On the Road with Francis of Assisi offers a unique and lively travelogue of parallel journeys: that of Francis of Assisi on his way to sainthood in the thirteenth century, and that of author Linda Bird Francke, who followed his path through the beauty of central and coastal Italy–and even on to E...
The basilica’s enormous size and neo-Baroque architecture, with all its attendant swirls and curls (not to mention the recorded organ music broadcast outdoors over loudspeakers), prompts adjectives like “kitsch” or “grotesque.” Even the official Assisi tourist map describes the basilica as “grand...