Relaxing in Assisi

As soon as we were settled in our hotel room, we were off to explore the quaint and charming town of Assisi. Not only do we have a beautiful view of the Church of St. Francis, but every street we walk down is so beautiful that at first we were stopping and taking pictures every few minutes. The majority of the buildings are stone, and the streets are small and lined with shops and apartments. The streets are also very steep - there are a lot of hills and steps, but it is so cute! I don't know how else to describe it.

On Thursday we mainly shopped for friends and family members (and ourselves, of course), and then had a lovely dinner at the hotel. Assisi is in the region of Umbria, which is not the same region Rome is in, and so the food is a little different. Our first course was pasta with a white, cheesy meat sauce which was my favorite pasta so far, and our second course was a type of white pork with french fries - we were quite surprised, but apparently fries are common in Umbria.

On Friday morning we went to the Church of St. Francis and celebrated the Eucharist. The church is very beautiful with world famous frescos, and is the third most visited pilgrim site in the world. St. Francis devoted is life to simplicity and poverty and probably turned in his grave when such a big and beautiful church was built to honor him, but it is probably my favorite church yet - the ceiling of the upper church, and some of the lower is beautiful blues studded with gold stars. Our next stop was the Church of St. Claire and was also very beautiful, and is now the home of the original San Domino cross that spoke to St. Francis and led him to convert to Christianity.

The rest of the day was spent on the streets and in the shops. We actually had to visit the farmacia, or pharmacy, as mosiquitoes have been biting us and are going to be worse in Venice. Steph and I asked the pharmacist for bug spray and at first she didn't know what we meant, but as soon as I showed her a bite on my leg she immediately understood and asked "before or after", meaning if he wanted spray to prevent bites or help heal them. We replied "both", the pharmacist showed us what we wanted and we were on our way.

Tonight we are going to have another lovely dinner and art talk from Mickey. Tomorrow we travel to Ravenna, which apparently has some very nice art and cool buildings. Ciao, Ciao!