Italy

Miles travelled 109.
On this visit to Rome, we did our first real “Roman Tourist” stops. In our previous trip to Rome we didn’t go to any of the usual spots. So when people asked us did you go to the Coliseum we had to say no. ditto for Trevi fountain. This time we decided to make sure to hit some of the highlights.
Our first stop by the subway exit was Maria Degli Angeli.

Santa Maria Degli Angeli from the front-- used to be a Roman Bath!

Cool sculpture in the door of St. Maria degli Angeli

Sculpture of beheaded John the Baptist YIKES

It was previously a Roman Bath house which was converted to a Church. The Church was fairly impressive, but even more so the art being exhibited there along with an exhibit about Galileo and his discoveries. Galileo very much believed that by investigating “Science” it was like asking questions to God and receiving answers from the “Book of Nature. We wandered this sector of the city looking for the Opera. It turns out they were sold out for our whole visit. I guess the opera is pretty popular over the holidays.
Our second stop in Rome was the Coliseum and Constantine’s arch.

Colisseum

Colisseum signature dip + Kiss

Out of the Subway and there it was

Constantine's Arch

The Colisseum attacks Sara

They did not disappoint, though we were surprised because as soon as we came out of the subway the Coliseum was right there in front of us. We did our trademark “dip and kiss” and enjoyed the site lit up for the night time toursists. We then walked along the Via Forii and saw many of the Forums constructed by various emperors to do the business of governing.

One of the many Roman Forums...go figure

Marcus Aurelius Statue

Hadrian's column with church in Background

Hadrian's column

We also saw the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, we enjoyed it very much though many view it as an “eyesore”.

Victor Emmanuel monument 2

Victor emmanuale II monument-- they say it is an eyesore we loved it!

We also saw the Trevi fountain and visited a Church across from it.

Trevi crowds

Trevi sculptures

Sara preparing for Trevi wish

The church was nice and prayerful, with a multitude of people lighting candles and meditating inside. We completed the tradition of tossing our coins in the Trevi fountain to make sure we would return to Rome before heading out. Next we walked to the Spanish Steps. The Spanish steps were decorated for Christmas with a subtle tree and nativity scene.

spanish steps nativity

Spanish steps Christmas tree

View of church domes from top of Spanish Steps

Pope's nativity

Trevi fountain

The next day we went by the Vatican to see about getting a Mass said for a friend who passed away. It turns out that the office that does that is only open from 4-6 and we arrived at 2!

Outside vatican city

Outside vatican City

Swiss guard at bronze door

Well, we decided to jaunt over to St. John Lateran to see something on my “to see list”. It was the Popes’ seat before St. Peters was built. The land was donated by emperor Constatine himself, but the church that is there now only has pieces of the original church due to sackings, earthquakes etc though most of the early popes are still buried there.

lateran Front 2

Lateran Front

Lateran apse mosaic

John Lateran Pope's chair

John Lateran

lateran Angels...there were a lot

Donations anyone?

view to St. Peter's from Lateran

Sunset on Lateran Baptistry.

Moonrise outside Lateran

I twisted my ankle (again) on the uneven pavers outside St. John Lateran as we began the dash back to the Vatican while the Mass office was open. Sara left me outside the pharmacy to seek cough medicine and an ankle wrap while she went on to the office alone. She succeeded in her mission and we were reunited in time for dinner. Sara and I really felt good to have accomplished this goal for our friend.
We also partook of some good Italian food including Gelato and Tiramisu. I had been tempted on several occasions in different countries by the fresh roasted chestnuts, well I finally got some. They are not quite what I expected. They smelled good, but had a strange semi-solid texture and a somewhat bland flavor.
We got a better feel for Rome this time, but the graffiti and garbage around the city still leave us a little disenchanted with the Eternal City. Next, Onward to Poland!

Miles travelled 870.
Landing in Rimini proved to be a little of a shock. I told Sara that I expected Italy to be around 55 degrees, but when we landed it was snowing and about 32 degrees. Rimini turned out to be a cute seaside town that was mostly shuttered for the winter season. We had a nice meal and rested up before making the drive through the Appenine mountains to Assisi the next day.

Almost to town after touchdown in Rimini International!

Snowy streets of Italy

the Italians have landed.

Hotel Trieste, Mike found this one for $50! Nice

Rimini Streets of snow!

The drive turned out to be amazing. The roads were clear and easily navigable as we made our way to Perugia to drop off the car and pick up the local train. We saw lovely Italian hill towns and snow clad mountains through the whole trip.

Appenine 7

Gubbio 2

Gubbio, Cute town

Appenine 5

Appenine 2

Appenine snowfall en route to Assisi

I want this house!

Unfortunately there was some confusion on our part about the train “to” Foligno or “from” Foligno, and we had an hour long train detour going the wrong way! On the plus side, we got to see the beautifule Lake Trasimeno, which is to the north west of Perugia. It was a real stunner in the sunset.
Finally, we made it to Assisi after dark and had a really hard time locating our Hotel.

St. Francis Basilica night

Assisi night view

We asked a slew of people and hiked nearly the length of the town with our luggage. Finally, a girl in a nice homey restaurant gave us a map and pointed us to the exact spot. The meal was delicious, black truffle on home made strangozzi. We also had a salad and a liter of wine that cost $3. AWESOME. After that we headed to the hotel and walked right up to the door. Luckily, the hotel turned out to be fantastic. The staff was great and the location was perfect. Hotel Hermitage is the place for anyone who needs one!
So, for those of you who don’t know, St. Francis began the tradition of the Nativity in 1223. Needless to say, there were countless nativities of every variation spread about the town and in every church. We even went to the theater and saw a play about how St. Francis was inspired.

We enjoyed every minute of our time in Assisi. Sara and I each made several hikes. Sara went to Mass in about half the churches in town and visited almost all of them. We went to Christmas mass in the lower Basilica of St. Francis. Sara said she almost felt like she had the gift of “ears” since she understood nearly all of the homily which was in Italian. I told her I was not sure if there was any such thing as the gift of “ears” even though hers are very cute!
Among the new stops we found most enjoyable were the crypt of St. Clare and Mass at St. Stephen’s on his feast day. St. Stephen’s church was simple, small, and adorable. The bishop presided and a heavenly choir serenaded the forty of us gathered there with amazing music.

Nun and el Bambino!

The crypt of St. Clare houses several amazing artifacts: a mass vestment made by St. Clare around 1300, bits of one of the original habits of Clare and St. Francis, and the original rule of the Franciscans. The portion of the crypt that housed the relics of St. Clare was beautifully decorated and very prayerful.

St. Clare's Chapel of San Damiano cross

Cool present from Brother Sun

Other highlights were the Hermitage on Mt. Subasio (where we saw St. Francis’ prayer cave), the Rocca Maggiore,

View from Rocca Minore to Rocca Magiore

Rocca Minore

Rocca Maggiore

and the crypts beneath San Rufino cathedral. The hike up Mt. Subasio took us through beautiful winter woodlands. The hillsides were festooned with green, brown, and orange making a delightful backdrop for our grueling two hour hike all uphill! Sara said the countryside reminded her of one of Bob Ross’ paintings with “happy little trees” placed here and there, and then scolded me for not knowing who Bob Ross even was! We also had the joy of feeding grass and petting some miniature donkeys along the roadside….so cute!

Sara enters the forest!

Subasio view

Sara art shot

Friends on the hike to hermitage...their ancestors might have been preached to by Francis

St. Francis grotto Hermitage

St. francis sculpture meditating on stars and moon

Subasio after the clouds rolled in...mysterious ..yes?

Entering St. Francis Grotto at Hermitage on Subasio

Subasion view of Assisi

One of Sara’s hikes took her down off the hill of Assisi to the Sanctuary of the River Torto. She found amazing joy in hiking across the Italian countryside and finding a cute spot to have coffee in the little town with the old men that were playing cards!! Nearly every place we visited or walked during our first week we were the only tourists. The solitude refreshed us both.

Door to Francis house!

francis mom grave

Francis dad grave

Assisi view

Holy Cross church west of Assisi

Roman dated ruins

Roman Tunnel

Amphitheatre ruins

A local Italian woman who works at the pastry shop befriended us. Christmas evening, we spent hours talking with her in the shop about the adventures of her life. It was a nice way to spend our holiday!

Pastry shop gang esp Concetta our pal on right

Some of the treats

More amazing stuff

It was a hard day when we took the bus to the train station to go to Rome. Our previous experiences in Rome had left us with mixed emotions about the eternal city, but that is where we were headed for our final three days in Italy.