Assisi

I had heard that Assisi was always packed with tourists, but when I went it was so dead it was creepy. It is another cute hill town with pretty city walls/fortifications and the basilica is amazing. I wish I could have photographed the frescoes inside because they were the best I've seen by far. I know the Sistine Chapel is more famous, but I preferred this. I think the town was especially creepy due to the Siesta hours. Most of the towns have them, but in the less touristy ones, there is absolutely no one outside from around 1-4.

St. Frances Basilica
Nativity Scene
Inside the basilica courtyard

View of the full basilica- so huge. I did not get to see nearly all of it. I wonder how many monks live in there?
Look, it snowed!

More Assisi Pics

Perugia

Perugia is a hill town that reminds me somewhat of Nagasaki- tons of stairs and roads with no labels whatsoever that don't seem made for cars. It is not too touristy either- always a plus.

Main Plaza

Lots of hills

Stair streets!

The main stair street- why I could not take the bus to the train station with my suitcase.

Pretty church

More Perugia Pictures

Florence

Florence was amazing- probably my favorite city on the trip. It was too expensive to go into all the museums, however, so I did not see all the famous things there like David. Oh well. It makes me realize how lucky we are in the US to have the Smithsonians.

Palazzo Vecchio
Duomo


Duomo and Florence from above

Arno and Ponte Vecchio

Plaza

More pictures of Florence

Pisa

I was so excited to get to climb the leaning tower. I went when I was 12 and it was in a dire state and I was crushed not to be able to go in. It is a hefty 15 euro though.




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Rome

Since I have not figured out how to get more than 5 images to show up in here, I am posting a link to all the pictures at the bottom of each post and then picking my 5 favorites.

Rome was amazing- I went there with some friends so I saw everything in the first 3 days before one friend had to leave and then had about 2.5 days left to kill. You definitely do not need 5 days there unless you like to go into a lot of museums, I guess. My favorite things were the Vatican and the Colosseum/Forum.

I also had some amazing food, but it is sort of tucked in with crappy tourist sort of places that are not so good.


Forum

St. Peter's in the Vatican

View of Plaza in front of St. Peter's

Colosseum



Trevi Fountain

If that is not enough-
Rome Pictures