While Maurice set up near the top of Spello’s old town to paint, I went down the hill to visit Pintoricchio in Santa Maria Maggiore. Two small paintings of Mary and Jesus, and a faded angel, were hidden in a back chapel, but the main attraction was the Baglioni chapel off the nave. Richly-colored scenes of great beauty and captivating detail displayed gospel personages and stories: the annunciation by a Renaissance angel to Mary in her Renaissance bedroom, the nativity with everyone arrayed on the green grass under a floating platform of brightly-robed angels singing from the same songsheet, and more, all with backdrops of dreamy Italian hill towns. No pictures allowed, and the bureaucrat collecting money was keeping a keen eye on all of us suspicious characters who wandered in. Keep reading