Saturday - A Rain Day In Assisi

10/5/13. Saturday - A Rain Day In Assisi First a note about our activities last night... We walked back up the hill to San Rufino where we knew that Martha had been able to access the internet. I had typed both blogs for Thursday and Friday. After many try's I was able to post both blogs and get my emails but could not send my pictures. We shopped at the market for lunch tomorrow then had pizza and ice cream for supper. It was getting dark and we wanted to see Assisi with its evening lights on so we walked down and down all the way to the tour bus parking lot. The lights were nice but not sure if they were worth all of the effort it took for us to get back up the hill. What was beautiful were the lights on the Basilica San Francisco Martha did a video of the bells ringing. Wow what a great way to finish out a wonderful day. We were back in our rooms by 8 PM And in bed asleep by 11.

Awake by 6:30, down to the kitchen for another wonderful breakfast. Listening to it storm outside we enjoyed: yogurt with cereal and jam, Mellon slices, a huge croissant, toast, orange juice and 2 cups of cappuccino . By this time the rain had slowed down enough that with our rain coats on, we set off walking to the basilica of San Francesco. This is the closest large church and only a short distance from our rooms. Also this is where the Pope held his outside mass yesterday that we attended.

We made our way around and down to where, we thought, the Basilica Gift Shop was located...nope...inside the church we went and found that a morning mass had just started. We stayed for the complete Mass as if it is storming tonight , as predicted by the weatherman, this will count as our Saturday mass.... A bit early, but better than going out in a storm. Round and round, up and down we went trying to find the best kept secret gift shop in Assisi. Finally we found it and was so glad that we had not given up as it was a large shop and this is where we bought our Rosary's for this trip...back inside the church, we found a monk from Assisi to bless them for us.

Outside again....we were able to take pictures from the main front doors of the grass area that was home yesterday to the many pilgrims that were here for the feast day and to see the Pope. Today the streets are filled with tour guides and hordes of tourist most holding umbrellas as it's starting to rain again. Up the street we found a great looking pizza that we took home with us. This will be our dinner tonight as we are still full from breakfast.

We have been using our time to relax and work on our computers. Looks like we have a window with no rain so think we may go out. No... The weather report show heavy storms coming and we don't want to get caught outside when it comes.... The sky's look dark and full of rain so think that our best bet is to just relax and enjoy a day off before we travel to Rome in the morning.

Martha is using this time to organize her notes, and tickets for our time in Sorrento and Rome..she does such a good job of keeping us all on track and always seems one step ahead of doing what needs to be done.... I just follow along knowing that she has everything under control.

It's now 3:30 in the afternoon and we have had our desert first...the chocolate bar that we purchased last night. We have decided to keep the bread and Nutella that we purchased yesterday for lunch today for a lunch on the train tomorrow. And will just enjoy our pizza about 5 PM. We do have a hot pot in our room so we have enjoyed endless cups of hot water. .....the rain has never gone away.....am glad that Martha has arranged for a taxi to take us, after breakfast, to the train station,where we will be off for Rome.

Well we waited out the rain....at 4:15 we checked outside and the rain had stopped so off we went with raincoats in hand to find Saint Clara's Church that Pope Francis had visited yesterday . When we watched the TV coverage we found that when we were in St Clair's on Thursday we had not gone downstairs or over to the side chapel and had missed the 2 most important items in this church. BTW St. Clara church is actually called the Basilica di S. Chiara. On the way to this church we walked through street after street of open markets selling everything under the sun. Only once a year are the markets allowed to be up in the old city of Assisi and that is on the weekend of the Feast day of St Francis. We thought maybe the rain had canceled the market, but not so, we just hadn't walked far enough this morning. We got back to our room by 5:30.....made some phone calls and now at 6 PM I think we are ready to share our pizza and call it a day... Both are enjoying being able to read our books. Chou