Assisi Diary - Day 26 - Rivotorto

After breakfast this morning, having heard the day would be sunny, I set off down toward Rivotorto.  Almost at once I felt a cool mist, then a cold wind.  While every day Spring seems to be catching more of a hold, Winter is doing its best to hang on.  In fact, this little seasonal conflict is making for some good hiking weather, if one is willing to risk having a mass of dark clouds creep around Subasio and let loose a torrent.

As I was going along a road behind San Damiano, a man carrying a staff stepped out a short ways in front of me.  He carefully surveyed the road up and down, then suddenly a large flock of sheep appeared behind him.  He and his dog shepherded them quickly across; although, once the first few passed over the others seemed to follow, well, like sheep.  The dog stopped and took an interest in me; however, that was short lived when another dog appeared down the road.

How many sheep?  Feel free to count.

Rivotorto is where Francis and his earliest followers lived for a short while in what is perhaps best described as a “hovel”.  The staple of their diet was wild turnips, as they happily set out to do good deeds in their newfound poverty.

One day this idyllic existence was cut short when a farmer arrived and decided the hovel would serve well as a shelter for his donkey.  As he literally attempted to move it in, Francis, either in charity or in frustration, announced that it was not God’s intention that he serve as an innkeeper for the animal, and from there he and his followers moved on to the Porziuncola.
There’s a large church now where these events took place and, inside, built in and below the rear of the nave, are a couple of stone “hovels” commemorating this special location.  It’s an interesting place to visit, about an hour’s walk down from Assisi.  Here’s how it appears from a distance.

Soon after returning to town I went to a late morning mass in a chapel of the lower church of the Basilica of Saint Francis.  Regardless of whether Spring weather has taken hold, since Easter the numbers of visitors to Assisi seems to keep growing and growing, especially on the main road connecting the Basilicas of Saints Francis and Clare, and within the passageways of those sacred places.

Ciao.