Assisi

Basilica of San Francesco from the top of AssisiConquering Assisi

Sunset from the top of Assisi

Yesterday I came pretty close to heaven.

Or so it seemed... Nikki and I visited Assisi this weekend, which is the birthplace of St. Francis. It is an absolutely beautiful town and just a 25 minute train ride from Perugia. It actually looks pretty similar to Perugia- same narrow and winding streets, but much more hilly. There are also little shops everywhere selling the most crosses and rosaries you could ever imagine... along with tons of weird souvenirs- think fake pistols and t-shirts with kittens on them... We took a bus from the Assisi train station to the city center. After dining on delicious paninis, we started our walk toward the Basilica of San Francesco.

The ceiling and frescoes in the Basilica were stunning. No pictures were allowed inside, otherwise, I'd probably post about 20 pictures of the frescoes on the walls depicting St. Francis's life. St. Francis was the son of a rich cloth merchant. After he had a vision of Jesus telling him to "repair 'my' house", he devoted his life to the church and gave up everything he owned- he even stripped naked in public to make his point. The man giving us a tour made sure to point out the fresco of him doing the Full Franky.

Many of the frescos were painted by Giotto. He was one of the first artists to ever experiment with depth perception, so some of the paintings looked a little "off". The lines didn't quite match up and some of the people in his paintings looked as tall as the buildings. Michelangelo also studied under Giotto. It's crazy to think these frescoes were done in the 1200s... Americans think anything from the 1800s is old!

After seeing the Basilica, we trekked to the very top of Assisi. Located at the top is a castle- Rocca Maggiore. The walk was intense- we weren't even walking on roads, but on a very narrow path on the side of a hill through mud and rocks (and rain!). We reached the top at the perfect time because the rain had stopped and the sun had just started to shine through the clouds. It seemed as close to heaven as we could get. The view from the top was beyond incredible- I think I took 30 pictures from the exact same spot. We sat for the longest time and just watched the clouds shift. Definitely heaven on earth!

More blogging and pictures to come soon- I'm going on a field trip to Tuscany this Friday!

Baci! (Kisses)