Assisi e la Notte Bianca

No, I didn't mislabel today's blog entry--and don't you worry, I didn't have the cocktails on the right in the religious city of San Francesco (St. Francis). And one of them was Posh's.

It was another week of goodbyes for me. This weekend it was my friend Lana's turn, so on Friday night we had drinks at Lochness Lounge (mine and Posh's are pictured right with my blurry bartender). We followed that with more drinks at another bar--picture 6 pitchers of long island iced tea for 6 people (I probably had a third of a pitcher at most), and then I had my first adventure of accompanying a heavily-intoxicated person home (another friend of Lana's). By the time I showered and went to bed it was past 3:00am and I had a very early wakeup call the next day for Assisi.

The planned wakeup time was 6:10am. What actually happened? I hit snooze until 6:42am, woke Posh up, and we hustled to leave our apartment by 7:10am with our Swiss roommate to meet another friend at the train station by 7:40am to take the 8:02am train to Assisi. Lots of times, I know.

The train ride took a bit more than 2.5 hours and upon finding seats, I realized that:

• I accidentally brought Uzi (my small camera) with me along with Neru (my DSLR)
• My iPod's battery was empty

Luckily we all fall asleep and arrived in Assisi just before 11:00am. The first photo I took in Assisi was of the map to the left at the train station. It was a map for the bathrooms...which didn't even need a map since they were only a few metres away. Later on I realized that there was braille as well, so it would be helpful to the blind. But riddle me this, how do blind people know that there are maps? And if they do, how do they know where to find them without assistance?

We took a short bus ride to Piazza della Libertà. Through the window, I caught a glimpse of the Basilica di San Francesco and was enthralled. The town was located on top of a hill and all of the buildings were sandy rose-coloured.

The Basilica di San Francesco from below

So, we knew where we'd first stop: the basilica. Entrance was free (yay!) but photos were not allowed (boo!). We entered through the basilica inferiore (lower church) and I gazed up at the frescoed ceilings and walls, some attributed to Giotto. We followed the flow of people to descend to the tomb of San Francesco. Needless to say, the church was packed.

Upstairs was the basilica superiore (upper church) with frescoes by Cimabue, among others, retelling the life of San Francesco. Luckily my art history teacher had referred to this basilica several times during our lecture at Santa Croce so I knew a tiny bit rather than nothing, but I still would have preferred her knowledge and presence in Assisi! 

The courtyard at the Basilica di San Francesco

I very much wanted to linger a bit longer but my travelmates were bored and hungry, so we set off to find a place to have lunch.

Facade of the basilica superiore di San Francesco

As we walked up the main road, all I saw was souvenir shop upon souvenir shop. Suspended above the beginning section of the road were multi-coloured umbrellas, part of a project called Sotto l'ombrello ("under the umbrella").

Then I saw the sign. And it opened up my eyes.

The sign was for a restaurant called Trattoria al Camino Vecchio ("old chimney") and I was intrigued by its location. My friend and I agreed that to find the good restaurants, you must walk through the little streets, and that's exactly what we did.

I ordered the strangozzi alla francescana, fresh pasta with black truffle, funghi, and prosciutto crudo sauce--a specialty of Assisi. Even though it doesn't look appetizing, it was delicious and I managed to finish it all.

Strangozzi alla francescana: tastes better than it looks

My friend and I shared one of my favourite Italian meat dishes: saltimbocca alla romana, veal topped with prosciutto crudo and a wine and sage butter sauce. His reaction was priceless--upon taking his first bite, his eyes immediately widened. He now knew he could trust my taste in food.

Saltimbocca alla romana

After our satisfying lunch, we walked onwards and upwards to see the pastoral panorama and more beautiful sandy buildings.

Assisi and its environs

An example of one of the many beautiful Assisiani homes

We visited the Rocca Maggiore, a medieval fortress that is not worth the 5€ for its views or exhibits, and the church of San Rufino. At some point, when we had about 3 hours left until our train home, it dawned on me that I had totally forgotten to bring my Rick Steves guidebook. He has a whole section on Assisi! (I still have yet to read about it...)

But after all of that uphill walking and sleep-deprivation, and seeing that Assisi was really a town for the devout, we decided to return to the train station and try to stop by neighbouring Perugia on our way back to Firenze. When we got to Perugia, however, we realized that we were not near the centre and ended up spending our 40 minutes in McDonald's. So if someone were to ask me what Perugia was like, I would respond somewhere along the lines of "American".

More than two hours of sitting in a train compartment full of French teenagers later, I was surprised to start feeling ambivalent towards the French language that I had come to love so much in my late teens, and also a bit worried that this animosity will continue when I go to Paris in a few days. I hope not.

We arrived in Florence around 8:00pm. The streets were busier than usual because it was Notte Bianca or "White Night", a designated all-night long celebration in the city with light and art installations, open museums and shops, and general drunkenness. I was originally planning to walk around by myself to get a look at everything, but in the end, my tiredness and laziness won me over. Besides, I had my weekly nightlife experience yesterday.

Today's expression of the day is passare la notte in bianco, or "to stay up all night long". Its literal meaning is "to spend the night in white".