Jun 21, 2012 - Italy - Assisi

10th - 11th June 2012 (Bed 45) Our next destination from Florence was Assisi but we decided to visit a few other small villages in the Tuscany region on our way. The Tuscan hill town of Siena was out first stop. It was a quant town with a magnificent cathedral. In the sloping red-brick Piazza del Campo we watched as the town celebrated an annual religious feast with at least a hundred drummers & flag bearers parading the narrow streets followed by the town’s people. It was very lively & colourful. The next two stop were Montepulciano &...

May 13, 2012 - Assisi & Roma

We left Cortona late morning with a few hours stop in Assisi on our way to Rome. Assisi sits high on a hilltop (of course) and has the most beautiful basilica to Saint Francis or San Francesco. The town looks much like it did in medieval times. The church is quite plain appearing from the outside, no fancy mosaics or bas relief sculptures. Inside it is completely decorated wall to ceiling with frescoes telling the life of St Francis that are simple but the whole effect is incredibly moving. I think some of the frescoes were done by Giotto....

Apr 16, 2012 - Trains, buses, uphill....Assisi!!!! Not to be confused ...walk your assie off!!!

What a great morning!!!!! And damn I am really good with getting around!!! Took the mini metro to the Stazione, purchased my biglietti to Assisi...perfect timing, only a 15 min. wait. Arrived in 30 minutes to this beautiful city!!!! I met an English speaking gentleman in which he directed me to the bus that takes you up the mountain city! Awesome.....the town is something to revel in! The only aspect of it that I was not crazy about was all the little shops selling the same "stuff"!!! Now for the wonderful ------I started out at the...

Oct 19, 2011 - Assisi city of churches

We have had two more wonderful days in Assisi. Yesterday we started the day with a walk down to St Francis' Basilica. It is absolutely amazing. There are two Churches upper and lower as well his crypt and a museum.  Words just could not do it justice but I have bought a book which has some beautiful photos of the frescos in the interior if anyone is interested.  It took us a couple of hours to go through then we walked back up to the centre of town and had a little picnic of bread rolls local cheese and salami in a park near the city gates....

Oct 17, 2011 - Beautiful Assisi

We arrived in Assisi on Sunday afternoon. It is truly beautiful. The buildings are lovely and it is sooo peaceful after Rome. While there are a lot of people about the pace is so much slower the taxi ride up the hill from the train was sedate in comparison to the ride we had to the Termini. Like many Italian towns it is situated high on a hill and overlooks the north Umbrian plain. We got a very warm welcome at the hotel we are staying at.  Our room is quite spacious and overlooks the church built on the site where St. Francis grew up as...

Sep 7, 2011 - Mr. Toad's Spiritual Journey

[I've been late with my postings.  Not as detailed.  Can you tell now that folks are arriving and they are wearing me out??] Got up a bit late again.  Another yummy breakfast together on the loggia.  Off to Assisi.  We have no idea where to park or where we are going.  Stumbled upon a great parking place near the Basilica di Santa Chiara (St. Clare).  Took a few escalators up and thought - how great.  Then no more escalators.  Uggghh.  Walked over to the church but it was closed until 2.  Decided to go to the Rocca at the top of the hill....

Jul 22, 2011 - Day Trip to Assisi

Thursday, July 21st – Daytrip to Assisi Assisi will be our last day trip so we started early and left Borgo around 9:30. We had reviewed our route and brought the Luxus GPS as a back-up. Although we had brought our own GPS to Europe, we believed the Luxus unit would be better stocked with local information, but it proved to be of little use to us as it was a different brand from what we were familiar with. Our frustration with, and Lorraine’s mistrust for, modern gadgets continues. Not just GPS, but Sky TV, alarm clocks, etc. Assisi is...

Jun 29, 2011 - Assisi

Travelling to Assisi and Montefalco We spent all morning at the pools in the campsite because it was very hot again and the kids love the pools. Mitchell played a game of water polo and then table soccer with some of the other kids and Aleisha spent most of her time on the water slide. We had some lunch and then hopped in the car. We needed to decide between going to Siena and Assisi. A couple of people had told me not to bother with Siena and so we settled on Assisi. What a wonderful place! It is so beautiful and the history behind the...

Apr 16, 2011 - Basilica:

Off we go again this time heading to Assisi which is a long drive apparently. Arrived around 3 pm - Hotel Windsor Savoia was our resting place for the night and quite impressive it was too. Then took a city tour - visited Basicilia of St Frances which consists of an upper and lower church. Both built specifically for St Frances who is interred in the lower church. There is a freize in the upper church where the sun sets on the wall shining on Mary & Jesus - the frieze is done in gold leaf and is amazing. Unfortunately NO photos allowed so...

Oct 21, 2010 - Assisi, Italy

Thursday, October 21, 2010. Woke up to heavy fog which almost discouraged us from our planned trip to Assisi. But as we dropped in altitude we had visibility of 50 to 100 meters and kept going. A nice ride of about 90 miles and 2 hours with lingering fog banks at the lower elevations. As we made the climb to the walled city of Assisi it was sunny and clear except below us where the fog continued to soften our views of the Umbrian countryside. Assisi spills downhill along the spine of a ridge like many castle towns. We found a parking spot...

Oct 2, 2010 - Assisi to Roma

This morning we got up early and had a slightly different, but not unpleasant, buffet breakfast. There was scrambled eggs, croissants, cereal, toast, cold cuts, bread, juice and coffee, but no tea. The coffee was quite nice. People started talking about 'the cats' and I had a hard time trying not to laugh. One lady, Pauline, asked us if we heard it and we made an excuse that we couldn't hear anything over the racket outside. She said it was coming from our room but we still played dumb. She didn't realise it was us. What was even funnier...

Sep 24, 2010 - orientation week in assisi

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 My first flight was from Detroit to JFK in New York, and then my second was from JFK to FCO Rome, Italy! I wore a pretty normal traveling outfit, black sweatpants and my grey Saint Mary's football t-shirt... While on the second flight I met a girl Meghan who is also in the Rome Program! She was sitting behind me and started talking to me when she saw my SMC shirt, and then we were talking about how excited we were! A few minutes later a lady came up and we realized Megan was in the wrong seat, and she was...