Assisi – the day of surprises

Monday was truly a day of surprises. First, we were given half an hour more time to sleep in (which is wonderful if you're still trying to get over jet-lag...apparently I still have 2 more days to go) because they decided to rent vans rather than take the train. However, not long after we were given this good news did we stumble upon our second surprise. Quite blissfully were we traveling up the winding road to Assisi, happy to be alive and on our way to this ancient site of pilgrimage, when our van started making strange noises. Already running on a slightly late start (our mechanic has a metal hip and this evidently makes him slower...yes, I do appreciate the parallel to my favorite “mechanic”), we attempted to push past this noise, but our van just became progressively slower and slower, until we were crawling up the mountainside with angry Italians shaking their fists (and probably cursing) as they roared past us in their tiny cars.

Suddenly, we caught a whiff a strange and extremely unpleasant smell evidently coming from our machine and not a moment later we saw what was making that smell – smoke. A lot of it. Coming from the engine up front and more worrying (at least for us) from the seat belt of the driver, directly in front of my friend, Annie. To make a long story short (ok, at least shorter), we pulled over at the next available spot, which happened to be a resort next to the large man-made lake, stayed there for about 1 – 1 ½ hours, got back in the van hoping that it would at least make it to Assisi, and drove (very slowly) the next 75 minutes to San Damiano without any major problems.

Assisi is a beautiful little town (definitely my favorite so far) and many of us plan on returning, so maybe more stories then.