Day 6--Assisi and Rome

 Today we visited the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi on our way to Rome, which is also known for being one of the greenest parts of Italy. There was little to no industrialization and all the roads were extremely small. We were only there for a bit but it was like stepping a bit into medieval times when you enter the church. Even while walking the streets it felt like a completely different time period.

We left at around 8 am and on our way there saw a 2008 Lotus Elise, the driver was very kind and the car was not stock, with Proxy tires and aftermarket exhaust as well as being a manual it was a refreshing look that is not common in the states. The owner also had on Lotus shoes which were cool. After we finished our stop we were able to head to Assisi and passed the fourth largest lake in all of Italy. It was where Hannibal ambushed the Romans and was able to truly put fear into the Roman empire. Some Roman troops escaped and warned the capital but they felt that Hannibal was too close and he had already defeated two legions so they all believed they were doomed. But instead, Hannibal moved past them with other plans in mind.

Then we arrived in Assisi where there were very few cars and just nature and homes that rather than pushing nature away seemed to accept it and worked around the trees making it seem like a gem in all of the lush green trees on the hillside. As we made our way through the lush we were able to see the first of the 3 walls that surrounded the city. We first went to get food and see the castle at the top of the hill, it was a hot day but we made it to the top, and sadly it is under repair so we could not enter but it was still an amazing view from the outside. You could see for miles at the top of this hill next to the castle.

After we climbed back down to go back to the bottom of the hill we headed toward the church of St. Francis where we were able to see his tomb. One interesting thing about Francis is that he is one of the quickest people to become a Saint. It was a very short two years after his death before he was named a Saint, which is pretty crazy since most of the time it can take years on years to be named a Saint.

Once we finished our tour we went back to the bus and started to head toward Rome. After about 2 hours we made it and it was a very busy city. As we had some free time before dinner we were at the Spanish steps which aren’t even Spanish. We were able to head down one of the most expensive streets in all of Rome. Honestly, I was excited to see a Ferrari store but that soon died when a hoodie cost $500, just goes to show the Ford GT is superior (this alludes to Ford beating Ferrari at lemans). We then met back up to have dinner and tried 3 new pizzas. Personally, the pizza with just salami and cheese was really good. The mushroom pizza was alright me and my pizza connoisseur Weston believed it was not as good as the salami pizza. Tomorrow we will have a lot more time to adventure the city so that will be a lot of fun.

--Ricardo