Assisi

Seven years after our first trip to Perugia we also went back to Assisi - mainly to see the places were Saint Francis of Assisi lived and is buried. Mia got picked up at the old city gate by the Cacciatos who had an extra spot in their car - we had to wait a bit for them to show up

 - we took the train and then walked to the church which was our meeting point. A holy father helped us to go the right way

Inside the church was a chapel that Saint Francis had build and when we left a big souvenir shop

Then we went uphill to the town of Assisi to the church were St. Francis is buried:

 

 

We spend more than an hour inside but picture taking was not allowed - but we made up for it outside

 

 Someone was singing a song that was based on y prayer by St. Francis - beautifully videotaped by Dan

Outside the compound was peace bell donated by the state of Bavaria to show the harmony of the four main religions in the world

 

 

Then it was time to head back since the Cachiattos were invited for dinner -

 

 

Since there was not much time the seven of us squeezed  into the car with Mia and Nico in the  back of the Ford Focus station wagon

 
We had a nice evening dinner in a restaurant down the street from our hotel before leaving town the next morning

 

Florence

Florence is only about two hours by train away from Perugia. So we took the opportunity to go there for a day trip. We had bough the tickets a day earlier but the machine had not printed all of them due to a malfunction - so we carried a note from the station master explaining the situation.
The train left on time 

Our first stop was the duomo where it was very crowded and there were long lines for the visitors who wanted to get in

The building was very impressive and with the white and green stones different than any other church we had seen before

Mia noticed some Italian luxury cars - this Ferrari seemed to belong to the owner of a local pizzeria:

The famous covered bridge Ponte Veccio

Since it was quite hot and really crowded we decided to leave early and head back to Perugia

But because of a very heavy and violent thunderstorm that knocked over trees our train got stranded in Terentola and it was an adventure to be able to get back to Perugia from there by taxi cab. It was also quite expensive- but we were happy to be able to have made it back

Meeting our friends

We finally met out friends after they registered their oldest son at the university for foreigners where he had signed up for Italian classes. First we spend some time in the old town  since they were running a bit late

 
Then they finally met us at a square in front of the university 

Since it was already early afternoon time we looked for a good place for lunch close by

Then we also went back to the underground city which had also checked out together on a trip seven years earlier

An ancient city gate outside the buried old city 

Dinner at an nice outdoor restaurant in the old town:

In the evening a scream from the shower when Ji discovered a small visitor. Mia helped to get him out