Assisi

A week has passed since we went to Cinque Terre so we decided it was time for another day trip, this time: Assisi!  I have been there before, but it is such a cute city that I was excited to go back with the girls and explore more.  We decided to take a chance and go even though the weather was calling for some showers.  The weather here has been pretty spotty with rain and the worst part is that weather.com does not do a very good job at predicting the weather for Florence.  Case in point: right now it is pouring outside and yet the weather man says that it it should be sunny with 0% chance of precipitation...so weird!

Assisi is about 2 1/2 hours away so it is a bit of a trek for a day trip, but we were up for it!  The train ride was wonderfully quiet (no Italian teenagers this time) and we were able to get our morning naps in.  Right when we arrived in Assisi we realized that Fall is officially here - it was freezing and my wimpy cardigan is not going to cut it anymore!  I wish I realized this before we got there...

Now a little background on Assisi: It is a hill town first inhabited by Umbrians in 1000 BC, then taken over by the Etruscans, followed by the Romans.  You can still see some ancient Roman remains throughout the town, including an ancient temple to Minerva (Athena) that has since been converted to a church.  Most notably, Assisi is known as being the birthplace of Saint Francis.  Saint Francis is not only the patron saint of animals and the environment, but he is also one of two patron saints of Italy.  So yes, if you were wondering, he is a pretty big deal.

Our first stop was the Basilica di San Francesco, which houses the remains of St. Francis.  Francis was born in the late 12th century and apparently for the first part of his life he was a pretty rambunctious guy who liked to party with his friends.  It wasn't until he saw a vision from Christ asking him to "rebuild his church" that his lifestyle really started to change and he became a man of God.  He is also credited as the founder of the Franciscan order.

The church itself is actually 2 churches built on top of one another with a crypt located underneath containing St. Francis's remains.  It was pretty impressive that on a Tuesday in the middle of October there were still a ton of people in the crypt to pay their respects to the patron saint.  

Outside of the Basilica (under the arched pathways you can see to right and left of the picture above) there was an exhibit dedicated to Mother Teresa.  It is 100 years from her birth so they had a series of photographs of her and some of the many people she helped throughout her life.  The exhibit was extremely moving not only because of the amazing things Mother Teresa has done, but the photographs highlighted the extreme poverty and plight of humankind in underdeveloped areas especially in, but not limited to, India.  The exhibit was beautiful, yet very tragic at the same time.

Next we decided to grab some lunch (not great so I won't even go into it) and explore the town.  We originally thought we could just walk around, but since we were kind of on a time table and we weren't sure what we should see we finally gave in and bought a map.  We went into the old Temple of Minerva, now a church, then hiked up towards the Fortress.  We stumbled into San Rufino Cathedral, which happens to be where St. Francis was baptized.  Also, bishop Rufino, whose remains are interred in the Cathedral, was the one who converted the town of Assisi to Christianity in 238 AD.

Now off to to the fortress!

View of the fortress from San Rufino.  Long way up...

The fortress was my favorite part of Assisi.  Not only do you have spectacular views of the countryside and the town, but you also get to run around old tunnels and climb towers with no one hoovering around you thinking you are going to break something.  Courtney and Caroline definitely took advantage of this as they were both in a very goofy mood after the hike.  I came to find that this fortress was built for very small people as I ran into not one, but TWO doorways.

Owwwie

We had a very fun day and were able to make it back to Florence at a decent hour.  We also caught a gorgeous sunset on the train that was probably the best one I've ever seen.  It was hard to get pictures though because of the fast moving train, but here was my best shot:

Other news in our lives...We all booked our trip to Barcelona and Valencia in early November, followed by my and Caroline's trip to Malta!  The more I read up on Malta the more excited I get...hopefully the weather will be as nice as they say so we can get some much needed sun!  It will be a busy November, but I can't wait!