Assisi

Hello to everyone,

We left Verona on Ella's birthday to drive south to Assisi. We thought the drive would take about four hours, with a couple of rest spots on the way. As usual it took half an hour to get out of the town and to find our way to the motorway or Autostrade, but eventually we prevailed.

We arrived at Assisi at 12.45 and walked down the steep streets to the tourist information office. As we walked we were surprised to see that the town was absolutely packed with people and that many of them were dressed in medieval costumes. What was happening we wondered? The town square had banks of seating erected on one side and all the streets were blocked off so no cars could enter. Some of the streets were even blocked for pedestrian traffic. We finally got to the tourist information office and asked the lady there if she could find us somewhere to stay. She made many calls and finally found a 'The Hotel Sole', right in the centre of town with an apartment built in under the roof, in the attic space. It was great. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms a sitting room and a balcony area. It was also very cheap - only 90 Euros.

The reason for eveyone being in costume was Assisi's Spring Festival. The festival ran over three days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The two sides of the town (upper and lower) hold competitions to banish winter and welcome spring. They have banner blessing ceremonies, the Assisi flag waving and throwing, crossbow competitions, log sled races, tug of war, archery, reenactment of medieval life, parades and processions and a choral and musical competition. It was the last day of the festival when we arrived and it was all very colourful and busy. The whole town was involved!

We packed a couple of small bags from the big cases in the car and walked back to the hotel leaving the car in the covered parking station. We then walked to the lower part of Assisi to the church of St Francis of Assisi. It's an amazing place. All the decoration was by Giotto and is fabulous. The lovely statue is still just as lovely. It was created by an artist known as Norberto, although that was not his name. His real name was Luigi Proietti. Sadly he died in 2009.

We walked back to our hotel which is in the upper part of the town. We are near the other large basilica, St Chiara's (or St Claire's) which is a twin of the basilica of St. Francis. We watched the festivities for a while and then went to the restaurant next door to the hotel for dinner. And so good friends, to bed. Tomorrow we drive back to Rome and drop off the car and catch the plane to Lisbon.

Talk again soon


Maz, Great Gran and Andi