Assisi

This morning I woke up early and took a 2 hour train ride to Assisi. Assisi is in Umbria, which is a mountainous state next to Tuscany (where I am). The most famous resident of Assisi was of course St. Francis of Assisi.

After arriving at the train station, I had to take a bus up to the top of the mountain that Assisi is located on. The pictures really don't do the place justice, as it's much higher than it appears. The streets are still narrow, steep, and cobblestone-- just like they were when St. Francis lived about 800 years ago.

From Assisi

From Assisi

The most important building in town is the Basilica of St. Francis (San Francessco d'Assisi in Italian). I couldn't take pictures inside, but the artwork, as in all of the churches so far, was really neat-- you could spend almost a week in just one large church and still not see everything. St. Francis' tomb is located in a cave beneath the Basilica, and I was able to go down there and see it. Also, many monks still live on-site, and you can see one of their residences in my pictures. There were St. Francis impersonators on the street too (also in my pictures).

From Assisi

From Assisi

From Assisi

From Assisi

The trek home took longer than it was supposed to-- something happened to the train tracks, so in Perugia, the train stopped and everyone had to get on buses that took us to the next train station, where we got onto a different train.