Laura, Teresa, Kelsey and Lisa, you guys will definitely relate to how this day started!! It's my one moment of panic that happens on almost every trip!! This morning, of all days, I overslept! We were supposed to leave the hotel at 6:45 am and I woke up at 6:50 am.....not good. We hopped into our two taxis and took off into morning rush hour traffic. If I thought that traffic was crazy when we were walking, it's even crazier when you're riding in something other than a large bus! We careened into the terminal where our tour started, only 10 minutes late, but ready to be on our way. Today we did a tour to Assisi and Perugia. Along with our 6, there was a couple from Australia with us as well. Our driver was Jonny and our tour guide was Claudio. We drove through the beautiful Umbrian countryside full of medieval villages, olive trees and vineyards. This is most definitely my favorite part of Italy so far!

We made a stop first at St. Mary of the Angels to explore where St. Francis died. This was a very beautiful church. It was located at the bottom of the hill from Assisi and we got a wonderful view of what we were about to visit. We now headed up to Assisi. Once there, the only cars allowed inside the walls are those that actually live there, so more walking! However, this time, we were able to take an escalator up to the top of the hill rather than climb the steps (whew, saved my legs for tomorrow!!!). We walked through the beautiful village on our way to the Church of St. Clara, which was built on the site where St. Frances' home once stood. Again another beautiful church with many fresco's painted on the walls.

From there, we continued on to the Church of St. Frances of Assisi. This church looks similar to the Church of St. Clara, but only from the inside. On the inside, there are frescoes describing St. Frances' life all around the church as well as more on the ceiling. Assisi suffered a massive earthquake in 1997 and there were two pieces of the ceiling that fell at that time, one piece killing 4 people. Today, they have restored one of the ceiling pieces with the original pieces that fell (they were dug out of the rubble and put back together like a puzzle) and below it are flowers in honor of those who died. The other piece that fell was over the alter and not all of the pieces were found, so that fresco is not complete and will not be restored to it's original state because of the missing pieces. However, the altar below it was completely restored. The alter was covered with mosaics and all of those pieces were found.

After St. Frances' church, we had a beautiful lunch at one of the hotels in Assisi. Once we finished our wonderful meal, we were off to Perugia. In Perugia, we were on our own to explore and shop. I spent most of my time there looking out over the Umbrian countryside just taking it all in. It's so unbelievably beautiful! With our tour complete, we hopped back on the bus back to Rome. We were dropped off and decided to find somewhere to eat near the metro.

Paula found a great restaurant near the Capucin Crypt we visited the other day and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner. Today was also a day to celebrate.....Paula and Bob were celebrating their 41st anniversary today! To complete our day of celebration, we enjoyed some yummy gelato.....mmmmm good!

Now it's time to head off to bed and get some sleep.....tomorrow is Vatican City and I hear rumor of a climb to the top of the cupola at St. Peters.....which means 323 steps. Must get some sleep! Good night all :)