Beginning the Third Week in Assisi

Its hard to believe that I am starting my third week in Assisi. After two weeks I am actually able to speak some Italian. I can carry on a basic conversation and follow most simple conversations. It has made it alot easier to travel in Italy now that I can communicate with the people around me. There were several times when I was saved from getting on the wrong bus by being able to talk to the bus driver. As much as I enjoy it, the Italian classes have been tough because they are so accelerated. In two weeks, we went over most of the material that I learned in one semester at UD. After another few days, most of what I will be learning will be new to me.

My days at Assisi have settled into a steady routine. I wake up early in the morning to do Morning Prayer and Mass in Italian with some of the Franciscans in the area. After that I try to get some prayer time in before breakfast. After breakfast, I go up the the Academy for four hours of Italian. We come back down for pranzo [lunch] at the Hotel, and then we go back for another two hours of Italian. In my afternoons I usually do some running through the hills, and then I go and walk around Assisi. Sometimes I will visit churches or go into an interesting store. If I have had a long day, I might sit in one of the piazzas with some wine. Cena [dinner] is at 8:30, afterwhich we go out to Assisi to relax. Sometimes we will go up to the Casa that has become known as Castille de Mobilae because of the three seminarians from Mobile that live there.

Yesterday, a few of us took the day to take a train to Florence. We didn't try to rush around and see everything which was a nice change of pace. We had mass in the Baptistry where there was a beautiful mosaic that covered the inside of the cupola. After that, we went to the Cupola of the Duomo to admire the view of Florence. We had a funny experience at lunch. One of the seminarians had spent some time in Florence, and wanted to take us to a restaraunt that he liked. He promptly led us the wrong way, and 30 minutes later we found the restaraunt right back where we had come from. Unfortunately, it was also closed for the week. We ended up at an Irish Pub with food that is better forgotten. We wandered around Florence for the rest of the day taking in the sights before we eventualy made our way back to Assisi.