Tuesday 12 May

Hot day.

Up at 5.45am.

I meet American Bob Sims – a member of the tour group. How scary is this? Like me he is a nice guy.

We pick up our driver Antonio and a brand new bus – we are the first to use it.

Annelies gives her own unique introduction to Italy and the tour eg a bidet is “liquid toilet paper”. She has a wicked sense of humour matched with competence and knowledge.

We travel through Umbia and it is beautiful, green, lush. So very different to Greece. I am not putting Greece down here. Both landscapes are mountainous but Greece is dry. Italy has had rain so everything is pretty. We pass through a small place with a castle on a hill (this is very normal) but we go under the castle in a 490m tunnel.

We drive past pretty Spoleto. A place to tuck away in the memory as worthy of a visit in the future.

We stop and do a tour of pretty Spello. Still unspoilt by tourism. Narrow lanes with masses of flowers (next week was their flower festival). 15 Catholic churches for a population of 8,000! Delicious lunch of fresh brown roll filled with whatever we want – we choose local salami and cheese. Sit in the peace of the pretty little square.

We see the building housing cloistered nuns. They never leave this building unless they are ill and once a year their family can visit them but they talk through a grate/grill. Helen and Kirsten – WATCH OUT!

I buy cough medicine and we each pay €.50 ($NZ1) to use a toilet without a seat!

A few minutes down the road we arrive in Assisi. The suitcases have gone ahead in minivans as the bus cannot get to the hotel. Ominous. Assisi is built down a steep cliff face so we have a short but steep uphill climb to the Hotel Subasio. It is the closest hotel to the Church of St Francis (the whole point of going to Assisi) and shares a wall with the church. It is LESS than a stone’s throw away. Famous people have stayed there eg European royalty and down in the reception area is a framed list and it is on the list of historical hotels of Italy. We are in an amazing room (514). It has a chandelier and must be the best room in the hotel because it has TWO balconies. The straight ahead one looks down the valley for 20-40km whilst the one on the right looks into the entrance of the church. Simply amazing. Although it is numbered 514 it isn’t on the 5th floor (as most hotels number). It is on the second floor. Another room with the first number 5 is on the first floor. The numbers make no sense. There is even a floor labelled -1.

The big thing for the day is to go to the tomb and church of St Francis. Nice and cool on a hot day and very beautiful. We enter and mass is being sung. We see the stone sarcophagus of St Francis and are taken around the church by our guide Marco who is a performer!

Have a nap. Group dinner, sitting outside with a billion dollar view.

Repack for Venice as they will take our carry on luggage if we want (yes please) so as to keep our hands free. The luggage will travel by boat.