Assisi in Umbria Region Italy 13 October 2013

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Assisi in Umbria Region Italy 13 October 2013

We arrived in Camping Village Assisi which was about 10 kms from the town Assisi. This town is perched on the side of a hill, which we saw when we approached the area. The Camping village was excellent.

On the way to Assisi, we drove past Lake Trasimeno which was pretty big and picturesque, with the Appenino Umbro Marchogiano (mountain range) in the background – beautiful!

After we got set up and did some WiFi work, we went to their restaurant and had a lovely meal. Tom even had Panini and truffles. Truffles are found quite readily in this area. The restaurant was very busy so people from the surrounding towns come to the restaurant as well. That night, they put on a band for the dancing – after all, it was Saturday night.

The next morning, we drove up to the town of Assisi and had no problems finding a car park. There were hordes of people and tour busses. From the car park, there were 2 escalators to the town so that will give you a bit of an idea on how high the town was..

Assisi is known as the spiritual capital of Umbria, a town tied to its most famous son – St Francis who was born in Assisi in 1181. St Francis was a ‘naughty man’ (!!!) until the age of 22 years, when he had a vision to give up all his possessions in order to live a humble, primitive life and to help the poor and imitate the life of Christ. He travelled around Italy and beyond, and performed miracles, as well as set up a number of monasteries. Two years after his death at the age of 44, he was canonized for all his work. Assisi continues to claim St Francis.

So now Assist is a monument to St Francis. Part of his remains is in a crypt in the Basilica of St Francesco. He requested a very simple memorial to represent how he spent ½ his life, but when it was being built, there was much ‘debate’. There is no gold in the Basilica but it is a massive building with a monastery attached. So I guess there is a little evidence that his dying request was acknowledged. His crypt is very plain though.

We walked all around the town and up on the hill which over looked Assisi which is also on a hill. There was a cloud hanging in the valley but it cleared when we were in the St Francesco Basilica. While we were in the bathroom for 5 minutes, the cloud came back and I missed my good photo of the Basilica. The tower is covered with a cloud in the photo. After nearly 4 hours of wandering, lunch, coffee stops and just gazing, we decided to drive on towards Orvieto which is about 150kms north of Rome.

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