Thursday travel day

10/3/13. Travel day to Assisi Went to bed about 9 PM after reading my book "The Last Templar" for a hour or so, it was recommended by Jane Conn and I am really enjoying it. Woke up at 4 and dozed for a couple of hours. By 6 Martha was awake. After breakfast we walked up to the square for a last minute check on the internet before walking down to catch the bus that would take us down to the train station in the new town of Cortona. While on the square we also purchased our bus tickets and a new USA Today to catch up on the news from home....especially the government shutdown.

Because of an earlier, than planned, start we arrived in Assisi by 10:30. Bought bus tickets than ended up using a taxi to get us up to the old town as each bus that came seemed to be overflowing with people. Seems like everyone is coming to town....think it might be that Pope Francis is coming tommorow! Anyway the taxi got us much further than the bus would have but, we still had a good walk to find the little shop owned by our landlord to sign in and get the key. What seemed like a very long trip because of the 200 steps, with luggage, it took us to find our room we were not very happier campers. But since then we have discovered that it is a lot closer than we thought, by going a back way, to the Basilica of San Francesco. And yes, we were close enough to come back to our room for a w/c break if needed, but Tomorrow it would mean losing our spot, wherever than might be, so imagine we will just tough it out on Friday.

But knowing how busy it will be tomorrow, we spent the next five hours walking up and down the canyon streets of Assisi visiting 6 of the 12 sites that Pope Francis will be visiting on Friday, October 4th, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. On that day you will not be allowed to enter these churches unless you have a ticket. In fact it's gonna to be hard to gain access to the streets just to get around in Assisi. While walking we had a picnic lunch near a fountain mid afternoon with food we had brought with us and an ice cream cone for desert. As we walked down the streets we begin to notice that each and every manhole cover on the streets had at least 2 or 4, on the larger ones, bright orange marking... We figure that it was to mark the holes that they have checked. Martha even found a hot spot for her phone near San Rufino cathedral. We are busy typing right now, Friday afternoon, in hopes that we can go back tonight, after security has eased a bit, and be able to post. That has been our other problem...the promised wifi in our room has not worked out. The only thing working well is Martha USA cell phone. Hopefully I will be able to post this tonight otherwise, it may have to wait until Rome.