Here I am again, in the last week an extremely slow and
intermittent internet connection has troubled me. The hotel where I was lodged,
promised: “FREE
WI-FI” not specifying that the
reason why it was free, was that it wasn’t
really working.
Besides that, now I can somehow manage to tell you something
about a fascinating place in the middle of
nature, with great culinary experiences and historical places. I do believe
that since I have mentioned problems with the internet connection you might
think about places far from western civilization.
Sorry to disappoint, I was
this time in Italy, and particularly in the hometown of Saint Francesco;
Assisi. For once, my adventures brought me to one of the most touristic and
perhaps even usual places, nothing to do with conflict areas, gorillas,
savannah and so on. Just a hell of no internet connection, which can be quite
frustrating.
This small town is located in
the heart of Umbria, central Italy, very close to the mount Subasio at 424m
above the sea level.
Assisi had very old origins
and was founded officially in the 89 B.C., but pre-Etruscan population built
there a city already since 1000 B.C.
Its history has been very complex,
and I am not going to tell it as a whole here, as I will be mostly describing
the beauties of the place, told through my writings and the pictures I have
been taking.
Assisi was strategically
built on the hill to be better defended, and the ancient ramparts are still
there remembering the need for defense. This is no more needed but gives to the
town the advantage of great sceneries.
Some thoughts about ramparts;
although every animal in the wild look after any sort of mean to defend itself
from the attacks of other predators, humans have to defend themselves from
other humans, which are not going to kill for food (we don’t do cannibalism, generally) but for greed. Every
single human since the prehistory had an extreme thirst for power fueled by
paranoia jealousy and greed.
We do not cooperate together,
every group needs to destroy whoever has something better or different.
Philosophical discussions
aside, the location, the history, the culinary culture, and nature, makes of
Assisi a must visit for everyone.
For those who need to keep
their body in shape (or they want to find back the lost one), the town offers
plenty of trekking activity, all free of charge. Just walk from the train
station to the top of Assisi, and in about one hour, you have walked five km on
a decent uphill. Strolling around you will walk through a series of up and
downhill which will create a perfect cardio exercise, as you window-shop. Of course,
you can get a more demanding terrain by taking a tour on the Mount Subasio,
where you will have the chances to experience the most outstanding sceneries.
As you do your cardio, don’t
forget to look around, as you might miss the romantic attractions, which is the
town itself.
A true shame is that I could not take any picture of the
inside the church, the Basilica of S. Francesco, so that I cannot show you here
any of them. However, the internet is
full of pictures of the marvelous paintings that decorate the church.
As your day gets over, and your legs start to feel like wet
spaghetti, you are surely looking for a nice restaurant where to enjoy a
perfect meal Umbrian style. In this case, try to get one of those who offers a terrace on the valley, and as you sip
a great wine and taste the awesome food,
you will experience the stunning view of the sunsets, on the valley.
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