Happy Labor Day! May 1 is Italy's annual Labor Day holiday, so the kids were off school. Ann, Jeremy, and I went to Narni yesterday to visit the town during its annual medieval festival.
We drove rather directly, stopping on the way periodically to take pictures of roadside flowers, with the intention of returning via a different route. Narni is a lovely medieval town (after which C.S. Lewis supposedly named Narnia -- I thought he'd visited the town, but it turns out that I misunderstood -- he'd seen the name in an atlas when he was younger & just loved the name; rather prescient as it turns out...look at the pictures and I think you'll get what I mean. The landscape is SO "Narnian"!) set in a beautiful landscape.
We first went into the church of San Francesco, and as we emerged heard a rousing drum beat. Assuming that something very exciting was about to happen, off we set to find out the source! Rounding a corner, we saw these pint-sized little drummers all gussied up. They start 'em young here! They were absolutely precious, so we willingly joined the procession with them!
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| In Narni |
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| Narni's Duomo |
We visited La Rocca, the fortress that dates to the 1300s. Fascinating location (and a delightful walk!). On the way home, we visited several little towns, screeched to a halt to take pics of beautiful flowers, and dodged a 12" lizard crossing the road.
Cheers!
Alexandra
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| Don't you love the streets? |
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| A few people in costumes! |
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| Aren't they adorable? |
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| We were quite taken with the space-saving solution provided by this staircase! |
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| The landscape is so Narnian! |
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| We loved the undulating hills. |
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| A game: you try to hit the nut with a mallet as it rolls across the lower platform! |
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Narni in the distance. The fortress was designed
partly to protect the town,
and partly to remind the townspeople
that, yes, the pope WAS watching. |
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| The frescoed ceiling of the fortress's chapel |
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| In the chapel |
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| Corner detail |
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| Leaving Narni, we saw this on the hill. |
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I couldn't resist a trip to Torregentile ("Kind Tower")...
turned out to be rather an enigma actually --
but the irises against the steps took my fancy. |
Happy Labor Day! May 1 is Italy's annual Labor Day holiday, so the kids were off school. Ann, Jeremy, and I went to Narni yesterday to visit the town during its annual medieval festival.
We drove rather directly, stopping on the way periodically to take pictures of roadside flowers, with the intention of returning via a different route. Narni is a lovely medieval town (after which C.S. Lewis supposedly named Narnia -- I thought he'd visited the town, but it turns out that I misunderstood -- he'd seen the name in an atlas when he was younger & just loved the name; rather prescient as it turns out...look at the pictures and I think you'll get what I mean. The landscape is SO "Narnian"!) set in a beautiful landscape. 
Beautiful pictures of Narnia. Thank you for the tour.
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