Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

 Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

Having experienced some pretty steep hills yesterday, today, on arrival in Assisi, we took the easy option and got the bus to the top of town before strolling down! 😊

On a recommendation we first visited a couple of churches in the upper part of town.  Both nice, although nothing spectacular, but considering where we were, i.e. Assisi, I suppose we were both thinking they’d be a little bit special (sorry St Clare! 😊)

Walking through town though was very nice, really ‘Olde Worlde’, with some great piazzas, cobbled lanes, some Roman remains, and, because it’s in the hills, lovely views of the local countryside. 

It’s not often that I’ll mention food on here but today we found a sensational restaurant, overlooking the walls of the city and just metres from the Basilica of Saint Francis, we chose it simply for its location. The food however was superb and, considering its setting, it was no more expensive than most other places we’ve eaten.  Fearing the worst though, when I chose the Tagliatelle (below) I was hoping that the latter part of my choice wasn’t compulsory! 😰 😳 😆

After lunch and we were off to the ‘Basilica of Saint Francis’ the main reason for our trip to Assisi.  This basilica is actually two cathedrals in one and, although the upper basilica is stunning, the star of the show is the lower church, it’s spectacular.  If our trip to Italy had only been about frescoes then it could be said that we’d left the best to last!  There’s also a third level, a crypt below the lower church, and home to the final resting place of St Francis.  Not quite as impressive as the upper levels it’s still pretty imposing.  As we’d both been surprised by how impressive this was we made the call that this was an ideal way to finish the day, and the trip, and so headed back to Perugia. 

The Upper Church 

The Lower Church

This was our last full day in Italy and the end of what has been a fantastic journey, and we’ve had a ball.  Being Italy, and Catholic! 😊, obviously a large amount of what we’ve seen has been religious.  However, looking past that and reflecting on the work behind some of the architecture, the designs, the planning, and the workmanship, it’s just been brilliant seeing and experiencing the outcome of all these fantastic skills.  I must admit however that I’ve been very conscious of overusing superlatives when describing where we’ve been and what we’ve seen.  My one excuse is though that on a trip like this, when the plan is to visit all these fantastic places, I’ve just run out of words to capture how good they are.  In a similar vein, a number of times we’ve commented about how our photos just haven’t done justice to the sights we’ve seen or experienced, and it’s true. So many of these sights need to be experienced in person and so our pictures will just continue to be reminders. 

And so, while JEM soon returns to Oz, and I spend a little more time in Worthing, that leads me to say