Tuscany & Umbria

With a small school-size backpack that contained all my clothes, shoes, toilettries, books and maps for 3 months, and my painting equipment tow-able on wheels, I flew to Rome at the beginning of the Oz winter to paint in the Italian spring and summer. My ‘plan’ was to begin painting in SUBIACO Italy, travel on to NORCIA in the south-east corner of UMBRIA, then continue roaming and painting through TUSCANY.

I have long been interested in the historical connection between my own suburb of Subiaco in Perth, the Western Australian Benedictine Monastery at New Norcia, and their Italian origins, so I went to investigate, and paint.

About 2000 years ago, the Roman Emperor Nero, in need of a public water supply and a personal escape from the summer heat of the city, dammed a valley in the hills 70 kms east of Rome in three places to create artificial lakes, and ‘co-incidentally’ created an attractive building site. He constructed aqueducts to transport the water, put his holiday villa on the cooling banks, and built a road to Rome. A small settlement nearby was called Sub-lacus, meaning “below the lake”, which became the town of Subiaco.

Five hundred years later, young Benedict of Norcia, who had been studying in Rome and was unhappy with the ‘corruption and excesses’ he found there, journeyed east to seek solitude in a cave above Nero’s lakes at Subiaco. There he lived for some years as a hermit, later becoming a monk. Others were attracted to his beliefs, and a new way of monastic life began.

By 1846, Benedictine monks had travelled to the other side of the world to establish a mission in Western Australia. “New Subiaco”, the monks’ settlement in the bush to the west of Perth, was named after their monastic origins in Italy, and their mission to the north was called “New Norcia”, after the birthplace of St Benedict.

Subiaco Italy today is a picturesque town of narrow cobbled steps climbing up and around a hill, and crowned with a castle. I found a room, arranged for meals, explored, painted, and learned a few rudimentary words of Italian.

Next, I journeyed to Norcia (now famous gastronomically for pork and truffles) in Umbria, and painted in the delightful spring countryside surrounding this attractive and unique little town. In a small plastic bubble that was called a car, I zigzagged in a north-westerly direction through Umbrian countryside and the towns of SPOLETO, MONTEFALCO, ASSISI, GUBBIO, PERUGIA and PANICALE.

And then into the Tuscan summer, with golden harvests, delicious tomatoes, local olive oil, abundant cherries and the inspiration of the Masters. I roamed by way of ACQUAVIVA, MONTEPULCIANO, PIENZA, PETROIO, BUONCONVENTO, SIENA, SAN GIMIGNANO, VOLTERRA, CHIANTI and PANZANO, FIRENZE and FIESOLE, and Napoleon’s island of ELBA.