Sunday in Assisi

It is Sunday, September 28 and I am here in a caffe drinking hot chocolate and trying to figure out how to upload pictures. I can view them but can't seem to load them onto this site.

This is the Rocca Maggiore. The is a castle at the top of the mountain Assisi is built on. Melissa and I hiked up to the castle on Friday after we unloaded our luggage and got settled into our room.

Here one of the pictures from the top. The countryside is just breathtaking here. No matter where you are there are mountains. Of course since we are on one every view is wonderful.

This is a picture from our room. Actually not exactly from our room. We have a walk out onto a . . . well, balcony and this is the view from there.

This last picture...since it is high time I signed off of here. People are waiting for use of the intenet so one last picture for now. This is just a stairway leading to homes. Since much of Assisi is stone, there are not many gardens except for the pots on stairways and hanging. Until later Ciao!

ITALIA here we come!

Arrivederci Everyone!

I couldn't figure out to get a map of Italy here but the link

below will bring you to one.

Assisi is very close to Perugia which is northeast of Rome.

We will be there for 6 days and then explore in Florence which is northwest of Assisi for 2 days. Please keep us in your prayers as you are in mine.

See you all when we return.

http://www.concierge.com/travelguide/italy/map

Assisi Tomorrow - Thursday Sept. 25, 2008

Today, Wednesday I am home preparing for my trip tomorrow. Wait till I tell you what I thought I was going to do today. I actually thought I would have time to: finish packing; run to the store to pick up a few last minute items; Wash, clean, slice and freeze garden grown peppers; make and process Tomato Artichoke Salsa (with garden tomatoes); vacuum the downstairs; more laundry (had a few items that I decided to take with me); pay bills on line; make phone calls regarding airline tickets and technical support for my easy share camera; call to Gemini Travel with ticket questions; pay taxes at town hall; and finally, I was planning to call my friend Carol and see if we could go to the quarry and pick up some large flat rocks with her truck. Matt is making a stone stairway for me since the stone I need for this stairway is larger than I can manage on my own. Then of course, there is dinner and clean up. Yup, I actually thought I'd be able to get these rocks and the rest of this list accomplished today. I thought if the stone is available to Matt and he happens to have some spare time, he could work on them. The quarry is only open M-F until 4 or 4:30. Matt is working and cannot get the stone for me so I thought with help I could at least do that. Needless to say that thought was such a joke :)!!! Dave has always said that I am time challenged :). He is right!

Okay, so I have the peppers cleaned, sliced and frozen. The Tomato Artichoke Salsa is jarred, sealed, labeled and stocked. My packing is done except for the things I need in the morning. Oh, I needed one more thing, an umbrella. Dave says he has one. He tells me where it is so I go in search of it. I find it, grab the handle and pull it out. Yeah, the umbrella is still in its original location, the handle however is in my hand. Protruding from it is this very long, thin...ice pic. . . .What the...bleep-a-de-bleep. I walk to the living room (where the master of umbrella showcases sits on his throne) with said piece of equipment in hand and say, "this is the umbrella you want me to take to Italy?" He looks at it and starts laughing, then says...you would be arrested at the airport. Laughs again! It took a while for him to calm down. Glad I could be so entertaining. What a piece of work! FREAK! :) He claims he didn't know. This lovely gem was inherited from his brother. It is not the only gem we have found. Guess I don't get to bring an umbrella since I forgot to get the one Mary offered me. Oh well, doesn't really matter, I have gardened in the rain and I'm still alive to tell the story.

I got everything done on my list except for the rocks. It will have to wait until I get back. They say we will have Internet access so stay tuned for pictures on location
Ciao!!!

Assisi Count Down 3 days

Leaving on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Headed for JFK International Airport. A layover there for a few hours and then off to Rome...tee hee!

Sooooo 3 days from now I will be flying with Melissa, to Rome. A bus will be waiting there to take us to Assisi. We will be in Assisi for 6 days and then to Florence for two days. Then to Pisa to fly home on October 4. See you all upon my return. In the mean time, here is a site you can check out if you'd like a little information on the area.

http://goeurope.about.com/cs/italy/a/assisi_walks.htm

Assisi Count Down

Only 7 days left.

Yes, that's right!

Next Thursday I will be on my way to Assisi.

Can't Wait!

Oven French Toast

This recipe is great for brunch and is prepared the night before so all you have to do is spread on the topping in the morning and pop it in the oven. Everyone loves this French Toast. You can experiment with the bread. Don't feel like you must use baguette. I used Italian in this recipe shown. I have also used Cinnamon Bread from Montana Mills (which was excellent). So use your imagination! And serve with your favorite syrup.

Oven French Toast
1 loaf baguette bread
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
6 eggs

Topping:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Grease a 9" square pan with cooking spray. I don't have a 9" pan so I used an 11x7 inch pan. Slice bread in 1" slices and layer in greased pan. Beat milk, half and half and eggs. Pour over bread slices, cover and refrigerate over night. Take out a stick of butter to soften overnight. In the morning mix butter, brown sugar cinnamon, nutmeg and nuts, spread over bread and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

The count down begins

13 Days to Assisi!!!

For anyone who doesn't know yet, I am going on a pilgrimage to Assisi and Melissa will be coming with me. We will be meeting up at JFK and continuing on from there for 6 days in Assisi and 2 days in Florence and then return home.

Today and the Patio

Okay here's my story Missy from Mass. I got up this morning, had my coffee with muffins and headed out to run a few errands. An hour at church, 20 minutes with Fr. Peter; stopped at work to fax Melissa our Itinerary for Assisi and get a padded envelope to mail her the packet of info I received at our Wednesday night meeting. I received a very nice padded envelope at work with info in it. Of course I saved it cuz I'm going green :) more importantly it is saving me money. Prepared the envelope, taped it up and then off to the post office but not before snitching a chocolate chip scone from work. Inconceivable that they are providing scones on my day off! what is up with that. Anyway upon my return home I remember I am supposed to make a posting with pic's of my patio so I grab the camera and head outside to find my large pedestal pot blown over. Put the camera down and then decided I needed to take care of the top heavy pot. I made the mistake of planting zinnias in it and they were very tall, guess it was too windy for them today and the whole pot went over so I dug them out and replaced them with miniature ones then planted the large ones elsewhere. While I was at it thought it would be a good time to repot a few of the plants that I'd been meaning to get to all summer. I swear the roots of one of them was growing right into the pot. Guess it was a little root bound :). After that I relocated several empty pots housed in the basement to the shed. During all the moving I noticed many plants were a little droopy so I filled several gallon jugs and went around watering all potted plants. I dug up most of my amaryllis bulbs yesterday but didn't have time to label them so I did that. All that done I was getting a little hungry so retreated to the kitchen for a snack. I had some coffee left over from the morning and since it was a sweltering day, turned it into Ice Coffee and enjoyed that with a linzer cookie provided by my friend Mary Ann. It was about 3:00 and time to shower and get ready for the BTA Picnic at Hamlin Beach that started at 5:00. Just before we were ready to leave it occurred to me that I never took the pictures (talk about getting side tracked :)) and if I didn't take them before we left, it would be dark and I'd have to wait till morning. So I grabbed the camera and quickly took these. Also in these photos is the pot that was blown over. Not the greatest arrangement this year but....