We awoke this morning to a group of noisy tourists outside our door in the hallway as they hauled their bags down the stairs to check out, followed by the usual ringing of bells...
After getting up and ready we ran down to the little cafe next door, enjoyed hot cappuccinos & pastries and then made our way back down the hill through town to the
St. Francis Basilica to go to church (
it IS Sabbath after all!). We entered through the downstairs chapel (
taking Rick Steves' self-guided tour) and enjoyed the beautiful frescoes covering the walls & ceilings. Then we took the stairs up to the main level where we saw more frescoes depicting the life and fables of St. Francis of Assisi. A fairly severe earthquake back in 1997 caused quite a bit of
damage to the church which has since undergone quite a bit of restoration and looks very good today.
Finally leaving Assisi we headed towards Rome, again taking the scenic and less expensive rout (
avoiding toll roads) through the country and little towns. Italy is so incredibly picturesque. The cities, the country and everywhere in between. We have literally taken thousands of pictures on this trip. It's going to be difficult weeding out the best ones.
Along the way we eventually had to stop for gas and ended up spending 52 Euros for only 3/4th of a tank (€1.47 per liter)! That's somewhere around $70-80! Yikes! I can't wait to get back home where the prices are a much more reasonable $3.70+. Ha! :)
You can compare average prices here. Scroll to the bottom for current rates.
Finally we entered the outskirts of Rome and we hadn't purchased a detailed driving
map of the city yet, so we pulled off onto a small side road and got funneled into a jam-packed little one way street. Then Jane11 remembered that we had a walking map from the first leg of our Italy trip which she retrieved it from her luggage.
It took us 10 or 15 minutes to finally figure out exactly where we were and which direction we were headed, but we eventually found the
train station where we dropped off the car. I've driven in Paris before and that was pretty crazy, but I'm pretty sure
Rome is crazier! Basically
no road rules, pedestrians crossing the street when & wherever they choose, mopeds & motorcycles splitting lanes and swerving right in front of you. Not being able to understand their road signs most of the time... It was all quite stressful, but we managed to make it without a single scratch!
Once we had dropped off the car we found our hotel and dropped our bags off since we weren't able to check in for another several hours. After dropping off our luggage and using the much-appreciated free bathroom facilities we hit the familiar streets of Rome again to find a spot to sit down and make some sandwiches. A few blocks away we found a grassy spot under some trees out in front of the
National Museum of Rome and enjoyed our lunch.
We then spent the next couple hours wandering around town, checking out
cathedrals, water fountains, parks and tourist shops, and enjoyed some real Italian gelato one last time before checking back into our hotel for a short night. Our flight didn't leave until 6:something the next morning so we had to catch the airport shuttle at 2:50 in the morning. Yuck.
