Today we shifted south about 150 kilometers into Umbria. We had discussed staying in Tuscany a bit longer but decided we would probably have an opportunity for another day or two as we headed north towards Amsterdam at the end of the trip.
We had an easy and relatively quick drive down and though we were a little slow in getting going this morning we still arrived in Assisi around 1 pm. After a little adventure with an unexpected very narrow archway on the road near the campground that required pulling in the side mirrors and sucking in our breath as we just squeezed thru with inches on either side we were settled into a nice campground near the city.
Today was about the nicest day we have had since we have arrived in Italy so after getting everything set up we decided to head into town. It was about a 1 mile walk into town on a nice trail that paralleled the road into the campground. As we were walking along the trail we saw a small VW RV coming towards us. Ton said I didn’t know this was a road, and I said it isn’t its a walking trail, I’m not the only one who blindly follows his GPS even when it leads him to places he shouldn’t be. As they pulled even with us I smiled and pointed back up the trail and said the campground is in another 200 meters and I think you will fit, I got a look of relief from the wife and a thanks.
Assisi is an important town to Italian Catholics as it is the home town of St.Frances of Assisi. There are 11 churches in the town and it is a place of study for Catholic Clergy who are very prominent walking around the city.
We visited two of the churches today and we noticed that there were several tour groups in each church. Apparently it is a popular stop for Catholic tours. It is only a couple of hours north of Rome so it is an easy day trip.
The town survived WWII mostly intact as the German garrison commander was a devout Catholic and declared the city an open city as the allies advanced on it, so it was taken by the British without a fight. But in 1997 the town suffered severe damage when it was hit by a large earth quake.
The town is divided into a lower town and an upper town. The lower town is the more modern and open, while the upper town is full of the narrow steep allies of a typical medieval city. A couple of hundred feet above the upper town is a major castle that we decided could wait until tomorrow.
We gave the town a good once over and were thinking about the walk back to the campground. But I knew we had to climb two or three hundred feet on our way back so I suggested we fortify ourselves with some wine and cheese before we took off.
We stopped at our second Michelin starred place for the wine. The wine was good, but the service was not great. This is the second time we have splurged for a Michelin place and the second time we were disappointed. Next time we will stick with unpretentious.
The walk back was all uphill but quite pretty. For the first time on the trip François was actually a little hot on the inside and we had to open up all of the windows. We are not complaining and hopefully we will get a few more days like this.