Assisi

Assisi was a very important place for me to visit for a lot of reasons.  First of all, I went to St. Francis High School and St. Francis was from Assisi.  I have been learning about St. Francis for most of my life, even before I went to high school.  Another reason, my mom was born on St. Francis' feast day.  I also did a report on St. Clare when I was younger, who was also from Assisi.  When I was planning my trip to Italy, I researched where Assisi was and how easy it would be to get to.  Turns out it was relatively easy, and thank goodness for that because I was then able to visit one of the most charming, intriguing cities in Italy.

The train station in Assisi is not actually in the city.  The city is up on a hill about 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the train station.  The hostel I was staying at was somewhere between the two.  I ended up getting a taxi to my hostel because I wasn't sure my directions were going to be the best, and it honestly looked like I was in the middle of nowhere. My hostel was a converted farm house, just below the city with a wonderful view of Assisi. The first night I was there, I went into town to explore a little and then went to daily mass at the Basilica of St. Francis.  The Basilica was absolutely breathtaking.

view of Assisi from my hostel

Basilica of St. Francis

Basilica at night

The next morning, I planned on taking a day trip to Sienna.  Unfortunately, that didn't work out.  I then tried to go spend the day in Perugia, but that also did not work out.  So I simply went back to Assisi, where I would stayed for the next day and a half.  However, I did get an awesome video while I was walking to the train station.  This will give you a little glimpse into what my surroundings actually were. 

Assisi didn't seem to have any sort of information center, so I bought a small 4 euro tour book at one of the many souvenir shops and took to the city on my own.  It was actually quite helpful.  The first day, I saw the center of the city, the church where St. Francis' parents' house was, where St. Francis was born, San Rufino which held the basin in which St. Francis and St. Clare where baptized, and I went back to the Basilica to go to daily mass again.  

medieval streets of Assisi

clock tower in the center of town

fountain in the center of town

church at the place where St. Francis' parents lived

pax et bonum: peace and goodness

where St. Francis was born

loved the tiles with pax et bonum everywhere

Basilica at sunset

The next morning, I went a little outside of Assisi to see San Damiano.  San Damiano is the church that St. Francis often visited.  It is said that God talked to St. Francis here, asking him to rebuild his church.  St. Clare also lived here for a large portion of her life.  It was a short walk outside of the city, but amazing to see.

courtyard in San Damiano

exterior of the church that St. Francis rebuilt and where St. Clare lived

walk to San Damiano from Assisi

path to the church

I also visited the Basilica of St. Clare this day.  And just walked around, relaxed, and took more pictures before heading back to my hostel for dinner. 

Basilica of St. Clare

only picture of me in Assisi, looking out from the city

one last picture of Basilica of St. Francis

That night, I had dinner at the hostel with 5 older French people who were on a pilgrimage to Assisi for St. Francis.  They had been walking from city to city and spending the night once they got there.  They were telling me all about their trip, it was fascinating.  I really hope when I am their age I have the energy to do something like that.  I saw them the next morning, getting ready to head to their next city.  They had about 20 kilometers to go and they thought it was going to be a tough walk.  I wished them luck and they were off!  Soon after, I was off to the train station myself.  It was a nice morning, and I had time so I walked there, capturing this last photo of Assisi.   

Ciao, Assisi

I feel very lucky to have been able to visit Assisi on this trip.  It was a lovely little city and I'm so happy with time that I spent there. 

Last stop: Rome.  

C'est la belle vie!