Assisi Weekend!

Pictures:
#1: Some little hilltown on the drive up, overlooking the countryside
#2: The 

quintessential view of Assisi, with the castle looming above
#3: St. Francis Cathedral
#4: The winding streets of the hill town
#5: Overlooking the city from the castle. AMAZING views!

#6: Inside the "window" of the castle

#7: The craziest tunnel ever (a clautrophobics nightmare)

#8: At the top!  It was SUPER windy

#9: Sunset on the Piazza Santa Chiara

July 4th - July 6th

I. Love. Assisi. I can't get over it. I had such a wonderful time there and the place was gorgeous; it's basically a place where fairy tales may actually exist. We took a class field trip there last weekend and I wasn't sure why they chose Assisi. I have no doubts now. It is a classic Italian hilltown with a lot of history, just a 2-3 hour trip from Rome. It is the birthplace of St. Francis (of Assisi) who is the patron Saint of the environment, quite fitting.

We left Rome Saturday morning, and we had our own private charter bus. Let me tell you, it was wonderful to get out of the busy city, and even more wonderful to do it on clean, non-public transportation. Our hotel was 1 km outside of the town (Hotel Da' Angelo) and the first thing we did there was hit the pool! Mind you, this was not an ordinary pool, but one with a view overlooking the beautiful Italian countryside. We did the adult thing, and participated in the animated games of Marco Polo and Sharks and Minnows. That night, we had a big group dinner in the hotel's restaurant. I had my first pasta with truffle sauce, and I was hooked. We headed into the town, and it was great to be in a place that is a little less touristy at night (except for our large group). We went to the main square, and there were a ton of kids out playing games, and it was like 11:00. Totally different time schedules. Oh! I almost forgot it was the 4th, but I covered that mistake by eating my first watermelon gelato. You have to pay your respects somehow...

Sunday was a busy day. We headed straight to the Cathedral of St. Francis (I found out later that there are actually two churches and a crypt all combined into one building, and that I totally missed one of the churches, but oh well) and did lots of sketching. The tomb of St. Francis was pretty eery, and there were a lot of people pilgrimaging to this site. Our next stop was the castle on the top of the hill, Rocca Maggiore (a medieval hilltown with a castle overlooking it? It was magical). We got a little lost on the way, but saw some great sites. It cost five euros to get into the castle, but it was the best five euros I've spent the whole trip. The sign outside it said "For those who suffer from claustrophobia or vertigo, do not enter," and I suffer from mild cases of both. The castle contained twisting stones spiral staircases, incredible views, overlooking towers, and the best part: a long tunnel through the wall connecting two of the towers, that was probably 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 300 feet long. There was very little light, and the acoustics were crazy (it really distorted voices) and let's just say that I had fun playing down there.

After the castle, I was exhausted after all the stairs, so we just walked through the winding streets of the town, did a bit more sketching, then ate dinner on this terrace overlooking Piazza Commune's fountain. On Monday morning, a few people hiked up into the mountains where St. Francis hid in a cave, but I wanted to soak in more of the city. We sketched (a common theme here) and did some window shopping, then loaded back onto the bus back to Roma. Quite a sad parting, because who knows if I will ever return to this place, but I'm so glad I got to come here.