June 16
Before we move on to today, here’s a video I took last night when we found a place to dance. It was a lot of fun. https://youtu.be/sKYzKTbmDhE
We had a nice break at the beach but this morning it was time to hit the road again. Today we headed inland to Assisi. I was there with mom and dad in 1994 and in 1997 it was hit with a devastating earthquake. It only took two years to rebuild and now is a major tourist attraction in the Umbria region.
We parked at our Airbnb flat, which was supposed to be 900 meters from the town walls, so we decided to walk. Well….it might be 900 meters from the wall but it’s 1.3 km from the gate that lets us into the city. It wasn’t too bad getting there, but coming back had some pretty steep hills. And Gracie led us astray, which didn’t help. We ended up walking in circles before we finally found our way.
Anyway, we enjoyed our time in Assisi. It’s a beautiful town with many interesting streets and alleyways.
And of course we visited a few churches. Two of the most important, Basilica of S. Chiara and the Basilica of San Francesco did not allow pictures on the inside.
The Basilica of San Francesco was an amazing church with both an upper and lower basilica. Here is a link to a google page I found that has some pictures of the inside. https://www.google.com/search?biw=1368&bih=795&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=QGIGXYiADNGTlwSWyY_ADQ&q=basilica+st+francis+assisi+pictures&oq=basilica+st+francis+assisi+pictures&gs_l=img.3…165756.170190..170716…1.0..0.248.2681.9j13j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img.wVlJDm0mNsc
In addition to the two levels of the basilica, we also saw the tomb of St. Francis. It was a concrete tomb above a small altar in a chapel below the lower basilica. It was pretty amazing to see.
We stopped at one more church that did allow pictures. It was a small church but ornately decorated.
Before heading back to the house we stopped for lunch. With the roundabout way Gracie took us back to the house we walked over 16,000 steps today. That’s more than we walked in the last 3 days put together. But we needed the exercise after hanging out by the pool for 2 straight days.
We’re about to head out to find a grocery store. We not hungry for dinner but we want to pick up some things for breakfast. If we found a Gelateria along the way that would be okay too.
Tomorrow we’re off to Bologna. It’s a new city for me so that’s very exciting. We’ll talk again then. Ciao.