Assisi

On Sunday J. and I went with a group from St. James Church (an English speaking church we have been attending) to Assisi.  Assisi is a cool little town literally built into the hills in the region of Umbria in central Italy.  It is famous for the birth place of St. Francis.  He is the saint that gave all of his worldly possessions to the poor.  Every year, around Easter, many Franciscan's make the pilgrimage to Assisi - we only saw one man in his burlap robe - in the next few weeks there will be many more that make the journey.  

This is a picture of J and I in the town.  You can see how it is built into the hill, it is very beautiful!

This was our "tour guide" for the day.  It was pretty special to be shown around such a religiously centered town by a Father.

This is picture of the front of the Basilica Di Santa Chiara (Basilica of St. Claire).  She was a follower of Francis and she founded the Order of the Poor Ladies.

You can see that the church is made out of pink and white stone which are found in the area.  All the buildings are made out of this stone and at dusk the whole town glows - it is quite beautiful.

This is me in front of the Basilica of St. Clare

Here we are, making our very own pilgrimage to the Basilica Di San Francesco (St. Francis' Basilica).  We chose to leave our shoes on though, so maybe it doesn't really count as a pilgrimage...  But we certainly enjoyed the church.  The lower church has the tomb of St. Francis while the upper church is full of beautiful frescos, including frescos of the life of the Saint.

In the 90's there was a pretty bad earthquake in Assisi.  There was still evidence of rebuilding all throughout the town.  Many of the frescos in this Basilica were destroyed.  They are trying to restore them, but it is a long process.

This one is just for fun...

Italians really need to figure out a better way to communicate with their signs... we just couldn't figure out what this one was trying to say...  

Brother and Sister meet in Munich

Andrew was in Munich for a conference, so I jumped on a plane to go hang out with my brother in Germany - how cool!  The first day I arrived, we went to a supper with his conference group.  It was at a restaurant called the "Last Supper" hence all the Jesus and Mary paintings and statues.  We had a lot of fun, and our waiter was very generous with the Jagermeister, much to Andrew's liking!

We woke up quite early the next morning to make the most of our time in Munich.  We walked around and simply enjoyed the old beauty of the city.

We visited several churches, they were all unique and special.  I especially liked this one, I have never seen a yellow church!  The inside is entirely white carved stone, it was very impressive.

At 10:45 we headed to the famous Glockenspiel at the "New Town Hall" to see the exciting "show."  While there we joined up with a free tour group, which ended up being a fantastic time.  We spent the next 3 hours with the most hilarious tour guide and learned so much about the history of Munich.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

After a quick lunch at one of the oldest restaurants in Munich, Andrew and I climbed up the belltower of the St. Peter's Church.  It was very scary, but we did have some pretty amazing views of city.  

This is at the beginning, I am thinking "ok, it's narrow, but no problem..."

Then we got to the next part... To the crazy steps with the openings (so you can see all the way down) it was really, really scary (for me, Andrew raced up them).

Once at the top, I held on for dear life and tried to enjoy the view.

Even though it was raining, we spent the rest of the afternoon sight-seeing.  Then we made our way to the Hofbrauhaus which was founded in 1589!  This was such a fun, and huge brew house - it has a live polka band that plays all the time and it can serve over 1000 people at a time, just on the first level!

This is me enjoying a liter of lager, gotta love German beer!

This was my very traditional German meal.  Wieners, sauerkraut and beer.

That night Andrew and I got the see his favorite show ever - the Rocky Horror Show.  It was so much fun!  The show was mostly in English, except for the narrator who spoke German, we were laughing so hard.  The actors were amazing and it was the best production of the musical we have ever seen (possibly the best one ever done!)

After the show, we went back to the Hofbrauhaus for one more beer.

We had a wonderful, and completely packed, day in Munich.  It was a ton of fun to see Andrew and we were so lucky to have this travel experience together!

Week In Review

J. traveled with Firoentina to Amsterdam this week.  He worked the whole time, so was unable to do any sight-seeing or visit friends.  He thought it was fun to travel with the team and was even asked for his autograph!  

While J. was away, I tried to make the most of my time in Florence.  I walked for hours and hours around the city center and feel pretty good about getting around on foot.  I went to several museums, and was able to spend a long time studying the art and enjoy the beauty!

This is a picture of the religious centre of Florence.  As you can see, I had a perfect day to walk around - the weather was so beautiful!

This is the Santa Croce Church (Chiesa di Santa Croco).  It is one of the biggest and oldest churches in Florence.  This is where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried.  

I also took a cooking class!  It was a lot of fun, the chefs were a riot and made the whole night a really fun time.  This we my cooking group.  We made gnocchi alla romana, a spinach tort, and a yummy orange cake.

And then we got to eat...  YUMMY!

One of the players from the team wanted to take J. and I out for supper.  I had no idea we could have so much fun with a guy whose English vocabulary consists of the words "Congratulations! oh-my-god, Good night and Oh, Yes" - all of which he had to shout!  When he picked us up, we said "Buona Sera," he said "Congratulation!"  It was soo funny!

The Argentinean took us to an Argentinean restaurant.  He ordered for everyone and... it was quite the experience!  The wine and empanadas were great!  Then came the next course...

Did you guess?  Maybe this picture will help...

It is tongue!    The tongue was very good compared to what came next... All the innards.  Ah, my stomach is churning just thinking of it!  Kidney, intestine (when I cut mine, all the "junk" squeezed out the side) and lymph-node.  I can't write about that any more, my stomach...

The rest of the meal was really good.  The meat was delicious and the desert was fantastic!!

We were able to look at a couple more apartments this week.  Now we basically have to decide which one it is that we want.  We are hopeful that things will fall into place soon.  I know that our hotel is going to miss us when we finally "move out."