Castelli Esami
Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately- it’s exam week (or rather, exam two weeks) and my life has been varying between two extremes; cram studying and schoolwork on the weekdays, and traveling/partying on the weekends. Last weekend I went to Assisi and Gubbio, two very lovely towns in the Umbrian region- I’ll post pictures later! It was so much fun. I saw the “most beautiful church in Italy” in Assisi, and hiked to the top of a mountain to see the 1,000 year old corpse of a Saint in Gubbio.
One thing happened in Assisi, and I guess to adequately explain how strange it was you’d really have to be there, but I’ll do my best to describe it. In front of the Basilica of Santa Chiara there’s a large, beautiful piazza. As Amy and I walked into the church, we looked around, and the piazza was swarming with teenagers. Literally- teenagers EVERYWHERE, on the steps, playing hacky sack, chilling around the fountain- and not a person older or younger than the ages of 14-18 in sight. It was so funny that Amy and I commented that this piazza must be the local hang out site for youngins, and we walked into the church without a second thought. After spending about maybe half an hour in the church looking around and exploring the crypts, we walk outside to the piazza again. It was still swarming with people- but this time it looked like they were all in their upper 50′s’/low 60′s! There was not a teenager in sight, or anybody of a different age for that matter, and they were hanging out in the exact same places tat the teenagers were only minutes prior. It seriously felt like 50 years had passed while we were in the church- like some strange time warp. We were seriously considering asking someone what year it was.
Gubbio was really amazing- it was this quaint little medieval town, everything made from stone<br />with vaulted doorways and cobbled roads. It was kind of a gray, overcast day, which made it feel like we were actually walking through the town in the midst of the dark ages, hundreds of years in the past (guess it really was a time warp weekend!). We had an amazing lunch there, a fabulous time exploring, and of course our infamous trek up the mountain to the church of Saint Ubaldo.
Right now I’m in the Castelli Romani, exploring the beautiful hill towns and sampling the local delicacies. Italy is like a treasure chest, you never know what you’re going to find but it’s always something wonderful. Every town, every region has its own character, its own way of life, and having the time and ability to explore each is simply amazing to me.
