Once Upon a Time a Monk and Two Nuns Had Lunch at a Cafe in Assisi

So, I decided shortly after arriving that one of my goals while I was here should be to get a picture of a nun or a monk, so when we sat down to lunch at a cafe outside of the Basilica di San Francesco right across from a monk and two nuns I decided to be brave and accomplish my goals. I mean, seriously, how often do you find the opportunity to take a picture of a monk and two nuns eating gelato? Actually, I've made a few random nun friends in the last few days, and Amber even said she saw a monk staring at me while we were in Assisi, but I don't know how I feel about that last one. One of the nun friends was this cute little nun from India that we sat with on the train to Perugia the first day of our little weekend adventure. She was nice and told us when to get off the train - always helpful.

Alright enough with monks and nuns - now on to the adventure gone awry - very awry in fact, and then the adventure amazingissimo (that's not really an italian word; I made it up).

Friday we went to Perugia. We didn't see much of Perugia. We mostly saw this really giant hill that we walked up though we should have ridden a bus, but seeing how I didn't understand the lady at the bus ticket window, I didn't know that. Fear not though, because my Italian skills increased tenfold on Friday. After walking halfway up the hill, we decided that a little espresso would hopefully bring the smiles back to our faces so we stopped at a bar where we put down our very heavy bags and asked the kind guy who made our caffè how to get to the bus station. I should actually say, I asked and attempted to figure out what he was saying. I did understand him mostly, and we continued on toward our destination. We finally got to the bus station and caught a bus to our hostel on this lake. The hostel at least was beautiful, but a little bit out of the way. A lot bit out of the way, and fortunately for Amber and I, the train only stops in the town where our hostel was like two times a day. Thankfully, we didn't know that until we got there and needed to get back to Perugia to catch another bus to La Perugina (the chocolate factory). Yeah (huge amounts of sarcasm)...so we got a ride from the owner of the hostel who drove us quickly through the countryside to catch a train in Magione instead of Torricella. The rest of the day went by fairly well, except that we had to call the owner of the hostel one last time because we read the train schedule wrong so we had him pick us up at Magione.

We were unhappy people waiting at the train station at the end of that day, but we had chocolate.

Assisi went much better. We checked the train timetables as soon as we got back to the hostel from Perugia and caught the 9 o'clock on Saturday morning out of Torricella to Assisi; then we caught the shuttle bus that took us the 4 km into the City Center where all the beautifulness was. We landed at about 10:45 in the city, and I got a much needed Caffèlatte and dolce before we headed into the Basilica di San Francesco (the church of Saint Francis). That place was beautiful. I had studied it a little in my architecture class, but seeing it... incredible. I wish I could have taken fotos of the inside, but it was not permitted. Most of the churches here are these giant open cathedrals with giant columns. They are all very grand and decorated and beautiful, but something about this one, with its long nave and lack of aisles was more richly spiritual. I can't explain it, but I bought a book of Saint Francis' writings, and what I have read about his life so far is pretty amazing.

After spending the whole morning in the church, we stopped for lunch and then headed up the hill, mosying in and out of shops and seeing this beautiful old city. My only regret was that we walked so long and so slowly up this hill, just enjoying the day, that we never made it all the way to the Basilica di Santa Chiara (Francis' girlfriend). I hear it is also a sight to behold. Perhaps I will just have to return to Assisi. I did see a gorgeous sunset though on our powerwalk down the hill to catch the bus.

Absolutely Amazing.

... just a little more.

Calcio. Soccer.

Today, I went to a Soccer Game - Fiorentina (Florence's Team) v. Catania. We won. Italians are very much into their soccer. The whole place was filled with Purple and singing and chanting and excitement. I'm amazed daily at all the things I've done here - the figuring out transportation schedules, the speaking Italian all over the place, the going to a soccer game and jumping up with a bunch of smelly men chanting things I don't understand, the drinking caffè, the monumental amounts of walking. I also just noticed that two of my MUST DOS from the long ago posts have been completed: hike Cinque Terre and Visit Santa Croce. I've done both of those, and two weekends from now I'm going to Chianti!

Now, I just need to find a hat shop that sells hats in hat boxes...