Assisi Diary - Day 1 - Arrival

Buon Giorno:
Just as the first floor of an Italian hotel is found on the second level, my first post comes on the second day.  It's a beautiful Umbrian spring morning.  The hills are in bloom; the temperature will climb to about 70, with much sunshine.  Geographically, Assisi sits part way up Mount Subasio, offering wonderful views of farmlands, orchards and distant Italian towns.  It spirit she sits somewhere just above earth, slightly closer to heaven.

Being here makes yesterday's 26 hours of travel all worthwhile.  You ask, how can a day have 26 hours?  Well, I suppose it was actually just two very long days running together, blended (or blurred) across many time zones.  It involved a car ride to the airport, two long flights and one shorter one, a train ride, a crowded tram ride, a short walk in Rome, a car ride from Rome to Assisi and, finally, climbing up about 54 steps to the apartment.

After settling in yesterday evening, with a good pasta dinner, sleep won out over posting a first entry. 

Speaking of pasta... the Italian word for cord or string is "spago".  For a narrower cord or piece of string, one would add a diminutive "etto".  But to keep the hard "g" sound in Italian, one must add an "h".  Thus, a single piece of string would be a "spaghetto".  But, what if you had in front of you a plate full of strings?  To indicate the plural, the "o" at the end of "spaghetto" would change to an "i", and you would have... a fine meal.

Ciao.