Assisi Diary - Day 31 - Flags and a Facade

Finally back in the apartment, home for the next couple of weeks. 

Family flags have begun to appear around town, perhaps in anticipation of Calendimaggio, when the upper and lower parts of town will meet in friendly competitions, a holdover from centuries past when the competitions weren't so friendly.

Much of Assisi will don period costumes, and drums and floats and crossbows will be in evidence, with parades and festivities.

I've read someplace that, while people in the U.S. identify closely with being Americans, Italians identify most strongly with extended family, then with home town, and relatively less strongly with their nation.  Such a theory is not to be tested during World Cup soccer competitions.

Took some pictures of the facade of San Rufino today.  The first church at this location was built early in the 5th Century.  The current church, or rather cathedral, is 13th Century.  The facade is amazingly and intricately detailed.  Here are a few examples, with notes from Guide to Assisi History and Art, the first being the largest portal, "illustrated with a series of allegorical figures referring to the Apocalypse."

Next is from below the portal on the right, where "in the architrave are the Symbols of the Evangelists shown next to the Mystical Lamb and in the lunette are two peacocks drinking from a vase."

I don't know the age of these doors; however, just inside them is the font where Saint Francis, Saint Clare and probably Frederick II were baptized.

Ciao.