See the Basilica of St. Francis from the Rocca Maggiore tower, high above Assisi
The Basilica of St. Francis is not the only thing to see in Assisi: high above the town is the mighty castle of Rocca Maggiore, a medieval fortress that was built almost a thousand years ago, and from its Eastern Tower, Tony Page shows you a 360° panoramic view of Assisi and the surrounding landscape of Umbria, Italy.
“Well there’s the road down that I’ve just come up and here is the castle, Rocca Maggiore, and there’s the entrance – you can see, just there. You can also go up onto a plain over there. And the next shot you’ll see is us on the top of the tower!
On Top Of The Tower
“Well, here we are on top of the tower on one side of the fortress of Rocca Maggiore above Assisi and you’re looking at what appears to be the cemetery of the Basilica. Anyway, I’m on top of this tower and I’m going to walk around, giving the view that we see. This is away from Assisi. And here we are, and you can see the tower – that (passageway) is actually what we walk along as we come in.
“Now let’s zoom in a bit here so that you can actually see the passageway. As you can see, it’s covered, quite narrow, just wide enough to squeeze by another person. The first bit is open, we came in there.
Not For The Claustrophobic!
“The main part of the fortress is here, the Keep. You can walk up this tower, which we did, and if you look at the top there, that’s the other place that you can get to by these tiny spiral staircases. It’s quite interesting. They warn you not to come to this other part of the tower if you are claustrophobic. Well, I can see that because it is quite narrow. It reminds me a bit of the Pont du Gard viaduct in France, if you have ever walked across there in that little tunnel.
“So, here we are again – I’ll zoom out. There’s a large plain here. If you don’t want to pay five euro to walk up the castle you can walk across this plain – which is rather exposed – and get just as good views really of Assisi.
The Basilica Is Really A Complex
“Now that’s part of Assisi. A lot of it is hidden below the actual hill. So you’re looking over the edge of the hill and Assisi’s down there hidden, and as we move around you can see the Basilica as it comes into view. It’s really a complex. And there we are, as you can see Helen’s just looking at it there.
“You can see the people here – I’ll zoom in – streaming out of the actual Basilica. We’ve actually been there before, but as you can see, there they are, going in and out. The place itself is really huge as you will note when we get down there. It really stretches all the way that you can see. Anyway, that’s enough of that and with everybody else we’re going to wend our way down again.”
You can see more sights of Assisi at Travelsignposts Assisi Town and Basilica and the Rocca Maggiore albums Here.
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