Assisi Day 1 Part 1

      There is so much to cover! I loved Assisi. It's now one of my favorite places in the world. It was quiet, peaceful, clean, and it had practically no graffiti, unlike Rome.
     Driving towards the city, it looks a lot like Minas Tirith, which obviously made me very excited.



The church on the mid-left is the Basilica of San Francesco. The tower to the far right is the larger part of the Roman fortress; my hotel was pretty close to it. It was much closer to the fortress than it was to San Francesco.

     It was built by the Romans around the time of Christ, and is now divided into Upper and Lower Assisi. Upper Assisi is the older part of the city, built on the hill. Most of its buildings have the medeival outer structures with all the wrought-iron.... things-on-the-outside. There seem to be a lot of hill-top cities in Tuscany and Umbria (regions countaining Siena and Assisi, respectively).
     The streets are cobblestone, and people have flower-boxes out their windows, and painted tiles near their doors. And tile roofs.



A very normal street in Assisi

     There are 35 Catholic churches in Assisi (I think this includes Lower, but I'm not sure); the group saw about seven of them. Some of us explored the town and found more.
     We left Rome on Sunday morning and got into Assisi before noon. We checked into Hotel La Rocca (named after the fortress), and then the tours began. (Dramatic music.)