[Italy Day Five: Assisi & Florence]

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Beautiful landscape below Assisi, Danielle and I laughing and soaked from the rain, a close up of Assisi, Jackie, Ellie, and Danielle after our delicious lunch, Mara and I in Florence, Mara and Makiah on the carousel. 

Today we travel for most of the day. It is a three hour bus ride from Rome to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. Assisi is considered a place where "time stood still", a town that has not caught up to modern times. The village on a hill gives us an incredible view, and despite the rain we all stop and take a few photos of the beautiful landscape below. 
We head up to the basilica, less majestic than previous basilicas, but much more elegant than St. Francis would have appreciated. 
Ellie, Danielle and I find another art studio and a cave-like restaurant. Jackie joins us for the best meal of the trip. I have spinach and ricotta ravioli. It rains and Ellie and I share an umbrella, fighting, laughing, each of us getting half soaked. The choir meets in the church and soon "Sanctus" rings through the church. 
We have another three hour bus ride to reach Florence. After we get checked in to our hotel, we call out of our screenless windows to each other across the courtyard. We head downstairs for dinner and Rome Awards. 
Mr. Aamot takes us out for a night on the town. We hunt for the cast of Jersey Shore, follow the liquor bottle, take pictures of the lit up city on a bridge, yearn for the shopping we'll do the next day, and of course, eat gelato. We ride a twirling carousel, light up gold in the night. We sing "La Sera" (this video is not our best version, but it's probably the most accurate of how we sounded that night) and have energy pouring from our bodies. We end up in the piazza near the basilica that looks like it is made of paper and twirl Danielle in our arms. We ask Vinnie to try and he does, her legs lift off and become parallel to the ground. 
We take the city bus back to the hotel and collapse into sleep around 1 am, exhausted from the long day, and anxiously awaiting tomorrow.