The Basilica of St Francis is of course the Central place of pilgrimage in Assisi.  We had a wonderful conducted tour on which our guide used a microphone so we could hear his commentary on the earphones provided without distracting other pilgrims.  this is the view of the basilica from the roof of Rocca Magiore, "Rocca" being the Italian word for "Castle" and not "Rock" as is often misunderstood  by English speakers.

The Cathedral of San Ruffino in which we saw the font in which both St Francis and St Clare were baptized.

The botanical "Pax" outside the Basilica.

The Ramblers gather outside the Basilica, with our long serving Treasurer, Gillian, in centre and our then Secretary, Bill, extreme right.

The Ramblers on the road to Rivotorto where St Francis had his first community.

Sculpture at Rivotorto.

St Francis Statue at Rivotorto

The shrine at the hermitage where St Francis and his brothers spent their afternoons in prayer.

The beautiful countryside around the hermitage.

Grecchio, a must see location, where St Francis introduced the crib as an aid to teaching Christian Doctrine.

One of the fascinating collection of cribs from around the world at Grecchio.

We visited the Basilica at Portiuncula, the place where the forty hours devotions and the Portiuncula Indulgence had their origin.

One of our walks led us to Spello, a charming little Italian town not much visited by tourists but for that very reason is a nice destination for a walk in the Italian countryside, and the above photograph was taken on the way back.

Most of our meals were at Hotel Rocca

But one evening we had a communal dinner at Hotel San Ruffino where we were joined by another group of club members who had arranged a separate holiday at the same time as we were in Assisi.

Of course one of the benefits of having our President with us, indeed leading us, for the week was that we had our own celebrant for daily Mass.  The Sunday Mass was celebrated at the above Church of San Ruffino.

After a few glorious days in Assisi we were transported to Pallazzola, a well known retreat house and used as a summer residence by the students at the English college in Rome in fr Peter's time as a student there.

Helen took the two photographs inside the house in Pallazzola

The four photographs above are views of Lake Alba which is overlooked by Pallazzola.  Lake Alba is remembered as having been the venue of the Yachting events in the Olympic Games when they were hosted by Rome in 1960.

Above is a view of Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence across the lake from Pallazzola.

Above is another distant view of Castel Gandolfo, this one taken by Helen from Pallazzola.

And above is the entrance to Castel Gandolfo itself.

The previous three photographs are views from Pallazzola at the time of the lovely Italian summer sunset.

The hillside in front of Pallazzola was suject to extensive wood clearance while we were there.

As the wood was felled it was carried away on the back of this poor mule.

On one of our walks we visited a high level Italian village which boasted ice cream tables overlooking the mountain scenery and here we had an ice cream feast captured in the above two photographs by Helen.

Before leaving the village a few of our members posed in front of the mountain scenery

As depicted in the above three photographs, on our last day in Pallazzola we had a meal in the refectory in which we had eaten all our meals there.  After the meal well deserved praise was heaped on Barbara for her wonderful idea and organisation of the week and Fr Peter for his inspiring leadership of all the walking and spiritual events.

After a great week we packed our bags in Pallazzola and headed to rome for our journey home.

On the way into Rome we saw the above striking ancient Roman building

We paid a flying visit to Rome where we saw St Peters.  I and Helen respectively took the above two photographs of St Peter's Square from the top of the Dome. I got a great thrill taking my photo as it shows the famous columns in St Peter's Square which we saw in publications from early childhood and longed to see it in reality.

The above photograph of the famous pilars in St Peter's Square was taken from the disc in the middle of the square from where the three rows of columns are immediately behind one another and it looks as if there is only one row around the square.

There was this nice view of the decorative Vatican Gardens from the top of the Dome.

Also a good view of the Vatican Radio Building

We had one last photocall outside the Vatican before boarding our coach to the airport and thence to London