I went to Assisi this week. We basically had a whole day of travelling through St. Francis of Assisi's life. It was really interesting - he was a really amazing guy for sure. Basically he was from a really rich family and he just wasn't feeling like his life had any meaning and he experienced this conversion at this small beautiful chapel. Then he told his father he wouldn't be taking over the family business and his father locked him up in a mini prison in their house. His mother later let him escape and he ran away and started the whole Fransician Monk movement. He apparently had a stigmatic experience at this one monastary we went to ... but that's just a little to far fetched for me to total believe right now.
But anyway...monks amaze me, and kind of scare me at the same time. They're so devoted, and so unlike what I thought. I've seen monks talk on telephones, monks joking around...monks wearing baseball caps. We went into this one Sanctuary and a Franscian Monk was just going wild on the organ...he played ooh...half an hour, the most amazing organ playing I've ever heard. I don't particularly like the organ, but that's definitely the way it was meant to be played. He was a musical genius, and all this little monk buddies were all gathered around the organ watching him and turning the pages for him, it was really cool.

Umm, in list form some other things I did this week...

went to Pisa
went to Viareggio (for the beach...again)
had a painting class in the Boboli Gardens (beautiful...)

Alissa