Day 08. October 26, 2000. Assisi. Basillica of St. Francis. We woke relatively late since we had the day at leisure. Breakfast was in a side area which used to be an open arched patio, but is now glassed in space next to the main restaurant just behind the garden table area. At 09:00 we start walking towards the forum. The hills are 30-45 degree slopes and Jane tired out before we reached our destination. We turned back and headed for the basillica. We spent about 45 minutes in the lower basillica before wandering up and out through the upper basillica, which was being wired for lights and sound. Back at the hotel, we rehung our laundry by window and Jane napped while Allan sat outside on the common patio area to read the book about the basillica. At lunch time Allan checked on Jane then went to a pizzeria for lunch. Afterwards Allan went back to basillica to see the reliquary with a guide brochure before returning to the patio to read -- Jane was unconscious throughout. Mid-afternoon after naps we set out for the upper basillica, but the meeting of all friairs had the upper basillica closed all afternoon. We should have guessed something was up, since they were running lights and sound in the upper basillica that morning. There were, however, no informational signs mentioning the closing or the meeting. We walked through the lower basillica and Allan relayed the information he'd retained from studying the book this afternoon. Jane still knew more. After the basillica, we headed up the street from the upper basillica looking in the tchochsky shops. After looking in several we found a small, simple cross and chain for Olivia. Going a little further, we found a woodblock print of a winding Assisi street for Jane. After that we ran into the Roman area we were trying to reach thiis morning. That was much easier than the other way we went. We saw the cistern, facade of the temple of Miverva (now fronting a church) and the main square. After that we found a restroom outside the church of St Claire. At 18:00 we headed back to the hotel and wandered the outside terraces together, then asked when the resturaunt would be open and if they had a menu we could order off of. We had time to use the wall-mounted hairdryer in our room to further dry and rehang our socks etc. before the restaurant opened at 19:00 We spent about two hours having a scrumptious dinner in the hotel resturaunt. Then we went back to the room to close the window and grab the Palm keyboard. We sat in the lounge to chat while dinner digested.

by Allan West and Jane Dominguez web.cookie.org