Assisi...My Home Away from Home...

Il 28 settembre 2012

Assisi

As I sit in my Assisi apartment sipping un espresso and eating biscotti, I am reminded of the joy I receive from the simple pleasures. It's those particular moments in life when I am especially “present” that my gratitude is the most abundant...that I wonder if my life could get any better. I arrived back in Assisi a week ago and, within no time, my “home” away from home became my home once again. This is the 5^th time I've been here in the last two years and I already have my next two visits on the calendar. So what keeps calling me back to Assisi when the rest of Italy beckons me to visit...

There are the unique friendships, the favorite markets and restaurants and shops, the special quiet of the morning before the city takes on its personal vibrancy, the splendid views of the Umbrian countryside that I never tire of...but most of all, it is that inexplicable feeling of “la pace” of peace that envelops my soul when I am here. And so...I keep coming back.

Each time I get off the train from Rome and walk out the door of the station, I experience a “deja vu” moment...but then the adventure begins again and each day brings something new. I walk the same streets, but it is not the same because I am a little older and, hopefully, a little wiser about who I am and what is important in my life. I do believe we create our personal environment; our thoughts translate into our reality, but I also know that I am blessed.

Assisi is one of those places that, although modernized with wifi connections and a 21^st century life style, still is, in certain ways, a city of the past. Everywhere one looks, there is a reminder of a history that goes back many hundreds of years; beyond that if we think about Assisi, the Roman city, or much further back to the time of the Etruscans. For most people who come to visit, it is the life of San Francesco that resonates here and the splendid basilica that bears his name.
 

Italians tell me that the spirit of San Francesco lives in Assisi and that is why this is a magical place. I can't speak for that; only for what I know to be true for me. And for me, this is a place unlike any other that I have spent time in. I have been embraced by the “locals” I meet and warmly greeted wherever I go. I never cease to be enthralled when walking the streets and feeling history unfold before me. Maybe there is something in the air here; whatever it is...it feels just right...