Visiting Assisi

Thursday April 14
I decided to go to Assisi today since it is supposed to rain tomorrow. By 9:30 I was on the bus to Assisi and we arrived an hour later, after numerous stops in small towns. Assisi is another of the Umbrian hill towns, and you can see the entire city perched on a hill.

The Basilica of St Francis is immense and very beautiful, with frescoes painted on the ceilings. I spent a little time inside and saw the tomb of St Francis, and noticed that there were photos of people next to it, apparently left there by visitors.The church and the manicured grounds are very peaceful and so quiet that you can hear the birds chirping.

The vistas from high on that hilltop are awesome, and I walked a lot and enjoyed the different photo ops from that beautiful place. This was definitely a tourist town, as there were numerous buses, mostly filled with European visitors. This was another place where I heard very little English. The streets were lined with tourist shops, which took something away, I think, from the charm and serenity of Assisi. The hilltop homes were clustered together and the entire area was spotless.

As usual, I got my daily exercise of hill and stair climbing, and a few hours here was enough for me, so I took a 1:40pm bus back to Perugia, by way of lots of other little hill towns I would not have otherwise seen. There were a lot of school kids on the bus, so the trip included residential neighborhoods, an added interesting experience for a first-time visitor like me.

We drove through Torgiano, Bettona, Colle, and some other small towns before we arrived back in Perugia. I was able to see mountains with snow in the distance but have no idea which mountains they were. By the time we got back to Perugia, the rain had started, so I took the rest of the day to relax, do a little laundry and write.