patronizing

st. francis of assissi is the patron saint of tourist shops, or so it would seem. never before had i seen more shops with more of the same junk than i did the day i went to assissi; however, as luck would have it, that is not all that happened.

the morning i woke up, the morning that i was going to go to assissi, where francis is from, was a sunday, which, at the homefarm would have meant a morning of rushing and toast, missing shoes and car horns, and an afternoon at grandma and grandpa's house with eggs, bacon and more toast, however here, in Cortona, it meant a short train ride and a baptist mass in italian.

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an hour and half later i am on a train heading towards the city of assissi, where francis was from. he was a modest man, lived simply and before he passes away he left his last testament saying that "all [his] possessions are to be preserved behind glass and shown to the public and small trinkets are to be made and sold in every shop of the town that i lived modestly in". we know this because his last testament is also modestly kept behind glass.

getting off the train in assissi had me waiting a short time for a bus. getting on the bus had me sitting next to a woman from kentucky of about 65 and has spent the last ten years in italy. she offered me a seat next to her.

she liked italy because they used to use wheel barrows, now she likes italy because it isn't america. we chated about farming and globalization and italian culture and learning languages. we chated about all sorts of things until we, the bus and i, arrived at the stop that was to be mine. i knew this because my new friend told me so after i asked her which was my stop. she told me to look past the tourist shops and to behave myself. i told her i would try for the first part but the second part was no problem because I had been to church that morning.