Jews Saved in Assissi in WW2 and Catholic Resistance To euthanasia

When I went to Umbria, the part of Italy associated with Francis of Assisi, I could see interesting stories about Francis of Assisi everywhere. We saw paintings, murals, stained glass windows. statues of Francis with birds. And the stone bed where he slept. 

This was all in a trip around Perugia, the capital of Umbria, to show us the less well known parts of Umbria.

Assisi was already well known, with its giant basilica.

Basilica of St Francis of Assisi in Assisi. Wiki.

Yes Umbria has a few surprises. Perugia, the capital, at least the capital for students learning the Italian language at the university, is a classic hilltop city. The cathedral is at the top. Seen from afar.

but come closer. Enter the city.

Etruscan Entrance

Even more striking and unusual is the giant Etruscan gateway, the entrance to the city, built into the sheer cliffside. 

You can see how large it is compared to the people. The angle of this photo shows the sky above. However, when you are near it, you can see the sheer cliff face behind it on the left.

Underground City

Plus the underground tunnels of the old underground Etruscan city, now an underground market place.

 There the delights of modern Italy cannot erase the awe you feel at going underground to the hidden city of people who lived so long ago that we have only little statues to tell us who they were and what they did. 

(Along came the Romans. As we all know, the Romans were the winners, with straight roads, efficiency and ruthlessness later associated with Germans.) The association of Rome with Romance came later.

Meanwhile, what of the kindly caring ascetic Francis who talked to the birds and lived simply and founded the order of Franciscans, Yes, it is easy to find plenty online and in person about St Francis the birthplace and burial place of St Francis of Assisi in the main centre of Assisi.

What I didn't know was the Assisi's secret stories, that Assisi also had a Jewish connection in WWII. Hiding Jews in far off monasteries and convents to save them.

Useful website
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisi_Network
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_resistance_to_Nazi_Germany
http://www.visit-assisi.it/en/
umbriatourism.it
http://www.montesubasio.it/en/assisi-christmas-nativity/
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

Author
Angela Lansbury, Travel Writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please save and share links to your favourite posts.
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL
In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Chocolate festivals, museums, shops, cake and online kits

Chocolate Brands You Can Buy and Try Worldwide
I have been researching chocolae for days. The famous names in chocolate have spread worldwide. I recently gave a speech about chocolate to two toastmasters clubs in Singapore. The first time I visited Eminent at Dell business, an inhouse club, whose members travel a lot.

I had looked around Valu$, the cheapest shop for chocolate in Singapore, just near Changi airport, and near Dell's office. In Valu$ I saw several of my favourite brands. I wanted to pass around some chocolate. I was worried that I would not have enough chocolate and had a secodn bar ready. However, when I passed around a bar which could be broken into small pieces, it was sufficient for under 20 people. I think one or two people did not eat sweet items. Dieting, diabetics, whatever.

Next I gave a similar talk at Braddell Heights Advanced speakers' club, whose members knew a lot about chocolate.  When I asked, "Does anybody have a favourite brand?", one woman immediately called, "Godiva!" Two of the men shouted agreement.

Singapore is a hot country. But chocolate is still popular and the European and American brands are known..

 I checked the various brands countries of origina and made a list:

BELGIUM

•Godiva, Brussels, Belgium.

•ENGLAND

•Cadbury World, Birmingham, England, UK.

•https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk

•FRANCE

•Contact details:

•Le Salon du Chocolat
70 Rue de la Tour, 75116 Paris, France
Phone: +33 1 45032126
Fax: +33 1 45034004

•Contact Email:

•contact@salonduchocolat.fr

•Le Salon du Chocolat website

•

ITALY

•18-27 October 2019 Eurochocolate Festival in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. The opening weekend starts with a giant sculpture of chocolate. Entry is free for the public. Expect lots of temptations! The local chocolate is Baci, containing a nut.

SINGAPORE
I enjoyed a great chocolate brownie containing nuts with creamy chocolate topping in the Sheraton Towers hotel. It was served at the Toastmasters International club TMCS, which meets the first three Mondays of every month, except sometimes dates very due to public holidays. Arrive at 6 pm for the pre-meeting buffet, 20 SGD (Singapore dollars) a rotating menu and one of the three meetings will have cake.

If you must eat chocolate, now. Try one of the chocolate shops for a variety of cakes containing chocolate.

Singapore Chocolate Shops
Awfully Chocolate - several branches including.
At Tampines, near Changi Airport

Awfaully Chocolate. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

In Europe I immediately think of Alprose. We went there from lake-side Lugarno on a train which has a face on the front.

•SWITZERLAND

•Alprose, Switzerland.

Alprose Chocolate museum in Switzerland

They have a giant shop. Even if you visit at the weekend when the factory is not working, the static machines with long conveyor belts are impressive.

RUSSIA
Chocomuseum

Statue of the chocolate fairy outside the museum in Russia.

USA
I stopped at a chocolate shop in New York. It was not a museum, but so many types of chocolate, it was like a museum.

•Photo from Wikipedia of the Hershey Museum, Pennsylvania.

•The Hershey Story. The Museum on Chocolate Avenue.

•63 West Chocolate Avenue.

•http://www.fieldmuseum.org/

•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chocolate_museums

CHOCOLATE TREATS
What if you can't wait for your next trip and want to order chocolate now? You can order a chocolate kit online, or organize an evening to try chocolates at a shop in London (several do this - just check the notice boards in chocolate shops or ask the staff.)
Or organize a chocolate  making party. 

China Mug Resembling Chocolate

•https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chocolate-Chunk-Cadburys-Styled-Coffee/

•UK chocolate egg by choc on Choc and lollipop kits from 12 pounds from yuumbles.com free delivery

•Chocolate layer cake. Chocolate cakes in a mug.

•https://www.yumbles.com/artisan/chocolate%20makin

•USA DIY ChocolateHouse

•https://www.amazon.com/Hersheys-Chocolate-Cookie-House-Kit/dp/B01MFC75ZI?th=1

•https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-DIY-Christmas-Cake-House-Fondant-Chocolate-Mould-Xmas-Cake-Cutter-Mold-Decor/

•

•Silicone Mini Chocolate Spoons Mould £3.99 from Lakeland.co.uk

•Alphabet letters Silicone Chocolate Mould from Lakeland  £2.99

•USA

•Edible Bra

•https://www.ebay.com/itm/Edible-Bra-Chocolate-1-Adjustable-Bra-Playful-Romantic-Lingerie-Gift/323774

Kits
Hobbycraft UK posts worldwide.

Also consider

Chocolate parties.

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
Useful Websites
umbriatourism.it
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts including Chocolate cake at Sheraton Towers Hotel Toastmasters International buffet. Please share links to your favourite posts.

The Leaning Tower, Italy, Assissi and Perugia

Flag of Italy

I heard that they are trying to set the  leaning tower of Pisa upright. Tourist love to be photographed leaning as if holding it up. They also climb it for a view.

 Any suggestions for the revised name? The non-leaning Tower of Pisa? The Upright Tower of Pisa. The pushed up tower of Pisa.

I put out a request for new names on Facebook. My friend Maggie from Writers Summer School suggested Realigned. That inspired my new thoughts, remodeled, recycled, reinvented, upright, uptight. .

 Perhaps a children's story? The Tower of Pisa, the Princes and the Pea. 

I heard it cost a lot of money to right it. The Loaning Tower of Pisa. 

The No Longer Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Not Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Slightly Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Ex Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Righted Tower of Pisa. 

Maybe somebody else can build a leaning tower. Enter at your own risk. The leaning tower near Pisa.

 Why not just add retaining ramps like flying buttresses. The leaning tower of Pisa Cathedral. 

Or build a second tower leaning towards it with a cross beam, like the Malaysian twin towers. 



Flag of Singapore

Or add two more towers, the central one upright, creating a hotel and shopping complex with an infinity pool on top, like Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.

I can see somebody saying, you should get out more. I can imagine somebody else saying, you should stay in more.

For those of us who have already seen Pisa and Florence and the beaches of Viareggio, what next?

St Francis St Francis The patron saint of Italy is St Francis. You can see many frescoes and sites associated with him in Assissi and elsewhere in Umbria. 

Umbria and Perugia
See my other posts on Umbria. Make sure you see the capital city of Perugia, with is massive Etruscan gate set into the cliffside. 



Etruscan gateway into Perugia, capital city of Umbria in Italy.Photo from Wikipedia.

Walk uphill on the cobblestones to the piazza with the fountain and cathedral at the top. 

So many cities on the hilltops in Umbria. Your tour bus drops you at the car park or by the roadside and off you go uphill through the steep quiet old streets to a cafe or restaurant at the top, or a church or museum with murals of St Francis. You feel like a character in one of those medieval paintings. 

Agritourisme
If you really want to go back to nature or back in time you can stay on a farm. Or in a restored medieval castle, or take the trail across the countryside from one St Francis site to the next. I went by minibus, back to a lovely castle hotel.

You can have a homestay in a guest house painted like  cathedral, marry in a teeny chapel in the building before flopping into bed in the room next door.

If you would rather pay more and see the place in style, you will find a wonderful spa hotel where you can sit chatting to old and newfriends in the water by while being massaged by the jets, and the sky darkening to stars overhead. As the sky turns from sun to stars and when it turns from warm to cool, retired to the indoor pool or a leisurely restaurant.

Umbria is the twin sister of Tuscany, and many tourists like to see both in one trip. Umbria also had a chocolate festival which is bound to feature the Perugian chocolate with silver foil wrapper, Perugian kisses.

The other local Umbrian speciality sweetmeat is truffles, savoury truffles, which can be flavouring for anything from an egg starter to a meat main course, or a truffle flavour chocolate to go with your coffee.

Dates for your diary:
I like summer in Italy, but you might like autumn or winter. If so:
October chocolate festival in Perugia
December in Assissi. (Away in a manger!)

Ciao!

To mug up on italian:
duolingo.com

Useful Websites
umbriatourism.it
http://www.montesubasio.it/en/assisi-christmas-nativity/
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

Author
Angela Lansbury, Travel Writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please save and share links to your favourite posts.

Starbucks In Singapore, Malaysia, England and the USA, Chocolate and opening times

Starbucks in Singapore
Starbucks branches are all over Singapore. Many in shopping malls. So popular it is hard to get a seat at Starbucks in Clementi indoor shopping mall.

Our friendly motorcyclist family member in Malaysia came back with a box of chocolates bought in Starbucks. Dark chocolate, to go with coffee at home.

Starbucks in Malaysia
The Muslim ethnic Malays don't drink they are mostly looking for halal food with a Malay twist so you will find them in the markets and good value ethnic eating places. They are drinking kopi (coffee) out of a plastic bag sweetened with condensed milk.

The Starbucks branches my family found were inhabited more by ethnic Chinese Malaysian nationality graduates and students with laptops doing their homework or thesis. They presumably have more time and money and are more interested in Western food and drink.

A branch outside Ipoh on the road going East is a huge area, easy to find seating. Another plus point, open late, around midnight. Use your phone and Google maps to find coffee places in the area you are travelling through.

Starbucks in England
In London the Starbucks outlets like many other coffee bars are open for the lunchtime office trade. If you want a coffee in the evening you have to go to a pub or an Italian ice cream parlour and order a coffee with ice cream called affogato.

Starbucks in the USA
This is where Starbucks started. Over on the west coast. Read about it in Wikipedia. The Starbuck chocolate is their own label.

Websites
starbucks.com.sg

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on chocolate all over the world, London's chocolate shops, evenings, classes and events, more in York. Also Perugia, Italy. And France.
See my other posts on Starbucks, and chocolate.

See Seaside Tuscany (Rossi's Area of Italy) and Adjacent Inland Umbria

Tuscany
Tuscany, which many tourits visit in June to see Rossi racing in the MotoGP, is on the west coast of Italy. Tuscany is a favourite area to visit for British and other holidaymakers. You can have culture, art and architecture, in the medieval cities such as Florence, or laze on the sandy beach at Viareggio.

Some tourists like to combine a trip to Tuscany exploring further around Italy with a tour taking in neighbouring inland Umbria. This is what members of my family did previously.

Tuscany's Must See sights
I had been to Tuscany several times without even registering it as Tuscany. I knew the landmarks which I visited as a teenager with my parents when you could put your car on a plane and fly to Europe. We went to see the landmark Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Then Florence and its Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), a medieval bridge filled with shops across the river Arno.

Florence:
Bridge Ponte Vecchio;
Ufizzi Gallery.
Pisa: leaning tower.

Umbria's Must-See sights
Assissi, two grand buildings connected with St Francis of Assisi. Numerous churches and museums with frescoes of St Francis. Museums of wine and olives.

Perugia, the capital of Umbria, with its massive Etruscan gateway built against the looming cliffside, with cobbled paths leading up to the main fountain square and medieval buildings. (See my previous posts on Umbria.)

Massive Etruscan gateway to Perugia, hillside capital of landlocked Umbria, Italy. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Perugia, underground city.

Italian Spelling and Pronunciation
Note that in Italian a soft c (like the s sound in Venice, with a z becoming ts as in Venezia, and Ufizzi, and instead of K for hard sounds like the English word kick, a double c followed by h, as in Pinocchio and Vecchio). In English we place an e after the hard g to make a J sound, as in garage, but in Italian you double the g, as in Viareggio.

Useful Websites
Umbria
www.umbria.it

Italy
www.italiantouristboard.co.uk

Tripadvisor
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187893-s301/Tuscany:Italy:Arriving.And.Departing.html

Wikitravel
https://wikitravel.org/en/Tuscany

Wikivoyage
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tuscany

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

Your Quick Links To Fun & Useful Posts On Italy and Italian Restaurants and Valentine's Day

ITALY and ITALIAN!
Buongiorno! Good morning.

Useful Websites (alphabetically

FOOD & DRINK
Prosecco, Italian Restaurants, Truffles, Wine

LANGUAGES 

http://duolingo.com
http://www.dummies.com/languages/italian/italian-greetings-and-good-byes/

earwormslearning.com

https://translate.google.com/ (Useful for translating into English.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

LEARNING ITALIAN LANGUAGE

https://wikitravel.org/en/Italian_phrasebook (pronunciation)

Map of Italy from Wikitravel.

IN ITALY
Assisi, Florence, Perugia, Rome; Terni; Verona; Umbria; Sicily; Valentine's Day.
See also photography by Trevor Sharot and website Grapedeal.

Etruscan gate, Perugia, Italy.

The Etruscans.

St Francis of Assisi, his trail and his followers.

 Valentine's Day

St Valentine (one of many Italian heroes called Valentine, meaning victory) from his skull.

His skull in Rome.

 His remains in Terni, Umbria, Italy, where he was the bishop.

St Valentine honoured in Ireland.

ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN ENGLAND
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/valentines-day-dinner.html
Other posts on
Dona Teresa,  Hatch End
Fellini (now Porta Grande), Hatch End
Osteria Modigliani, Pinner
Porta Grande, Hatch End.

My most popular post, about Osteria Modigliani.

Chef at Osteria Modigliani in Pinner, Middx (NW London, England).

Osteria Modigliani with Modigliani paintings.

Valentine's Day menu.

MORE BY TRAVEL WRITER & PHOTOGRAPHER ANGELA LANSBURY
See my other travel blog:
http://www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

MORE ABOUT ANGELA LANSBURY & TOASTMASTERS International

See Braddell Heights Advanced Speakers Club, Singapore. See Harrovians, London, England. See HOD, London, England. 

Angela Lansbury and book Who Said What When.

MORE ABOUT ANGELA LANSBURY, AND HER BOOKS
See Amazon, Lulu, Wordpress.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English, learner of 12 other languages.
Not related to the actress Angela Lansbury who also has a son named Anthony, nor to 12 other people on LinkedIn with the same name.
Please like, follow and share links to my posts.

USEFUL LINKS
ST AUGUSTINE IN ITALY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terni
https://wikitravel.org/en/Terni
http://www.turismo.comune.terni.it/en
https://www.umbriatourism.it

https://www.baciperugina.com/uk/en/about-us

ST AUGUSTINE WORLDWIDE

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Altars_of_Saint_Valentine
http://www.stvalentinesday.org/valentines-day-in-us.html
http://www.stvalentinesday.org/valentines-day-in-singapore.html
visitusa.org.uk
visit-usa.com (Links to tourist boards in each state.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Saint_Valentine_in_art (Facial reconstruction.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day (Customs and places worldwide.)

UK Restaurants
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/marvellous-meal-at-osteria-modigliani.html

Arrivederci! Goodbye!

What You'll See If You Spend Valentine's Day in Italy, Seeing St Valentine's Relics In Terni, the city of lovers!

Problem
Was St Valentine a real person? If so, where is he buried?

Answer
St Valentine of Terni was a bishop in the 3rd century AD, in Italy. Here's a map of Italy showing Umbria, the heart of Italy.

St Valentine
St Valentine was in Italy, in Terni, which has his relic. What a lovely idea for Valentine's day or any anniversary. A trip to Italy to the city of lovers to see St Valentine.

You can see places associated with two romantic saints. St Francis of Assisi, who preached to people and talked to birds and animals, used to visit Terni to give sermons, on his way from his home in Assisi to Rome in the years 1208-1209.

A third saint is of interest to romantic travellers! In Terni, outside the church of St Christopher, (patron saint of travellers!) St Francis used to stop to preach. The statue of St Francis is outside on a stone column.

Murals about St Francis and his life are on the cloister walls of the Santa Maria Della Grazie church.

Basilica of St Valentine in Terni, City of Lovers, Italy. Photo from Wikitravel.

List of Sights To See In Or Near Terni
1 Basilica di San Valentino.
(Basilica of Saint Valentine.)

2  Marmore Waterfalls. Balcone degli innamorati.
Marmore Waterfall (in Italian Cascata - Italian for cascade, del Marmore, of Marmore) is one of the highest in Europe and your destination is the balcony of lovers. Paths lead you to two areas of the waterfall (heeled shoes not advised, nor ballet pumps) including the balcony behind the falls (like Niagara) where the spray will soak you, so leave a change of clothes in your car.

It is about 8 km (5 miles) outside the city centre. The city of Terni as a 17th cathedral, a 12th century church of St Francis, and several more churches and grand buildings.

Terni - city hall
Photo author Starlight in Wikipedia:

What do these round-topped, tall arches on Terni city hall remind me of? Etruscans in Perugia. (See picture below.)

Archaeological museum, Terni, Umbria, Italy. Photo in Wikipedia is public domain.

Roman reamins are on the outskirts of the city of Terni.

Terni was an important industrial area, once known as the Manchester of Italy. The result of wartime bombing means it is now known for postwar architecture as well as the old sights which attract tourists.

Terni and Umbria Hotels Highly Rated, Look Good, On My Shortlist
Hotels with Swimming pools and Spas
Borgo Brufa Spa Resort
Via del Colle, 38, 06089, Brufa di Torgiano, PG, Italy.
(In Feb 2018 offering one night b and b for 2 persons including spa from £191; about £226 for one night, 2 persons half board.) Modern hotel with indoor-outdoor pool with underwater jets - terrific. I loved it.
Amusing or Amazing
Converted prison in Terni.

Check out Terni on Wikipedia and Wikitravel. Wikitravel is not an extract but entirely different. Another useful source is Tripadvisor.

Also in Umbria visit Perugia, a hilltop city with a huge Etruscan gate against the cliffside.

Impressive Etruscan Gateway to Perugia, capital of Umbria. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Perugia, Italy. Murals are on walls and ceilings all over the Umbrian region in religious buildings, civic buildings and museums, depicting local characters and saints, especially St Francis of Assisi. 

Perugia city in Umbria, Italy: underground city of the Etruscans. Wikipedia.

Side Trips And Two Centre Holidays
If you have lots of time and money, stay in Perugia, go north in Italy to Verona to see Juliet's balcony, and to the West coast in Tuscany to see Florence, or north to Rome.

Where To Marry In Italy?
If you want to get married, or renew your vows, two venues might appeal:
Small - smallest working theatre: Teatro Della Concordia, at Monte Castello di Vibio.
Grand - restored castle, Castello Di Monterone, Perugia.

Perugia, Umbria

Romantic hotels in Umbria include the Castello (castle) di Monterone, Perugia, is on the hilltop outside overlooking the city of Perugia. Perugia is on a series of peaks like many hilltop cities.

Assisi

You can see two major sights connected with St Francis in Assisi, his birthplace and his venerated burial place.

Another two-centre option would be combining a tour of Umbria (including Terni, Perugia, Assisi,  a St Francis trail by car, bike or on foot, and the wine and olive museums in Torgiano) with a tour of Tuscany (Florence for David statue and art gallery, Pisa's tower, Sienna horse race city, Chianti wineries).

UK Italian Restaurant Alternatives
If you have less time and money and are in London, England, can't afford a trip to Italy, London is full of Italian restaurants. Consider Osteria Modigliani in Pinner, Middlesex (see my two posts). Another three in nearby Hatch End include Dona Teresa (see other posts).

Tips
Today I clicked on the En sign next to the alternative IT sign on the Terni Italian language website and realised that 'en' on the end of a website name does not mean encyclopaedia but English!

How To Get There
I flew on Ryanair from Stansted, England, to Perugia International Airport, Umbria (code for airport PEG). You might as well see Perugia before moving on to Terni.

Alternatively, via Rome.

Ideal Accommodation
Luxury Spa Hotel
Burgobrufa Spa Resort

Castle Hotel
Castello de Monterone

B & B Under £100
Palazzo Delle Signorine, Cannara, Province of Perugia, Umbria, Italy.
Originally a palace with antique frescoed ceilings. Tiny exquisite chapel next door to the bedrooms where you could get married or renew your vows. Only two rooms. One of the two rooms overlooks the little square outside. Renovated with up to the minute shower rooms. Closed for low season. Opens March.

Helpful Websites
Great simplified version of the story of St Valentine here:
http://www.deliciousitaly.com/lazio-rome-itineraries/origin-of-saint-valentine-s-day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terni
https://wikitravel.org/en/Terni

http://www.turismo.comune.terni.it/en (Lovely video of the waterfall.)

https://www.umbriatourism.it

Rooms
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g635638-d656395-Reviews-Borgobrufa_SPA_Resort-Torgiano_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html
castellomonterone.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g664988-d2693195-Reviews-or10-Palazzo_delle_Signorine-Cannara_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Etruscans in Paris, Perugia and Rome - and Christmas vie Etruscan Perugia and Francis's Assisi

Rome and Exciting Etruscans
As I said in my previous post, I just discovered that Rome has Etruscan ruins. I'd never understood who the Etruscans were, nor cared about them, until I went to Perugia and saw the giant cliffside gateway which is the entrance to the city.

The gateway looks like tunnelling into the cliffside, but huge! In addition to the impressive gateway, in Perugia there's an atmospheric underground city. The underground tunnels were filled with rubble for many years, only in recent times restored and now you can walk around the area, which has an escalator down to the lower level, and shops in the nooks and crannies, with high arched ceilings overhead.

The Etruscans are the natives who fought the encroaching Romans. Either the Romans were more ruthless or better organized or both. Anyway, modern Rome also has underground catacombs, like Paris, as well as Etruscan remains.

But what did the Etruscans look like? A long time ago I wondered what the Philistines looked like. You read so much about the Philistines in the Bible, called the Old Testament by Christians after they introduced the New Testament. I looked up the Philistines and found that they had receding chins, which would not be considered beautiful today. Ideas of beauty are different in each era and to each group. Titian painted buxom women who were considered cuddly and voluptuous, whilst thin models are favoured on the catwalk in the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Let's go back to the Etruscans. What did they look like?

Etruscan mother and child. From Wikipedia article on the Etruscans.

Etruscan couple. From Wikipedia article on the Etruscans.

If these are typical Etruscans, they had square or oval jaws, heavy faces with large lips, noses and eyes, with large eyebrows, and were well-built or well-fed. I shall look out for the Etruscans in statues and paintings on trips to the Louvre in Paris, to Rome and Perugia. 

In Perugia, one of the guides told me that her ancestors were Etruscan. I thought that was very exciting, as I had assumed the Etruscans had been wiped out massacred by the Romans, completely disappeared with no descendants.

 Alas, she did not look particularly Etruscan, more like typically Italian. She explained that she resembled the other side of her family, the Italian, Roman side. 

The Etruscans were the link between the Greeks and the Romans. The Etruscans gave Rome its name. 

The Etruscan legacy to the Romans, what the Romans kept or copied, included polytheism, slavery, human sacrifice of prisoners of war, reading omens from scarified animals' body parts, and gladiator fights of the captured. (I am beginning to go off the Etruscans. Not that our era with terrorism is going to look much more civilised to people in future eras. Let's just look at the Etruscan art and sculpture.)

Umbria and its Capital City Perugia
Just a reminder about Umbria and one of my favourite cities, Perugia. The links are
 @UmbriaTourism and #loveUmbriastianity to their battles to overcome the Etruscans.

Etruscan gateway in Perugia. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Websites and links:
 @UmbriaTourism and #loveUmbria
See my other travel website:
www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury
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