Given the confusing nature of Siena’s streets, it was fitting that on trying to leave the city, we got lost by going exactly the wrong way. Happily, Siena is such a small city that we were able to recover the mistake without messing up our timing for our train (plus, in anticipation of this possibility, I had gotten us out of our hotel early).

Our next destination was Assisi. Sadly, there is no good way to get to Assisi. Even though we were leaving from the train station, the two-hour driving distance would take us five hours, using first a bus, and then two more trains. We (mostly Mer) helped out a woman from Iowa who thought she had a ticket for the bus, but only had an itinerary instead (as the very excitable driver told us in very emphatic Italian). To be fair, the driver did finally help the woman get a ticket, but it was tense for a few minutes, and the bus did leave about ten minutes late.

The bus ride was through absolutely beautiful hill country with picturesque farms everywhere. The beauty helped make up for the speed difference between bus and train, and the trip was pleasant. The train legs of the journey were fine, and we got to Assisi and checked in to our hotel about 3:00. The hotel was quite marvelous, with our “room” actually being a small apartment with a kitchen and separate bathroom. Mer and I were impressed, especially since the cost was very reasonable (I think it was the second-cheapest place, after the hostel in Ravenna).

I like to listen to college lectures produced by the Great Courses (formerly The Teaching Company); I listen to them when I run, and it helps pass the time profitably. Recently I  bought three lecture series on Christianity that I thought would be informative without being irritating; I bought a lecture series on Francis of Assisi, a lecture series on great Christians (which covered Francis in one lecture), and a series on the history of the Catholic Church (which covered Francis in a lecture). With all of these talks on Francis, I really wanted to go to Assisi, and Mer humored me.

Assisi is really cute. The town is up on a hill about two miles from the train station, which connects to the town with a one-euro bus fare. Mer did not know exactly where our hotel was located, but wisely pointed out that if we rode the bus to the end of the line, the hotel would be downhill instead of up.

We found our hotel after wandering some wonderfully narrow streets, although shockingly, people still drove down them. I pointed out to Mer that people will go to rather ridiculous lengths to have a car nearby; some of these streets were really tight even for small cars.

The first order of business for the day was to visit the Basilica of St. Francis. The Basilica is huge, and was built shortly after Francis died, to honor him. At the lowest level is a crypt with the tomb of St. Francis; above is a church decorated with frescoes of the life of Jesus on one wall and of St. Francis on the other; on the main level is the basilica, which is gigantic and decorated, but not to the excess we found in some of the cathedrals we saw on this trip.

We walked down (and down and down) to the church, and we started in the lower church so we could visit the crypt first. I have a couple of Catholic friends, and I badly wanted to burn a candle for their families and pray for them, as an encouragement to their famlies. It turns out you can’t burn a candle yourself, but you can buy a candle and set it aside for a friar to light on the altar at a later time. Mer and I did find a quiet corner behind the altar/tomb to pray, and it was a peaceful time.

We popped back up to the “smaller” church, and wandered around looking at it. The art was grand, but we were both amused and horrified that small chapels had been added to the main church after it was built, and this required them to cut through the frescoes. That was a shame even as far as that goes, but it looks as if one of the frescoes must have been the resurrection of Jesus – the panel before it is of Jesus being put in the tomb. Who thought it was a good idea to remove the resurrection panel?

We popped up into the main level of the church. I actually do not have many impressions of it – my main purpose was to see the crypt and to pray for my friends, so the basilica impressed without leaving an impression. The outside of the church is simple and beautiful, with a wide green space and a modern sculpture of Francis riding his horse back from trying to go to war, when he had to go home because he was ill and because he felt God wanted him to go back. It was an interesting and striking piece to put outside the basilica.

We went up (and up and up) to the hotel so I could rest, but we swung by a small overlook and sat looking down on the basilica for a few minutes. The overlook was outside a small church that I would have loved to have gone in and looked around, but it seemed as if a small Mass was going on, which I did not want to disturb. I was really overheated, and I grabbed a Sprite for the sugar and water, and drank it back in the room; I napped a little as well, until about 7:00. I felt better for the rest, and so we headed out for supper at an amazing spot. Assisi has a restaurant that has balconies overlooking the entire plain and hills around Assisi. The food was fine, but the view was unbeatable.

I then decided we should just wander around town and enjoy the alleyways. I always tried to choose small streets that were car-free, and I liked taking stairs up anywhere they presented themselves.  We saw a sign pointing up, but it was in German, so we could not read it. We took the stairs anyway, and we stumbled on a small gathering of Germans sitting on benches in front of a shrine to Mary, getting ready for a small worship service. They were very friendly and offered us song sheets, but we don’t speak German, and we did not know how long the service would take, so we declined as graciously as we could. As we wandered off, we heard them singing – it was pretty nice.
We kept wandering up, and saw a kitty. Upon turning the corner where the kitty was, we discovered a courtyard with five kitties in it, at the feet of a woman speaking English to someone on the phone. She seemed amused as we fussed over the cats, and as we were leaving, she told us to come by anytime to see them.

We continued up and up, and finally reached the access road to the old castle overlooking all of Assisi. The castle itself is a tourist attraction and has hours of operation, and it was closed. However, the hill is accessible, and it has an amazing view, and it was sunset. There were only three of four other people around, and it was quite peaceful. We lingered for a fair amount of time, but I wanted to make sure we still had some daylight as we made our way back to the town. I was pleased by that decision, as the well-maintained-but-still-dirt path we took down brought us past a couple of unhappy dogs and dumped us out near what appeared to be a small, abandoned part of Assisi. It was a very short walk into the main town from there, but I was happy to have some light to see by.

Back at the hotel, I discovered I was out of range of the main hotel wi-fi signal (we were in another building), so Mer and I went into the square and sat outside a cafe. Mer read while I checked e-mail for any urgent messages (there were not any), and while I drank a hot chocolate. The evening had cooled down, and it was a pleasant place to sit. I have to agree with Assisi’s claim to be a “city of peace.”