Trip Report: Italy-- Assisi and Rome. November 2024
Me (62 year old) and hubby (62) for our 25th wedding anniversary.
Nov 6th-17th (10 days “on the ground” in Italy: 3 nights Assisi, 7 nights in Rome)
PART 1: ASSISI
Part I: Assisi: 11/7—11/10th (3 nights)
Wednesday Nov 6, 2024/Thursday Nov 7th
We flew non-stop from Boston/Logan to Rome and then took train on to
Assisi. Arrived in Rome on Thursday 11/7th 7 am local time.
I had downloaded the Trenitalia app on my phone. Here is website: https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html
Per perfect tip from ChristineH on the Travel Forum, we took the Leonardo Express from airport (FCO) to Termini train station. Can also just buy tix at kiosk at airport or thru app.
We had a little time to grab breakfast near the Termini train station in Rome (Ron’s first espresso in Italy). Took the train to Assisi. NOTE: very long walk to get through the station to reach our train----ALLOW TIME!
Train to Assisi: We left Roma Termini 11:46 am, arriving in Assisi 3pm. Easy Peasy. It was very pretty passing towns built into hills all along the way. There were plenty of taxis milling around outside of the station which is in the lower part of Assisi. We took taxi to Upper Assisi where we were to meet our AirBnB host, Simone, in one of the piazzas. The taxi ride up, up, up the curves into Upper Assisi built into the hills was amazing. Right out of a movie. It was so beautiful, right down to the old key used to open the big wooden door of our flat. The apartment itself was so cozy. Everything from the beams on the ceilings, the large wooden shutters on all the windows, the terra cotta roof, the art on the walls and the San Damiano crucifix screamed “old Italy”. The only modern item was the bright red frig w/ the Coca Cola logo on it (turns out Simone has a refrigeration business for his “day job”). He went over all the info with us and left us a bottle of wine to enjoy later. The photos of the AirBnB that were online were accurate. My fave view was from our bedroom window: opening the wooden shutters, looking through the grated window and over at one of the churches shrouded in fog every morning (common for this time of year).
We set out to explore the town. Home - Diocesan Museum and Crypt of San Rufino We walked over to see San Rufino Church (fun fact: St. Rufino is the patron saint of Assisi while St. Francis is the patron saint of all of Italy). This is where both Francis and Clare were baptized (original font still there). It was here where Clare heard Francis preach and discovered her vocation. We walked down toward the sunset to see the Basilica of St. Francis. It was down a long, winding hill. The views were beautiful. Gorgeous sunset behind the basilica. We stopped on our way back up the hill for dinner. We had a great meal at La Volta Antica Ristorante & Pizzeria. It was 6pm and they had just opened up for the night (we were starving) so we were the only ones in there. The owner was great, tweaking my pizza order to be more of the Margherita style I am used to (though they don’t seem to have anything but cherry tomatoes on pizza!) Ron had white lasagna. Both our meals were great. We had a bottle of red wine (which we would continue to do every night over dinner on our trip). The prices were very cheap, and the atmosphere was nice. We lingered there chatting and laughing since, as we noticed last summer in Germany and Vienna, there is never a push to give you the bill and make you feel rushed in European restaurants. I like that custom!
continued in part 2 in comments.....