day 2- tuesday- roma to asissi (umbria)

darkness enveloped the plane and all i could see out the window was the white light at the end of the wing. we watched a couple more movies. the new karate kid with little smith and then some movie about evil wallstreet underhandedness with michael douglas. we stayed awake and took ANY liquids -especially water- that were offered. i played it safe and had no more hot tea. when we landed we were a bit tired but mostly excited and even though we drank ALOT we were still feeling dehydrated! we followed pictoral signs for customs, passport check, baggage claim, and car rental. the parking spaces in the car rental garage were SO tiny! and whipping around the tight corners and down the levels of the garage was nerve racking. chris did a quick job of getting reaquainted with a manual transmission. once out of the garage we took out all the maps we could find, trying to get the one with the clearest route from roma to asissi. most important on our list of things to do was to find a bancomat or atm. we drove on the autostrada towards roma. i reminded chris of father kevin's urging "do NOT drive in rome!". but i think the farther he drove and the longer we couldn't find a bancomat he began to get nervous. father kevin also told us that if the polizia pulled us over and ticketed us- we'd have to pay on the spot- in euros. also, if we found ourselves in a toll booth on the autostrada would they accept dollars? so he decided that rome was crazy, but finding a bancomat there had a higher likelihood. we took the via aurelia exit and proceeded to sit in traffic. two things- the italian polizia have NICE cars! BMW, alfa romeo, mercedes. it made me wonder if they'd think our police had nice cars. AND, second thing- polizia are REALLY stylish and suave looking. wearing aviators and hair product, they looked like they stepped out of a magazine ad for armani. i was doing a great job of spotting bancomats only after we passed them. we ended up finding one but i had to jump out and use his card(his was the only card we notified the bank that we'd be in italy)at the bancomat while he circled the block. since we had circled the block a few times i was turned around so i had to ask "dove bancomat?" some nice man said something i think was like "5 metres blah blah blah" so at the most it was 5 meters away- just not sure which direction. after locating it and securing a good amount of euros i flagged chris down and we were back on the road. chris was really impressed with the round about things that took the place of traffic lights. their signage was very thorough and overall was pretty effective at managing the flow of traffic without the use of electricity. back on the autostrada we found an autogrill. he needed some energy in the form of drink. i stepped to the counter with my euros and ordered. "doppio espresso"- which chris called "coffee on cocaine". i took a sip and he drank the rest. we took a1 to e45 towards perugia and asissi. the day was SO bright for our poor unrested eyes. bright and beautiful. we passed so many vinyards and olive groves. so many quint country homes with red tile roofs. we pulled into asissi at around noon. using rick steve's italian travel guide book- given to us by rosie garcia-carreras we located hotel ideale- a small family run 14 room hotel on via umberto. the room key was an old fashioned key- the kind whose holes nosy people can peep through. our room had a balcony as big as the room and overlooked the valley below assisi. besides the bidet- the only thing different in the bathroom was the shower. there was just a drain on the floor between the toilet and the sink and the shower head was on the wall above. while taking a shower one had to pull the curtain around to make the three other walls- the fourth wall being the wall of the shower head. i really liked our neat little hotel- the view was astounding and the air fresh and clean. we really wanted to follow fr kevin's advice of "not sleeping on the plane and the whole next day" but we REALLY needed a power nap. so we laid down for a couple hours- an italian power nap:) we were then fresh to take in san rufino's chiesa(key-ay-suh)- named for chiara's saintly uncle. in piazza san rufino we stopped into a little place and chris got a mystery pizza that ended up having scalloped potatoes covering it. i had a salumi and fromaggio torta and a water. we kept walking and found santa chiara's chiesa. below the main church was a reliquery.

it had an alb of lace made by her, her tunic, a cutting of her hair, and also san francisco's tunic. in the piazza outside her church i bought a few souvenirs then we headed down towards san damiano. it was closing soon so we tried to make our way quickly downhill through a peaceful olive grove. it was so intimate- small and not brightly lit. i said the "prayer before a crucifix" in front of the cross there. the brothers were getting ready for vespers and i still wanted to see san francesco's basilica so we made the hike back up the hill. we noticed how the weather was perfect for walking and sightseeing. not too hot and not too cold. at san francisco's, on the very edge of asissi, i found misse(me-suh). i had missed the readings- but probably wouldn't have understood them anyway. i stayed for the eucharist- which surprisingly i could understand alot of. i even knew when it was time for "pace" (pah-chey). after misse we toured the rest of the basilica before they closed down. the bookstore had interesting tonics and honey and herbal stuff for sale along with the normal books, statues, and pictures. we took in a beer at ristarante san francesco. the bartender brought us a plate of what looked like pringles to have with our beer, which i thought was mildly amuzing. also- i remembered somewhere rick steve's saying that bartenders didn't handle money- because of the germs. so we had to pay a second guy. walking back to the hotel we stepped into a store and chris bought a gray argyle lana(wool- i know this word in many languages because i knit!) sweater to go over his poorly pressed shirts and i bought three pairs of socks. we changed clothes back in our room and walked out for dinner only to find that dinner wasn't served as early as 7. we walked about for awhile to spend the time. down one street- or more appropriately an alley(the streets are SOOO narrow) i found it interesting to find a sign that seemed to say "no dogwalking on this road"- in asissi of all places!
once dinner time finally rolled around we found a ristorante off an alley that was off an alley- and so being was sure to be delicious and authentic! it was called la lanterna and we were hungry enough to welcome the italian experience of many courses. we ordered tagliatelle- that seemed to have chopped pork in it, spingozze- a nice pasta with what tasted like a creamy beef broth sauce and maialle- which i am not sure what that was but it tasted good. to finish chris had insalata miste and i had verdura miste. we both split a litre of acua and a litre of rosso de la casa. we discussed many things over dinner- one of them being chris's idea of how to take a trip. no real plans- no real disappointments. well, at least not so far. today was VERY nice! and ended VERY tastily. the rosso de la casa pushed me away from the excitement of tomorrow and further into fatigue and i fell asleep rather easily on the hotel ideale's very firm bed.