Assisi and all its beauty

This morning, we left Florence and drove a couple of hours to Assisi.  Our airbnb host, Wladimiro met us and showed us around.  The beauty here is indescribable.  I’m just going to show you some pictures to try to capture it a little bit.

The picture with the red car in it is the outside of our apartment – a one thousand year old building that has been converted into a beautiful apartment.  Here’s just one little section of it….

We walked all over the little town of Assisi.  I feel like I can honestly say it’s “uphill both ways”.  Whew.  It is not just a little stroll, this is hiking.  It is definitely not for the faint of heart. Thank goodness there was a 2000 year old aqueduct for us to get water.  We saw the church of St. Francis, St. Clare and Sopra Minerva.  They are all beautiful and we loved hearing more about the lives of Francis and Clare.  

St. Francis rejected a life of wealth and lived in poverty after having a vision that God told him to do so.  Clare was one of his students and became basically his female counterpart. Some famous quotes of Francis are “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.”  “Make me an instrument of Your peace, where there is hatred let me sow love.”  “It is in giving that we receive.”

Again, the art and the architecture of these churches is just astounding.  I have loved every minute of touring them and learning about the distinctions of each one.

We stopped for gelato in the fanciest shop ever.  I forgot to say that yesterday I had dark chocolate gelato.  Today’s flavor was pineapple.  I have not had a bad flavor yet, but I think my favorite has been coconut. 

After a full day of walking and touring, we went to a restaurant recommended by our airbnb host, Wladimiro.  It was called La Rocca.  This meal was phenomenal.  We had house made pasta with shaved black truffles, pasta with shaved ham and a lemon cream sauce, veal with shaved truffles, a salad with pears, walnuts and cheese, and a dessert (which I didn’t get a good picture of) that was chocolate cookies served with coffee flavored cream.  Did I mention that this meal was phenomenal?

I’m pretty sure I’ve never in my life eaten as much food as we have on this trip.  It’s a good thing we are walking about eight miles a day.  I should probably eat only salads until Thanksgiving.