I am knitting a shoe

Scarpa and sciarpa sound basically the same. And with so much Italian vocabulary rolling around in my head, it's often hard to pick out the right word. Thus I keep on accidentally telling everyone that I make shoes, which in fact I do not. I make sciarpe, scarves. But it was funny the first time I made that mistake, when Armida was driving me home and it was dark so I couldn't show her the scarf, so she couldn't guess at what I was trying to say; I told her I'd bought some yarn and was making a shoe, and she was really quite perplexed until I realized what word I was using and corrected myself. I was able to make a joke of it, in my broken Italian, which was a big breakthrough for me - as I have a slippery at best grasp of the language, being able to communicate humor is a huge deal. Last night, also, when Armida picked me up after I spent a day at Assisi, I was a tad late, and I joked that it was all because of my friends who walk too slowly, but of course I would have been on time if it hadn't been for them. I feel like I'm making big steps forward; I know I'm still far away from fluency, but I'm beginning to feel confident that I will get to that point.

Assisi was pretty amazing. It was my first trip taken independently of the school, so when everything worked out (for the most part, at least) it was so satisfying. We left at 7:00 in the morning, but with the train ride and stops we didn't arrive until about 10:00. Once in Assisi, we walked and walked and walked, all day. Assisi is built on the top of a hill (which meant everywhere we went was either straight up or straight down), looking down over a vast sweeping valley. It rained all morning, but by afternoon there was just a heavy fog, and the view into the valley was gorgeous; the clouds were billowy and dark, and the air was refreshingly sharp. We went to four of the five churches, though we managed to find the fifth right before we had to take the bus back down into the valley to the train station to come back to Viterbo. In the Basilica, a BEAUTIFUL church to St. Francis practically at the top of the hill on which Assisi is built, we had a bit of an adventure.

Though we had noted "gee, there are an awful lot of Germans here," we did not suspect anything out of the ordinary. We were on the top level of the church, with tall, vaulted ceilings soaring overhead, painted brilliant colors, and murals along the walls depicting the life of St. Francis. About to leave, we suddenly noticed that they were setting up instruments at the front, including several xylophones. Now, xylophones are always good, so we decided to stay and hear some music. We found seats pretty close to the front, and got settled in to listen. After waiting half an hour, however, the music still hadn't started, and about 10 tour groups made up solely of Germans had arrived. But just as we were getting impatient and thinking of going, someone came to the microphone, and began to speak. In German. It took me a moment to realize that; my first thought, when I did not recognize a single word he was saying, was "that had really better not be Italian." When he'd finished, everyone around us got out little books, stood up, and began to sing. In German. We had inadvertently stumbled upon a German service. In Assisi, Italy, in the Basilica of St. Francis. It was awesome.

We stayed for about 20 minutes. The speaker was fascinating to watch; though I couldn't understand anything he was saying, he made animated gestures and I could get some ideas of what he was talking about. He appeared to be talking about the life of St. Francis, as he continually pointed to the murals. At one point everyone in the church turned to look at something on the back wall, and, perplexed, we turned also, pretending that we had some idea what everyone was looking at. At first we were shaking with silent laughter at the hilarity that we had accidentally been caught in a German service; after a while of watching and listening, however, it was no longer as hilarious as incredible - it was so fascinating that we were part of some sort of pilgrimage to Assisi by thousands of Germans to hear this sermon or lecture.

I would say that that was the highlight of my day, getting to listen to that service. Amazing.