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Day 22 May 5th
Assisi
Assisi is nearly everything that people say about it. That is, its very heavily visited by tourists, its expensive, its crowded and its compact. Having said all that it was well worth the effort getting here.
The city has that wonderful mixture of old and older. Houses, buildings range form the very old eg medieval to the slightly newer eg 16th century. The stone structure is reflected in the paving slabs that are everywhere; no tarmac here. They are also tall so that the narrow streets feel, at times dark, particularly when they are only a few feet wide. Sadly, the authorities have failed to deal with the car menace so all day they 'dashed' along the streets. It would improve everything if they were banned!
Of course, Assisi without visiting the churches would not be possible. Therefore, our first port of call was the huge S Francesco Church which can be seen for miles (kms?). It tries to do two many things, I guess, but it probably has to try. You Mass being said, being sung, in different languages, in different places so movement is hard. There are the people who are employed to watch the visitors but who struggle to maintain a sense of dignity and quiet whilst allowing the tour groups to make their visits. Walking around with a microphone ne hoarsely whispered, from time to time, 'Silencio'. In addition, just to ensure everyone understood he added, 'shussssssh'. After a few minutes, the noise level slowly rose again until he was forced to repeat his injunction. Once again, apart from the 'older' groups from USA, Korea, Italy and so on there were also the school kids, all of whom make a noise just because they are a group. Of course what one sees is extraordinary and its hard to describe. The odd picture may suggest, I guess.
Wandering the streets, we soon discovered that we had arrived on a festival weekend. I'm not sure what it was all about but it seems there are competitions between the Uppers and the Downers over three days when they all dress up and parade through the streets, hold competitions and generally entertain people. We could not attend as all tickets had been sold but the flags in the streets suggest something of the atmosphere.
Saturday is the day for lunch and wine. Therefore, we went to an Enoteca where we tried Bruschetta with local olive oil and a truffle sauce. Very nice, when washed down with a local white called Grechetto which was very pleasant, or a red called Sagrantino. The red came very well recommended and the man was right. A long taste right down the throat, its a dark, heavy wine that unfortunately challenges the wallet somewhat.
We did get to other places as well and the day was pleasant.
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