Madonna dei Tre Fossi and Santa Maria di Lignano

Took a long walk yesterday to continue exploring some of the more remote parts of Monte Subasio Park. Started early and was passing through Costa di Trex around sunrise. Chose a steep country road in the direction of Piano della Pieve, again amused by a warning sign.

Not hard to visualize what can go wrong here. The road itself was partially paved, the remains of once being fully paved. However, in that there were almost no vehicles, it wasn't bad for walking. And the morning views of Costa di Trex were quite nice.

Near the bottom the road wound through a few farms and had a nice tree cover.

After passing through Piano della Pieve, took another country road that started to climb, offering good views behind of Monte Subasio.

Continuing uphill on another road, I eventually came to the small church of the Madonna dei Tre Fossi.

Apparently its full name is the Santuario Madonna della Speranza ai Tre Fossi, or the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Hope at the Three Ditches. (I would assume that, just as "alley" in Italian can mean a beautiful walkway, "ditches" likely connotes the positive presence of three water ways.)

The church has been around since at least the Thirteenth Century and, though renovated in part, has kept its Romanesque style. The apse may be the original.

The church was damaged in the 1997 earthquake, but has since been repaired. Unfortunately, it was closed this day, so I had to settle for the exterior views and the nice rural setting.

Here's a closer view of the bells.

From there I started up dirt roads in the direction of Santa Maria di Lignano.



 

While steep at times, the roads offered fine views of where I had been, extending all the way back to Subasio.

After having some difficulty finding the right roads (even the wrong ones are interesting), Santa Maria di Lignano came into view, recognizable by its church.

Here's a front view.

A lady who had been cleaning outside approached to ask where I was from, and seemed pleased that someone would come to visit their church. Her name was "Benedetta Maria", a nice Italian Benedictine name (the Benedictines have been around here far longer than the Franciscans). This time I was able to go inside.

The roads back to Assisi would be more downhill than up (although plenty of both). Before long Assisi was almost in view. It rests just through the notch in the center-right part of the picture where Subasio descends.

Finally, passing through the town of Ponte Grande (which means "Big Bridge"), I kept an eye open for the bridge, built in 1469, after which the town evidently is named. It was while passing over a modern bridge that I glanced over and saw, almost entirely overgrown, the possible remains of the original ponte.

A good day and a good hike. Ciao.