Day 3 (that felt like day 2):
The next day, we woke up to an alarm once again... trying to adjust our bodies to a 7 hour difference is not easy. ;-) We decided to plan this day for going into Assisi proper for some sight seeing as the resort was a good 15 minute drive away. Thankfully, we were awake enough to think to look for the store as we passed it.
The shuttle dropped us off at the bus station and said he would pick us up at the same place that evening. No problem... except that we had no idea where to go and we were still starving. Carmen wanted to call her mom because she promised she'd call when we got to the resort, but there was no cell signal in the resort because there is part of a mountain between us and the nearest cell tower, apparently. :-s
We made our way towards the bus station's service window where someone else was being helped... no clue what they were saying as it was all Italian (and saying that makes me wish we had gone to Greece so I could say "it was Greek to me"). LOL! So while we were waiting and wondering if the person spoke English, Carmen saw a vending machine that offered a map of town for €2 (almost $3). Rather pricey, but one of the best purchases we made that day. Once we figured out where we were and saw where stuff was, we started walking and figured that we could follow the signs to the McDonalds as the worst case scenario ("5 minutes away" is what we figured it said... clearly by car). We snapped some pictures of a church on our way down, but were REALLY excited when we turned around... FOOD!!
There was a cute little cafe in the wall with a sign out front offering the sandwiches they had... in Italian, of course. I recognized a couple of the words from eating Italian sandwiches in various restaurants, most without realizing they were Italian. LOL! I picked one that said it was big and Carmen picked out hers. You can see them at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2157330821433&set=a.2157304380772.2101948.1491362892&type=3 although I couldn't tell you what they were named... I didn't care enough to write them down as I was too hungry to care. It was so beautiful to have our first real Italian meal (after almost 30 hours from the breakfast on the plane) but near the end of the meal, we questioned what the custom for paying was as they said we pay after when I tried to hand them my card.
The crazy thing was some of the prices on U.S. imports... a 250 ml (roughly 10 oz) can of pop was €2.50 (almost $4) and a 500 ml (almost 17 oz) bottle was €4 (around $5.50... the same size being just over $1 in the U.S.). I told Carmen that I think those 2 were the last of her pop for this trip (although she had a few more). ;-)
There's a lot of gambling here, too. Around half the stores sold scratch-off cards and a few had slot machines. One had one called "Far West" and showed cowboys shooting it out... in other words, what we call the Old West. It makes sense, but it's still weird to see. ;-)
The rest of the day was mostly sight-seeing, taking pictures of ancient churches, beautiful countryside, and the old fashioned buildings that reminded me quite a bit of the days of King Arthur. ;-) Even more interesting were some of the updated store fronts, some with all sorts of electronics, internet, drywall, and very modern looks inside while the outside looked like they were in a castle wall. One of the funnier (and cooler) things that I didn't get a shot of was when a Ferrari (the only one we saw the whole trip) was driving down these very tight streets within Assisi... it was cuter when a little girl gasped as she saw it pass and almost shouted, "Ferrari!!" to her parents. LOL!
I finally let Carmen call her mom around lunch time in Italy (which was around 7 or 8 AM in North Dakota) as I didn't think Elsie would appreciate us waking her up in the middle of the night... she was relived that we called and was glad we waited. I called my mom next and told her we were there and couldn't call out from the resort so both moms could pass along that we were there and safe.
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