Hiking in Assisi

After a good night's sleep I am ready to write about the events of yesterday. This will probably be a bit of a long entry just because it is one of the first "trips" I have taken so far in Italy and (while it will not be the last) it was definitely an amazing experience.
The trip really began when Jackie told me that a few people we know were planning to go to Assisi and hiking up the mountains. They had extended the invitation so we decided to go as well.
We met at Piazza Italiano around 7:45am yesterday morning in order to catch the bus to the train station. We missed the train by mere seconds and sat around the train station for a little over a half an hour, drinking cappuccinos, and having a pretty good time.
The public transportation in Italy (at least in Umbra) is so much cleaner and nicer than it is in the US, the train was really comfortable and spacious-- we weren't even sure that we were on second class. The train ride was barely 25 minutes and soon we were in Assisi. We were looking for a particular Piazza because that is where we could find the start of the trail we were planning to hike. This is a famous hiking trail because it has the "best views" and brings you to a small nearby city called Spello. The trail was a total of 10 miles... and we were pretty pumped about it. However, we got a little lost trying to find the actual main city of Assisi. When getting off the train, we could have just taken a bus but we decided to walk (which turned out to be a much nicer time) through a maze of fields and random hostels in the countryside. There was a lot of fog in the morning which gave everything an eerie look. So that was fun, yelling "macchina!" (car) every five seconds, gazing at the landscapes and playing with the soil, which in our region is soooo fertile and amazing to touch and make little animals out of (like unicorns).

So we finally found the town of Assisi, following in a little group of bicyclists and the numerous statues of Francis of Assisi. The town is so different from Perugia, even though we are basically neighbors. It's as if everything is dedicated to Saint Francis, birds on wires over your heads. Statues everywhere regarding his miracles and life. It was a fun trip because we had a biology major, Margaux, (pointing out the types of trees and flowers- I finally found out the name for those tall green trees that I really like: cypress trees) and a history major, Dan, who was telling us all about the town and about Saint Francis.
Once we found the main town we wandered around for a little bit taking tons of pictures and looking in a bunch of the little religious shops at all the tiny monk statuettes and crosses. The town of Assisi is definitely not a one time thing, and I am totally going back to see the frescos and several other main towns in the city.

After a delicious quick lunch of Torta al Testo (which is a very thin toasted bread- not quite like those you'd eat with a panini) we were off on the trail! We finally found where it started and began climbing, and climbing, and climbing. I am so out of shape, but most of us were moving along slowly. Mainly because of the nonstop bikers that kept coming down the mountain, which must have been incredibly exhilarating (also something that I would never ever do). The fog kept clearing and by the time we made it to one point, we turned around and there in front of us was Assisi. It was absolutely incredible, no picture that I could ever take would portray how amazing everything looked.
We then continued to hike only to find a strange little home that had an underground trail, we went in but we only had one flashlight between the 7 of us and it was really tight and creepy so I ran out... but the others said it led to an underground well. It was incredible to see so many things built up into the mountain and even in the town of Assisi and think about how old everything is in Italy. In the town, there were little dated blocks on the walls, one of which said 1739... amazing!
After crawling out of the underground well path, we realized that we weren't making great time (and after missing the train and getting a little lost) we were not going to be able to hike the full 10 miles before darkness. We decided to call it quits and find our way back to Assisi, when we came across some Italian Boy Scouts (!) outside of one of St. Francis' hermitages called "Eremo di San Francesco". They looked like US boy scouts except their uniforms were a lot neater and they seemed to be of all ages. One boy in our group was an eagle scout, and we thought this was a funny coincidence. The boy scouts showed us the way to Assisi and we decided to go inside the hermitage. I think there are at least three in the city of Assisi, and this was a smaller one in the mountains. We had to be absolutely quiet when wandering through the little building and prayer areas. It was a very surreal experience and hard to explain. The statues of St Francis were incredible and it was interesting to read all the tablets within the hermitage. There were even people parasailing over the hermitage, which we all decided we wanted to do at one point :)
After spending some time there, we decided to move on to town. While walking down the road, we saw a Franciscan monk that we had seen back at the hermitage. He had been showing a man around and telling him things in Italian like "this is where we eat... pray.. etc." so we thought that the other man was interested in joining the monks. When we caught up to them, the monk, whose name was Fernando, told us about a "corta?" or short cut... so we ended up following/chasing after the monk and his brother-- as we found out, down the hill.
The brothers were so nice, asking us where we were from and what we were doing in Italy. One of our group members has taken a lot of Italian so she was good at translating what we wanted to tell them and what they were saying to us. The non-monk was visiting his brother in the monastery and told us that he was the "rebel" of the family. They led us back to the Piazza where we began our journey... we were tired, sweaty (smelly)- but we had an amazing and unforgettable day. I posted tons of pictures on my photos page so please go visit them, although most of them do NOT do the scenery justice.
There were many signs throughout the city of Assisi (and even in Perugia) that said Romeo and Juliet was playing in a theatre in Assisi, which we eventually found (it was near the train station). We may go tonight, Margaux is supposed to call to find out how much it costs and if there are tickets left.
Last night after we returned to Perugia, we had decided to move our cooking night to that very night so we all met at Kristen's apartment, which is very nice, and made a giant frittata with potatoes, proscuitto (ham), and fresh mozzarella. Anthony (who is an amazing cook) made sliced zucchini with several herbs and spices which we placed on top of our sliced bread. Jackie brought her frother and we made cappuccinos for dessert (which is a no no, since Italians only drink them for breakfast.. oh well!) Then we played some pictionary and I came back home and pretty much passed out-- I am still incredibly tired... maybe the play isn't such a great idea.
Today I have a "nooks and crannies" tour led by one of the student associate people at the Umbra Institute- Zach. He's american but works for the institute, he's really cool and knows so many interesting things- he led most of the workshops that I had previously mentioned. I am also currently trying out the washer.
My battery charger (for my digital camera) made a weird popping noise while charging batteries and basically exploded. I'll have to look around town for an Italian charger (?)... maybe I'll ask Zach when on the tour. Hopefully I'll find out several interesting places to go to eat/shop while on this tour, as well as learn several history facts... there is also a history tour sometime next week :)
I am going to make some pasta for lunch and read up on the news since people were talking about how the Greek embassy got hit by a rocket? Time for some NPR and CNN.com :\
That's all I have for you. If you read through this entire entry, congratulations!
Ciao!