Hi, I’m Gianluca.
I studied cultural anthropology, and I’ve always been fascinated by the different ways people live, move, and experience a place.
Rome is not only my city – it’s the environment I love observing, understanding, and sharing through these small stories.
Together with my wife Connie, we host travellers in our small hotel near the Vatican, where we enjoy meeting people from all over the world and exchanging perspectives – just as I do here in the blog.
If you ever feel like saying hello while exploring Rome, you’ll find us on our terrace as well, where every morning we serve breakfast with a view.
Gianluca
Some journeys are not about distance, but about entering a different atmosphere.
We left Rome early, at 7:00, while the city was still quiet, and reached Assisi just after 9:00. Even before arriving, the landscape begins to change – softer, more enclosed, almost preparing you for a different kind of day.
Santa Maria degli Angeli
Where everything begins. Our first stop was the great basilica of Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Inside, almost unexpectedly, stands something much smaller: the Porziuncola. This small chapel is one of the most important places in the life of San Francesco d’Assisi. It is here that he understood his calling, here that he gathered his first companions, and here that the Franciscan movement truly began.
Everything about it is simple — and that simplicity is the point.
Assisi
Walking through a living place
We then moved up to the historic centre of Assisi. It is not a city that reveals itself all at once. You walk, slowly, through stone streets, and at some point you realise that the place still carries something of the life it once shaped.
The Basilica of Saint Francis
A place of two levels – and two languages. We visited the Basilica di San Francesco d’Assisi, which is built on two levels.
The lower basilica is darker, more intimate. Here lies the tomb of Saint Francis — a place of silence, where people don’t stay long, but don’t rush either.
The upper basilica is the opposite: light, open, almost suspended.
Its walls are covered with frescoes traditionally attributed to Giotto di Bondone and his workshop, telling the life of Saint Francis in a sequence of images. Not as decoration, but as a way to make his story visible and understandable to everyone.
San Damiano: The voice
After a simple break, we reached Chiesa di San Damiano. This is where, according to tradition, Saint Francis heard the voice that changed his life: “Go and repair my house.” At first, he understood it literally. Only later did its deeper meaning become clear.
It is also the place where Santa Chiara d’Assisi lived with her community. Again, a place defined by simplicity rather than monumentality.
The Hermitage
Solitude. From there, we climbed — unexpectedly, through snow — to the Eremo delle Carceri. Even on a late March day, the mountain above Assisi can still feel like winter. This is where Saint Francis withdrew to pray. Not to escape the world, but to step back from it.
The place is quiet, surrounded by woods, and still carries that sense of distance.
Back to Rome
We left Assisi in the early afternoon and were back in Rome by 16:00. A short day, in terms of distance. But not in terms of experience. A different kind of journey
This is not a tour of Assisi. It is a way of moving through places connected to a life – and letting that life give meaning to what you see.
