Assisi & Gubbio, Umbria

Above: illegal pic. of the church St Francis built originally. The large building was built around the little one.

Statue of St Francis with live doves that we heard are always on this statue.

Views of Assisi from the drive up

Views as we were walking up

Some of the awesome people in our group

I don't remember the name of this church but it's where St Francis is buried

middle courtyard from the 2nd story of the church

This man was singing and preaching in the courtyard. He never wears shoes and after he preaches some of the people around walk up and give him food. He preached about how the Catholic church should get back to a poorer way of living. St Francis is the saint of poverty, etc.

 

View and carousel near the church of St Clare (sp?)

Our friends,Anna and Alaina carried me around a little bit. Quite comical..

Spectacular views from Rocca Maggiore, a castle above Assisi

Anna Juilann and Alaina

View of St Francis's church from the castle

Our friend Herb helping me get a view of the description of what we were looking at inside the castle

We were all confused by this exhibit..hmmm...

Pathway from one tower to the other. Above: inside  Below: outiside path on the roof

Picture below: time of praise and worship in the hotel breakfast room. An amazing time!!

Gubbio: above-street market  below: view of castles,etc. in the hills

Austin (older brother of Anna and Alaina) Aaron and Race

Our friend Steve :-) 

I have a 'thing' for taking pictures of people taking pictures and of doors, really cool doors of course!

View of a church in Gubbio. Below: Steve giving us a perspective of the size of this door. Wow!!

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure and privilege to join a group of friends from church to accompany them to Assisi and Gubbio; 2 towns north of Rome a bit.  An Italian family organized the adventure so we went along for the ride.  We stayed in Assisi for 2 nights and I think our group took up half of the hotel!   There were 7 families in our group.  It was so fun to spend time with everyone and get to know all of them a little better.  One night, almost everyone came to our room to play UNO.  It was such a blast! I wish I had a picture or a video of that time. Probably one of the best memories we took with us.
   Assisi is full of churches and we saw most of them(only got a few 'illegal' inside shots :-).  Gubbio is known for its medieval castles and buildings.  It was really neat to see all of them.  It was fun to walk around the towns and take in the sites.    

Cooking with Vera

      I had the great pleasure of participating in an Italian cooking class with some dear friends I have met here.  Now, I know what you are thinking. Cooking with Vera-doesn't sound like an Italian cooking teacher, does it?  Well, Vera is not Italian; she is from the mid-west (USA) but she has been in Italy for 41 years. She has been married to her Italian husband for 38yrs.  Vera is delightful!
     Vera has a kitchen,etc. in the garage of her home.  All of the students in the class were American-most with the military.  Vera had us make 7 different items. (Menu to follow)  I was exhausted by the end of the class. Don't forget, we got to help make all of the items but then we had to sample everything too-Delizioso!
    Some things I have learned about Italian cooking:* Italians believe their food is the best in the world so there is no reason, nor should one be found, to change anything about how their food tastes or is prepared
     *There is not a whole lot of garlic, basil, or oregano used in most dishes I have experienced here.
     * Spicy food is not common here (Naples area)
     * Garlic and onion SHOULD NOT be mixed
     *whole shrimp or prawns are not de-shelled before deep frying. hmm...quite difficult for the consumer..haha
     *Coffee is NEVER to be ordered(at a restaurant) or consumed before dessert
      *DO NOT ask for ketchup with your fries; ESPECIALLY if the cook grew the potatoes in his garden... :-)

 Vera-in the red apron

 We made:Mammarelle in Pinziomonia(artichokes), Marriage soup, Penne con vodka(pasta w/vodka sauce-yummmy!), Scaloppine al limone(veal w/lemon), Spada(swordfish) Pane Napoletan/Casatiello(Easter Bread), Pastiera(Easter Pie) Delizioso!! and fun!!!

  This is Leslie and Julanne.  I can't tell you how grateful I am for meeting and spending time with these ladies. They are FUN, delightful, intelligent, thoughtful and terrific!! (Did I mention fun?! see pictures posted on FB of a recent shopping trip to the sports equipment store..haha)

      Food is a big deal in Italy...I love that! I'm hoping to participate in another cooking class in a few weeks too. In fact, all 4 of us will go to that one. Should be fun!

My mom and dad in Italy!

       My mom and dad made it to Italy!  It was really fun to have them here.  I tried to prepare them as much as possible before they came, but I think they were a little 'shell-shocked' in the beginning. Napoli is...a little intense.  ( ;~)
     The first couple of days were spent visiting and resting-jet lag was pretty hard on my parents.  It was really great to catch up with them.  We especially enjoyed hearing about how the animals are doing and how much they are spoiling them!! haha
     My dad expressed great interest in visiting Pompeii and Rome so I, as a conscientious hostess, made it my priority to get my parents to these places; but first, coffee!!!  I tried to stock our house with plenty of coffee for their visit, but that supply was no match for my parents!  Also, Napoletan coffee was not enough for them too.  Even though I think Napoli coffee is very strong... I would make enough for 4 people but they always wanted more...hehe. We also introduced them to Birdy's Bakery-An American Idea.  It is a cute coffee/bakery near our appartment.  They serve a lot of American food-carrot cake, red velvet, cupcakes, cafe americano(Napoletan coffee with more water)
Needless to say, my parents visited Birdy's several times!! It is a really fun place :-)
 

 Forgive me for posting such blurry pictures. Birdys (above) and street near our appartment (below)

(Herculaneum)

      For the interest of time and energy, we took my parents to Herculaneum instead of to the Pompeii archaelogical site. Herculaneum is similar, yet smaller, less touristy, and I would say, better preserved. My dad loved it there. I think he took a few hundred pictures to prove that point. The kids and I really enjoyed seeing that with them-despite that it was a cloudy, gray day-at least it didn't rain on us

 Inside the 'baths'

!A few days later we all went to Rome. We decided it would be best to take the 'hop-on hop-off double decker bus tour of the city. That was a really good idea! It was so fun. However, we had planned on being on the bus more than we were. The first problem was that when we first got to Rome we all had to visit the restroom and find snacks. So we got off at the first stop and had to walk about a kilometer to a bar(coffee bar). Then, we had to walk a few more blocks to the bus stop. And of course, we had to get off to show my mom and dad the Trevi fountain. Well, that excursion led us to walk around for at least 30+min sight seeing and then to find lunch. I felt bad because we ended up walking A LOT more than I had anticipated; I knew it was a lot for my mom, especially but she was such a trooper! It was really fun to take them to Rome and watch them see it for the first time. I think it is a pretty amazing place. I think that my mom and dad had a good time here and we certainly enjoyed having them. Plus, they were our 'guinea pigs' and let us use our Napoli hosting skills on them first! I hope we will be ready for the Stones and the Neilsens!!

      

Napoli sottoranea (#2 underground tour)

     

A few weeks ago, we all ventured out to another underground tour.   We have heard there are 4 different underground tours here.  Not sure if we will see all 4 but we’re half way there already. 

        Our tour guide was Italian but spoke perfect English.  He told us at the beginning that he prefers not to run a tour for Italians because they can be fussy,etc.  I found that to be funny. 
        The area that we toured around was originally used for water and then during WWII some Italians lived there for protection.  Many years after the war,etc. the space was used to store garbage.  When people realized it shouldn't be used for garbage, it was decided to just bury all of the garbage instead of hauling it out.  Sounds logical, right? haha
      During the tour, we got to walk through some very narrow passageways while carrying candles to light our paths.  We saw some really cool water reservoirs in that area.  There were also several plants and bushes that were brought underground.  The plants never got watered-obviously got enough moisture from their surroundings. That was interesting.
     Another area revealed where the nuns (from the church directly above) used to store wine.  There was a direct pathway from the church down to their 'cellar'.  There was also a pathway for the monks to go too.  It was rumored that there was a 'shared' pathway for the nuns and monks..(if you get my drift)

(sorry I will not be able to post pictures of this adventure. The pictures we took are M.I.A.-bummer.)