You don't have to use your imagination to see what St Francis of Assisi's home town looked like during his lifetime.
Giotto has done it for you already – in the 13th century. In a fresco (pictured, right) in the sprawling Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, he showed the saint outside Santa Maria sopra Minerva church – which hasn't changed a bit since Giotto painted it 700 years ago (even if he did make the temple's Corinthian columns a bit too stringy).
In fact, the view hasn't changed much for 2,000 years, since the Roman Temple of Minerva was built under the Emperor Augustus. It was turned into the current baroque church in the 16th century.
Everywhere you go in Assisi and
