Dear Alan,
Thank you for your kind card welcoming us home from Italy.
We enjoyed ourselves and we’re glad we went.
We hadn’t appreciated before we went that everywhere in Assisi is up or down quite a steep hill so there were a few aching muscles even though we are used to walking up and down the rather gentler hills in Sarratt!
We like looking at churches so, as expected, there were plenty of them for us to see. We enjoyed the challenge of walking up to Eremo delle Carceri - some even steeper hills! It was well worth it, though, for the fascinating insight into the life of St Francis and co., and the peace and tranquillity we experienced there.
There were more steep hills to get up to Rocca Maggiore but it was fascinating to walk through the long narrow tunnel and up the spiral staircase to come out at the top of the tower.
The plus side of course, is the wonderful views over the surrounding countryside.
The room from our hotel window was a treat. There were also lots of swifts nesting in the eaves of buildings and swooping around catching insects. This was a real treat for us because we used to have swifts in our garden every summer.
As someone who only likes to be away for a short time, having already spent a night in Florence, I was ready to go home after three nights in Assisi.
We had seen everything we wanted to, although there were more churches, I’m sure. We’d had some good meals in the restaurants in Piazza del Commune and an ‘experience’ in the Michelin restaurant at the hotel (expensive and not much food on your plate!)
We also went to a couple of shops selling leather goods and I came home with a leather jacket and a handbag. There were lots of shops selling souvenirs, and some selling clothes, pottery, etc.
It’s quite a small place so I think a few days is enough unless you were going to travel outside of Assisi.
Thanks again for all you did to sort out our travel and accommodation. It all worked very well.
Kind regards,
Jeannie & Alan