Assisi

A very warm start to the day today. Two of the other vans, left a seven o' clock this morning. These are the sensible people, who travel during the cooler parts of the day, they didn't arrive until eleven o' clock last night. Not like us Brits, we drive through the heat of midday, arrive at a destination in the afternoon, and set off exploring, while the sensible Italians, are indoors, curtains and shutters closed.

Yesterday a crown on one of Angela's teeth, became loose, and this morning, while eating her breakfast banana it came free. Yesterday, she'd emailed her dentist for some advice, and by return, a message came back with some do's and don'ts. It unbelievable, that we are now in contact with everybody, everywhere. Not that long ago, the problem would only have been resolved by visiting a local dentist, that's if you could find one, without the internet, and a good command of Italian.

One of the problems we have found in Italy, is it is very hard to find a tourist information office, where as in France, they are in every town, and larger village. So if you need to know anything, they can always help you.

Today we have decided, we've had enough 'bucket and spade' holiday, and have travelled inland, to the region of Umbria.

On route here, we passed a medieval castle in the countryside, right alongside the dual carriageway. Normally, you only see such structures in hilltop towns, that watch over the landscape below.

Today, we paid to travel on the toll road, and then fast roads through the mountains. After Marge slowly ascended a hill, she peaked, and the next thing, was on the downhill. The road, steep, fast and long, very long, going down and down right in front of us, through miles and miles of mountain tunnels, quite a white knuckle ride! We would have liked to have known how many thousands of feet up we were before our descent, then again, perhaps not.

Tonight we are staying at the medieval, hilltop town of Assisi, famous for Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment and animals.

With Marge now parked for the night, we set off in the heat the afternoon, the temperature well into the 30's.

We were quite taken aback, at how touristy the medieval town was, and as expected, because we'd seen the coaches parked near our van, bustling with visitors, which once again, along with the parked vehicles, made it difficult to take good photographs. However, during our three hour walkabout, we saw some interesting sights, ending with the Basilica, where in the crypt, we saw Saint Francis of Assisi's tomb. Although his body was actually taken to Toledo in Spain. In the crypt, we were suprised to see nuns, supposedly at prayer, actually on their smartphones. Perhaps God is on social media now!

Behind Marge, there is a lovely, large house, and over the fence cascade a fine display of pink roses, just like the ones adorning Marge's coffin last year.

Tonight, we sit in the van, with all the windows open, and enjoy a very welcome breeze coming down from the hills. Let's hope it continues all night.

We have the music of Ludovico Einaudi playing, after hearing it on the breeze, as we passed a shop just before we entered the town gateway.

Tomorrow we will continue to head north west into Tuscany and to Siena.