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| This is Joe's favorite place in the world. D'Andrea Pizza, near our apartment. |
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| You may remember meeting our incredible friend, Letizia Mattiacci, on the Cape last Winter. Well, here she is in her kitchen! |
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| Good thing we ordered only one antipasto at lunch that day. And NO, we did not come to Italy for the food!! NO! NO! |
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| Walking in the Bosco di San Francesco is so much like parts of the Camino de Santiago |
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| The Rocca Maggiore after sunset. Perched up behind our Assisi home on the Via Porta Perlici. Great hiking spot! |
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| Joe. Thanks to a gift from our daughter before our Camino, I can easily spot him with his red backpack |
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| This narrow path and ancient walls surround the city of Assisi, at its highest point. A lovely walk with beautiful views, well worth the steep climb up there |
If these photos appear to be in an un-natural order, it may very well be due to the fact that I am especially technically challenged since our arrival. I have so many more photos but for some reason, I can't download them to my laptop from my phone. Where are our kids when we need them???
They, like most of you, are home, enjoying technological things like washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers among other wonders of modern day life. We, on the other hand, are hand-washing everything and counting on the heat from radiators to dry everything. Without the outpouring of heat in the evenings, nothing will dry because........it's November and it's Umbria! Ah, yes, the season of rain. And this is the season to end all seasons. We are getting a LOT of rain, but, thankfully, we're not in the Veneto and we are on top of a hill. We're surrounded by mountains, Mount Subasio being our closest neighbor. We're hearing all about the floods of epic proportions in poor Venice and seeing horrible accounts on the news and in the papers. Assisi gets its own weather and, like Cape Cod, if you don't like it, wait a minute. We've virtually given up on forecasts and when the sun shines, or even when the rain does not fall, we get out and get our own Italian holiday in gear. Daily. And that always includes walking. Miles. To the supermarket, for instance, which is one half mile away. Not bad getting there but.....coming back, all uphill. We had a good laugh today when we made the trek back from the little market called "Tigre". We thought about how we would never, ever walk home from our home markets, loaded with a few days worth of supplies, a bottle of wine, a sack of sugar, hand-washing liquid, dish detergent, and a few other heavy items. We did it! Home and up the 3 flights of stairs after a few other flights of stairs in town.
Let me remind you that we are on a totally different path from those who come on an Italian "vacation". We're here to experiment with life, to live for a month in a hill town and to relax and have a bit of fun while we're at it. This is not a Perillo Tour! And, we keep reminding ourselves, we did not come here for the food......more later.
Last week, our second, was a mixed bag of all that can possibly be good about being here. We started the week off having coffee with a friend who we've known since our second visit to Assisi. Rebecca Winke is an American who has lived here for many years, having married a local resident. It was wonderful seeing her again and hearing about her huge successes (rebeccawinke.com). She's a brilliant woman with a sense of humor to match. Hopefully, we'll get together again before we leave and after her return from Africa.
Wednesday found us on a long taxi ride, way up the mountain, to the loving arms of none other than Letizia Mattiacci, our friend, inn-keeper, cookbook author and owner of a very special cooking school. We were her guests and together, with her other students, we prepared a sumptuous lunch, complete with a huge amount of Umbrian wine. Letizia, some of you may recall, was our guest this past Winter. Now, we can cook for each other. Maybe not. She's still way better! Her home is gorgeous and the views of the valley and countryside are spectacular. It was a fun day with a group of new friends and one we will not soon forget. Check out her website, blog and recipes at incampagna.com.
On Thursday morning, our bags once again packed, we hopped the train for Florence. It's a two and a half hour trip and the adventure was well worth it. We've been to Florence a few times, never by train and this time, we were not leaving until we had seen a few things that we had been unable to see in previous visits due to time constraints. Time was on our side this trip so we found a hotel for 2 nights and got our cultural fix. I was NOT leaving the city until I finally went to the Accademia and saw, "You Know Who".......I got there early and much to my shock, walked right in, no line....and soon after uttered these words to myself....."I'VE SEEN DAVID AND NOW I CAN DIE". That simple. No further explanation. Can die. Now. What a thrill. I cannot believe that in all of my Florence visits, I had never gotten that far. Seen all the replicas. But, geesh. I can't describe this magnificent work of absolutely amazing art. Go see it. How the hell did he do it? One, single, brilliantly executed work of marble. One man. Holy cow.
The huge Santa Maria Novella train station is mind-boggling. So huge and so many people passing through it. By some miracle, we found our way through the system and made our train on time, returning to the peace, solitude and coziness of Assisi on a rainy Saturday night.
We already have so many new stories. We are making inscriptions on our hearts every day. Quite often we both just stop and think about how well we do this whole thing together. We, along with the fly that we have now adopted, are enjoying our daily routine in our apartment and looking forward to another week of adventures and stories.
And, we did not come here for the food. That's a lie.
Wednesday found us on a long taxi ride, way up the mountain, to the loving arms of none other than Letizia Mattiacci, our friend, inn-keeper, cookbook author and owner of a very special cooking school. We were her guests and together, with her other students, we prepared a sumptuous lunch, complete with a huge amount of Umbrian wine. Letizia, some of you may recall, was our guest this past Winter. Now, we can cook for each other. Maybe not. She's still way better! Her home is gorgeous and the views of the valley and countryside are spectacular. It was a fun day with a group of new friends and one we will not soon forget. Check out her website, blog and recipes at incampagna.com.
On Thursday morning, our bags once again packed, we hopped the train for Florence. It's a two and a half hour trip and the adventure was well worth it. We've been to Florence a few times, never by train and this time, we were not leaving until we had seen a few things that we had been unable to see in previous visits due to time constraints. Time was on our side this trip so we found a hotel for 2 nights and got our cultural fix. I was NOT leaving the city until I finally went to the Accademia and saw, "You Know Who".......I got there early and much to my shock, walked right in, no line....and soon after uttered these words to myself....."I'VE SEEN DAVID AND NOW I CAN DIE". That simple. No further explanation. Can die. Now. What a thrill. I cannot believe that in all of my Florence visits, I had never gotten that far. Seen all the replicas. But, geesh. I can't describe this magnificent work of absolutely amazing art. Go see it. How the hell did he do it? One, single, brilliantly executed work of marble. One man. Holy cow.
The huge Santa Maria Novella train station is mind-boggling. So huge and so many people passing through it. By some miracle, we found our way through the system and made our train on time, returning to the peace, solitude and coziness of Assisi on a rainy Saturday night.
We already have so many new stories. We are making inscriptions on our hearts every day. Quite often we both just stop and think about how well we do this whole thing together. We, along with the fly that we have now adopted, are enjoying our daily routine in our apartment and looking forward to another week of adventures and stories.
And, we did not come here for the food. That's a lie.
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