We had last been to Assisi in 1998, just a year after the earthquake. The town at that time was still a disaster area, and the upper part of the Basilica was closed. So we had a good incentive to go back for a return visit. We also wanted to stop at the restaurant Rebecca of SlowTrav said she'd choose for her last meal: Ai Cavalieri, a few kilometers west of Assisi in the town of Petrignano. It was everything Rebecca had promised us. I just hope that the day we ate there wasn't typical of the business they're doing, or they won't be around long enough to serve Rebecca on her deathbed. There was only one other party there for Sunday lunch. We eventually got to chatting with one of the men who spoke very good English. When he heard we were from Massachusetts, he commiserated with us on the results of the recent election, but congratulated us on the Red Sox championship. We were surprised to find that Italian sports fans follow American baseball!

As for the food — it was definitely at least a 3-star experience, at no more than 1-star prices. We each had the marvelous pecorino souffle with balsamic sauce to start. I had (pictured above) pork and potatoes with a sauce of Sagrantino wine, accompanied by a marinated baked pear — superb; I wanted to lick the plate. Mike had beef that was cooked in a local olive oil — sounds kind of weird, but he said it was delicious. The bill came to 87 euro, but almost half of that was because we splurged on a pretty expensive bottle of wine.

Moving on, we were glad to see the town of Assisi restored to its rightful beauty with none of the scaffolding that marked our memories from our first visit. Interestingly, the basilica of St. Francis was one of the most crowded places we visited during the whole trip. It was a Sunday afternoon, so probably there were many local people there.

We enjoyed walking through the town, but then got hopelessly lost driving back to the B&B. What took us about an hour to drive in the morning consumed about three hours returning. It does take time to get re-accustomed to the signage in Italy, even when you've driven there before. You just never know when the turn you're supposed to take will point toward the very small town that is the first one after the turnoff, or will tell you that it's going to Rome. And it's not true that all roads lead to Rome — if we had been heading to Rome, we'd have been a lot better off than on the road where we ended up, which led us closer to Florence in the opposite direction.

At any rate, we finally did get back to L'Ombricolo after many detours, but being Sunday evening, just about everything was closed, so we had no supper options. Dawne took pity on us and cooked us a fantastic meal of fresh porcini mushrooms and sausage, although we hadn't reserved dinner.