68: Arezzo & Assisi

I woke up at 6 am and showered. Got some last minute things together and headed towards Piazza Independenza. I boarded the bus, got comfortable and began my nap as we made way for Arezzo.

Upon arrival, we headed to the church of S. Francesco to view some frescoes by Piero della Francesca that illustrated the Legend of the True Cross. We saw some various other things including a fake dome that was painted on canvas and then applied to the ceiling of a church. The dome only looks realistic from one vantage point and is interesting to view it from other angles. We also saw: an alterpiece by Lorenzetti, Piazza Grande, Gothic Cathedral and the House of Vasari.

At noon we returned to the bus for a while before stopping at a rest stop for lunch. I had a chicken sandwich and some chips. It was ridiculous expensive there. We then continued on to Assisi. There we saw the church of S. Francesco that includes the Life of St. Francis which are some amazing frescoes by Pietro Lorenzetti. Helen wasn't able to talk to us about the frescoes, though, because students from Rome had reserved the upper church for a prayer.

Other things we saw in Assisi: church of S. Chiara, the central square, church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, and the S. Rufino Cathedral. We then headed back to the bus for a 40 minute ride to the Counter-Reformation church of S. Maria degli Angeli. This area also includes the site in which St. Francis had died. Back to the bus for another 2 hour ride to our hotel.

We checked in, threw our things in our respective rooms and then went downstairs for dinner. We had 2 long tables for the 50 of us. Our first course was pasta with tomato sauce, in which they topped our plates 2 - 3 times. It was marvelous. Helen had mentioned that they served meat too but I figured that since we were getting so much pasta because they weren't going to serve us meat. I was wrong. Next, they served us salad and lentils. Then, they served us 2 pieces of pork and one peace of veal. And then, to top it all off they served us little pieces of pie for dessert. All the while, the group of us (Alonzo, Jeremy, and Brad) all split 4 bottles of wine between us. Needless to say, we each felt great and the atmosphere of the room and the others around us made the evening even better. We stayed up til about 12:30 am and finally had a push up (yes, push ups) competition before bed. Prior to sleeping, I deemed it appropriate (and thankfully so) to drink 6 cups of water.

I fell into slumber.