Saturday, November 13,2010

We had the entire day off today. Br. Leonardo graciously offered to take Br. Mark, Br. David, Tina and I to Assisi for the day.

This is the view of the Basilica of St. Francis and Assisi from Santa Maria degli Angeli.

 This is the view of Br. David and Br. Mark on the road below Assisi. 

You can tell by the shadows that this was taken in the middle of the afternoon. After we had the patented two hour Italian lunch. Let me tell you later about the regiano ravioli in sage butter sauce with pears.

After lunch we went to the Hermitage. It's where St. Francis retreated to pray/ I'd never been there before. It's at the top of the mountain.

This is a picture of the road to the Hermitage. As you can see the sun was getting very low in the sky at this point.

 After we had spent a couple of hours at the Hermitage, we went down to Assisi. Here's a sunset photo of the Basilica of St. Francis. We got there just in time to go into all three chapels. We had hoped to attend Mass, but there is no Mass on Saturday nights.

 The view from below the Basilica.

 Can you find Br. Mark and Br. Leonardo in this picture? It's supposed to be a picture of those two looking at the Basilica.

At this point we had walked the entire length of Assisi and needed to walk back to the other end to get our car. During the entire walk back it seemed like we were walking straight up the mountain. 

I had hoped to take pictures of windows while I was there. The homes in Assisi always have such beautiful flowers in the windows. So, I started back with that in mind. However, that's not exactly how things turned out.

So far so good. Cute window. Fairly good picture.

Still kinda ok. A little blurry but I was beginning to breath a little heavy and holding the camera still was a bit difficult.

Still recognizable. At this point I was breathing fairly heavily but was still able to stand still without leaning over. Notice the path to the right. That's the path we were on. For blocks and blocks.

At this point I was gasping for air. My face was red, my eyes were watery and I appeared I may collapse. When I stopped to take this picture a shop keeper came out and invited me to come in and sit down for a while. I think he thought it would be very bad business to have a tourist collapse right in front of his shop.
As you can tell, I was breathing so hard I couldn't hold the camera even slightly steady.

 This is the final picture before I totally gave up any hope of being able to take pictures. 

Right after I took this picture two older women (older than me) strolled by in very high heels. Seriously. 

I'd have taken a picture, but...

The good news is that I made it home in one piece and Br. David and Br. Mark admitted the climb about did them in too. Right now I'm sitting on my bed looking at my sore feet and wishing I could go back again tomorrow. I love Assisi.