by: Bret Lott

Creative Writing Professor Bret Lott is leading the summer, 2017, study abroad program in Spoleto, Italy.

Cari Amici:

You might as well grab a cappuccino and settle in for this one. What a day.

For the second year, we took a tour of Assisi with our tireless guide Cristiana, shown here at the Piazza Santa Chiara, one of the squares in the town that looks out over the Umbrian Valley. Cristiana has proven integral to our appreciation of the entire Umbrian culture, giving us a clearer understanding and appreciation of this quieter but just as lovely sister to Tuscany. We visited the crypt of both Santa Chiara and Santo Francisco, got to view the world-changing frescoes of Giotto in the upper basilica and the stars in the night sky of the vaulted ceilings in the lower basilica. And then, as if all this weren’t enough, Cristiana walked us up to the top of the mountain, and to the highest villa in Assisi—which just happens to be owned by her auntie and uncle.

The villa, built in the 1920s on the site of Roman ruins, was owned by Lady Berkeley, also known as Mary Lowell of the Boston Lowells, who was the wife of Lord Berkeley—you’ve heard of Berkeley Square in London? Yeah, that Berkeley. Cristiana’s unbelievably hospitable uncle and his daughter played host to us all, gave a tour of the extraordinary residence (with a library larger than any I’ve ever seen in a private home), and then helped set up a lunch of porchetta and drinks on the lawn behind the villa, where the garden wall overlooked the valley to the north of Assisi. After lunch, the students arrayed themselves around the yard, and wrote. And how could they not, given the view, and the hospitality, and the food, and this day?

While the students wrote, Cristiana told Malinda and Tony and Melanie and me the story of how her auntie and uncle entertained Prince Charles here at the villa on a visit to Assisi back in the late 1980s, and how her auntie didn’t like him much. Suitably inspired by the view, he set up his easel and spent the afternoon painting. But then he spied a particularly fine lemon tree in a huge ceramic pot out here in the back yard, and noted to her auntie how much he liked it, a gesture which, as everyone with any culture knows, means you have to give the thing to the future King of England. Though she loved the tree, she was a very cultured person.

Then she told us the story of how, back in the 1950s when Lady Berkeley owned the villa, none other than a young JFK visited (the Boston Lowell connection, of course). One hot afternoon, he swam in the pool, and then was called to lunch, where he showed up with no shirt on. Lady Berkeley yelled at him to leave the table at once—did he have no manners, did he have no sense of propriety?—and dismissed him until he returned properly attired.

That swimming pool, there? This one? I asked, suddenly in awe of the empty pool right here next to us, not yet ready for summer.

Yes, Cristiana said, that one. She loved that story, not so much for the fact this was the pool where the future President swam, but for the image of Lady Berkeley chewing out the young senator from Massachusetts for his bad manners.

What a day. And thank you, Cristiana, for making this all possible.

Ciao—ancora domani!

On tour with Cristiana Bradley of Love Umbria.

The villa at the top of Assisi.

Yep. That swimming pool there, the one with students around it, writing.

The group, with Cristiana’s uncle and cousin.