From the Path of the Gods to the streets of Assisi, two weeks tracing Italy’s coast and countryside.
Story by Brooks Clark | Photography by Brooks & Karen Clark
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 42, Issue 5 (September/October 2026)
The idea for our Italy trip came with an invitation to a destination wedding on the Amalfi Coast, that picturesque stretch of fishing villages carved into the cliffs stacked high with villas. Six couples went in on a six-bedroom villa built into a seaside cliff in the town of Conca dei Marini (cove of the sailors). We flew to Naples, took a ferry to Amalfi and a taxi up the narrow, winding road to Villa Eris. Guidebooks warn tourists against driving on the Amalfi Coast. “These roads were made for donkeys,” said one of our drivers.
The view from our villa over the Gulf of Salerno never ceased to enchant us in the days before the wedding. We happily descended 150 steps to the pool and another 50 to a seven-rung aluminum ladder into the gentle Tyrrhenian Sea, made wavier by wake from passing yachts.
Our group visited Ravello, known for its lemon trees, colorful pottery, and literary figures like E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, and T.S. Eliot who loved it. We toured Villa Rufolo, a 13th century palace combining influences of Moors, Sicilians and Normans—who had all occupied the region. In 1880, Richard Wagner was inspired by Villa Rufolo’s gardens, views, and Moorish architecture to write his opera “Parsifal.” La Torre Maggiore, a 30-meter Moorish tower from 1334 A.D., has a unique flight of steps said to have inspired M.C. Escher.
We hiked Il Sentiero Degli Dei (The Path of the Gods), a rocky five-mile trail high in the mountains. The views over the cerulean sea made us expect to run into Jupiter or Juno at any moment. Returning to our villa, our van was delayed because Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldana were filming the Netflix series “Positano.”
The wedding was in the open-air ruins of the Basilica di Sant’ Eustachio, built in 1244 A.D. The dancing at the reception rivaled scenes from “Mamma Mia,” especially when the DJ played “Dancing Queen.”
The next day, our group took a boat ride past the picturesque ports like Maiori and Minori and into several grottos, many the legendary lairs of pirates. In one we swam through a cave. We cruised past Li Galli Islands, the home of the Sirens from “The Odyssey,” then around the Isle of Capri. Landing on Capri, we caught a ferry back to Naples, rented a car, and set out for Umbria and Tuscany. We had consulted Rick Steves’ “Italy,” picked four cities, and booked four recommended hotels for two nights each. We also downloaded his walking tours, which enhanced our experience walking the narrow slate and cobblestone streets of Orvieto, Montepulciano, Siena, and Assisi.
The history of each city includes a golden age of commercial and artistic productivity that was slammed by the Black Death in 1347 and 1353, which wiped out 60% of the population and opened the way for the Renaissance and Baroque artistic explosions.
The town of Orvieto is a former Etruscan city perched atop a hardened pile of volcanic rocks and ash. Hotel Duomo was a short walk from the Piazza del Duomo, the town square built around the Duomo di Orvieto, a masterpiece of Italian gothic architecture with pink and green layers of marble and an ornate façade topped with a fresco of Mary being crowned by Jesus. Inside, the nave is lined with marble sculptures of the apostles. The Chapel of San Brizio is decorated with frescos by Renaissance hotshot Luca Signorelli (1450-1523) showing the antichrist sermonizing to the population, then leading some to their damnation while the good folk ascend to heaven.
Montepulciano is another medieval town of Etruscan origin nestled atop a hill. We wended our way up narrow cobblestone streets, past the town square to the Locanda (Inn) di San Francesco, a four-room B&B attached to a restaurant in a palazzo that dates from the 14th century. Its piazza provided lovely views of Tuscan valleys. We walked down a narrow winding road through an old city gate to the Tempio di San Biagio. It was built starting in 1518 atop a previous church and a 14th century fresco “Madonna del Buon Viaggio” (Our Lady of the Good Voyage) whose eyes were seen by two girls and a farmer to repeatedly open and close. That miracle fresco resides above the altar.
Siena was once a stopover for crusaders and pilgrims from Canterbury on their way to the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. At its peak, it was a commercial city that in 1260 defeated Florence in battle for dominance in Tuscany. The Piazza Del Campo is the secular center of the city, adjoining the city hall and a 330-foot tower, built around 1340. The Piazza is so simple in its gently sloping, amphitheater-shaped elegance that for years UT’s School of Architecture used a line-drawing of Il Campo as its logo.
On a Sunday morning in Il Campo, we witnessed a parade of young male drummers in medieval outfits playing an aggressive military tattoo. They were representing the Contrada (district) of Drago (the Dragon), one of Siena’s 17 rival contrade that compete each July and August in horse races around Il Campo.
The Duomo di Siena, with a striped bell tower and an ornate façade similar to that of Orvieto, is a cornucopia of artwork. Between 1501 and 1504 Michelangelo produced sculptures of saints Peter, Augustine, Paul, and Gregory for an altarpiece along the nave. The circular, ornate Chapel of the Vow (or Chigi Chapel) was designed by Bernini. It contains the Madonna of the Vow painted in 1260 by Dietisalvi di Speme in tempera and gold. We took the Porta del Cielo (Gate of Heaven) tour, ascending 79 steps up a narrow circular staircase (not for claustrophobics) to the dome’s cupola and roof.
The Santa Maria della Scala museum opposite the duomo was for centuries a hospital, where St. Catherine tended to the sick. Fifteenth century frescos in the former main hall tell the story. The museum descends several levels to chapels to Mary in low-ceilinged vaults deep in the earth.
Assisi is perched on the slopes of Mount Subasio. On a side street near the top of the city, a 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct, still in use, delivers water from the mountains above to a small fountain. Assisi was a thriving commercial city when a young man named Francisco rejected his family wealth, tossed off his clothes, and dedicated himself to living in chastity, poverty, and obedience, with reverence to animals and nature. In the Duomo Di San Rufino, we saw the chapel and 11th century font where St. Francis was baptized, as was his Sunday School pupil St. Chiara (Clare), who followed him into the ascetic life and founded the Order of the Poor Clares.
The Basilica of St. Clare was built over her tomb in 1265. Stairs in the nave lead down to her tomb, where a shrine holds relics: her robes, her hair (in a silver box), and St. Francis’ blood-stained stocking from when he received the stigmata.
St. Francis’ childhood home was a few steps off the Piazza del Comune, where people still hang out by the fountain. From the piazza, we walked down the Via San Francesco, the busy main street, to the Basilica of St. Francis, begun in 1228, a destination for pilgrims from all over the world. You enter on the lower level and descend into the crypt to see Francis’ tomb. The nave of the Upper Basilica is decorated with 21 frescoes of St. Francis’ life. From Assisi we drove back to Naples, returned the car, and flew home, resolving after two weeks of hearing the melodies of Italian, to learn to speak it ourselves. Ciao bene!
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