That Damn Leaning Tower Plus Perugia & Assisi

Sorry about the late post but this will cover the events of two weekends with some weekly stuff in between.

Last weekend (Sept. 29) most of us in the group decided to take a day trip to Pisa to see what I now call That Damn Leaning Tower. Yes, it was actually really cool to see something that I had seen my entire life only in pictures. I thought to myself "Yup, there it is. Finally seeing it with my own two eyes...and I'm done." I especially was not down for the "take a picture of me holding up the tower!" thing. I took the pictures for the people in my group that wanted the picture, but I refused to take the cheesy touristy picture with that damn leaning tower. Now, I am not saying Pisa isn't worth a day trip. It most definitely is worth seeing; can't live in Tuscany without seeing it. But we were done in about three hours. And can I just say that there is a lot more to do than just see that damn leaning tower. First of all, the tower is at the end of the Piazza dei Miracoli (Plaza of Miracles) which also contains the Duomo, the Baptistry, and the Camposanto Monumentale. All of these places are definitely worth a visit and for 10 euro, you can get admission into all of these places plus two museums across the road. The Duomo was one of the most beautiful I had seen since coming to Italy...which is what I say about basically every Duomo.

The rest of our weekend was spent in Florence either just hanging in the Villa or walking around the city. Thus began another week of class including weekly quizzes that feel like finals, readings upon readings, projects, presentations, papers, and all the like. We ended the week with a historic walking tour of Florence. Since I'm taking Dr. Paul Contino's "Dante in Florence" class, we began our tour in the Baptistry of Saint John the Baptist where Dante Alighieri himself was baptized. We celebrated Mass in the Baptistry with the most amazing mosaics I had ever seen right above my head. Mass was ended and our director Elizabeth led us through the city, pointing out things we normally wouldn't notice.

Friday morning came and it was time for my little weekend to the region of Umbria, where we went to the towns of Perugia (the chocolate capitol of Italy) and Assisi (the hometown of Saint Francis). We arrived at the Perugia train station and were...underwhelmed at first. It was metropolitan and very similar to downtown somewhere in the not-so-good part of Southern California. We walked up and took a Mini Metro to the actual center where we saw the more typical looking Italy part of town. We walked around and saw the university, some parks, some churches, etc. But still we couldn't find where our hostel was and the main Piazza of the city. So we got on some wifi while at lunch and found directions. We walked up more to our hostel and left our bags off. We turned the corner and BAM there was the Piazza from the Google images that we were looking for the whole time. Perugia is such a beautiful little town. It was clean, small, not touristy, and we felt so safe walking around at night. The food was amazing and of course the chocolate was some of the best I'd had in a while.

The next day we trained to Assisi. I was so excited to see the town where Saint Francis lived and preached since he is such an important person in the Catholic Church, as well as a close saint to me and my family. We first went to the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of Angels). The original chapel is still there and then the massive, white basilica was built around it. We were surprised to find out that this basilica was the site where Francis first received the stigmata and began to preach the word of God, the location of his rose garden where he would tell the turtle doves to praise the Lord, and the place of Francis' death. Perhaps the most amazing part of the church, for me, was the Rose Garden. In the middle of the closed-off garden is a bronze statue of Francis with a lamb by his feet and doves in his hands. As we were walking by, I looked up and in the walkway were two turtledoves nestled. It is said that since Francis began preaching there, turtledoves (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) would regularly visit the garden. Words can't even begin to describe how I felt seeing the birds right there where Francis told them hundreds of years ago to praise God.

We left lower Assisi and took a bus to upper Assisi where the Basilica di San Francesco D'Assisi is. This is the site of Francis' tomb. Going down into the crypt and seeing Saint Francis' final resting place was so surreal. The entire church was silenced and many people would pray and show respect to this great man. Speaking of showing respect, I really wish I could have taken pictures/video inside of these churches however there were signs everywhere saying that photography was strictly prohibited. While I'm disappointed, at the same time I understand and am happy that places like these are so highly revered that taking some pics to post on Instagram would be considered a huge disrespect.

We stayed at an amazing little B&B in the town of Bastia right under Assisi and were back home in Florence sunday afternoon. Now our group is getting ready for one day of class on Monday and then it's time for our EFT (Educational Field Trip) to Sicily!