Thursday 5-20-04 Assisi

I've planned a change of pace for today--A Vastours bus trip to Assisi. It's about 3 hours away and I thought it might be a good treat to have a bus pick us up at the doorstep and have a tour.

The bus is supposed to come at 6:45 am. 6:50 --no bus. Oh no. Did I give them the wrong address?? A little mini bus stops across the street and waves to us. This is a bus that collects everyone from around the area for various tours. This bus takes us to the agency where we pay 243E  for 3 of us, then another bus that takes us to a bigger bus. It's 8 before we head out of Rome. Okay this is interesting. Half the bus speaks Spanish. This tour is in Spanish and English.

First stop is at Orvietto to see the Cathedral. We get off the bus and get into a funicular to take us to the town on the top of the hill.

Next a public bus to the Cathedral. There are enough of us to fill a large tour bus, plus other people are coming and a little mini bus shows up. I had promised my children the nice thing about this day is that we wouldn't spend any time standing on a crowded public bus. Okay I lied. But not on purpose!

We don’t make it onto that bus. The guide promises us another one. A large group of school kids show up and their leader takes them to the font of the line "Dees ees OUR bus!" the guide assures us and sure enough she physically holds back the kids so we can all get on.

The bus drops us off at a pretty piazza round the large Cathedral covered with scaffolding. I find the striped brick pattern interesting --it reminds me of a prison uniform.

There's a beautiful art inside that I read about in a book I bought after I saw it. I especially liked Luca Signorelli's painting of the Resurrection of the Dead. Wish I'd had the book first so I knew what to look for. No, I wish I had Liz from Scala Reale with me!

We get to Assisi and its time for lunch at the Hotel Savoy which is included except for drinks. Lunch is lasagna (not bad) and some unidentifiable meat that I think is lamb but Sarah won't eat it if it's lamb so I tell her I don't know what it is, salad, French fries and gelato for dessert. It's okay, not great, but lunch takes an hour and a half.

We get a local guide whose first language is obviously Spanish. First we go to the Basilica of St. Francis.

I think the Spanish are getting a better tour. She goes on and on and on in Spanish.

In English all she says is "And dees eez a peecture of St. Francis talking to dee birds" Oh great, I needed a guide for that.

There are lovely mosaics in both the upper and lower church. There's scaffolding in the upper church, still working on restoration from the 97 earthquake. Then we walk through town to St Clare's church. Isaac has  had enough churches and waits at the hotel. This is a terrible guide. We would have been better off getting book and doing this on our own.

The bus takes us down to the St.  Mary church with the little church inside that St Francis restored. The kids think it is ironic there are signs forbidding dogs in a church dedicated to St Francis.
We pass a beautiful field of red poppies down the hill.

Final stop--a ceramics factory. Other tours listed this stop and I picked Vastours because they did not mention this and thought I could avoid it. Not possible.

I did get to taste Orvietto wine which was very good but I didn't want to have to lug wine around. I tried some dark chocolate that was good but not any better than we can get at home. Most of the stuff here is crap. They have a lottery and two lucky winners on the bus get to take home free crap.

It was after 8 pm before we got home. I'm glad I saw Assisi though the kids are not sure it was worth it. Next time I'd do it on my own.

I don't want to cook. It's 8:30, normal time to go for dinner.

We decide to try the place our rental lady suggested, also recommended in Great Eats, Da Marco E Fabio Formichello. We think we can't find it and decide to go into an interesting looking trattoria we pass by. Turns out from the cards on the counter -this is it. It just has a different name out front. The book suggests reservations but we are seated without a problem.

A nice looking young man comes to our table and says "My mother just made lasagna- you like?" Well we had lasagna for lunch already but I sure don't want to insult this nice young man's mother.

OMG --this was the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. It's made with some kind of wonderful creamy cheese. We clean our plates, wanting more.

He comes back and tells us he's bringing us two pizzas. Okay, whatever you say. One comes with tomato sauce and cheese and one with mushroom, olives prosciutto and a hard boiled egg. I eat most of that one. Finally he comes by and offers dolce. Isaac has lemon sorbet and Sarah and I have cream cameral, wonderful custard with caramel sauce.

My kids are finally getting into the long leisurely Italian dinner. A wonderful thing is happening. They talk. They talk to me, to each other. They talk about school, friends, they joke. The entire bill including wine and pop is 50 E.