Today we had breakfast at the convent in what used to be a choir room.  Beautiful frescoes line the walls.  There are benches all around the room with tables in front of them.  After breakfast, one of the Sisters took us on a tour of the little chapel and the big church attached to the convent.  There is a small window above the altar with the sun shining in and it is lovely.  After that, Andy walked up to the town and I waited below for the little local bus to take me to the top.  As I walked thru the Porto to get to the bus, I noticed 5 big old cats lounging in the grass.  A few minutes later, a car drove up onto the grass and a lady got out, popped her trunk and started dishing up breakfast and water for the kitties.  I took over a little money to give her for cat food.  We talked and her English is excellent.  She used to volunteer at Torre Argentina in Rome about ten years ago as well as with the cats at the Protestant Cemetery.  She lives in Todi now and has 18 cats on her property that she feeds.  The bus never came and she kindly drove me up to the top of the town where the Piazza and Cathedral are.  The first thing we did was to go to the Civic Museum of Todi.  Etruscan artifacts, pottery, very old church vestments with lace and embroidery and a display of ancient coins.  They were in a special mounting and when you pushed a button, each mounted row would flip over so you could see the other side of the coin.  I had never seen anything like that.   Then we went to the Duomo where all those steps are.  Walked up all 33 steps…maybe one for each year of Jesus’s life?  The church was lovely and we went into the crypt where there is a famous 1,000+ year old statue of Mary and baby Jesus.  It was found behind a wall when the church was being refurbished hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  One of the workers, blind in one eye, wiped his face with a towel they had used to dust the statue with and his sight was restored.  So,it is a very important and miraculous statue.  Went to another church with 70 steps and saw it as well.  There is a bell tower that can be climbed, but even Andy was too pooped to climb it…and you know I didn’t!   We had lunch where we ate last night…a 4 cheese pizza with anchovies.  A couple eating at another table on the terrace ordered a meat, cheese and bruschetta platter and it looked so good we thought we might get something like that at dinner.  It was huge and enough for two…but then came their pasta bowls…also huge servings and they ate every bite.  We then hopped a local bus and went to another church way down the hill looking like it is on the edge of town.  Very huge with a big dome, but very boxy inside.  Many huge niches inside with huge marble statues of the saints in each one…probably  12 in all.  We caught the bus back to the Piazza.  Andy got off and I went down to the lower, new town to a knit, fabric, craft store for some embroidery thread.  We had walked past the place yesterday on our way to the convent.  Afterward, I met Andy back in the Piazza and we went to find a place for dinner.  All the places we were interested in don’t  open til 7:30 and we wanted to be home by then.  We stopped in a deli to see if he could sell us some porchetta…which he didn’t have.  We asked if we could go somewhere for dinner that was open NOW.  He said, you can eat here!  He cleaned off a tiny display table, pulled up two chairs and got some paper plates and plastic utensils and glasses. He fixed us a tray of typical Umbrian meats and cheeses and a toasted bruschetta spread with truffle paste.  It was delicious and such a delightful surprise.  What a salesman.  His grandfather started selling meats and cheeses from a large cart in the Piazza years ago.  Then his father bought the shop where we were eating. Three generations.  His daughter and wife came in while we were there.  The daughter is studying International law in Malta.   A younger daughter wants to be a police officer and is waiting to see if she is accepted for study.  We enjoyed that impromptu meal better than any restaurant we could have gone to.  (to which we could have gone.). For you Engish majors!  Walked back to the convent and the sun has gone down and we’re  in bed…soon to be asleep.  Another great  day in a wonderful town.  Will look forward to coming back to Todi.  Til tomorrow…back in Rome.