Perugia and Assisi

Ciao Tutti! (Hello Everyone)
Sorry I haven't written in a long time, it's been busy over here in Italia.

Last weekend we all traveled to Perugia and Assisi for the weekend. We took a charter bus to our hotel in Perugia (2 hour bus ride). The hotel was awesome and overlooked the city of Perugia. After getting to our rooms, we left and met our teacher and tour guide Francesco in Perugia. He is a native of Perugia and absolutely loves it and thinks it's the best plays in the world...I think he tells us that every day. Anyway, we toured Perugia for several hours and then had some free time. I enjoyed the city much more than Florence even. It was so much more peaceful and quiet. That evening (around 8pm...ugh, late!) we enjoyed a 3/4 course meal at our hotel. It was wonderful! Pasta, pasta, spinach, meat, dessert, and wine. We were so full by the time it was over (about 9:30pm)!! After looking through the hotel photo album, I discovered that Pope John Paul II had eaten in the same dining room during his trip to Perugia. I thought that was really cool.

The next day we met up with Francesco and took a bus to Assisi. It was beautiful! We walked around a while and then toured the Basilica of St. Francis where his tomb is. The church has 3 stories, all full of beautiful artwork and architecture. We also walked down a steep pathway to see the church at San Damiano (that St. Francis rebuilt). After our tour with Francesco we had free time. I and 2 other girls walked around the side streets of Assisi to get a feel for the town. The streets and houses were so cool, I really really enjoyed our time there. That night we enjoyed another great 3/4 course meal. Sunday morning we went to Mass at the Duomo in Perugia. After Mass we took the metro to meet up with our charter bus. We got back to the Villa sometime in the afternoon.

This past week of class has been pretty busy. Tuesday we watched a great movie on the life of Padre Pio...everyone should watch it (Padre Pio, the miracle man from Ignatius Press). Friday morning I left with 7 others to Lake Como. It's about an hour from Milan. We walked around Milan a while until our train to Como arrived. When we went to get on our train, the boards now said our train was cancelled...uh oh. Apparently there was a strike somewhere along the line. Now we had to wait another 2 hours for the 4:20 train. When it finally arrived we headed to Lake Como (near the towns of Vernazza and Menaggio). Our train stopped in Vernazza and we had to take a ferry across the lake to Menaggio where our hostel was. The town was very nice and the Lake was absolutely gorgeous. Alps pretty much surrounded the whole area. That night after a bite of dinner we explored the little town. The night lights by the lake were pretty neat. I tried strawberry yogurt gelato.

The next morning we woke up to rain. Actually, I didn't sleep hardly at all that night due to cars, loud noises, and pouring down rain. So by morning I already knew it was raining when the alarm went off. Our plan was to hike up one of the alps as far as we could. In the rain we hurried to the bus stop at 7:10am. The bus took us up and around mountain switchbacks until we reached another town. I'm forgetting the name at the moment. In that town we got to a hiking trail and for the next 2 hours we hiked up a mountain. The rain subsided after about 30 minutes of hiking. The rocks were slip in some places and it was also a bit muddy. I was exhausted by the time we reached a look out point. Some of the group kept going so that they could reach a summit before we had to go back down. My knee was already quite a bit sore and tired so I decided not to go up with them. That was ok because the view I got of the alps was still wonderful. Going down went by faster, but it hurt my knees more. We caught a bus back to the town of our hostel, took a ferry back over the lake, and ran to get to the train station. We had 5 minutes to get there and buy our tickets. We found out that we couldn't buy them there. Instead, we had to get them from the agency in advance or else get them on the train. Since we had no time we bought them on the train. The ride back to Milan took about an hour. In Milan we had another 2 hours to wait until our train to Florence arrived. During that time I ate some lunch/dinner and read some homework. Our train from Milan to Florence took about 3 1/2 hours. We arrived back in Florence around 9:30 pm.

Today I have been working on homework for tomorrow. Now I will be heading out to the soccer field to play a futbol match with some Italians from the University in town. It should be fun but I'm tired from the hike...pray for me. :-D

Love to all!
Anna