Assisi and a Dinner Party in Florence

A succession of fantastic days has just occurred in Italy.
Sunday was a two hour bus ride to Assisi, a small town on top of a hill in the province of Umbria. It has so much personality! When you hear the word Assisi, you probably think of St. Francis. He's the first person to have received the stigmata, and he preached peace and a life of poverty (while giving everything one had to the poor - he started the Franciscan order). What I loved about him is that he took literally what the Bible said about preaching the gospel to all the creatures of the earth, so there is a famous fresco of him preaching to the birds who gathered around him to listen to his message.
Assisi has two huge fortresses where you can visit and lookout onto the valley below, where St. Francis of Assisi actually lived. He was born and I think died in Assisi, but the church in the valley is where he spent his adulthood. The buildings have a beautiful grayish brick that is EXACTLY what one thinks of when they envision a sweet European village. Adorable vines spread out over the building fronts, and little flower pots hang over the windowsills. Take me backkkkkk. The Duomo is amazinggggg, and you can see the crypt and ALSO some remains of the first church there underneath a glass flooring. Or maybe that was a different church. I'm forgetting now. Anyway, in front of St. Francis's church, there are three huge shrubberies cut into the letters "PAX" which means "Peace" in Italian. I definitely took a picture there.
The bus ride home was excruciating. Traffic was horrid, the people on the back of the bus were obnoxious and immature, and I couldn't fall asleep.
When we got back, Jess, Landon and I got some gelato and then came back to the apartment and chilled. Leyla was there and Alexi showed up as well. He spent his day in the pit section of the local Maserati race. No big deal. The guy has so many insane stories.
Today, Landon was going to come to do his laundry at our place, so we suggested that he just come right on up because the building isn't locked while Ricardo is here. Well, because Landon didn't speak Italian, Ricardo didn't recognize him and was confused, and eventually he made Landon leave. Miscommunication.
I spent my day in two classes (six hours total), and we visited the Medici palace in History of the Italian Renaissance. I bought a gala apple at the grocery store for lunch, and while "gloving - up" an Italian man tried to make a joke with me about his "insalta" and I laughed and nodded. It was obvious I had no clue what he was saying. I felt a little guilty. But inwardly I am thrilled that he assumed I was an Italiana. Success!
Then I headed to cooking class. Made "Taglione con salsa di noci" - not sure if I spelled that right - which is just a pasta with walnut sauce. Yummmm. Very light and yeah, not that much flavor. But it's all about appreciating the ingredients and the art of making it. Right? Anyway, we added salt and parmigiano regiano cheese to it. Such Americans. Then we had the other groups' "torta de nonna" which was TO DIE FOR. A Florentine specialty. Askkk if you want recipessss.
When I got home, Jess and I went to the grocery store and showed Landon the bureaucracy of the Italian cheese and bread queues. Then we went home, and I acted as Jess's sous chef. Our three course meal with Jess, Leyla, Alexi, Landon, and me, consisted of crab-meat stuffed mushrooms, rosemary schiattara (something like that...it's similar to focaccia bread), and balsamic chicken on top of a bed of rice (to say balsamic chicken oversimplifies the whole dish...it had onions, garlic, rosemary, tons of other stuff...and was plated beautifully with a raspberry, rosemary sprig, and balsamic glaze. sigh. I'll put up pictures on Facebook!).
Then, we went to get gelato and ate it while overlooking the Ponte Vecchio at night. It shimmered and glimmered and made you smile while sighing. Perfect.
And, now I will go because my skype date with Micah is over. It's always sad to end a conversation with my love.
Mom and Dad come to Italy in four days. INCONCEIVABLE! I can't wait. I know Daddy has it all planned out, and I've got a few ideas of my own. So fabulous.
G'night, g'night!