We had an early start to our day so we could get going on our long drive. We were told it will take about 6 or 7 hours to drive to Assisi, but that was after taking the Funicular down the hill, then the ferry back to Napoli.
On the way we stopped for lunch at a highway gas station, but it’s nothing like we’d seen before. They have a restaurant that serves home cooked meals, cafeteria style, we were really surprised that lunch was so tasty. The gas station even has a little shop where people can buy snacks for the road and all sorts of toys and things!
After a long ride, we stopped at the Basilaca of St. Frances (of Assisi) for a tour. We heard that St. Francis is a patron saint of Italy who died in 1226. There is actually a double basilica, upper and lower, and a friary. There’s also a crypt directly under the alter of the lower basilica. The lower is a bit dark and the upper purposely more light.
A nice lady showed us around the basilica and along the way told us the story of St. Francis from the time of his spiritual conversion. Much of the story is depicted on artistic frescos covering the walls inside the basilica (it’s too bad we weren’t permitted to take pictures). The frescos mot only showed the life of St. Francis and other scenes from the bible but also show a progression in artistic ability as time moved on. The first frescos are quite one dimensional but as they progress we could see more dimension and emotion in the painting. It’s all quite something to see.
When we left the Basilica we were invited to a shop to taste some local wines as well as balsamic vinegar and local olive oil. The Umbria region is well known, mostly for wine wines and olive oil but have also developed some terrific red wines in recent years.
As we end another day we’ve settled in a hotel in Perugia for the night before heading off on our next journey. We found out that Perugia is a bustling college town with lots of restaurants and quaint little shops, along side the campus buildings.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 