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."

Bologna

We were able to spend a day in Bologna.  

We just walked around the whole day looking at the neat old buildings and enjoying the good food!

This is the main church in Bologna.  When they were building the church they were competing with Rome and were attempting to make this the biggest church in Italy.  Rome stopped them, which is why this church is not complete.  You can see that the marble on the outside just goes half way up the church.

There was a market that lined this entire street.  It was fun to walk around and see all the fresh food.  We knew that restaurant owners shop here every day for all their fresh ingredients. 

Here I am enjoying the yummy, yummy food!

Fiorentina vs. Chevo

Fiorentina vs. Chevo (from Verona)

Here we are in the VIP area at the stadio.

The amazing Fiorentina Fans.  We are told that these are the "cheap seats" but these fans are the loudest and the proudest!

WE WON 2-1!  It was such an exciting match.  We tied the game with minutes to go and the scored again in over-time.  It was a trill to hear the excitement of the fans! 

Fiorentina vs. AJAX

Fiorentia vs. AJAX

Our first Fiorentina Match

The scene at the the "Stadio" was unlike anything we have ever seen.  The fans are "super fans" and soccer is such a huge part of their lives, they live for their team.

J. had to work with the players before the game so I was escorted to the VIP section - where I have a seat for every game!

The game was a ton of fun!  Sadly, Fiorentina lost, 0-1.  Soccer is a whole new world for us.  We are quickly learning the rules of the game and all the players names.  Hopefully one day we will learn all the songs (the fans sing the entire game, it is crazy!!)

Before the game started, the man sitting next to me was talking to me about the game and what I was doing there (he only believed that my husband worked for the team after he went and confirmed with someone that J. did in fact work for the team and he was "the best in the world" - J. swears he has never paid anyone to say that...)  Anyway, this man introduced me to another man, after that guy left my neighbor asked if I knew who that was that I just met.  I said no and he got this look of confusion and said that the man was Pucci a famous Italian designer.  Sure enough, today walking around I saw one of his stores, right next to Louis Vuitton and Armiani...

Climbing the Duomo's Dome

J. had an afternoon off so we decided to climb the Dome of the beautiful Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore).

So we started up the 483 steps...

Up and up...

There were only a few times where I felt nervous about the tight area.  

The dome was built with a dome within a dome and you literally climb up between the two domes.  It got scary when the domes curved at the top, you kind of had to lean to walk up the side... I was very glad it wasn't crowded.

All those steps were worth the beautiful views from the top!!

Then we had to go back down!  463 back down...

After climbing the steps we ended inside the Duomo where we were able to see up to the inside of the dome.  It was a pretty neat experience!