First real entry - Assisi

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Ok starting now I'm trying to actually keep up to date with my posts. I've been here in Perugia from 2 weeks now and I'm pretty much all settled in. The city is so awesome; it's pretty small, but so beautiful. I have an amazing view from my window, which makes up for the less than breath-taking apartment I live in with my two roommates, Abby and Claire (both also from Bonas). The biggest change is that by law we're only allowed to have the heat on for 7 hours a day, so we've be learning to use it sparingly. These old stone buildings can get pretty cold.

I started classes this week and so far, so good. The only down side is that everyday I have a class from 5:15-6:45 pm, but at least it's only a 4 day school week! Here, the weekend starts Thursday night and I'm sure not complaining. I'm taking 3 Food Studies Courses, Italian (obviously) and a Medical Ethics Course. It should be a fun semester, we get to take lots of field trips.

This past Sunday was my first trip outside Perugia. All the kids from St. Bonaventure and a few other students from Umbra visited the city of Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis (I won't bore you will all the historic details...) We started at San Damiano, a cute little church surrounded by absolutely beautiful mountains. Then we hiked back up the ridiculously steep hill and went to the Basilica of Santa Chiara (St. Clare). It was HUGE! I couldn’t believe it and that was before even going in. Inside was so pretty and we went downstairs where we got to see relics of Francis and the body of St. Clare. From there we went to the birthplace of Francis which was marked by a tiny little church. Then we stopped in another church that I don’t remember the name of it, but the artwork on the ceiling of this one was so incredible. Then we went to Santa Maria Maggiore and the Piazza Vescova which was the main church of Assisi in Francis’s day. This one was smaller, but had a lot of the artwork well preserved for the age of the church. Then we went to lunch! We ate a restaurant called I Monaci which had really good pizza (imagine that, good pizza in Italy).

After lunch we went to my favorite place of the day, the Basilica di San Francesco (of St. Francis). It was one of the biggest churches I think I’ve ever seen before, with three different levels. From the outside it looked almost like a castle and when we went inside, I was blown away. Every inch was covered in frescos and the ceiling looked like it was miles away. I think we all just walked around in awe for 15 minutes through that one. Then we went downstairs the middle basilica and there were more fresco paintings and it looked more like the churches I’m used to seeing. There was a sign-in book that we all got sign our names in, which I thought was really cool. Then there was the lowest level with the tomb of Francis and some relics and remains from his life. It was pretty interesting.

The last church we went to was the Santa Maria degl’ Angeli. It was also another giant one and what I thought was so cool is that it’s built around Portiuncula (the very first church where Francis and his brothers used to gather). So I got to walk through a church inside a church. Lastly, in this church I was able to light a candle in honor of my family, and managed to sneak a pic.

I hope all the church talk isn't too boring, but they really were something to see. And the views from bring up in the mountains of Assisi were totally surreal. Hopefully I have some fun stuff to talk about soon, since my weekend starts tomorrow! Ciao for now!

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