Italy - Assisi - Days 10 & 11 (June 1st & 2nd)

May 9
2 min read

Updated: Jun 3

Monday 6/1

Today is a travel day as we departed Florence, hopped on the magic bus, and went south to the medieval Umbrian town of Assisi.

However, as a nice surprise, our tour guide Martin arranged for the bus to stop for a few hours at the fortress town of San Gimignano ("Jimmy-Yanno"). Sounds like a mafia family name from the Godfather! The ancient Italian hill town in Tuscany, southwest of Florence is encircled by 13th-century walls, and its old town centers on Piazza della Cisterna, a triangular square lined with medieval houses. It has a skyline of medieval towers, including the stone Torre Grossa. The throwback to the 1200s made Mike the history nerd very happy. We spent a few hours there completing some sightseeing and much needed shopping.

From there we hopped back on the bus and finished the journey to Assisi. Assisi is a hill town in central Italy’s Umbria region and is the birthplace of St. Francis (1181–1226), one of Italy’s patron saints. The centerpiece of the town is the Basilica of St. Francis, which is a massive, 2-level church, consecrated in 1253. and contains a crypt which houses the saint’s stone sarcophagus.

We checked into Hotel Umbria in the late afternoon, had a quick nap, and later attended a nice little pot-luck/happy hour with the group. We had a nice mix of cheeses, meats and wines. From there we walked the town a bit and then had some red wine with a few friends from the tour. Afterwards we returned to our room to get some much needed rest.

Tuesday 6/2

On Tuesday we slept in until 9am (traveling is hard work!) and had a late breakfast at the hotel. Today our goal was to do the Rick Steves city walk while listening to a pre-recorded guided tour on Rick's app. We walked around the city and marveled at all of the ancient structures the quaint town had to offer.

We began at an old Roman amphitheatre and continued on to see the Cathedral and museum crypt of San Ruffino, the Basilica of St. Claire, the temple of Minerva & bell tower, the Church of Santo Stefano, and concluded with the enormous Basilica of St. Francis. Katie really was hoping for at least 7 more churches to visit along the way, but I think we'd already met our church quota for the next decade!

We concluded the day by having dinner next door to the hotel in the central place at il Tempio where we had a nice seafood salad for an appetizer and for dinner Mike had a ham, mushroom and olive pizza & Katie had a pork neck with mushrooms plate, complete with some red wine. Afterwards we finished our evening by taking a sunset stroll along the city's edge and were treated to some amazing scenery.

Tomorrow we conclude our tour by heading to the eternal city, as all roads lead to Rome.

That's all for now, arrivederci!!