Day 29 – May 14 Saturday

A lazy start – 6.30am wake up & 8am departure – we left Rome in brilliant sunshine & noticed the river was running higher, it must have rained further upstream.  A bit out of Rome we ran into fog & it stayed with us about half the distance to our destination.  The countryside looks fabulous, the fields are all green & planted with wheat or corn, there are some fields that have just been cut for hay & some that are in the process of baling the hay.  The style of house is different in rural Italy than the other countries we have been in, they are generally in good condition, though mostly old.  The villages seem to cling to the hilltops, the hills are generally lower than the other European countries we have visited.  The scenery of the Umbrian countryside is absolutely beautiful.  We reached our hotel, the 5 star Brufani Palace on the hilltop in the old town of Perugia before midday & checked in immediately.  Our two room suite is lovely, very comfortable with a great view out over the Umbrian landscape. Most of the hotels on this trip have been very nice with dressing gowns, slippers & safe for our valuables, but this one is very luxurious a lovely sitting area & a beautiful big bedroom  decorated in a Tuscan (may be Umbrian) style.  We have had our beds turned down before, but this is the first time bedside mats, slippers & chocolate were laid out.  Dinner at the palace restaurant tonight – we feel we could get used to all this. Romana, our local guide took us on a walking tour of Perugia old town (no cars allowed) & took us down first to the old fort, built in the 1400s & destroyed over a number of ancient wars (so much history).  The old town has some medieval parts, still from the 1400s, however, lots of the houses have been renovated inside & fetch rents of 10,000 Euro per month per apartment.  The outside remains medieval – there are no external changes allowed.   Perugia is really beautiful & from the walls outside our hotel Assisi can be seen in the distance.  The hotel swimming pool has a glass bottom, to view the ancient Etruscan ruins uncovered during excavations for the pool.  We had a bite to eat & a gelato then it was time for our trip to Assisi. The bus took about 20 minutes to reach the Assisi new town & our stop was at the church of St Francis (of Assisi), we waited a short while until it opened at 2pm.  This is a big relatively new church built completely around & over the original grotto that St Francis built his religious following from.  The old church is very simple & small, with a very small building next to it where St Francis died.  St Francis is the patron saint of Italy & lots of people make a pilgrimage to this little church.  The big church has lots of beautiful frescoes in it plus some nice little chapels & altars. Next it was off to the basilica of the old town of Assisi on the hill a short drive away.  A huge monastery dominates the hill & hides the old church contained within (apart from the belltower).  This is another beautiful large church with some more fabulous frescoes on the walls & ceiling.  The important part of this church is the crypt below that holds the sarcophagus & remains of St Francis & is another very religious site.  The crypt is very simple – no carvings or embellishments & he is surrounded by five of his close assistants.  Back up the flights of stairs & then we climbed more stairs to the upper church.  The upper church was badly damaged in an earthquake in the 1980s when four people died, however, has since been repaired very well to protect the 24 frescoes by the painter Giotto – they really are special & portray the complete life of St Francis. We had over an hour to ourselves to explore the old town of Assisi & walked up the hill & narrow road, again admiring the ancient buildings (one dated 1477). All the shops seem to be mainly selling religious souvenirs.  Back to the bus by 5pm & back to Perugia.  Our beds have been turned down & a chocolate on the pillow.  Dinner at the hotel tonight was fantastic, a 3 course meal with fettuccine to start, veal scallops next & a yummy tiramisu desert to finish.  All washed down with a very nice red & finished off by a great cappuccino.  The two American couples we sat with were great company & we learned of the hotel swimming pool.  After dinner they took us down the special lift 3 stories under the hotel & the swimming pool area is magnificent.  Built in amongst the ruins of the old fort there is a gym, spa, sauna & swimming pool with built-in spa & swim jets.  The pool has a glass bottom & displays the Etruscan ruins discovered while they were building the pool.  So naturally afterwards we went back to our room, changed into the hotel dressing gowns & slippers then went back to the pool (we were  excited like two kids about this pool) & met our dinner companions.  We had a great spa, swim & chat in these fantastic surroundings & finished up around 10pm.  What a magnificent culmination to another great day.