Umbria

There are 2 things about Assisi that have been challenging - and neither of those things has anything to do with how ancient this city is (88 BC) or that some guy gave up his riches, helped the poor, tamed a ferocious human-eating wolf to save a town, and allegedly performed miracles (this is Saint Francis of Assisi, by the way).

The first challenging thing is that one of the (unnamed) travelers in our (2 person) group lost her (not Cate’s) prescription sunglasses while disembarking from a bus after her backpack got caught on something (if only there were video of this to share). When you lose anything in a public place, it’s possible you’ll never see it again. When you lose something on public transit in Italy, you can pretty much wave “Arrivederci!” on the way out.

However, in this case, we had 2 determined women, one friendly and the other not so much, at the front desk who hunted down and arranged to have the very same Busitalia driver come back from Perugia, with an empty bus, and no one getting back on at the Assisi stop, and hand-deliver the sunglasses (or “occhiali da sole” - say that 3x fast!) to you-know-who. Please know that we did not ask for or expect such a response from these busy Italians, but we made sure to show them our gratitude for it!

The other challenging thing is that there are soooo many ancient and beautiful churches to see in Assisi. And, in all of them (EVERY. SINGLE. ONE!) the expectation is for SILENZIO!!! It is just way too hard to be silent when there are so many beautiful sites or fabulously interesting people to point out. We were able to get a few pics before Father Meany-Head (not pictured) hunted us down and scolded us until we were red-faced, sufficiently shamed and NOT laughing (on the outside anyway) on our way out.

This place is truly magnificent to the point that it feels unreal. If you’re ever in need of a travel destination, or a solid scolding, put Assisi on your Bucket List!Read more