Assisi..... Home of St. Francis of Assisi

For PDay, Monday, we went up to see Assisi, which we had been told was one of the favorite places other senior couples had visited.  It is a quaint medievil mountain top town in Umbria, which is north east of Rome.  Saint Francis, who is the patron saint for Italy, was from this town.  So he is known as Saint Francis of Assisi.  He lived in the late 1100's- early 1200's .  He started the Francescan order which is a life style of poverty and service.  We have read many things about him, now that we visited Assisi, and we have discovered he was a very good person, who helped many many people during his life time.  First we visited the church that was built over the place he died.  It is in a little city called Santa Maria degli Angeli. (Which we were told is the city that Los Angles, California was named after)

Then we drove to Assisi, which was just a few miles away.  It is set up on the mountain.

                 We drove to the castle on the top.  It is called the Rocca Maggiore.

We walked all around inside, up the stairs to the tower, down the stairs and through many rooms.  

There were stairs everywhere.

I especially enjoy the many cool doors in the Castle .

We went down a steep stone staircase and through a very long tunnel, 

and then up five or six levels of stairs to the west tower, where we had an incredible view of the whole valley below.

The next picture is a view from the west castle tower down on The Basillica of Saint Francis

And these pictures are from the castle to the other buildings around and within the castle walls.

After touring the castle, we went down to the town of Assisi and walked from one end to the other, beginning with the Basilica of Saint Clare.  

Clare was a contemporary of Francis. She started the Second order of the Francescans which was for the ladies.  Throughout medieval Europe in the early 1200's, thousands of women were joining convents and religious orders.  This allowed for women who were often poor and widows, a safe haven where they could be looked after.  This time period experienced a fast following for the second order.  The women lived a life of poverty and service.

The town was lovely, and we enjoyed a leisurely walk through it to the opposite end where the Basilica of Saint Francis is.

After about a 45 minute walk we made it to the end of the town where we could see the famous Basilica of Saint Francis.  It had a long lawn leading down to it, which had the word PAX  (pax means peace in Latin.  And Assisi is said to be the city of peace.)  made out of large shrubs in the middle of the lawn with a symbol above it, which is the Francescan Symbol.

No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the church.   I found this one picture of the inside murals, on a wall up in the big castle we visited first.  So I took a picture of a picture!

I am sorry this blog is so long, but it was a very long day with so much to see.  I spared you about 100 other pictures I took!  My legs are so sore from taking so many stairs and walking so much today, but it was all very worth it.  

Flavia's House

Saturday, we were invited over to Flavia's house to see her while she was in town.  This fall she has been going to the University of Pisa, studying nature medicine.  Flavia was baptized the first month that we were on our mission.  At that time she was living with her Aunt Delia and her uncle Sabato and cousin Americo, and her Nona (grandmother) Maria Gratzie. Her mother and sister live in town nearby.

In the picture above, Flavia is sitting with her aunt, and her mother is in standing right behind her and her sister Vanessa is on the far right.

Flavia is now engaged to a wonderful returned missionary from northern Italy and they both are going to the university of Pisa.  His name is Giovanni. He is studying to be a doctor like his father is. 

She told us about a miracle that happened last week.  Giovanni wanted to get her a wedding ring, but since he is going to school, he has no money.  Usually, in Italy, couples are engaged for 10-12 years so that they can finish their education and then they need to find a job and save enough money for an apartment, and also save money for the cost of the big wedding.  And then they get married.  I am sure because of her Luekemia and uncertainty for her future health, they have decided to get married in one year.  Giovanni prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help him find a way to get Flavia a ring.  Then..........one day last week, as he was helping his father tear up the old floor tiles in their mountain home, he found a box that had Egyptian drawings and characters all over it.  Inside the box, he found a tie clip, a gold money clip, a very old 100 Lira coin, and a beautiful gold wedding band!  The ring fits Flavia perfectly.  The coin is a symbol of good fortune, the tie clip, he can wear on his wedding day, and the gold money clip will hold the money he will make after he becomes a doctor! And now Flavia has a beautiful wedding ring!  What a tender mercy.  I know that Heavenly Father is so aware of them and their needs and wants.

They are so in love.  It's wonderful to see her so happy.

They are both genealogy service missionaries, as they are going to school.

We don't get to see her very often now, because she is in Pisa, but she came home for a day and we ran up to see her, and took Tom and Paula to meet her too.  Her Aunt and Nona made us homemade Pizza. They were sooooo good.  They must have made at least 15 pans of different topping pizzas.

Nona is one of my most favorite Italian friends.  I don't get to see her very often.  When we taught Flavia the missionary lessons, she would sit right in with us for every lesson.  But she is perfectly content with her Catholic religion and does not understand the need for priesthood ordinances. 

She lived in Switzerland for 20 years when she and her husband were first married, so we have fun throwing around what German we remember.  Then she returned to her home town in Italy, which is high in the mountains above Avalino.  She works so hard in the garden and around the house.

This is a Zucca that she grew in her garden.  It is like a pumpkin, but it has a more red squash like inside.  It is yummy roasted, or put into soup, or in Risoto.  I have enough here to share with all the branch!

We had mushrooms on the pizzas which she had picked from the mountain forests around their home.  We had olives from their olive trees.  The tomatoe sauce, which is called pasatta, they bottled themselves.  They bought the cheese and ham.  But these pizzas were truely a work of love from Delia and Nona.  I think we ate them almost all gone.

Flavia gave us each a box of chocolates and she gave me a lovely bracelet.  We had a marvelous visit. We hope we get to see her and her family at least one more time before we finish our mission.  But I am not certain that we will.  We would love to come back to Italy for her wedding.  She is a celestial, eternal friend.

Homemade Ravioli

Yesterday, Gina came over the the morning to show Paula and I how to make homemade Ravioli.  We also made Rondelli.  We had such a good time. We filled the ravioli with a filling of ricotta and pears.  Oh my, it was really good.  Ravioli are one of my favorite dishes to order when we eat out.  But I always complain that they don't give you enough.  Usually five or six is all.  After making them and seeing how long it takes, I will appreciate every taste of those five or six Ravioli.

Step 1.  Make the pasta from 1 kg. flour, 4 eggs, 4 Tablespoon olive oil, and work in water a little at a time on the table.  About a cup and a half total.

Step 2:  knead th dough for about ten minutes.  It's a very stiff hard dough.  Not soft like for bread.

Step 3:  we used a pasta maker to roll out the dough in long lengths.

Step 4:  Then we made the filling: 

 2 cups of Ricotta, 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of cubed mozzarella cheese, 2 T. Fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste, 2 eggs, 2T. Bread crumbs, 2 pears cut up in small pieces and heated in a skillet for a few minutes with a shake of sugar over them.

Here is the filling with the ricotta.  It was so good, I just wanted to eat it all by itself! 

Stap 5:  We dabbed just a small teaspoon of filling every three or four inches in the middle of each pasta length.  And by finger, wet the dough with water in a semicircle around the bottom half of each filling blob, being sure to keep about a 1/4 inch away from filling.  Then we folded the dough in half and pressed the pasta together around each ravioli so that they were sealed tight and no air bubbles were inside.

Then we cut them in a little more than half circles, and pressed the edges with a fork to seal them tight.

                               We made 38!  And wow were they yummy.

We boiled them in salted water for about 5-7 minutes.  You can then toss them in a little olive oil and sprinkle sage over them.  I have had them with a yummy lemon white sauce over them, or you can eat them plain.  If you don't add pear to the filling, you can add ham or chicken or hamburger to the filling instead and then pour a red sauce over them just before you serve them hot.