Buon giorno!

Our first stop in beautiful Italia was Assisi...famous for San Francesco di Assisi. It's a beautiful, quaint town in Umbria. We got off the morning train from Ancona without knowing where we were going to stay or what to expect. We started walking through agriculture fields with red poppies popping up all over. After walking for a bit we saw the town of Assisi up on a hill. It was a warm day and our walk was about to get a lot steeper. We persisted though and eventually made it through the steep streets and numerous stairs to a nice pensione. The lady that owned to place greeted us with the most enthusiastic "Buon giorno!" I've ever heard. She showed us the room and through open the curtains with an even more enthusiastic "Sole!" I'm not sure if my italian spelling is correct, but it indeed was a beautifully sunny day and the room was perfect.

After unloading our packs we ate lunch and headed straight for the magnificent Basilica di San Francesco, which is quite impressive. After that we were ready for our first Italian gelato. I got a cioccolato and CJ got tiramisu, 2 great flavors that we happily devoured while strolling the narrow streets of Assisi. We truly enjoyed the small town of Assisi, which was a last minute addition to our itinerary on our way to Roma.

The next day we headed for ancient Rome where we were to meet up with our friends Paul and Barbara who were on holiday from American Samoa. Barbara is from Roma so we were looking forward to an insider's guide to the city...and she didn't disappoint. More about Roma in our next post.