Driving into Assisi you get a very postcard like view. The small town nestled on the side of a hill, St Francis Basilica on one side and hundreds of orange tiled roofs covering the town. We parked at the bottom of the hill and trekked our way to the top. When we finally made it to the top and entered the city walls it was like stepping back in time. The town was very well preserved and felt like nothing much had changed in the past few hundred years. There was minimal traffic, not a McDonalds in site, the streets where all stone, and besides the few Souvenir shops, relatively untouched.
Assisi was on the top of my places to see list from the very start, back when this roadtrip was just an idea/conversation back in our lounge room in Wimbledon nearly 12 months ago. Assisi was a significant stop for myself and for Amy as our grandfather had travelled there 14 years earlier. Amy and I were young and this was a time before digital cameras so we only saw a few photos, but he gave all the cousins Assisi crosses. These are made of wood and looks like a “T” with Assisi written along the top. I still have mine and take it with me as a sort of lucky charm whenever i travel etc. I’m pretty sure Aims still has hers. But it was nice to see the place that our Grandfather was not able to stop talking about when her got home.
St Francis Basilica was beautiful. In 1997 the region was hit by an Earthquake so some of the wall murals and parts of the foundation are cracked but never the less it is still breathtaking. We wondered around there for a bit and saw St Francis’s tomb in the lower levels of the church.
After the Basilica we wondered the streets of the town, snaking there way up and down. We wondered past a choir practicing in one of the old halls which was the perfect soundtrack to walking the old paved streets.
I can defintely understand why my grandfather liked this place so much. I wish we could have stayed for a day or 2.
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