This weekend I took a trip with Nicole, Destiny, Abbie, and Kari to Assisi, Italy - a hilltop town a two hour train ride north of Rome, while another group headed to Swiss Alps. I can't speak for the Switzerland group, although I'm sure their weekend was fantastic, but for me and my group, this weekend was the most fun I've had since being in Italy. Don't get me wrong, Rome is awesome, as is Paris, Orvieto, and Ostia Antica, but I haven't laughed as much, or as hard, as this trip since the last night with my family before I left for Geneva. The group of girls I traveled with are an awesome bunch, and thanks to Jeff, our Humanities and Sociology professor, and his hand drawn maps and advice, this trip was care free; something unusual for me. Friday after arriving, we checked into our hotel, Hotel San Rufino, then strolled through the streets of Assisi. This town has more of a medieval look than other Italian places I've visited so far, and I really enjoyed that; especially the Castle overlooking a vast area from it's location atop the hill. After wandering for a while, we decided to grab some lunch, and decided on a place called Otello, which had pretty good pizza, so it's good by my book! After lunch, we visited many different churches, including the Basilica of St. Francis, which was incredible! We technically weren't allowed to take pictures in there, but the ceiling was so impressive I just had to, even if it was only with my phone's camera. It was really great to be in the countryside and just enjoy the fresh air, deserted streets, and the water! If you don't know, me and my family have a thing for water. City water just doesn't taste nearly as good as it does in the country, and Assisi, although a pretty big town(small city?), had some delicious water. We watched the sun set from outside the church of St. Clare, another large and beautiful church, although not nearly as decorative as St. Francis. It was humbling to overlook the huge valley and see the sun slowly set behind the mountains in the distance. Like Nicole said, "God done good." From there we went to dinner at what appeared to be a nice Italian restaurant, but turned out to be an Italian façade for microwave chef boyardee and hot pockets. -__-
Hey, you win some, you lose some. This time we lost. But we made up for it afterwards when we sat outside St. Francis again and just watched the church and towns light up in the dark. As we walked back to our hotel, we met a guy from Florida who is also studying in Rome for the semester, and hopefully we'll get the chance to hang out with him and some of his classmates, since we've been living/eating/traveling/attending class with the same 16 people for the last month. It'll be good to meet new people that speak English. When we got back to our hotel we played some card games and just had a good time. The next morning I woke up before the rest of the crew and got a cappuccino at the local café, then hiked up to the castle on the hilltop. I couldn't get enough of the view from up there, and neither could the two old Italian men I met there, so I headed back down to get the girls then brought them up too. After gaping at the castle and the view, and taking way too many pictures, we split up and Nicole, Abbie, and I hiked down to a little bridge crossing a creek at the base of the mountain while Destiny and Kari made videos of themselves talking smack about us while we weren't there. While on the bridge, Nicole tried her first pear ever. I'm so proud of her. The hike up was a killer, not only because we were hiking up a mountain, but it was also muddy. We stumbled across some temple or shrine with representations of four different religions on it, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and something I didn't recognize. There were also random statues around it. Pretty weird. When we got back we ate at a restaurant next to our hotel and then headed to the train station. After much sleeping on the train, free oranges from a strange man, and sharing music with Nicole, we finally arrived back home in Rome.
Hey, you win some, you lose some. This time we lost. But we made up for it afterwards when we sat outside St. Francis again and just watched the church and towns light up in the dark. As we walked back to our hotel, we met a guy from Florida who is also studying in Rome for the semester, and hopefully we'll get the chance to hang out with him and some of his classmates, since we've been living/eating/traveling/attending class with the same 16 people for the last month. It'll be good to meet new people that speak English. When we got back to our hotel we played some card games and just had a good time. The next morning I woke up before the rest of the crew and got a cappuccino at the local café, then hiked up to the castle on the hilltop. I couldn't get enough of the view from up there, and neither could the two old Italian men I met there, so I headed back down to get the girls then brought them up too. After gaping at the castle and the view, and taking way too many pictures, we split up and Nicole, Abbie, and I hiked down to a little bridge crossing a creek at the base of the mountain while Destiny and Kari made videos of themselves talking smack about us while we weren't there. While on the bridge, Nicole tried her first pear ever. I'm so proud of her. The hike up was a killer, not only because we were hiking up a mountain, but it was also muddy. We stumbled across some temple or shrine with representations of four different religions on it, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and something I didn't recognize. There were also random statues around it. Pretty weird. When we got back we ate at a restaurant next to our hotel and then headed to the train station. After much sleeping on the train, free oranges from a strange man, and sharing music with Nicole, we finally arrived back home in Rome.