Assisi and Perugia.

I am going to have to do another post on Assisi, and tell you specifically about St Francis.  For now, let me catch up with general things.

We loved our night at Valfrabbrica.  Our hostess was a delight, as was the meal she cooked, and the company.  Up until now we have really only mixed with the small pelegrino family we had leaving Dovadola on the Cammino di Assisi,  but this night our companions were pilgrims who were walking the Cammino di San Francesco, which is the path that begins in la Verna and goes to Rome.

 We walked quite some distance out of Valfabrica to see this church, which was once the church attached to a Benedictine abbey. 

 The interior of the church, and below, one of the frescoes in the church.

The streets of Valfabbrica twisted their way from one end to the other.

Because of my painful knee we decided it was safer to catch a lift to Assisi, which we did with some companions from the previous night.  The road was longer than the path would have been, and after an early start we arrived at Assisi just on 9.00, with the streets still reasonably quiet.  The process then began of finding the tourist office and our hotel.  

Assisi is a beautiful town, set on a hill, with wonderful views out across the valley in one direction, and up narrow streets and alleys and over roof tops in the other.  There are many churches here, and many sights of import in relation to the life of St Francis, which I will show in another post.

The streets, during the day, are filled with tourists, along with nuns in habits and monks in their robes mingling amongst the crowds.

The streets of Assisi are often steep, and, as in this case, a street of steps for pedestrians only.

This Church is known as the temple of Minerva

You can see the age of this building from the pitting of  these pillars

I love the shapes that can be seen in such small spaces,

and doors are a constant source of interest.

Julie proudly holds her Assisiana.

The views are stunning, both downhill, 

and uphill.

I love the views through the "Porte's".

The little room that this monk is headed to is where the Assisiana is collected.  The Assisiana (a certificate) is prepared at the time we register in Dovadola, and was ready and waiting with our names printed on it when we arrived.

We caught the bus to Perugia to pay a brief visit to this extraordinary city, set on a hill.  Leaving the bus station we followed our noses, and a group of tourists who seemed to know where they were going, into what appeared to be an underground tunnel.  We found ourselves at the foot of escalators and headed up, and up, and up - into an area of tunnels.  We later discovered that this was actually the walls of a castle building that the Pope had instructed be built back in the middle ages.

While in Perugia we got caught in a torrential thunderstorm, arriving at the bus dripping wet!  The thunder was deafening at times, and the streets were awash.

The interior of the castle where we found ourselves.

One of the exterior entrances to the maze of tunnels in the walls.

The interior of the cathedral.  This is the first time I have seen marble to this extent on this trip.

The exterior of the cathedral was never finished.

The unusual shaped church of San Ercolana

The frescoes in this church were amazing

Looking into a side chapel in the Church

Tourist Julie admiring the view from the entrance to the Church.

We are now walking on the Camino San Francesco.  We have a different credential, the pilgrim passport which entitles us to stay in specific pilgrim accommodation, and we are approximately half way to Rome.  Because we have to be in Rome by September 7th to meet Jim, Julie's husband we will have to catch the bus a few times.  We will work out when and where as we go.

I will post later more on Assisi and St Francis.