assisi [a day trip]

    
greetings from rome. as the weeks progress my time is getting more filled with school work and projects. however, its pretty nice when there are field trips sponsored by school because then my professors don't expect me to be working in studio! pretty handy. last week saturday, september 26, i went on a day trip to assisi.  the bus ride was about 2 and 1/2 hours but it was very much worth the trip. we visited various cathedrals in assisi, namely, the st. francis of assisi cathedral. the inside was marvelous and splendid in color, size, and decoration. unfortunately i wasn't able to take very many photos inside the cathedral because its seen as somewhat disrespectful,however, i did snap a few pictures of the original frescoes inside the church. st. francis of assisi is the patron saint of italy, animals, and the environment. there are three levels of the church but rather than 2nd and 3rd floors upward, they descend into the ground. thus, you end up two floor into the ground so the lower floor where the tomb of st. francis remains is quite dark and somber.
     after visiting the cathedral we had lunch at a quaint little restaurant where i had a delightful dish of various types of mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and parsley. although it was simple, the mushrooms were amazing and quite delicious.
     once we had some food in our bellies, we were ready to find another monument. we discovered the rocca maggiore castle. we had to hike quite a while to get to it, but the tour inside the castle was pretty interesting. there is a polygon shaped lookout tower that you can walk up to and there you see a pretty fabulous view of the entire city of assisi...and then some. take a look at the photos included and i will post more on flickr as well. love you all.

     on thursday i leave on another field trip- we are going to naples, pomeii, herculaneum, and sorrento- i will have lots of updates and pictures after the trip.