Sarah and I once again got up a little early and made our way to the Santa Maria Novella train station. We got there in time to catch the 8:09 train to Assisi. The trip was pretty uneventful. I think I just listened to music and stared out the window most of the time. We arrived at the train station which is actually in the nearby town of Santa Maria degli Angeli. From there we had to buy bus passes and take the bus up the hill to Assisi. The bus was packed. There's only one reason people get off at this station. Everyone goes up to Assisi. And they were all on our bus.
As you can see, Assisi is built on a hill. To the left you can see the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, or St. Francis of Assisi.
It is a huge church and is the mother church of the Franciscan Order. It has an upper and lower church which were begun in 1228, along with the Franciscan monastery.
Of course the bus doesn't take you all the way up there. It drops you off at the base of the hill. You have to work your way up. I soon learned that this is one tough city to get around. Well, I suppose it's not too bad if you are going to one specific location, but we went up and down all day long. Very tiring. Assisi's residents must have buns of steel.
The complex includes the churches (one right on top of the other) and the friary. Bathrooms are to the right and cost 50 cents. Euro cents that is.
Unfortunately they do not allow you to take any pictures. I thought about sneaking a few but was afraid of the mean looks Sarah was giving me. I saw a couple of other ne'er-do-wells taking pictures so I gave them mean looks too. This is the gothic upper basilica. My pictures would have been better.
This is part of the lower basilica.
This is the tomb of St. Francis. I really wanted to get a picture of this. I couldn't find any really good images of it. There was no talking allowed down here. It was like the Sistine Chapel where, every few minutes when the people start getting bolder and louder with their whispering, a voice comes from above saying, "Silence."
This is the view of Assisi from the church. They have bushes that say PAX (peace) and one above it showing the T-shaped cross of St. Francis. They sell these crosses in about 300 shops around town. I wanted one but Sarah already had one. Apparently I need to find an original key chain.
That's Sarah not looking at the valley below Assisi. Somewhere out there is a train station.
This oratory was set up in the basement of St. Francis's birthplace. It used to be a draper's shop, but was turned into the oratory in the 1200s.
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