Pace in Asissi

I love Italy! I could really move here. Everything is so beautiful...

We actually woke up at 9am this morning (with a little help, Keith had to drag us out of bed). The plan was to take a day trip to Asissi, which is a 30-45 minute drive from Cortona. We finally left the house around 11am, but there was a little pace (peace, pronounced pa-chay) march from Perugia to just south of Asissi. Held up traffic a little. The normally 40 minute drive was easily 1 hour and 20 minutes. Loads of fun. The crazy part is that their pace flag is a rainbow, so it kinda looked like a gay pride parade, but really they were marching to end poverty and bring about peace. Cause marching leads to that kind or worldwide change.

So because of that, we couldn't actually drive all the way to Asissi, but we got pretty damn close because Tania was doing really well at with her Italian (props to Tania). So we made the moderate hike up to Asissi and had lunch. Not the best since we've been here, but still good. We walked around for a bit and watched the pace march, then we headed towards the church. On our way there, the sunshine suddenly became a torrential downpour. Keith and Jessica raced towards the church, because they had shoes that could handle that sort of thing, whereas Tania and I had to pace ourselves or fall on our asses. By the time we made it to the church, we were all soaked. And this is in a matter of 5 minutes.

One of the funniest parts was that Tania and I were soaked (we both looked like drowned rats) from the front, but were dry in the back. The wind was blowing the rain so hard in one direction that it didn't even hit our backides. The umbrellas we had were no help at all, because the wind actually broke Tania's and mine inverted itself and started to actually collect water, rather than divert it. Keith and Jessica, though drenched themselves, were laughing their asses off at us.

We finally made it to the church of St. Francis, and walked around both the upper and lower part of the church. We made the rounds in the tomb where he and his friars ar buried (and where, for a fee, they will give you a blessed card from St. Francis himself). The church was really beautiful. About 20 minutes later, when we left the church, the rain had completely cleared up. At this point we headed back to the car. Keith was hoping to make it back to Cortona in time to make some concert they were putting on in memory of 9/11. We didn't make it back in time though, so we just started getting ready for dinner with their landlady.

Silvia made what was probably the most fantastic meal I have ever eaten. There were four appetizers and two pasta dishes. Everthing was so good I could hardly beleive she could match it. Her boyfriend, Franscesco was really good at keeping the wine flowing too. We started dinner at around 7:45/8:00 and didn't leave until 12:15. Dinner here is not just about eating, it is a social event. On the way home from dinner, we stopped at the bar down the street and hung out for awhile. The place was dead, but we didn't need any more people to have a party - we were the life.

Tomorrow the plan has been to go to Firenze (Florence), but I don't know if we are going to make it. We may have to go Thursday instead. Ciao Ciao for now.