DOI chapter:
Chap. VIII: Etruria - the Cremera - Veii - Falerium - Mount Soracte - Fescennium - Mevania - Asisium - Lake of Trasimenus - Entrance into the Tuscan Territory - Coxtona - Ancient Etrurians - Arretium - Val d'Arno
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0318
308
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VIII
once ranked among· “ celeberrima nomina hello*.”
A little further, at the foot of the same hill are the
ruins of an amphitheatre, shapeless, and unin-
teresting·.
Asisium, now Assisi, on the side of a hill on
the right, makes a fine appearance, and preserves
it on a nearer approach. It gave birth to St.
Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, is
the metropolis of this order, and owes to it its size,
its splendor, and its fame. The Sagro Convento,
where the body of the saint is said to repose, pre-
sentsian immense front, and is considered as a
very extensive and superb edifice. At the foot of
the hill on the road there is a village or rather
little tow·., called Aladonna degli Angeoli, from
a rustic chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
and the angels, in which St. Francis was accus-
tomed to offer up his devotions, and is supposed
to have received the first call to perfection. This
oratory became afterwards an object of great ve-
neration, and still continues to be resorted to by
pilgrims, especially on the second of August,
when multitudes flock to it from all the neighbor-
ing provinces. In order to satisfy the devotion of
so great a concourse of people, a very spacious
* Silius Italicus, lib. iii.
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. VIII
once ranked among· “ celeberrima nomina hello*.”
A little further, at the foot of the same hill are the
ruins of an amphitheatre, shapeless, and unin-
teresting·.
Asisium, now Assisi, on the side of a hill on
the right, makes a fine appearance, and preserves
it on a nearer approach. It gave birth to St.
Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, is
the metropolis of this order, and owes to it its size,
its splendor, and its fame. The Sagro Convento,
where the body of the saint is said to repose, pre-
sentsian immense front, and is considered as a
very extensive and superb edifice. At the foot of
the hill on the road there is a village or rather
little tow·., called Aladonna degli Angeoli, from
a rustic chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
and the angels, in which St. Francis was accus-
tomed to offer up his devotions, and is supposed
to have received the first call to perfection. This
oratory became afterwards an object of great ve-
neration, and still continues to be resorted to by
pilgrims, especially on the second of August,
when multitudes flock to it from all the neighbor-
ing provinces. In order to satisfy the devotion of
so great a concourse of people, a very spacious
* Silius Italicus, lib. iii.