Eremo delle Carceri - Gorgeous Place You Should Visit

5/15/2015

There is one very peaceful place near the Assisi. It is not very well known, to be honest, before I visited this hermitage, I hadn´t heard about it. So I was very surprised and amazed when I arrived there.

We woke up quite early in the morning. We left our house and by cars we went to the hills of Assisi. Our cars stopped by the small road in front of the gate to the town and me and my friends jumped out. Because most of us were there for the first time, nobody was very sure where to go. But one of our priests, who had been there for some times already, showed us the right way and we slowly moved up a hill. A path was full of stones, which were making the climb quite difficult and almost all of my friends lost the tempo later and I found myself walking alone, with all of my friends far away behind me. Only person who was quicker than me, was the other priest.

However, after a while of walking and climbing, I noticed something fantastic. I just stopped walking and I was staring with my mouth wide open. Gorgeous view to Assisi and other small cities was just right there, offering all of us a moment of amazement. After taking a few snaps, we continued in our trip.

After some time, we finally saw it. The small hermitage, which was peeping out of the woods. We came to the entrance, where we discovered little shop with souvenirs but even with food and drinks. A man over there was kind, funny, but he spoke only Italian, so most of my friends were using hands, legs and facial expressions to buy or ask something. I had to laugh, because some of them were pretty good. Few minutes later, we walked in and we headed inside. There was a large statue of S. Francis along the way. As you can see from the photo, the statue looks quite interesting and it actually has meaning. Try to find out which one.

As soon as we entered the hermitage, our priest warned us to keep silence when we are moving around. As usually, we had short mass and prayer in local chapel. It was superb and quite emotional experience, because when we realized that S. Francis had done mass at same place, it touched our hearts. After the mass, we had our own time to walk around, meditate, think, look where we wanted to look and just discover the place.

I was walking around, taking photos but mostly - enjoying presence of silence, God and my soul. If you walk around the woods, which surround the hermitage, you will be very surprised and amazed how wonderful nature can be and if you make a time for yourself, your soul and head will thank you, because I cleared my mind perfectly over there. Of course if you don´t like nature a lot or you prefer noisy city, you will probably find it a bit boring, but I can guarantee you will enjoy it. I also like cities, their sound and that there is always something happening, but this was also good place to visit. Trust me.

When we had to say good bye to this magical spot, I didn´t want to leave. I wish we could stay longer, because it was very beautiful and touching. Unfortunately we had another plans ahead us and it was already late afternoon, so the best moment to leave. In conclusion, I can´t say anything else than that if you are near Assisi and you have free time, this is one of the options you should consider visiting it.