The Italian Hill Town Assisi!

With another day in Florence we decided to head out for a day trip to the nearby town Assisi. Assisi is a beautiful town set in a hillside, south of Tuscany. It is home to Saint Francis, and with that ornate churches are found in its vicinity. One of our personal favorite features was a castle nestled at the highest point in town. Below is a picture of one of the cathedrals, found outside and in, are many references to Saint Frances.

Getting to the town and seeing the castle for the first time. We had to walk a little ways to get there, but a bus does get you pretty close. 

We stop as often as possible at local grocery stores, and load up on a few things to carry us throughout the day. We  often will get chocolate or ice cream from the local region. One of our all time favorite food supplies is fruit! As you can see in this picture we decided to take a watermelon break half way up to the castle! We did have two of the cool spoon/fork/knife combo utensils, but Harmon broke one during this very Watermelon break,so now we share.

This is atop the castle, along the wall to the watch tower.  The castle is very well preserved and has a lot of rooms you can walk through as well as a very long, and narrow, spiral staircase. 

This is a picture taken from underneath the wall to te watch tower. You can walk through the wall to get to the watch tower. All along the walls are holes that are just wide enough to launch arrows from a crossbow at oncoming foes. The walkway was very narrow as we walked through the hallway, Harmon's shoulders would just barey miss the walls. We couldn't imagine what it must be like sprinting down the hallway while wearing full armor. 

Here is a view from te watch tower back towards the castle.

This is the opposite view from the watch tower away from the castle. The surrounding area is beautiful farms, rolling green hillsides and a beautiful small town with cobblestone streets and narrow walkways.

Here is the best view of all of Italy, that's because it is of my beautiful wife, of course. I could never ask for a better travel partner! I am so happy she is my wife and I love her so much. She keeps me smiling all the time!  I know it is hard not to just gander on the beauty of my wife, but this picture also shows the small  cute streets of Assisi. 

We loved Assisi and we even noticed a few small spaces for sale. Ahhh, if only it was easier to get to Italy. One thing we discovered on this trip was how much we liked having a central place to stay and taking day trips to other close by areas.

Finally European soil!!

After a short stop in Dallas, we finally arrived in Dublin!! With missing our connecting flight, we had to do some last minute plan changes in order to accommodate the much more limited time. We had originally planned to stay in Slane, Ireland (look for a post about Slane and Newgrange in August) but decided instead to move our one overnight stay to Rush Ireland. Rush is a cute, homey coastal town that just makes you feel welcome. After talking with a local bed and breakfast owner (who was extremely kind and actually very reasonably priced) we decided to pitch our...tent!!!!

That's right! Our brand new Eureka Amari 3 backpacking tent. This tent is awesome, with plenty of room for two people but still light enough to be a sensible backpacking choice, we could not pass it up. After pitching our tent we set off for the local grocery store to obtain a few supplies! First and foremost we needed some good foreign snacks... Brooke found these Digestives for only €.59.

We also grabbed some oranges and yogurt for breakfast. Being new to the town of Rush we needed some expert advice on where to eat. Seeing as we were already in the grocery store, and there was a desk that said customer service, we decided... Hey we are customers, and we need service. So we asked for a few best local eateries and soon had our very own grocery store concierge. From her offerings we chose Harbour Bar, a good old fashioned Irish Pub (according to our source this was the  best place for fish and chips. Inside the pub there were two doors, one labeled lounge and the other bar. Seeing as we avoid these places normally. We had to make a guess at which would provide food. We chose bar only to come  sneaking out 30 seconds later and into the lounge area. Harmon ordered Fish and Brooke, a delicious butternut squash soup that left us licking the bowl. The fish was excellent as well, the best we had ever had nice and moist with malt vinegar to add some extra kick.

After dinner we walked along the beach and retired to bed. With the jet lag it was a rough firsts night sleep, but we were up bright and early taking down camp to head off for Malahide Ireland.

Malahide is a nice small town that caters more to tourists than Rush. Many small, trendy restaurants line the street, and the best part is... THEY HAVE A REAL CASTLE!!!

 Just a short train ride from Rush we strolling along well manicured Castle Grounds and watching young lads play Cricket. After only the one day in Ireland it has lefty with a longing for more and there will be more Irish posts to follow come August. After a quick stop in Rush we headed to the airport via double decker bus to fly to Greece!