Study Abroad: Florence: The Hilltop Town of Assisi, Umbria

We chose the town of Assisi as our first destination since arriving in Florence. Taking the regional train, we left around 8 in the morning and arrived at the Assisi train station around 10:40. Assisi is a hill top town like many in the region, built overlooking the Umbrian countryside for protection from invaders. Unlike Florence which lays on a flat piece of land near the Arno River, making it inherently founded by the Romans (who had little concern for an inability to protect themselves), Assisi's fortified village could have originated as early as 1000 BC before it was eventually adopted by the Etruscan civilization who built upon it until it was finally taken over by the Romans in around 295 BC. Assisi is most notable for being the birthplace of Saint Francis. Francis, known as the Patron Saint of animals and the environment, gave up his life of wealth and luxury to preach against corruption in the church and an end to the conflict of the crusade after hearing Jesus speak, "Go Francis and rebuild my house which has fallen into ruin." Francis is also the first saint in history to have allegedly received the stigmata and is given credit for setting up the first nativity scene. His tomb resides in the crypt below the Basilica of Saint Francis, making Assisi the second most pilgrimaged site in Italy under the Catholic faith, second of course to Saint Peters in the Vatican. The original pilgrim path still exists as the walking route up into the city, all uphill-thirty-minute-climb of it. We opted to take the 45 minute walk from the train station to the path and up into the city, but I've heard a sort of "hybrid" method of doing it is to take a taxi up the hill and then still get the experience of the path by walking down it at the end of the day. Once in the city center, we made our way up to (in Assisi you are always either going up or going down) to the Basillica of Saint Francis which consists of two churches built on top of each other. The lower one is the older church when contains the entrance into the crypt, and the higher one is the newer church which contains murals of the scenes of Saint Francis' life covering every inch of the walls. When we entered the lower church, a choir was singing hymns. The sound reverberating through the space without the need for microphones or speakers was amazing and natural. Down in the crypt, the tomb of Saint Francis stood at an alter adorned with lit candles and surrounded by pews where people were silent in prayer. It was a very surreal moment. Once outside the church we continued towards the main piazza. Around the piazza we found a sit down restaurant for lunch, the first that we have been to in Italy. We started with a plate of traditional bread filled with spinach, ham and cheese, and then I ordered homemade spaghetti with sausage and cream sauce. Wow. We sat around the table for awhile and were brought more bread to eat while Brad ordered a second course of pork and the girls finished their wine. Afterwards we were rested and ready to continue our journey to the very top of the hill where the fortress is located. In times of invasion, residents of Assisi would ascend to this fortress and lock themselves in for protection. Today it serves as the location for an amazing view of the city and the countryside below. In general, however, the last thing Assisi is lacking is views. Steep winding staircases smashed between two buildings open up at the top and bottom into views of the countryside and open air. It was a nice change to be out of Florence and away from its smells of gasoline and smoke and its noises of street sweepers and bells and buses and sirens and yelling people. After spending awhile at the crumbling fort (you could pay to go in, but we were more than content with the view from the outside), we made our way back down into the city where we shared a couple cioccolata calda which is the Italian version of hot chocolate. The Italians don't bother wasting much of the glass with hot water or milk. No, this stuff is liquid chocolate that they serve in a mug with a spoon included. After warming up a bit we made our way down to the train station to catch our train back home.

If you are interested in how the trains work...

For anyone travelling to Italy, there are several types of trains ranging from the regional to the Freccia Rossa (red bullet). We took the regional train which makes lots of stops along the way and is the slowest, but also the cheapest. It cost 13 euro each way and we were able to buy our tickets either online or at the train station in one of the kiosks. Buying them online, you pick which time you want to depart, you print the PDF, and it serves as your ticket. On the ticket it says that you are able to take any train to the same destination within a 4 hour window of your time, however, we found out that that 4 hour window only applies after your original time and you cannot take a train before instead. They do not check tickets at the door of the train and instead walk up and down the aisles and punch your tickets in route. The worker pointed out that we were not supposed to be on an earlier train but when we started speaking english and he didn't know enough to explain, he shrugged it off and moved on, either way we had bought a ticket. The other option is to buy one at the train station which costs a little more if bought on the same day, but is valid at all times. Before you get on the train, you must insert this type of ticket into the little green dispensers all around which basically mark the ticket as "used" since there is no specific time on them. You then show this ticket in the same manner when they walk the aisles in route, and they punch it just like the others. The Freccia Rossa trains are much faster, but act more like airplanes in that you have to buy your ticket ahead of time, something like 7 days in advance, and you are most likely assigned a seat. For anything under 3 hours, I personally would opt for something like the regional train, the ride wasn't bad at all (until you saw the red bullet fly past your window).