This past week I noticed a lot. Things in Italy don’t fry as good as they do at home. I made a whole batch of fried zucchini and cauliflower and had to throw it out. One thing I did manage to cook well this week was a sausage peppers and onions sandwich. LOL I even cleaned! My roommate left us due to a herniated disk. It was very and creepy. I’m in the apartment all alone because my other 2 roommates went to Pompeii this weekend and booked a hostel room for 5 people when including me it makes 6… but that’s another journal in itself. ANYWAY, I went to Assisi this past Friday with a class trip. It was definitely the most interesting trip so far. Walking the streets and praying where St. Francis once did almost 800 years later! I saw so many important churches that he rebuilt, and preached at but I can’t really remember what was important about all of them.  haha, visiting 5 churches in one day really confuses you. Our first stop was a 1.5 km down a mountain to the San Damiano church. This was where St. Francis first started his conversion from a partier to a saint. One day the cross spoke to him and said “Rebuild my church”. I couldn’t think of this when our professor asked us what the cross said, but I was so eager I just shouted out “fix me!” he got a real good laugh at that one. In the San Damiano church we saw where he slept as well as the rest of his brothers and we saw where St. Clare slept and died. We hiked back up the mountain onto another mountain that had a scale mobile (escalators) THANK GOD! St. Francis walked that in the medieval times in the bitter snow with no shoes on. If I were him, I would have ordered Jesus to talk to me once I got down there. I don’t remember the name of the next church but it had relics of St. Francis. In the crypt they had his robe, shoes, as well as some of the other friars clothing and St. Clare’s clothing as well. Further into the basement we saw the body of St. Clare.  It was beautiful! We headed to the next church which I also don’t remember the name of, but it had the cell where St. Francis was kept when his father was ashamed of the things he was doing. Outside was a statue of his parents. Next church was the one where the Bishop lived who gave St. Francis his blessing. This was also where St. Francis was being sued by his father, so he stripped off his clothes in the middle of the street and basically saying I’m not your son anymore. This spot is marked in the middle of a courtyard by a statue of him. It was time for a break so we had some pizza and tried to walk to the castle, which was at the very top of the mountain.  Just to give you a clear idea of how far up on the mountain this castle is, I can see it from Perugia across the valley on the other mountain! I don’t think it’s that hard to figure out that we DIDN’T make it. We got lost in the woods somewhere so we just headed back. We met outside the Basilica di San Francesco and headed into the most amazing church I have ever seen. I know I say that about every church so far but this one was TRULY the one. I wish I took pictures but since you can’t take pictures in the churches and I did so in the others, I figured there had to be one that I didn’t. From floor to ceiling was the most intricate hand painted designs I have ever seen. This church was the start of renaissance art. Fresco’s painted on every inch of this church; there wasn’t a blank spot of wall anywhere. Gorgeous bright blue and gold ceilings and marble floors and hand carved designs on the wood of the pews. It was stunning. In the basement was the tomb where St. Francis was buried and even that was gorgeous. He was in the middle and around him where his four main followers. Something’s you just have to see for yourself and Im glad I did. I go to a Franciscan college and he is all we ever learn about. To stand where he stood and to pray where he prayed is just phenomenal. None the less 800 years later! We headed to the bus and then went to one more church. It was HUGE! In it, was the ORIGINAL church that was the size of my bedroom where St. Francis preached and where St. Clare took her vows to be a sister. This was their everyday sanctuary and it was about the size of my car. No lie! It the cutest most special thing I have ever came in contact with. This was the beginning of his brotherhood. We prayed and looked at everything in awe for about 20 minutes and then it was time to go. Next to our tour bus was another tour bus and it was a Mercedes! Italy can afford to have Mercedes’ tour busses but can’t afford to have the heat on in the apartment for more than 7 hours a day and no internet!!?? I don’t get it. And I also don’t understand how this monster of a bus is going to fit up and down these alleyways anyway. They should invest in wireless and heated blankets. Not Mercedes tour buses.