"Oh no, this isn't going to be one of those galleries where there are 10 shots of every subject from slightly different angles, is it?

No it isn't. Originally this was not one of the images that I had selected for presentation. Image 2012 shows the gate and how narrow the streets are. It clearly shows that these are streets that were designed for horses and carts, not for cars. (Although one would have to feel some sympathy for any horse that dragged a cart up that kind of slope.)

However I wish to draw your attention to the mural just outside and on the left-hand side of the gate. I will be discussing that more in image 2016, but I wanted a shot that put its location into context.

And while we're here, do you see the metal plaque on the side of the arch that contains the mural? That one merely shows the gate's name, but there is another one, not visible in this shot or any other that I'm publishing, which contains information about the gate. As I alluded to in shot 2012, it describes the gate as having been built in the 13th and 14th centuries (so, a bit after St Francis's time), and restored in 2001 with financial assistance from an organisation called Amici dell'Italia Foundation di S. Francesco. The plaque notes that San Francisco is a twin city of Assisi.

(Side note: Assisi is "twinned" with 4 cities:
- Bethlehem, Palestine,
- San Francisco, United States,
- Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and
- Wadowice, Poland.
Obviously, the funding was supplied by San Francisco in the United States.)

These types of "twin cities" don't necessarily have to resemble each other which is fortunate because I cannot think of any two cities which are less alike than Assisi and San Francisco. And if I had to choose to live in one of them, I know which one it would be. (Though admittedly the San Francisco of 2023 is not much like the San Francisco of 2001.)