Buon giorno, Perugia! -aka- "We'll move"

The title of this post is a little misleading, since we actually spent the day in Assisi. The Umbra Institute arranged a last-minute day trip and tour for us, so we set out by train around 9:30 and were in Assisi by 11. As a quick aside, Italian public transportation is by far my favorite. I took a subway a couple days ago in Rome and it was super nice and clean and airy (also, the poles were set up differently so it's like a center pole with 3 curved poles attached to it so like 5 different people can actually reasonable hold onto one pole - brilliant), and then today we took the Mini Metro (picture one car of a train, but smaller and taller and on this elevated track that goes throughout the city... if you've seen the Incredibles, it actually looks somewhat like their train thing!) to the train station and then took the train to Assisi, where we met our guide, Marco.

Oh, Marco. He was... interesting, to say the least. He apparently wasn't used to giving Americans tours in Italian and not English, so he enunciated eeevvvvvveerrryyythinggg he said (making it less clear, counter intuitively) and constantly asked us, "Ci siamo? Capite?" and other questions along the lines of "Are you with me; do you understand?" But he did it in a really condescending manner (though he wasn't trying to be condescending at all!), and we all felt dumber because of it. He would also target his gaze directly at once of us for a few minutes at a time, and constantly shouted out his conjunctions and make rapid hand gestures to accompany them. Very dramatic. While in one of the churches he focused on me and said, I kid you not, "Lui era un veg-et-ar-iiiiiii-aaahh-no. Capite? He was a vegetarian. He didn't eat meat. You with me?" Sigh. We also kept joking among ourselves about his repetition that "Assssiiiiiiiiiiiissii è uuuuna ciiiiiitttààà diiiii paaaaaaaaacccccceeeee" - Assisi is a city of peace, as he told us time and time and time again.

Peaceful it was, though. It was truly a lovely little town, actually one of my favorite places I've been so far. And of course, it was SO pretty. Also, there were cats everywhere. It's a city of cats. And animals in general (I had my first Pomeranian citing in Italy!) to go along with the whole St. Francis thing. [Oh and by the way, it turns out his body and St. Clare of Assisi's were relocated from the outskirts of town to the city, so St. Clare's waxed corpse is on display in the basement of Santa Chiara church... there is actually like at least one dead saintly body encased in every church I've been to here. Not gonna lie, I find it kinda creepy.] There are a TON of churches in Assisi, but we only got to see / go into four - the Basilica of Santa Chiara, the Basilica of San Francesco, the Cathedral of San Rufino, and Chiesa Nuova (which is at the birthplace of St. Francis). All were of course GORGEOUS and Luciana and I took some time to pray in each one, so it was a really spiritual day for me. I especially liked Santa Chiara's Basilica because they have the replica San Damiano crucifix that he prayed before, and which he was praying before when he received the message from God that he was to rebuild the church, and Marco talked to us about its significance (he WAS very knowledgeable and passionate - I'll give him that).

The San Damiano crucifix depicts Jesus on the cross suffering, but serene. There are bright colors, emphasizing His glory and strength in the face of torture. He is at peace, His face reflective, inviting Christians to follow His example. There are also several other saintly examples to follow in the figures that are standing next to Jesus – the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and St. John the Baptist, among others. No one knows the particular artist who made the original crucifix, but it is thought to have been a Syrian (!), and it is now cherished by the brothers of the Franciscan order as a symbol of their lifelong commitment to God and the Church. And there is a whole lot of brilliant symbolism that’s really cool and inspiring that you can ask me about if you’d like. Or Google it, that works too :)

The prayer that St. Francis prayed before this crucifix was framed in several languages around the cross, so I kneeled and said it in Italian, Spanish and English (and also took prayer cards in each of those languages) because I really find it a beautiful prayer, one with values that people of any faith can appreciate. I also bought myself a 1 euro necklace of the San Damiano crucifix so I can keep those thoughts with me throughout the day :)

Here's the prayer, for those who may be interested:
Most high, glorious God,
cast your light into the darkness
of my heart.
Give me, Lord, right faith,
firm hope,
perfect charity
and profound humility,
with wisdom and perception,
so that I may carry out
what is truly Your holy will.
Amen.

During our lunch break (aka break from Marco), Rachel and I first got gelato (yay!) then took a walk around (okay, first she had to follow me as I went in and out of souvenir shops indecisively...) the town. We went through this little broken wooden gate at one point and the view was simply STUNNING. I was just in awe of how beautiful it all was, and as we walked back down to the center of the piazza I texted my mom saying, "Why do we live in the US when a country this beautiful exists???" to which she responded, "We'll move."

I think that's a grand idea. :)

Day's Recap:

Number of times Marco said "Capite?": approximately 526

Cats seen: approximately 124

Flavors of gelato tasted: Limone (lemon - first fruit flavor, that was for you Mom!) 

Pace,
Michelina