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 Assisi
should be a perfect Umbrian hill town. It's a tiered, overgrown
village of pink and pale-gray stone drawn out along a mountainside
and surrounded by a valley patchwork of fields and olive groves. It
boasts Roman roots, a glowering castle and twisting alleyways from
the Middle Ages, and some of Italy's finest early Renaissance art --
all backed by the brilliant green slope of sacred Mt. Subasio. But
this city with a population of less than 3,000 (and shrinking) saw,
at the end of the 20th century, an average of 4 to 5 million
visitors every year. This constant flood of travelers has polished
the usual hill-town charm right off Assisi. Countless pilgrims, art
lovers, and just plain curious travelers over the last 700 years
have imparted to the town a thick tourist shellac it often can't
quite shake even in its quietest, least visited corners. It's no
accident the University of Perugia's "tourism studies" program is
based here.
All this aside, Assisi is still one of Italy's top sights, ranking
with the Colosseum, Pompeii, and Venice's canals. It preserves the
remarkably intact portico of a Roman temple on its main square, one
of the better-preserved Albornoz Roccas with sweeping views, and a
two-story basilica hulking at one end of town that's a festival of
frescoes. The basilica showcases the talents of the greatest
geniuses of the early Renaissance, both Sienese (Pietro Lorenzetti
and Simone Martini) and Florentine (Cimabue and the incomparable
Giotto).
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