glass stuff on the pottery
this is all of the scrap clay that will be processed and reused
ceramic tables
pottery!
there was a design done by and old designer for tiffany's
i liked this one
ba vase
mixing the glaze
glazing
stencil for the painters
painting some majolica
holy crap
beware of the dog. again.
pottery factory
so we were leaving the majolica factory and cinzia was stopped by two men who looked like just regular italians. we were all on the bus by then and obviously confused because we couldn't understand the conversation. i heard cinzia say receipt because i was in the front row, and it immediately clicked that they were looking for us to give them our receipts for our pottery. just so you know, it is illegal in italy to not get a receipt from any purchase. this is because sometimes shop owners will give you discounts and then not pay taxes on the sale. so if you leave a store without a receipt, and are still within 500 m of the shop, you can be approached by the finance police. if you don't have a receipt to prove the purchase, you will be fined 300 euro and the shop owner will be fined 1,500 euro! it's insane. but no one had been given a receipt from the factory, so cinzia had to lie to them and tell them that we only bought pottery in the town. luckily krystle had a receipt (i didn't, along with a lot of people!) and they accepted that. but they knew cinzia was lying... it was a close call.
after our near miss, we left for assisi. which is seriously awesome. it's gorgeous, oh my gosh. not to mention it's home to saint francis of assisi who is now my favorite saint.
coco, becca, cydney, laura beth
escalator to heaven
view from assisi
clooouds
flying buttresses support church of saint clare
saint clare's
im moving here. today.
bbbeeaauutttiiffuuulll
my house
we grabbed lunch right when we got there and then headed to saint francis church where we got a tour from a friar. he's from pennsylvania! he was probably the best tour guide i have ever had. i could have had a tour from him for 6 hours and not be bored. it was just obvious that he was so passionate about saint francis and the church.
church of saint francis of assisi
we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the church so ill just tell you about it. there are 3 levels of the church, the upper, lower, and the crypt. we went in to the lower church first which felt like it had low ceilings, even though they were 30 ft tall, because it was just about as wide as it was tall. so it was more of a intimate church. inside this church there's the altar from the original church in the beginning. after hearing about all of the frescoes on the wall and the different connections, we headed down in to the crypt where we actually saw saint francis' tomb! that was pretty powerful. they saw the coffin is over a 1,000 years old, and saint francis' remains are 800 years old! around the tomb is some iron work keeping you from touching the rock that surrounds the tomb. people have laid pictures of family members inside that have died and who they would like to pray for.
the last part of the church we saw was the upper church. this one is a little over 7 stories tall, and feels like a normal church. but what's so fascinating are the frescoes in here. there are 2 levels of pictures along both walls. the lower level depicts events from the life of saint francis and the upper level shows scenes from the book of genesis. our friar explained all of these connections between the paintings that you would never notice. there was a really complex plan to these paintings which makes the church even cooler.
courtyard at the church
the rosette on the front facade of the church
you can see the angel, lion, eagle, and bull
symbolic of matthew (angel), mark (lion), luke (bull), and john (eagle)
pax is latin for peace
and that's not an arrow (courtney...), it's a tau cross
sun coming out to say hello
so i guess i should now tell you why im obsessed with saint francis of assisi. first off, he is the co-patron saint of italy, along with catherine of siena. that's pretty cool. but he isn't the patron saint of assisi. i always knew who saint francis of assisi was, but i didn't know too much about his life. our friar guide explained a lot to us!
he was born to one of the richest men in assisi and lived his life in luxury for a long time. he was actually known as the "party king" back then and wore very expensive clothing from france. one day this cross (it's still in church of saint clare on the other side of assisi) spoke to him (it was god, duh) and told him to rebuild his church.
so saint francis literally started to rebuild the church in the town. in order to do this, he had to steal money from his father. well, this made his dad really mad, so he dragged him to the bishop of assisi and told him that francis stole from him to build his new church and he wanted his money back. in the middle of the city, in front of everyone, francis gave back all of the money and took all of his clothes off and said that his dad could take it back and that he has a new father now and will do his will. this is compared to jesus sacrificing his life for the will of god, and abraham sacrificing his son (or was going to...) because god asked him to. he was said to be the new abraham in his day because god promised abraham tons of descendants if he killed his son and then he became the father of judaism (thats a of couple descendants right there...). saint francis of assisi sacrificed all of his wealth and now has tens of thousands of followers.
after that he changed his whole life, and devoted himself to the gospels (hence all of the gospel writers iconography everywhere). he wanted to live a life as close to christ's as possible, and he could do this by studying the gospels. this is why there are always depictions of him at the foot of the cross because he was striving to be like christ. and was really serious about it. it's really interesting. he was/is a really big deal. he was loved so much by everyone, and held in such high regards. he worked to help all those around him, and he even believed that the sun, flowers, grass, animals, etc were all creatures like us. therefore, he actually would preach to them. that's why he is also the patron saint of animals (yes, im searching for saint francis of assisi charms to put on lucy and scottie's collars). sold. he's my favorite.
but he founded the franciscan order in 1209 when he went to the pope with his 11 followers and asked for his permission to preach throughout europe. the pope gave him his blessing and so saint francis started his journey. in 1224 he received stigmata on the top of a mountain when a crucified man with 6 wings or something appeared to him. you can usually tell it's saint francis of assisi in pictures because he is portrayed as a friar with the top of his head shaved and he has wounds on his hands, feet, and side. so then he died in 1226 they think from tuberculosis and was canonized in 1228. i think around 3 years after that they started to build the church. i want to say it took them around 15 years to finish, which is fast. so interesting. love it.
st. francis of assisi
biiiirds
francis of assisi loved birds, fyi
cydney and lil coco sleeping
long day
tomorrow we have our apertivo! all of us are making a small appetizer and people from ariccia are invited to come and hang out. hopefully we'll meet some nice italian families! i am really excited.
