Ciao, Bellas! We're Moving to Assisi!

sabato, 11 giugno 2016

Today was probably my favorite day in Italy so far. We've had some amazing days, but Assisi is the most wonderful place. Allison and I had people tell us that we would think it's lovely and never want to leave, and they were correct. The hills are gorgeous, the buildings are bright and cozy, and the people are friendly. You could see little towns and rolling hills for miles and miles.

Our train ride went perfectly and we managed to buy bus tickets without much trouble. We may actually be getting better at communicating! Either that or we're getting braver. Both are fine with us! While we were on the bus, we met some English-speaking seminarians and an extremely helpful woman who had moved to Assisi from Oregon. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to carry on a full conversation with people who speak English! We miss English. The woman helped us plan the best way to see all the highlights in one day. She was pretty amusing. When we asked her why she moved here, her reply was: "The simple answer is that St. Francis wanted me to." That's all the information we got out of her.

Look where we are!!

*Side note- we weren't allowed to take pictures inside most of these places so you may have to do some of your own Googling*

Our first stop was hiking to the Eremo della Carceri, which is where St. Francis often escaped to pray and walk with our Lord through the woods. It was about a 2.5 mile hike with a change in elevation around 1000 feet. It was well worth it. You could see everything from the top. But the best part was being able to walk where St. Francis had walked and to pray where he prayed. I just wanted to touch everything. There were so many trails running through the woods, but we didn't have nearly enough time to explore them all. I can only dream of returning someday. The breeze was so nice and Allison especially loved all the beetles and lizards that we saw. She's pretty cute.

The long road ahead

Cute little Assisi

Breathtaking

Made it to the top!

Eremo della Carceri

Taking a classic picture

Contemplating the mysteries of God's creation

Down the mountain

Back to town!

The nice lady on the bus told us we would want to eat when we got back to the bottom of the mountain, and she sure was right!!! We had very hungry bellies. Lunch was so delicious. We had some warm panini with ham and melted cheese and gosh it was so yummy. With happy tummies, we headed to our next location: San Damiano. This involved more hiking. Allison wasn't too thrilled, but she's a good sport. We got to go down the mountain first this time, and it wasn't nearly as far as the Eremo della Carceri. San Damiano is the place where God spoke to St. Francis and told him to rebuild his church. St. Francis was a little confused at first and thought God meant to literally rebuild San Damiano since it was falling apart, but eventually he got the message right. The fixed San Damiano became the home of St. Clare and her Poor Clares. It was rather quaint and simple, but so lovely. We took our time there and enjoyed every moment of it. Eventually, we decided to hike back up the hill and head to the Basilica di Santa Chiara. This is where the original San Damiano crucifix (the crucifix through which the Lord spoke to St. Francis) is kept. It was an incredible experience to be able to look at the same face that gave St. Francis a life-changing message. We also got to see the tomb of St. Clare.

Almost there

Quaint trail to San Damiano

Some random collared dudes in front of San Damiano 

(no idea what they were doing there...)

Replica of the San Damiano cross

The cloister

St. Clare's peeking out!

Basilica di Santa Chiara

Next stop- Basilica di San Francesco D'Assisi! We had to wait in line and go through security to get in, but again, it was all worth it. We entered and immediately found Jesus, so we prayed a rosary for the lovely Franciscan Sisters!! Then we went to the crypt and saw the tomb of St. Francis. Wow. As soon as Allison and I walked down those stairs, we felt enveloped by God's presence. There was no mistaking The holiness of this man. The area around the tomb matched St. Francis' spirituality- natural and simple. There was a tabernacle underneath, and Jesus was inside. That combo radiated so much love and peace that we could have stayed there forever. Molto pace.

As all good things must come to an end (except for God's love), we finally left the crypt and toured the upper Basilica. This too was simple and beautiful. The frescos depicted various scenes from St. Francis' life and the use of color was so much different than the Roman churches we've gotten used to. It was a nice change of pace.

Basilica di San Francesco D'Assisi

More basilica

It took us a little bit to find the bus stop to get back to the train station, but guess what we found on the way! JESUS!! He was being super cute in the adoration chapel that we happened to wander by, so of course we had to stop in and say hi!

Once we made it to the bus and down to the train station, we scurried over to the Porziuncola, where St. Francis died, to see if we could get in before our train arrived. Unfortunately, there was a long line that we hadn't anticipated, so we had to let go of that idea. On the bright side of things, this gave us enough time to eat dinner, so we had another delicious panino and tried a creme tart. Sandwiches are way better in Italy.

Two amazing things

I was highly amused by the red ninja sign and I hope you are too

At last, tired Allison and tired Kelsey boarded the train back to Roma. With less than 10 hours of sleep under our belt for the last 2 nights, we are very excited to sleep in tomorrow. Nighty night!!

Il nostro gambe sono alla ricerca abbastanza buona,
Kelsey and Allison