Assisi and other thoughts

This is our lovely bathroom, complete with toilet, bidet, large tub, shower, and two sinks, about six times the size of our bathroom at home.

While I'm on the subject of bathrooms, I must complain about the over-zealous green-designers of public bathrooms in Italy. They either have a motion sensor that turns on the lights when you enter or a timing device. Four times so far I have been in one of these bathrooms just doin' my thing, when the lights go out and I am plunged into total darkness. There are two ways to get the lights back on.....either sit there and wave your arms like mad, or get up and grope around for the light switch, depending on the bathroom. I believe these lights were designed by Italian men intent on getting their wives out of the bathroom in a hurry.


On to Assisi, about an hour and 45 minutes from Montepulciano, on another day of sparkling sunshine. Here's what Rick Steves says about Assisi: "In the early 1200s, a simple friar from Assisi challenged the decadence of church government and society in general with a powerful message of simplicity, nonmaterialism, service to the community, and a “slow down and smell God’s roses” lifestyle."

St. Francis must have lost his luggage in the Heathrow airport and learned to live without. But I'm over all that.
















Here's his beautiful basilica.








The buildings and streets are in very good condition....better than a lot of the old towns.



After the usual sights, we drove toward the fort which looks out over the valley, but we got going in the wrong direction and ended up driving up to the top of a mountain where we could stop and look out over all creation. Much to our surprise there were people sprinkled about the hillside with their fold-out lounge chairs sunning themselves and reading....like so....


















At the end of the day....a tasty American-style dinner of grilled steak, toasted bread, green beans, onions (grilled, of course), tomatoes, nectarines, and Pinot Grigio from Venice.