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.
They also say that the Fabriano paper plant is a supplier for the paper for the US Dollar note. If true it is kept rather secret.
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