about 4-4-2010 last day in Assisi

Last day of assisi, mostly rain some times quite heavy.. got to test my rain cape and it works. At times there was a lot of mist..at one point so much so I could not see the church from my hotel., went to main mass Easter morning for hour and half, italians wear casual I was kind of sticking out, I was not sure what people wear to church, I have a rather limited waredrobe, I wore my sarong and this pseudo asian top and my clunky un-italian-stylish sandals..the italians all wore jeans.. this surprised me.. most men there, looked like the women dragged them. I came and got almost the last seat some stood against walls.. this poor little kid in front of me could not sit still for the life of him, he squiggled the whole time .. I of course could not understand anything but I have also sat thru several hours of tibetan puja's so I am comfortable with not knowing what is going on... the organ was impressive and the singer (he reminds me of the chant master in tibetan buddhism who helps people know the right chant style of melody) had an amazing voice. The monks and priests seem to be from all over the catholic world, Philipino, Korean, probably Goan or Karnataka Indian, African. The main priest was african decent but from what I could tell he's itlalian was native. Though I did not know what was going on, to be able to observe this service in such a beautiful ancient church was amazing. The main priest, seemed quite charismatic after people took communion and the service was over people flocked to him to greet and chat with him.

..Since it was easter, I went and bought candy of course... and ate a lot that day..chocolates, pastry, ice cream, liquorish..
Any place that served food, coffee or beer and had indoor seating was packed.. I had a cheese spinach melt in thin bread for lunch and went window shopping .. I found this one store which had weird dark fairy goblin creatures, they were trollishly grotesque and of course I wanted them all. They were all hand made, each one different and the clothes too hand made. The women explained they where good luck spirits of umbria some even lucky in love, some general good luck.. or for health.. I kinda like the idea that the more grotesque the creature the better it was for you to see it. She said something about the first sight of it is what brought you the luck.

I went to a small museum which housed simple artifacts and video of the Minerva temple remains giving me a sense of what it looked like during roman times ….well a general uncluttered view.. then two more churches....basilica of St chiara and St Pedro which has a strange nativity scene and more artifacts mostly christian in a lower room … I had bought travel food including flat bread and cheese and some fresh fruit..which proved at first heavy but then wise, the following day... I returned to my room around fivish I had snacked so much all day..felt full..drank a perona beer and stayed up till 11 futzing ..this was a bad idea. Not good for sleep bank to whom I still owe.

Hotel breakfast feast, helped myself to a few more pieces of fruit for the road... by 8.30 I was walking...