Overnight Trip to Assisi

"Start by doing what's necessary,

then what's possible, and suddenly, you are doing the impossible."

Saint Francis of Assisi

Mary photographing the yellow broom
at Sassaia before we set off for Assisi!

Up and out early, heading out for an overnight visit to Assisi, the hometown of Saints Francis and Clare, with Gladys & Jesus, Paula and Mary.  After just a few challenging few moments with the toll booth on the A-1, Paula drove us flawlessly past Lake Trasimeno, into the province of Umbria, "The Green Heart of Italy."  The arrival in Assisi and finding our way to the Residenza San Crispino was a bit scary (lots of narrow roads, steep hills and U-turns!), but we eventually found our way and checked in with the hard-working, serious, but very kind Dante who suggested the Taverna dei Consoli for lunch, overlooking Assisi's Piazza del Comune.  

View of Santa Chiara from the terrace of our rooms at
Residenza San Crispino, Assisi

Picture-perfect, bright, sunny day as we enjoyed our delicious lunch ... but when it came time to leave the restaurant and meet our wonderful tour guide Marco at the Chiesa di Santa Chiara, it was pouring cats and dogs!  Maryanne and Bob Randolph drove over from Tuscany to join us for our tour which was very WET but, as always with Marco, terrific.  He led us down streets I'd never seen before, told funny stories, shared a lot of interesting history of his town and its most important residents - Francis & Clare.

Paula and I didn't win any fashion contests that afternoon,
but our BRIGHT orange and yellow plastic ponchos kept us quite dry!

Lunch on the sunny terrace of
Taverna dei Consoli

At the tour's conclusion, we headed back to San Crispino to freshen up, take photos in our pretty two-bedroom, 2-bath apartment and enjoy some local Umbrian wines  ... Paula continues to be busy filling up her wine diary.  Dinner at Trattoria da Erminio near the Church of San Rufino, was delicious, delightful and very reasonable  ... a small, family-owned spot where Allan & I enjoyed a meal in 2007.   Back to San Crispino where we traded photos from the day and laughed heartily about our adventures ... and then fell happily asleep with dreams of Francis and Clare and their beautiful Umbrian town filling our heads.