Italy Day 5

I'm glad ya'll are picking up on my little jokes. What do I know about loading luggage? For Maggie, I will elaborate on the streets of Rome at night in much detail. Rome is beautiful at night. Its way different than the busy streets of America. Many people in Rome walk around so there are many little walk-in shops and outdoor kiosks and market areas. All are lit up by little hanging lights, kind of like an autoshop light. A lot of times I remember walking into squares and seeing all of these lights lit throughout the square and the silohuettes of people moving around. Its very interesting and of course beautiful. The only thing I can compare it to that ya'll would understand is looks like one big outdoor mall. To sum up it is very romantic. So heres more of Italy.


Wednesday, April 18:
We got up early to leave for Assisi at 7am…sigh again. The bus ride was awesome. We socialized and goofed off but we also got to see the beautiful mountainous countryside of Italy. We saw the vineyards of Tuscany, mountains, and two pigs mating on the side of the road. Driving through Italy was just as great as seeing the cities of Italy. The country is truly all around a beautiful place. This was one of my best memories of the trip. We arrived in Assisi about 11 I think. I don’t know really my inner-body-clock was pretty screwed up. Assisi is roughly is the total opposite of Rome. There are very few cars, it is very laid back, and most of the town seems to be taking a nap. There isn’t too much going as in traffic and the movement of people, besides tourist of course. Driving up to Assisi was an awesome sight. The town is literally on the side of a mountain and you get to see roughly a profile of the town. You can see straight across from the St. Francis of Assisi’s chapel (which is on one side of the town) to the other side. Most of the town is made out of pink marble and stone which was forged from the mountainside. It’s a beautiful little village with a lot of culture and a totally different atmosphere than Rome. It is probably my favorite place that we visited in Italy. It is not as modern and Americanized as Rome so it still has the small Italian village feel to the city. To get to the city we parked in a parking lot and then used an escalator to get to the entrance of the city. It was kind of weird, but interesting. The escalator wasn’t as big as one would think. It only went up about 4 or 5 stories to the town. I am still confused why we took that route to the city, I guess the roads up the mountain were inaccessible to buses. I don’t know I’m not a doctor. We split into groups and I was with the group headed by the funny Mr. Sims. We walked through the narrow streets of Assisi and got to see the town on foot. The town is not to big at all and one could probably walk through the main part in about 3 hours at the most. But the walk is very Italian-esque. The streets are very narrow, there are beautiful alleyways and little courtyards and gardens. And on top of that you are on up on the side of a mountain so you can look down on a valley below. Assisi was the first true Italian experience of the trip. After getting some ice cream and souvenir shopping we made it to the chapel and tomb of St. Francis of Assisi. It was very beautiful but also it was a different beauty than the churches of Rome. St. Francis, as you all know, lived a life on minimal needs and possessions, so his chapel was the same way. It was mostly woodwork rather than gold and it contained more rough paintings than those that decorated the churches of Rome. It was definitely a chapel that represented nature and promoted a non-materialistic state of mind. St. Francis’ tomb was made of wood and very dark. The room where the tomb was not only held St. Francis but also many other Franciscan monks and clergymen,. Needless to say, the chapel of St. Francis gave me a whole new perspective on the churches of Italy and the Catholic church as whole. It is a great place. But all good things must come to an end, so we left Assisi about mid-afternoon for the town of Perugia, which turned out to a cool place also. We arrived at our hotel in the evening. This hotel was a big change from Hotel Purgatory. This hotel was a 5 star hotel that was equipped with a pool, showers with curtains, and TV’s that worked. And plus the rooms were HUGE, even by American standards. It was awesome, we ran around the 10 story hotel exploring and having a good time. Chris and I had to hunt for an iron and eventually found one thanks to a bellhop. We ended up ironing our clothes in the loft of the hotel. We all gathered for a very fancy dinner with great food and for dessert we had tiramisu. After dinner we headed towards our second performance which was going to take place in an indoor concert hall called Palazzo dei Priori Hall. We arrived at the hall which was in downtown Perugia. The hall itself was about 700 years old. The hall was in a gothic style, it very dark but lit but by many small chandeliers, which gave a very Renaissance/Medieval feel…to me at least. It was an honor playing at hall that had 800 years of history and it was an honor playing for the gracious people of Perugia. We played their national anthem and some of concert pieces rather than our marching pieces like we did in Rome. The crowd loved the performance and we played extremely well. It was very fun and a great experience. We got a standing ovation and an encore too…once again. An unforgettable experience to say the least. After our performance we got some ice cream and explored a little bit of Perugia in the crisp night. The streets our cobblestone and very narrow and there are many squares. There aren’t many lights, the only lights are of those of the few open shops and a few street lamps. Perugia, I remember, was very quiet and had very little traffic. It was a great night. After the ice cream we met up and went back to the hotel and to our rooms. My room had Chris, Nick, and me, about 12am we were visited by the very sneaky Megan and Katherine. We ended up talking until about 230. Most of our conversation was about how our group had been hanging out throughout the whole trip and how the group was about to implode due to high school drama and immaturity. Everybody had a problem with someone else. It really messed up a lot of good times people could’ve had in Italy. However, it did not mess up my good time at all. Watching people argue due to the stress of being in an new environment and being away from the luxuries and normal lifestyle of their homes can make people act very weird and out of character. I understand why some people acted the way that they did. Throughout this journal/man-diary when I say something is overwhelming I seriously mean it was overwhelming. Some people I know went through a literal culture shock on the trip. It is very weird to be in an environment where it is hard to order a drink due to a language barrier. I honestly feel bad for the people who held grudges and brought attitudes from home. I’m not going to lie I didn’t get along with everyone in band, but those who I didn’t get along with I didn’t hang around because I knew it would be a waste of my time in a beautiful place such as Italy. Needless to say, some people attitudes ruined an awesome trip for them…but not me. Blah blah blah [All of this I’m talking about was just high school drama]. After chatting with girls we went to bed. The girls left before we went to bed of course. Ha.