Day 23 (4/27) Last day in Umbria

It was a gorgeous spring day – warm, sunny, perfect blue sky, bright green hills and meadows covered with colorful flowers. We started out by going to Gubbio to see it again in the sun. From there we took a beautiful drive from Scheggia through a mountainous country road to a little town called Sassoferrato. The road was between two mountains – sort of in a canyon. It hugged the side of the mountain and was full of serpentines and at times just wide enough for one car. The views were spectacular. The town itself was bigger than we expected with about 8 churches and five or six palazzettos. Unfortunately all the churches were closed since we got there at siesta time, and the town was pretty much dead. There were some old people sitting in plastic chairs in front of their houses enjoying the warm sun. Now, it’s time to pack. We have to start driving to Rome around 5 am so everything has to be ready tonight.

Day 22 (4/26) Spoleto

Sunny, blue sky, no clouds. We set out to Spoleto. There is not much to say about Spoleto that hasn’t been said about other cities. Old (240BC), built on a hill with a historical past and very picturesque. Oh, it did have a very long escalator to take you to the fortress at the top. Actually it was about 10 separate long escalators. From the fortress, we walked down through the city stopping at various shops along the way. Surprisingly, prices in Spoleto were much higher than in Sienna. We had gelato and coffee in the piazza at the bottom and then stopped at a beautiful Romanesque basilica of San Salvatore just outside of city walls. Next to the basilica was the town cemetery with magnificent graves of local counts and countesses. There were bouquets of fresh flowers on many of the graves. On the way back we stopped in Fossato bccause Reni and Lucy hadn’t seen it, walked through the sleepy town and had coffee in the only open establishment (a bar) where men were starting to gather for theit afternoon activities (cards and drinks). Then we had our farewell dinner before the girls’ trip back home ….

Day 21 (4/25) Sunny Urbino

Today we visited Urbino. The drive from Sigillo took about an hour-- north mostly on via Flaminia. Urbino is an interesting city. It’s greatest prominence was during Renaissance when artists such as a Raphael, Piero della Francesca and many others lived and worked there. Then it flourished again at the beginning of the 18th century when many civil and religious buildings were built by wealthy aristocratic families. The historical center of the city is spectacular and it is a UNESCO heritage site. In the brochures it is also called “world capital of utopia”. When we got there, a band was playing in one of the main piazzas and hundreds of young people were gathered there. The place was jumping. It turned out that today is a holiday, an anniversary of liberation from fascism and hence the celebrations. We walked around stepping into many historical buildings – Palazzo Ducale, the cathedral and a bunch of other churches, Raphael’s house, and a very interesting small Museum della Citta. There is a big university in this small town of about 15,000 so you see mostly young people in the streets and many of the historical buildings belong to the university. When we got hungry, we decided to have pizza for lunch. To our great surprise, the restaurants were overflowing and it was hard to get a table. Even more surprising was the fact that they all said that they didn’t serve pizza for lunch, only in the evening. Finally we came across a pizzeria which was packed with students eating great looking pizzas. We ordered a pizza gigante for all four of us. It was huge but we managed to gobble it all up. To burn the calories, we walked to the monastery of Santa Chiara. Then Lucy and Bo continued on to the highest point in town Fortezza Albornoz with a beautiful view down on the old town while Al and Reni had coffee in the piazza.

Day 20 (4/24) Caught in the rain

Today was a market day in Gubbio so we got up early to make it to the market. At 8 am the sun was shining, but when Al went down to the car, the neighbor told him that in an hour the weather will change. We didn’t believe it, but he was right on the money. On the way to Gubbio it started pouring and hasn’t stopped yet. The market was a disappointment. We expected local produce and products, but it turned out to be mostly Chinese junk at prices not any lower than in stores. There were just a few fruit and vegetable stands, but we managed to buy some fresh asparagus and sweet peppers from a young Polish man who told us that he had been living in Umbria for 10 years. We tried to walk in the rain, escaped for a while into the museum in Palazzo del Consoli, then into a café and then spent some time at the post office where Lucy was mailing her post cards, all the time hoping that the rain would stop. In vain. It kept coming down in buckets. Finally we gave up and went back home, opened a bottle of wine and eased into a rainy lazy afternoon.

Day 18 and 19 (4/22 and 23) Tuscany

We set out in the morning to go to Tuscany to visit our friends Phil and Sybill. The first stop was Siena. It is a very old city which rivaled Florence for prominence 800 years ago. It is a beautiful city with a famously beautiful Piazza di Campo and a very impressive cathedral. Also impressive was all the stores which were open on Sunday and did not close for 3 hours in the middle of the day. Bo was in heaven shopping for all the pretty Italian designs. From there we went to San Gimignano. A completely walled city with 7 big towers. Back then wealthy families competed as to who could build the most towers. We knew that San Giminiano was very popular with tourists, but we didn’t expect it to be so crowded in April. We called Phil who agreed to meet us at an intersection in a town near his place. With a little difficulty we met him and started following him along narrow deserted roads. He then led us down a very hilly dirt road for half a mile to his place. The house is beautifully situated in a very remote place surrounded by vineyards with views of hills, vineyards and meadows. The only sounds you hear are occasional birds. After cocktails and conversation we set out to see the closest little town of Montespertoli and a nearby castle called Montegufoni, which has been converted to a hotel. Phil asked the nice receptionist if she spoke English. She replied “no”, only Italian and Polish. Bo and she spoke for quite a while then she called her husband (also Polish) to give us an extensive tour. One suite was 5 or 6 bedrooms with 3 or 4 bathrooms (all immense) with painted ceilings like in the cathedrals. Wow. From there we went to a 4 star restaurant in a converted farm house, also in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know about it, you would never find it. Next morning we had breakfast on a terrace overlooking the vineyards and a nice walk along a country road, and then we set out on the way back. We stopped in a little walled-in town called Bertolino and then again, quite by coincidence, in a big outlet village with about 100 stores before Perugia. When we got home we were treated to a lovely meal home cooked by Lucy and Reni.

Day 17 (4/21) a little bit further from Sigillo

After breakfast (around 11 am as usual), the four of us embarked on another adventure. Lucy decided (after a thorough reading of a brochure about Umbria) that we should visit Foligno and Bo added Montefalco and Bevagna to the itinerary. In Foligno, which is quite a substantial city, we walk the mail street Corso Cavour and Lucy stopped by each Palazzo (and there were many) and read to us the history and description. At the main piazza we saw the catedrale and Palazzo Trenci, which is now a museum and houses the first edition of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, which was first published in Foligno. From Foligno we drove to Montefalco, which is a lovely little town in a beautiful area full of vineyards and olive groves. The town is on a hill, with a magnificent view from the top. We got lucky because at 4 pm there was an official ceremony of returning a renovated fresco of Madonna to a little church of Santa Maria di Piazza so we followed the municipal officials draped in Italian flag sashes into the church for the ceremony. From Montefalco we went to Bevagna. We visited Bevagna with Phil and Sybill, but at that time it was very clody and all the churches were closed. This time we got to Bevagna at the right time – the afternoon sun was hitting the main piazza and it was gorgeous. The churches were open and they were very impressive – from the 11th-12th century, Romanesque and very somber and stern. The town really felt alive with groups of young people walking around and old guys sitting and drinking by the bars.

Day 16 (4/20) around Sigillo

We had expected visitors from the Czech Republic to arrive in the evening. But in the morning we got a call and they stated that they had driven all night and would arrive in two hours. After breakfast while our friends were taking a nap, we went to Fossato di Vico to see if there was train to Perugia. There is no direct train. We then drove to Gualdo Tadino. It is a pretty city on the hillside (like every other city new have visited except Sigillo). They have a big regional museum in a 12th century fortress called Rocca Flea and an a large Museum of Emigration in a medieval Palazzo del Podesta, which we saw from the outside only. It sounds amazing from the description so maybe we’ll go back to see it. Back in Sigillo, after it stopped pouring we went on a walking tour with Lucy and Reni and visited the impressive cemetery with many large family crypts that looked almost like little houses. We also knocked on doors of all the Sigillo churches (they were all closed) in search of some frescoes that were supposed to be in one of them.

Day 15 (4/19) Perugia

After breakfast (around 11 am), the four of us set out to explore Perugia. We took 2 cars since they were to return home from there. The drive yields the most beautiful panoramas of the hilly Italian countryside. Perugia is different from any of the previous cities we have visited in that it is vibrant with young people since it is a university town. Of course, there are ancient buildings and ruins to see…
We said goodbye to our friends and embarked on our drive home just as thunder and lightning started. Twenty minutes later it was hailing and raining so hard that we couldn’t see the road ahead of us (and the road is mountainous and full of serpentines) so we had to stop for 10 minutes until the worst passed. Luckily we made it home to Sigillo safely. We would like to go back to Perugia and spend more time there, but we’d prefer to take the train.

Day 14 (4/18) in Umbria

After breakfast (around 11 am), the four of us set out to explore Umbria. Sybill and I put together an itinerary and the first stop was Assisi. It’s quite an amazing place, not the town, which is a perfectly nice hill town, but the monumental basilica, which consists of two big churches – the upper basilica and the lower basilica. The walls of the upper church are covered with 24 frescoes attributed to Giotti, which depict the life of St. Francis. Supposedly, in high season there are so many tourists there that you can’t even see them. When we were there, only a few people were inside with us. Below the lower church is the tomb of St. Francis. We spent some time walking around the basilica and the surrounding area and then set out to the next point on the itinerary – the town of Spello. Umbria seems to have an endless supply of picturesque medieval hill towns, and Spello is certainly a great one. It has hanging baskets of flowers and potted plants everywhere, which add to its charm. We had lunch there is a gourmet restaurant with fabulous food and then saw the view from the top by the monastery of St. Silverstre. It was getting a bit late, but we decided to drive on to one more little town called Bevagna. According to Sybill’s German guide, it is the most authentic. We were very glad we did because the town was absolutely lovely. While we were driving back to Sigillo, the rain started.

Day 13 (4/17) Fabriano

In the morning we set out to visit the nearby town of Fabriano. It was also established in Roman times or before, but it’s not as much on a hill and it is not as architecturally uniform as Gubbio. It has some very interesting buildings like a huge Palazzo del Podsta, a bunch of churches, city gates, etc, but other that that the city feels pretty modern and was more lively than any of the cities in Umbria we have visited so far. The most interesting thing about Fabriano is the fact that they have been producing paper there continuously since the 13th century. They’ve also perfected the watermarking process, which they have been using since the middle ages. Even now, they are they make the euro banknotes there. We visited the papermaking museum where they did a demonstration of medieval papermaking, including watermarking.
In the evening, our friends, Phil and Sybill, arrived from Florence and we had a nice evening together.

Day 12 (4/16) Gubbio

Last night we went to a restaurant at the foot of Mount Cucco. We had to drive ½ mile down a dirt road to get to it. We thought we’d be the only ones there, but it must be a popular place because it got pretty full. At the waiter’s recommendation we ordered risotto with truffles (Umbria is well known for truffles). We expected strong taste, but we were disappointed because they had very little flavor.
This morning we went to the neighboring town (Fosatto di Vico) with a large supermarket. Now we will not run out of beer, wine, cheese, and salami. We then took a drive to Gubbio, about 15 miles away. It is an old medieval town, very picturesque. It is located on a pretty steep slope so it even has elevators that take people up to the duomo and the Palazzo Ducale. The buildings are all made of grey stone and the look very imposing and austere. We walked the old town for miles then took a funivia, which is like a cable car, but it’s baskets on a cable (2 persons per basket), to the top of the mountain Ingino. Bo has overcome her fear of heights since there is no alternative. At the top of the mountain, there is a basilica of saint Ubaldo, the patron saint of Gubbio and inside is his embalmed body. Between 12:30 and 4pm the town shuts down. Stores are closed and all people disappear. At 4 pm they reappear. We saw a little storefront that said pizzeria so we went in. It turned out to be a cavernous first class restaurant where we had a nice lunch.
When we got home we decided to walk up the street where there was a sign for pottery called Futuro d’Arte. Turns out it was a ceramics factory (one man shop). We had a nice chat with the young owner and he gave us 3 free pieces, which he said were “experiments”.

Day 11 (4/15) Sigillo, Umbria

Last night we went out to scope the town. We found a market and bought some staples so we could have breakfast. We could not find an open restaurant (restaurants are usually closed between 3:30 pm and 7:30 or 8 pm) so we stopped in a little pizza shop and had 2 slices. They were not great so we said cross this place off. But people were coming in and carrying out tons of food. The next day we were hungry at lunch so we decided to try their take out and ordered ½ chicken, lasagna, and spinach. All 3 were outstanding – the place is a winner.
In the meantime it stopped raining and the sun came out so we toured the neighboring towns. We went to the south and visited a lovely small hill town of Fossato di Vico. The views from the top were gorgeous. Then we drove north and visited another small hill town of Costacciaro. The cities were very quiet, almost empty, maybe because it is Sunday. There doesn’t seem to be anything going on in Sigillo, either. The only thing we saw were groups of old men congregating around the bars. It’s always just men. Maybe women are home making pasta?

Day 10 (4/14) Travel Palermo - Rome - Sigillo

We walked Mondello till the weather got nasty. High winds and drizzle. We made it to our hotel before the downpour. It is really a beautiful hotel. Built in 1950 but recently completely renovated. It has a real mid-century feel, in the best possible sense. It’s crescent shaped, with wide hallways and large heavy wooden doors. The rooms are spacious, with big windows and with all modern conveniences . Mondello is really a pretty resort town. Lots of big mansions for the wealthy, but most of them seemed empty, with shutters down so they may be just summer homes.
Impressions of Sicily
The countryside is beautiful. Wherever you go, you get breathtaking views – mountains, hills, the sea, beautiful towns on hilltops, antique ruins popping here and there. Even the view from an awfully crowded ring road around Palermo is feast for the eyes. Everything is green from the abundance of rain and the hillsides are colorful with yellow, pink, blue and lavender flowers. The cities are a different story. There appears to be little maintenance or upkeep. Even in Mondello there are palm trees with 10 years of dead fronds covering the tree. It was a little surprising that even some pretty important tourist attractions seemed to be either closed without any explanation, or under renovation (probably a good thing) or in need of care. Maybe because April is not tourist season. When we arrived at the airport we saw lots of construction and Bo remarked “all of Sicily is a work in progress”. When we entered the terminal there was a sign in English “Work In Progress”. That’s part of Sicily’s charm.

We arrived in Sigillo around 5 pm. The flight from Palermo was easy. We had some problems with our car rental in Rome. They tried to “upgrade” us three levels up to a very large Volvo because the car we originally rented was not ready, but we refused and decided to wait for our car, a reasonably sized Mercedes. It was pouring all the way to Sigillo. We took the wrong route, too and because the road was brand new, the GPS didn’t recognize it so we had to stop and ask for directions. We love the apartment and Sigillo seems to have a beautiful location. We’ll explore tomorrow. Hopefully it will stop raining.

Day 9 (4/13) Mondello

We woke up to pouring rain. Our host at the B&B brought our breakfast and said he would bring our car right up to the door. We left in the heavy rain and struggled to get out of Piazza Armerina. Once on the motorway the driving was OK. The Sicilian motorways are good roads. There are long pieces of elevated roadways over valleys and many (sometimes several consecutive) tunnels through mini mountains. The country side is stunning.
We arrived in Mondello and followed signs to our B&B. It was on a small narrow street with no visible place to park. We decided to circle around and try again when we passed by the big and beautiful Palace hotel. We stopped and checked in. Mondello is a beach community between downtown Palermo and the airport. At 1 pm it was dead, but every fish restaurant along the harbor was set up with displays of fresh fish, octopus, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops and sea urchins that look like lychee fruits. We picked one, had our last seafood meal in Sicily. When we were walking back to retire for siesta, we saw a nice meal set up for cats -- a plate of cat food (antipasto?) and two plates of spaghetti. We’ll emerge again in the evening when we think the town will be jumping.

Day 8 4/12 Middle Sicily

We left our modern but empty hotel and set out towards Piazza Armerina. This time we decided to take the highway rather than local roads. When we got close to Catania, we saw the impressive, snow-covered Mount Etna surrounded by clouds. Piazza Armerina is an ancient town almost in the middle of Sicily. It’s main claim to fame are ruins of a Roman villa from the 4th century AD (Villa Romana del Casale) with beautiful mosaics. Tourists flock here to see the famous “girls in bikinis” mosaics. We came from Huntington Beach to see girls in bikinis?? Actually there are 3,500 square meters of amazing mosaics with various themes. One of the most impressive ones is the great hall of the hunt. Unfortunately, this being low season, only one third of the villa was accessible to tourists, which was disappointing. After a short stay at the villa, we embarked on a visit of the town (Piazza Armerina). Again, the town looks amazing from afar – a bunch of golden-colored buildings covering a hilltop – with a duomo at its highest point. It’s a small town, but we counted at least 15 churches dating from the 12th to the 18th century, several palaces and other historic buildings. Unfortunately, most of them are merely shells and badly need renovation. We found a B&B outside of the city and the owner recommended a restaurant so we went there and had a fantastic meal. We learned to only order one of each – antipasto, pasta, secundo and vegetables – and split everything, otherwise we would burst. Then, we walked around the city waiting for stores to open at 5 pm. We found a store with “regional products” -- wines, jams, cheeses, nuts, etc. After tasting several different kinds of locally produced organic wines (including an almond flavored marsala), we bought a liter of Nero’d Avola, a delicious Sicilian red wine, which he poured for us into a plastic bottle from a big cask (we won’t say how much we paid for it because it is ridiculous).

Day 7 4/11 --Tense

Internet access not good. Day 6 pictures are subsequently added.
We left the farm and headed for our next destination -- Modica. This town has an amazing location in a gorge and two hills. The city has a lower section and a part high up. Since we didn’t know which part was the historical center, we erroneously got to the high part. It turned out that the city center was at the bottom of the gorge so we had to drive all the way down. At some point, we must have taken a wrong turn onto something called “via panoramica”. The view was absolutely spectacular and the GPS encouraged us to go forward so we did. Admiring the view and going forward, we found ourselves on a very narrow street. There was no way out and the steep hilly street got so narrow it closed both side view mirrors. The GPS was still saying to continue. At some point the street got so narrow that we thought the small Fiat would get wedged between the two walls. There was no way to turn around and go back and it seemed impossible to go forward. There was maybe one inch or less clearance on each side between the walls and the car. Needless to say the passenger side got scraped. We stopped and looked for some locals to find out how we could extricate the car. After much discussion (in Italian) they told us to keep going forward and after a few meters the road got wider and we could get through to a normal road and down to the city center. We were completely traumatized, though. It is a good thing we opted for full coverage. Modica is a beautiful city. It reminded us a bit of Guanajuato in Mexico, except that it’s all in sandy hues and Guanajuato is very colorful.
From Modica, we continued to Noto, another lovely historical (Baroque) town. Unfortunately we got there at a dead hour (2 pm) when everything is closed, all the churches, even the tourist information. We walked and walked and then decided to finally get close to the sea…
We ended up at a modern summer resort hotel on the beach – except they told us the beach is closed until May 5. The place is basically dead. But a good place to unwind from the day’s excitement.

Day 6 4 10 Somewhere in Sicily

Leaving Erice and driving down the mountain, we marveled at the uniqueness of Erice and the great scenic views. We headed towards the town of Marsala. We stopped to visit a Phoenician island called Mozia We took a short boat ride to the island. This is a great place to visit if you are an archeologist (one of which recommended it to us). Near the boat pier all along the coast were “salinas” (salt pans) that have been producing salt since the 12^th century. From there we drove thru Marsala to Agrigento and the famous Valley of Temples, five Doric temples from around 400 BC. They are amazingly well preserved and make for a spectacular view. We decided to spend the night at an agrotourism farm near Agrigento rather than in the city so we drove small country roads to get there. The Sicilian countryside is beautiful. Hills an valleys all green containing vineyards, olives, oranges, etc. On the way to our agratourism farm we could see the city of Naro. Perched on a hilltop and golden-colored, it looked absolutely beautiful. However, when we visited it, it wasn’t quite as pretty. It had an amazing location, steep picturesque narrow streets, fantastic baroque architecture, but all of it was pretty run down, many buildings empty, out of its 10 or 12 churches, only one was open (many were covered with scaffolding so hopefully they were being renovated). On our walk through the city, we saw very few young people, but instead several groups of old men congregating in/in front of bars and some other strange looking establishments.

We got back to the farm, which has lovely old stone buildings converted to guest rooms and a dining room. It’s a working farm that grows eating grapes, olives, lemons and also has a big area of solar panels. Our young host, farmer Santo prepared a huge dinner for us – antipasti, pasta with home-made ricotta and vegetables and when we were absolutely full, be brought a plate of grilled sausages and a bowls of salad. The food was delicious, but now our stomachs are working overtime to digest it.