Perugia is known as the city of chocolate, so our arrival naturally excited me. Upon meeting our city guide, we went up a few escalators to enter the old city of Perugia. Many years ago, a Pope decided to build a palace in this location, so he had everyone relocated from their homes, had architects put arched ceilings over the streets, and used the original city as the foundation in which to build his palace. Many years later, the palace is now gone, but the “modern” city of Perugia now sits. We heard that one of the architects didn’t like what the Pope was doing and decided to make detailed drawings of the old city, complete with names and occupations of the residents, which exists to this day. Exploring this old city and walking on the original streets that may be 2,000 years old was absolutely amazing!

I suppose we should thank the Pope for his actions as it perfectly preserved the city for modern-day visitors, offering us much to learn.

After our underground exploration, we took the escalators back to the surface and walked to the Piazza IV Novembre, or the 4^th of November Square, named for the day WWI ended in Italy. Once a Roman forum, and then the center of the city’s medieval era, this location is a beautiful open area lined with shops and featuring an intricate fountain next to the side of the cathedral.

The Fontana Maggiore features two concentric circles of bas-reliefs depicting signs of the zodiac among other important religious figures.

Next, we learned about the “Baci” chocolates, meaning “kiss” in English. These delicious bites have a single hazelnut on top of a filled center, covered in chocolate and wrapped first in a paper with a sweet saying and then in foil with stars on the wrapper.

Back on the bus, we traveled to Assisi, a beautiful complex that sits high on a hill. From the parking area, we had to walk a short distance to the arch at the entrance and then up a zig-zagging set of roads that reminded me of San Marino!

We grabbed coffee and lunch before walking up to the Cathedral of Saint Francis. We were not allowed to take any photos inside the building at all, but we could enter on the left, follow the stairs down to the crypt to see St. Francis’ tomb (circa 1230), walk around the back of the tomb and exit on the other side up the stairs. The cathedral’s façade was located outside and up the hill 90 degrees, so we walked up there to take some photos of the area and the view. (This was the only church that had armed guards on duty.)

After our visit, we were on the bus for a few hours traveling to Naples to reach our hotel and promptly fell asleep.