Day 8: Assisi & Urbino & San Marino & Rimini

Assisi
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We started our second to last day of our trip with Jacek in Assisi.  We saw the St. Francis and St. Clara Churches.  It was Palm Sunday so it was pretty cool to see all the people in such beautiful churches.  I went into the crypts of both of them and both spaces are really neat.  All of us went into the St. Francis crypt and just sat there for awhile.

After a few hours in Assisi, we went to Urbino, a town up on a hill.  All the streets are really steep.  We saw the Renaissance palace, Ducale palace and courtyard, and a couple churches.  Krystal, Laura, and I found a good place to eat lunch.  We had really good paninis.  I was also able to wash some strawberries Dianna and I had bought in Siena, so we definitely enjoyed them on the next bus ride.  After lunch Jacek told us he had somewhere he wanted to take us.  He said we wouldn't be happy about it at first, but we'd like it.  We then proceeded to climb and climb and climb to a high point overlooking the city.  He was right, we were happy about it once we got there.

Assisi
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Next, we went to San Marino, which is actually it's own little country in the middle of Italy.  I think the population is around 28,000.  It is also up on a mountain.  There are a couple castles Dianna and I walked around.  It was pretty nice walking around, but unfortunately it was pretty foggy so we couldn't see out very far.  We tried to find a place to eat, but couldn't find a quick place (that was open) close to our meeting spot, so I just ate ice cream.

On the bus ride to Rimini, our bus driver, Andrea (or as we called him, "Bear Cub") gave us some Grappa (which is disgusting by the way).  Jacek told us Bear Cub was sad we wouldn't be riding back with him to Poland, so we all toasted with a cup of Grappa.  As Jacek was pouring us shots, he told us it was illegal to drink in the car.  haha.  I, and a few of the other girls, gave most of our Grappa to Collin.

Assisi_St. Clara
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Our only time spent in Rimini was our stay in the hotel, so I didn't really get a chance to see any of it.  Our hotel was across the street from the beach, so the next morning I went out there for a few minutes.  Our hotel was pretty miserable though because they used solar heating, so we didn't have even luke warm water.  And, the heat was off in our hotel room when we got there, so it took forever to heat it up.  My advice for traveling in Italy in March or April is to take a shower whenever possible.