It was early May and the sweet fragrance of spring was in the air. I navigated the bewildering traffic in Rome to start a two-hour drive to the town of Assisi in Umbria. I received an unsolicited upgrade from the car rental company and with the top down my Fiat 500 was flying down the SS3 highway. 

My heart was racing as I noticed Monte Subasio in the distance, on its slopes the medieval aim of my pilgrimage. Legend has it that in the 12th century the spoiled young man Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, after suffering jail and an astonishing life change, confronted his father and the bishop in the local town square. ..

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