Today we go home and this morning we have a bit of a filler with no relationship to Romans at all before we leave for the airport.
All week we have heard the clock bells from the Benedictine Abbey in the village. They
start at 6 am, chime every 15 minutes and seem to carry on until 11 pm. They are loud (but rather nice). This year is the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the monastery by Alferius of Pappacarbona (aka St Alferius).
We were told that now there are only 12 monks living in the large monastery at the
rear of the church.
We are going on a guided tour of the Church, the cave where Alferius lived (now under the church) and also we are going to see a few items in the museum. No photographs are allowed in the
museum where there is quite a nice majolica ware floor or the museum where there are some ancient vellum parchments.
The church is decorated in a very ornate
baroque style with every square millimetre of floor, wall and ceiling space covered.
Even the ceilings are works of art
and perhaps the only section that was not decorated was the walls of one of the caves Alferius lived in (he also seemed to have lived in a number of caves below this one in the crypt of the church).
It is very ornate and not to everyone’s taste. If you want to see more you will have to go there.
The trip back was easy apart from the plane being late. Other than being exhausted, we had a great time, learnt a lot and enjoyed being with our new friends.
Andante were very good, as was our guide, tour manager and coach driver. Where to next with Andante we wonder – we will have to try to fit something in during 2013 because 2012 is already full.
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