
With the dollar exchange vs. the euro at an all time low, I'm back to traveling as I did in the "hungry" years. This means staying at cheaper hotels without sacrificing clean and safe surroundings. I found this in religious hotels which offered not only nice rooms but in some, both breakfast and dinner as well. What a deal!
At the Suore Svedesi in Assisi, my room had a view of an olive orchard and church steeples behind medieval walls. It was harvest season and I observed some nuns picking black olives which were later taken to be pressed for olive oil. The nuns were having such a great time under unseasonably warm and sunny skies that I wished I could have joined them although I would not go up the tree. One nun's veil got caught in the branches and it was quite a picture as she tried to untangle her veil, laughing all the way. Only in Italy.
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Suore Svedesi
Via Moiano 1
Assisi, Italy
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Photo by Rosario Charie Albar