Assisi

On Thursday, before our Rome at Night excursion, we travelled from Florence and stopped at Assisi along the way. Assisi is a medieval town that has become famous for being the place where St. Francis began his journey as a monastic, renounced his wealthy background and all his earthly goods, and chose to live the life of poverty in order to best follow the example of Jesus.

Before our tour of the Basilica here, we ate some pizza from local restaurants on the square. 

Salami pizza and dark Perugia chocolate. Not the best pizza of the trip, but definitely enjoyable.

 After loading up on food a group of 9 of us headed off to climb to the Rocca Maggiore, the castle on the hill above Assisi.  Our number was reduced by two due to fatigue and thinking better of it. Seven of us carried on and found that the walk up was not only exhilirating, but that the castle was open to the public! So in we went and found amazing views and great adventure!

The walk was steep but rewarding!

As we entered the castle gate Katelyn found a friend, named Pal the snail.

On top of the castle wall, looking down.

Under the castle wall we find a tunnel, which runs the length of the wall to the outer turret. 

We climb up the turret to the top and have a look around! Sweet!

We return to the townsite to begin the tour of the Basilica of St. Francis.

The front of the Papal Palace of Assisi (later converted into a church itself), which was built to house the pope on visits to the Franciscans, and took over one hundred years to build, while St. Francis's Basilica was built in only 4 years (and which we could not photograph). Our tour here involved a shortened performance by a local tour guide, along with interesting reception difficulties with the Whispers.  

Still we managed to get together for a group picture displaying our creative, or perhaps spastic, sides.

The hotel just outside Rome is grand! Here we are in the lobby all dressed up for Rome at Night! Well ... the girls are dressed up!