Assisi, Italy —

One more thing about vagabonding. You don’t have to turn into a hobo to do it. Sure it’s nice to have a couple of months to explore a destination but only students, some educators and insanely wealthy people can swing this. Bill Gates would probably be a great vagabond but he seems otherwise engaged.

For the rest of us, this style of travel can be helpful, even for an afternoon. I recall a visit to Assisi quite a while ago. I was standing in the center of the Basilica di San Francesco, the true focal point of this city of world peace and I was super pissed. Monks and sisters struggled to pray while tour groups bumped into one another, guides spoke above one another and all visitors wore garments of hues not found in nature. The experience was spiritually garish. So, I fled.

Outside the Basilica, I found no respite. More groups, and more guides joined by vendors of all things Assisi (t-shirts, postcards, bumper stickers.) So, I fled again, up a narrow flight of steps. The city almost immediately changed in character, revealing tiny piazzas and alcoves.

Each time I encountered a street filled with leather shops and knick-knacks, I pushed ever higher on the side streets and soon I was exploring a city that had nothing in common with my planned morning excursion. Women enjoyed across the street conversations from their windows hung with fresh laundry. Religious devotees were actually able to find a moment of peace.

I had a nice run there where, for over an hour, I was the only blatantly non-Italian entity around.

A noisy doorway drew my attention. It was a simple bar, without even a sign to mark its place. It turned out to be an Italian classic. There were tables of men playing cards in a very robust manner, slamming down their hands with taunts and shouts. Other tables seemed reserved for discussion (more like argument really.) An Italian soap opera played on an old TV in the corner. I settled in and nursed a 35 cent glass of red wine. I did not understand a word of what was being said which gave the whole affair a strangely operatic quality.

Now I didn’t make any friends on this afternoon and it didn’t change my life but by abandoning the plan and wandering, I felt like I had found the true spiritual heart of Assisi, city of world peace.