January 24

This morning, I woke up at regular time for breakfast and joined the group that was headed into town for 10:30 mass at the Basilica di San Francesco. (I know you're happy to hear that Mom and Dad.) The entire mass was in Italian, and I was able to understand the majority of it, partly because most of the mass consists of the same prayers that we hear in English every week back home. However, I also was able to catch more of the homily than I typically do at mass back home, probably because I was attempting to mentally translate what the priest was saying rather than zoning out as I typically do (sorry mom and dad). 

After mass, we had some time to kill before our scheduled meeting in the center of town or "il piazza comune". A few of us stopped into a small shop where there were unnamed sandwiches. Instead of attempting to figure out how to order one, I followed my friend Irene's lead when she ordered a slice of what we call "Sicilian" pizza by saying "lo stesso!" ("The same!") I do not yet know what the Italian phrase for a slice of pizza is. Our quick lunch left us with more time than we needed to walk around, and it was pretty chilly out so we needed to stop for a quick coffee. American style coffee barely exists in Italy, and the closest thing you'll get is a "caffe Americano", a fancy name for a watered down shot of espresso. And cappuccino can only be ordered before lunchtime. So I had to put my knowledge of Italian coffee drinks to the test and I did pretty okay by ordering a caffe macchiato, a tiny shot of espresso  with foamed milk on top. 

Our group meeting took us first to the Cathedral of Assisi. We learned yesterday that every city can only have one cathedral. At this site, we learned about the life of Santa Chiara (St. Clare), who wanted to follow in St. Francis' path by becoming poor and living a humble life as he and his followers did. She ended up having to start an order called the "poor Clares" because St. Francis wouldn't allow women to participate. 

After the cathedral, we went to the Basilica di San Chiara, which we had passed many times while walking through Assisi during the previous days. When the poor Clares moved to this church, they brought the cross of San Damiano with them. This was the cross that St. Francis prayed to during the moment that God called upon him to live a life of humility. 

Picture: Basilica di San Chiara, I took this picture on the day we arrived in Assisi. You can't miss this building when walking through town. The arches that protrude from the left side of the building are characteristic of the Romanesque period. They are known as "flying buttresses". 

Tracing the cross back to its original location, we walked downhill for a bit of a distance, passing rows of olive trees before arriving at San Damiano. As aforementioned, this was the home of the poor Clares before the Basilica of Santa Chiara was built but also the place where St. Clare died.

This was a very long day for us, especially because after making the trek up the large hill coming back from San Damiano, we attended an information session in the classroom of the guest house. Everyone was more than ready for the bed by the time we were done with dinner.