The tree that outlived St Francis

25 July 2021

A statue of St Francis in Ostuni, Puglia, Italy.

The venrable cypress of St Francis in the Monastery on the edge of Villa Verucchio.

The giant ship was manoeuvred deftly into the dock at Ancona on a still, sunny morning. I knew we were back in Italy as soon as we got the bike off the ferry and proceeded to take a tour in and out and in and out and around the port, all the while following signs for Centro! Needless to say I wasn’t amused, but soon we emerged from the maze and headed north along the coast. Once on the right route we stopped at Marotto on the seafront, for our first Italian coffee in two weeks. Aaah the coffee, it was good to be back, worth the cussing and road contortions exiting the port!

Our ferry form Zadar in Croatia to Ancona in Italy.

We continued north toward Rimini where we stopped just back from the beach at Rivazzurra. This place is nuts, mile upon mile of perfect beach save for mile upon mile of little businesses taking ownership every 50 m and setting up their own special theme park! Needless to say no one was there this time of year and all the little tables in the sand, umbrella stands, and lounges, were empty, millions of them!!! But they were all getting ready, setting up their themes, sifting and leveling their beach sand, painting their signs and preparing for the massive influx of lemmings. It was nevertheless warm and sunny so we found 50 m of POS (public open space) and Annie took a swim.

Coming from Australia it is hard to imagine paying to go to the beach, especially when it looks like this!

We then headed back to the street and had lunch, after which we had our first terse words with each other for the trip, re navigation, and we hadn’t even got back on the bike. What followed was a ‘quiet time’ but I did manage to find the little village of Villa Verucchio without a map, and a kind fellow biker on a BMW led us to the nearby Franciscan Monastery we were searching for. This houses a wonderful, no venerable, old old cypress tree in the courtyard.

A view of the tree from the monastery cloisters.

There is a story that this tree grew from a branch that St Francis had thrown on to a fire in the year 1213. Surviving the fire, the next morning St Francis decided to stick it into the ground, from whence the tree grew. This story sounds a bit fantastic but so is the tree. It has apparently survived a number of assaults, including one attempt by French soldiers to burn it down in 1798, amongst other ravages of time. In 2000 steel props were installed to keep it from falling over.

This tree carries with it the history of the Monastery, now the Convento Santa Croce, and all who have passed through there. In its structure and texture the tree also records the storms and major weather disruptions of the last 800 years. This makes it an important tree and one worth the trip.