Small, charming, relaxing!
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2009
1
12
15
Trip End
Nov 25, 2009
Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
We're still a little behind with these entries, but we're doing our best to catch up! Thanks for reading!
Our next city, and our second of four in Italy, was the little town of Assisi. At the time it was the smallest town we'd been to, and it may end up being the smallest of the whole trip. The town has a population of less than 30,000, and it seems like many of them live outside of the main town area (I'm trying to avoid using the word "downtown" because it just doesn't seem to fit).
After being to so many large, busy cities, though, I found it quite refreshing. Small towns just have such a different feel, and especially when you're somewhere unfamiliar, I think it's a lot harder to relax when the area is crowded
On the road to Assisi
. Our time in Assisi, though we were only there for one full day, and we actually did quite a lot, felt incredibly relaxing. And I loved it!Our first day we got into the train station relatively early, with what seemed like plenty of time to find the hostel. We had a Google map of the town, but it didn't end up being too useful. It's perched up on a hill, and it's full of small streets, many of which aren't even drivable, so the map looked like a jumbled mess, and we couldn't even find where the train station was.
Have no fear, we'll just buy a map at the train station, right? The station is incredibly small, with only one track (unlike many that we'd been to with dozens), one small cafe/bar, and a small store overflowing with a random collection of stuff. Including maps. So we bought one and started searching the list of streets for the one with our "ostello." No luck. We looked for a lot of the streets that we could find on the Google version, but nothing seemed to be there. After an embarrassingly long time, I came to the conclusion that the two maps were not of the same city. We flipped over our newly-purchased map, and in small type it said "Perugia," surrounded by a bunch of Italian words we didn't know. The Assisi train station didn't even sell maps of Assisi
Lit path
! So, off to a great start, we headed out of the station with our packs and a map of a city that was thirty minutes away. But luckily we were in good spirits, and that just made it more of an adventure.Just out of the station there was a sign that said "Ostello Gioventù," or "Youth Hostel." It pointed off to the right, so even though we didn't know for sure that it was leading us to the right one, we went right. A little ways up, after not seeing any other signs, we went into a grocery store nearby to see if they either had maps or new where our street was. One very old woman told us exactly how to get there. Unfortunately she was speaking in Italian and didn't know any English. But we interpreted her hand signals and set off again, only to get lost and confused in the parking lot, where she found us and re-explained the directions. Not completely sure with our directions (that might be an understatement) we headed down a long road, with farmland on either side. After quite a walk we found a street sign and discovered that we were in fact on the road that our hostel was on! A little more walking and a lot of luck, and we found it.
That night we found a cool little local restaurant with amazing pasta. The place looked like it had been there for a few hundred years, and the whole experience felt very classic Italian...except for the semi-obnoxious group of Americans at the table across from us. Hmmmm...
After the restaurant, we did a little more walking around, and ended up sitting on the wall next to San Pietro's Cathedral and talking for a long time. The Cathedral was all lit up and looked beautiful at night, and from our spot we could look out over the lower part of town
Typical street in Assisi
. As we got up to leave and walked closer to the Cathedral, Emy noticed music coming from inside. We poked our heads in to find a choir practicing Christmas songs. The inside of the Cathedral was fantastic, the voices sounded amazing, and there was an incredible energy coming from the whole place, so we went in, sat in the pews, and listened for quite a while.As we made our way back to the hostel, along a very dark, curvy, and sidewalk-less road, we saw a small, unfamiliar light moving back and forth. Though Assisi is probably the safest place we'd been the whole trip, the thought of running into a stranger on this dark road in the middle of the night made us both a little uncomfortable. Soon we heard a female voice with a thick Indian accent saying "Hello?" A little less nervous, but still a little skeptical, we kept walking. We'd seen so many gypsies and beggars the last few weeks, we'd grown accustomed to brushing people off when they ask for help (which, needless to say, is pretty hard for both of us!). And really, besides giving away our money (which we generally need for food and shelter!) how much help can we really give people? We don't speak the language, and certainly don't know the area! But it just so happened that this girl was looking for the hostel, the one place we did know! She had been walking around searching for hours, and was on the phone (the source of the light) with a woman at the hostel who was trying to direct her
St. Francis Basilica
. She was almost in tears, and kept telling us how "terrified" she was, and how it was "pitch dark" out. But she walked with us the next five minutes down to the hostel, and seeing how relieved she was when we walked in the door, we felt good that we were able to help someone in need.The next day was our first and only full day in Assisi. We set out with a few goals, and a hope to get a general feel for the area. The main thing we wanted to do was visit the St. Francis Basilica. San Francesco, as he was called in Italy, was a Catholic saint born in the late 1100s. He is the patron saint of Italy and animals, and is known for his Canticle of the Creatures. "St. Francis of Assisi," as he is commonly called, is one of the only reasons people outside of Italy have even heard of this small town, and he is very important to them. Though I would hesitate to call Assisi "touristy," there are quite a few small shops, and they are often filled with St. Francis statues, postcards, and other items.
We were both incredibly impressed with the Cathedral. Unfortunately, once again, photography was not allowed (I don't like people telling me I can't take pictures...but of course I understand in a church), so I can't show you what it looked like inside, but there were numerous large, elaborate paintings, and every inch of the walls seemed to decorated
St. Francis from up the hill
. Somehow, though there was so much decoration, it managed to feel amazingly peaceful. We also went down to St. Francis' tomb, which was a great experience. It was very quiet and serene, but there was a very strong energy present. There were several priests and nuns paying their respects, and quite a few visitors just stopping to pray.From the cathedral we headed off in the general direction of the highest point of the town. We didn't know where we were going (which seemed common at this point) but we'd heard there were nice trails leading up the hillside to the top of the Mount Subasio, which you can see from most of the town. After taking an unintentional but nice detour through an old cemetery, we found a small trail, and hiked up the mountain.
At the peak of Mount Subasio is a castle, which we walked around (though we decided against paying to get in) and a great view over the whole town and the surrounding area. We took our time on the mountaintop, and eventually made our way back into town, where we continued our aimless but fascinating "adventuring" along the small, curvy, cobblestone streets.
That night we enjoyed a great meal back at the hostel. The hostel serves home-cooked meals every night for an affordable price, and the food was fantastic. There were only three other people eating at the same time as us, and two spoke only Italian, so we were seated with the only other English speaker. Honestly, I was kind of looking forward to a quiet meal with just the two of us, but looking back on it, we're very glad we got a chance to meet a new friend.
Assisi Cemetary
This new friend's name was June. She was born in Capetown, South Africa in 1931 and has lived there most of her life. She had so many stories to share from her life, including getting stabbed in the back (literally, not metaphorically) during the anti-apartheid movement. She had also done quite a lot of traveling, and we really admired that she was still traveling even at her age. We spent awhile with June, sharing experiences, playing word games, and just talking.
The next morning we got up early and set off to visit one more of the town's incredible churches, and then before we knew it, we were journeying back on the long road back to the train station. Along the walk we reflected on our time there and how much we enjoyed it, and I hardly believed that we were only there for one full day!
And then for another amazing, but almost opposite city, we hopped on the train for Italy's biggest and most famous city, Rome.
Thanks for reading!
Warren (and Emy)
