Learning About Different Tourisms

Saturday at last and the work still does not end. Today we are touring Assisi. Where we are staying is considered a suburb of this bustling town and today we will take a cab up to the top of the ancient city (dating back to the 6th century B.C.)And walk our way back down.
One evening several of us were sitting and discussing agri-tourism versus other types of tourism. George, our colleague from Malta said agri-tourism to him is defined as an agriculture based business that opens its door within its community but draws the majority of its business from outside the community and becomes sustainable off of those dollars. When we toured I asked him if the tour we were on to the winery etc was agri-tourism. He said no, although the family winery was an example of agri-tourism, the tour we were on would be considered academic tourism. Of course then there is just tourism, which is people coming to see or view your product or area, perhaps spend some money and leave. So I say all of this to say our day trip today was academic tourism not tourism or agri-tourism. No matter what you call it it was very educational.
At the top of the mountain are the remains of a castle or fort, Rocca Maggiore e Rocca Minore(Great Fort and Small Fort). From the castle you have a 360 degree view which would be very helpful during a time of war. The fort was the scene of many bloody battles and often determined who was in control of the area. As we started to walk down we ran into many homes, shops and coffee shops as we made our way to the main piazza, or Piazza del Commue (town hall square). There we stopped briefly to enjoy a café or Coke Light and then travelled to the church at the end of the square, Cattedrale Di San Rufino which was erected to hold the body of St. Rufino who was the first Assisi Bishop that was martyred.
From there we travelled to Tempio di Minerva which is on the other side of the square although the first century structure is impressive from the outside the inside only seats about 60 people. It is lovely but very small in comparison to all the other churches within the town. After posing for pictures in front of the newest piazza attraction, the fountain, which was erected in 1772 (that is new here), we pressed on. As we checked out the little stores. I must say our favorite was an olive wood shop. There they make a variety of items out of olive tree wood; it is very durable and attractive.
After a brief stop for pizza we pressed on with our tour. Our highlight of the trip was the Basilica Di San Francesco (the St. Francis Basilica). This structure is made up of an upper and lower church. The tomb of St. Francis is also available for viewing down under the church. It is absolutely incredible the number of people who come to the church to pray by his tomb. After admiring all of the artwork through the two churches we started walked back down to our hotel.
It was probably a two to three mile walk downhill. Cathy kept looking for break areas along our walk and wasn’t finding much of anything. After a few Hail Mary’s she made it to McDonald’s where we stopped and she grabbed a large fry to help renergize her and make it the rest of the way (a big 10-15 minutes) back to our conference center. We were so proud of her for making it the entire route!
The rest of the evening was as normal, dinner, conversation and then rest. Tomorrow we head back to Rome and will catch our flight first thing Monday morning. Of course we will have several more posts as we make our way back home with lots of incredible experiences and stories.