Here’s an advance look at the American Airlines Online Magazine Article about Art Workshop International coming out soon! As written by an Arts Workshop International alumna, it’s a clever takeoff of Eat, Pray, Love - Chris Spencer, director
LEARN
Surround yourself with artists, award-winning authors, playwrights, painters, cooks, and those who want to be any of the above at Art Workshop International where you can workshop that play you’ve always wanted to write, learn Italian, paint that painting that’s lying dormant, or learn to cook by apprenticing to a master chef in the kitchen of the Hotel Giotto, in Assisi, a 12th century hill town in the heart of Umbria. The summer workshop, now in its 29th year, lets you find your inner artist – with all meals, board, instruction included. Like grown-up camp for the artistically inclined. Stay a week or a month. Enthusiasm – not experience, required. July 22 – Aug. 18. For prices, details, instructors and classes: www.artworkshopintl.com or call Bea Kreloff, director, Toll free: 866-341-2922
EAT
If you attend the school, you probably will have to drag yourself away for a meal anywhere other than the restaurant at the Hotel Giotto, but force yourself! Impossible to get bad food in Assisi.
Personal faves – and faves of locals, include The Fortezza right off the main piazza, the Trattoria Umbra for easy, casual dining. A more elegant feast can be had at the Medio Evo right below the piazza as well as the excellent Trattoria Pallota.
La Stalla right outside of town offers a great casual outdoor meal; tables covered in red, and Chianti candles. A must-stop for families, campers, hikers, who gather under the arbor, near the large camping site, for yummy grilled meats, chicken, vegetables.
PRAY
Assisi, once home to Francis of Assisi, houses the magnificent Basilica of S. Francisco, a double Basilica, with an upper tier that has Giotto’s spectacular frescoes of the life of St Francis and the famous frescoes of Cimabue, Giotto’s teacher. The lower frescoes by the masters of the 12th and 13th centuries are open from dawn until sunset.
The Eremo delle Carceri, the Hermitage, is a place of solitude up the Monte Subasio where St Francis went to meditate. Open from 6.30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The charming church of San Damiano, one of the earliest churches in the area, is a small simple building where the more casual masses are said to the music of strumming guitars. Go in the morning and take in the solitude. Take a camera and shoot the amazing light pouring into the ancient chapel.
LOVE (To Shop)
Some of the finest hand prepared vinegars and olive oils in all of Italy are found in the shop of Francisco Mollaioli (Franciscodassisi@umbria.net) directly across from the Hotel Giotto. There you can buy the famous oils, as well as cherry barrel aged balsamic vinegar and Francisco’s special recipe grappa. Stop in – the only thing Francisco loves better than overseeing his product is telling you all about it. Great way to while away a morning.
You won’t find a Bennetton in this gorgeous town square. What you will find is craftsmen who make some of the finest handbags, paintings, and religious objects like the still ultra-modern shops looking crosses designed by St. Francis himself. It is not impossible to find a painting from modern to practically relic for a price you can afford. And, yes, bargaining is still a time-honored sport here.
Assisi has a small but choice market on Saturday mornings up on Piazza Matteo including a van with one of the choicest delicacies of Italy, the porchetta, roasted pig — sandwiches and by the pound. Pick up cotton shorts, cheapie sandals, and hand-hewn wooden St. Francis-style crosses.
There is also a permanent outdoor market at the rail station in Assisi where you can pick up handmade jewelry, scarves, cotton dresses for a song.
Take a side trip to the nearby market town of Bastia Umbra, where the streets are full of all kinds of wonderful bargains from clothes to housewares every Friday morning.
STAY
Hotel Giotto: Where you’ll stay if you attend the Arts Workshop International. Housed in an ancient piazza, this simple hotel is basic Italian. Not fancy, but quiet and quaint with a great room for working on that novel, relaxing and downing some grappa or a cappuccino with new and old friends. (The bartender won’t laugh at you for ordering a cappuccino after breakfast either!) There is also a giant wrap-around terrace for drinks and another for outdoor dining.
The oldest rooms are dark and the a/c isn’t great but some have giant terraces. Advice: Instead ask for a room in the new wing. After all, the afternoon cappuccino will give it away – you are an American and like your room chilly and your drinks with ice. High speed internet available. http://www.hotelgiottoassisi.it/
