2023 Italy Day 01

By travelerdon on April 10, 2023

_{From home to Assisi, Mon, Mar 20 to Tue, Mar 21}

We get a ride to the airport from our trusted friend Tony and arrive early. We have no luggage to check as this is our first trip that we have decided to only use carry-ons. Should be interesting! So we hang out in a couple airport bars and sip wine and munch on bar food. When it comes time to head for our plane, it is a mile walk through a new section of the International Terminal we haven’t been before! The airport is always expanding! There is also a floor to ceiling window that when you look out, it looks like ominous clouds! But on closer inspection, the windows are painted with clouds being looked down on from above!

Well, the power is out to the escalators and elevators in this new section and Elee’s knees let her know how unhappy they are! We finally board the plane and the trip is uneventful. A mere 10 hours to Amsterdam and a 2 hour layover plus a 2 hour flight on to Rome. All these airports seem to get bigger every year and we certainly get our steps in!

What with exchanging our money for Euros and buying Italian Sim Cards for our phones, by the time we get our rental car, 2 hours have passed. We now have a 2.75 hour drive to Assisi and need to call the place to let them know we are arriving late. We get a tad lost in the city of Assisi and stop to ask directions. Two wonderful strangers not only help us, but they get in their car and lead us to our hotel! Italians are wonderful people!

We get checked into the hotel Santa Chiara in the middle of the town of Assisi and our concierge hops in our car with us and directs us to the parking which is a mere 1/2 mile walking but 2 miles to drive there! He then points us in the direction where we might find restaurants still open. We head that way and ask directions again as we pass some locals outside another hotel. The concierge at that hotel makes a phone call and a pizza restaurant around the corner keeps their doors open for us! So we sit down in Il Menestrello Ristorante Pizzeria and order a white pizza with truffles! Fantastic food and we even buy a couple bottles of wine for our hotel room!

We even pass by a random choir rehearsal!

But it has been a long 2 days of travel and we must say, “Buona notte e sogni d’oro!” Until tomorrow!