Piety and Poetry - Subiaco to Trevi Nel Lazio

​The morning began with a breakfast in the Hotel Belvedere where we spent the previous night.  We felt like royalty dining in this aged but still resplendent dining room.   


We packed up our bikes and headed out into the land of the Benedictine monks along the Way of Saint Benedict.   


The first site which regretfully I took no photo of was the ruins of Nero’s villa. You know, the guy who supposedly fiddled while Rome burned.  

I cut and pasted the following from an on line  encyclopedia.  

According to his biographer Suetonius, the Roman emperor Nero "practiced every sort of obscenity,” ranging from incest to cruelty to animals to homicide. Nero was such a bad guy, in fact, that he may very well have been the first Antichrist in the Christian tradition. But did Nero actually fiddle while Rome burned? In strictest terms, no. In slightly less strict terms, probably not. In very loose terms, perhaps so.

Then onward, ever climbing, we reach the Monastery of St Scholastica.  



The second picture is looking back at it as we continue climbing ever higher. We soon approach the Monastery of St Benedict.  It was truly a spectacle.  Other than a few people there attending mass in one of the churches we were the only ones there.  St Benedict, who is the patron saint of Europe and founded the Benedictine Order spent the first few years in this site basically in a cave.  




Some interior photos taken by me, a perpetual sinner, before I realized it was forbidden.  







Then onward still climbing a view looking back.



Then we get to enjoy an exhilarating descent before another climb up to the town of Jenne.  Since J is not in the Italian alphabet, I asked a shopkeeper how it was pronounced.  It sounds like yen nay.  Upon arriving in town, we see an orchestra setting up for a performance.  It was an interesting site, the whole town out in their Sunday best after church gathering for music and shared food.  




Then we continue onto our final destination Trevi in Lazio.   Here is where the poetry comes in.  Many of the houses have plaques with poetry on them.  However as you can see once again we are riding into a thunderstorm.  So no photos of the plaques as we roared into our accommodations in a downpour.   So maybe a little piety and a little less poetry.  


Our bikes parked at our lodging. 


Blog update.  So we had four hours before the Italian dinner hour so we decided to don raincoats and walk the kilometer plus back up to the town to look around.  So here are some pictures of poetry and some sites around this beautiful village.  







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