Rome-Assisi

I love Rome. It's a fascinating, layered city with tons of things to do. I had a negative and a positive side to my visit this time:

Negative: massive crowds because of the pope's passing and the election of the new pope.
Positive: Clint and Susan Baggerman (Clint is Lisa's brother) to tour with. Clint and Susan are both fascinating people with extremely interesting jobs at NASA--make sure you meet them on your next trip to Texas.

Looking over my notes, I'm having a bit of a hard time condensing Rome into a few paragraphs. Rather than bore you with the details (I saw over 20 churches, multiple monuments, and several museums), here are my top five from this trip (not in any particular order):

1. Bernini's elephant statue in the Piazza della Minerva.
2. Andrea Pozzo's ceiling in the Church of San Lorenzo. At the risk of pissing off a lot of people, I think this is better than the Sistine Chapel.
3. Basilic del San Clemente: 3 churches built on top of each other. This church conveys the history of Rome unlike any other.
4. The Catacombs of San Sebastiano: very informative, appropriately creepy. I also saw the Catacombs of San Callisto, but I think San Sebastiano is better (they have 3 roman burial temples converted to Christianity that are quite interesting to see). It's quite a hike to get out to the catacombs, but the journey allows you to see the original Appian Road, which is beautiful.
5. Bernini's statue of the Ecstacy of St. Teresa (can you tell I like Bernini?).

After leaving Rome, I headed to Assisi. It was yet another cold, rainy day, which never helps. Unlike in the southern parts of Italy, the people of Assisi were neither warm or welcoming. I definitely felt like a tourist, and have to say that I didn't really like the town. That said----the Basilica of St. Francis is THE MOST IMPRESSIVE AND BEAUTIFUL CHURCH I HAVE SEEN YET. Seriously. It's worth going way out of your way to see. There are three levels (crypt, two churches) and each is staggering in its own way. I preferred the middle level, which was covered with complex, brightly shaded frescos. The upper level was damaged in the 1997 earthquke, but the town has done an admirable job of restoring the art. The entire place does a great job of accomplishing its purpose--making one think about St. Francis and what he preached.

At 6:25 pm, the bells (every bell in town, which are quite numerous) started ringing. I was walking up the hill to dinner. After about 10 minutes, I realized that the bells had a purpose, and was able to watch the Italian news coverage of the election of the new pope from the restaurant I was in. Surprisingly, there was very little reaction on the street (or not surprisingly--the Italians did what we would do: turn on the television). I was happy to at least share the experience with the people in the restaurant.

I spent most of today traveling, with a quick detour into Pisa, which has a lot more than the famed tower. I was actually surprised by how short the tower is (although it definitely leans). I'll be in the Cinque Terra for the next two days.