Futbol, Rocca Maggiore

I think this may be my favorite image from Assisi. Not the greatest photo perhaps, but there's something about Rocca Maggiore at 830 or 9 in the morning, before the tourist buses arrive. Before the thick fog has burned off. Before the heat of the day hits. Before the fortress you see behind these footballers opens to throngs of visitors. There's something about Assisi that has stayed with me.

By day, the town can be a mass tourism nightmare, yet if you step away from the main sites, or take a walk early in the morning, Assisi becomes just a lovely Umbrian town, home to some young Italians, as it was home to the one who made it one of the world's most visited pigrimage sites.