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Thanks for 20 Matchless Days in Umbria and Tuscany almost without a hitch

Thanks for 20 Matchless Days in Umbria and Tuscany almost without a hitch

Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 12:06 PM
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Thanks for 20 Matchless Days in Umbria and Tuscany almost without a hitch

Have just returned from 20 days in Europe, and must first of all give benedictions to all the fodorites who answered questions and helped me to plan and execute this somewhat complicated trip.

I'm not an expert on trip reports and will try to do this is short spurts or maybe by various topics - it will develop on its own I'm afraid, since my mind is so full of a number of things, and I am very much given to taking tangents.

Luckily for those of you who might read this or at least start to read it before becoming bogged down in the tangents or the detail, I did keep a diary, so that might keep me on the straight and narrow.

There truly were so many wonderful happenings (like getting imprisoned in the parking garage in Bologna) (or the disabled young man who helped my DH from falling down the "flat" escalator in Milan train station) (or the incredible beauty of the val d'Orcia views in the morning) that it is hard to concentrate on a cohesive thread.

However, I will start at the beginning - - - -
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 12:21 PM
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DAY ONE IN EUROPE

We flew to Zurich on June 2, because that's the only way I could get AAdvantage FF Business class seats for the overnight flight, and we have a friend there.

Niko met us at the airport, bless his heart, because it was 7:30 in the morning, and it was pouring rain.

We spent a day with him and his wife, we walked around Zurich re-acquainting ourselves with this pleasant city, and had lunch at a restaurant on the lake. It is called ACQUA, and is on the Mythenquai, 61,(www.acqua.ch) tel 044-201-51-61. We had a most pleasant lunch for about $75. for 4 people with wine.

It is near the top of the lake and is near some very lovely gardens, which glowed even in the light rain which fell every so often. I really didn't care, because I was so happy to be back in Europe.

For anyone going to Zurich, please try to take time to go to the LINDT factory store, unless you are silly enough NOT to like chocolate (like DH). Thank goodness Niko loves Chocolate and it was his idea to go there. It is the freshest chocolate in Switzerland, (of course it was the FACTORY store!) he said, not like that Lindt that is sitting on shelves for a month in China! I was eager to agree, and managed to purchase enough for our next two weeks and for a house gift I had to deliver.

It must have been jet lag or Niko's words that prevented me from buying enough to take home to the states also! What a mistake, and at factory prices!

We were also their guests for overnight, and this dear man even made us an exquisite beef strogonoff based on his great grandmother's recipe! His wife has trained him well, and he is an eager cook, since he just retired. He and DH are now cooking up (scuse the pun) to take some classes at the CIA here in Dutchess County! (I hope)
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 12:38 PM
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Looking forward to more! Thanks.

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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 12:47 PM
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I'm looking forward to some tangents—just right with a glass of wine!
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 12:54 PM
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DAY TWO - Zurich to Milan

I hope this report thing is working, but now I'm getting strange looking screens.

Has something changed while I was away? Or do serial trip reports come up in a different screen conformation, anyone know?

Anyway, more:

We took the 9 am train (SBB reservations on line) from Zurich Hauptbahnoff to Milano Centrale, arriving around 1 pm.

It was a most confotable, uneventful and gorgeous trip on a sunny day. We did travel first class, but probably didn't need to. the train was no where near full, though at times there were quite a few people on board.

It was in Milan station that DH almost fell, trying to manoever (sp?) his much-too-large suitcase down a slanted moving walkway. The sweet disabled homeless man who helped him will be forever in my prayers, as he disappeared before I could do anything but say "Grazie."

Soon enough we found the ATM, and got a taxi to Linate airport, where I had decided it would be best to pick up our rental car. It was.

We did our best to practice shifting in the parking lot, to prepare for the inevitable stallings (many) but eventually headed out for Bologna on the autostrada.

It was a Diesel Manual shift DODGE of all things, but proved to be a great car. Reserved through AutoEurope, (thanks to suggestions on this forum) but picked up at Europecar, can't remember the cost.

We made it to San Lazzaro di Savena, just beyond Bologna with no trouble, though a few scares with Italian drivers not realizing that we were aging americans with little experience driving this fast

Again thanks to Fodorites, we had booked at the HILTON GARDEN INN, against every instinct of mine, after all we were in ITALY!!

What a gem of a place! Well situated, though admittedly hard to find, it is set down in the landscape, probably due to some smart Planning Board, so that it seems to be only one storey, and is quite unobtrusive in this pleasant suburban neighborhood. Lots of free parking, excellent contemporary decor and all kinds of electronics in the rooms, and most helpful staff.

It was extremely comfortable for us novice manual shift drivers, on our first day in Italy in several years.

I chuckle now that I remember a kind Fodorite describing Amber of the front desk as having (and I paraphrase) "excellent English."

I asked her about her good English, her reply was "I'm from Milwaukee."

Turns out she married an Italian, who is finishing his engineering degree, and she is meanwhile studying for the LSAT's. They hope to go back to Milwaukee where she will go to law school. Milwaukee's gain will be the Hilton Garden Inn's loss, as she was beyond helpful.

As you can tell we highly recommend this place. There is a bus that will take you to Piazza Cavour in downtown Bologna in about 20 minutes and it stops at the door of the HGI. By the way, the room was E67 double!

We didn't want a big dinner (after the excellent strogonoff, preceded by white asparagus, and followed by fresh strawberries and cream of the night before) so we asked Amber about pizza places nearby.

She directed us to a place, the name of which I cannot now remember, but they will know if you go to that hotel.

Off we walked in the cool evening on a most pleasant walk to a nice suburban neighborhood, where we joined in the jollity of many families celebrating Friday with pizza night, and boy was it good. I am not a pizza connoisseur, but it tasted like heaven. The white wine, which was very cheap, came out of a tap!! but was quite delicious. I think the waiter said it was "frizzante" but it didn't seem to be the slightest bit fizzy to me, just plain good.
DH had great beer on tap, and we just felt so good to be there, observing the happy families and loving being in Italy.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 01:00 PM
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OMG! MaiTaiTom is reading this! I keep wishing I could be as funny as you are Tom. I think of you all the time, well, maybe not ALL the time, but especially driving a diesel car around the Val d'Orcia.

If only I were more relaxed, I could have gotten in a whole lot more trouble, like you. We DID drink an awful LOT of wine, cuz we were with friends like you when we got to La Foce. They got in trouble, and were lost all the time. In fact there faces were hilarious when eventually found driving around the SS2 in circles for an hour and eventually getting, not where they were directed to go, but right back where they started, and started to cry. It was painful to see.

OK, that was a TANGENT, ellenem. Back to the story.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 01:07 PM
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No worries about your trip report writing abilities. This is great so far! More, please...
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 01:36 PM
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DAY THREE - BRAVING BOLOGNA AND THE PARCHEGGIO PATROL

We decided, in the morning, that we were not able to get in to our little rental house in Northwestern Umbria until 5 PM, and it was only about 2 hours from Bologna, so we would go in to the city and get a feel for this famous eating venue where we had never been. By now I was developing much confidence in my DH's driving techniques, but we thought public transportation would be fun.

(Reminder: when Italians (even the ones from Milwaukee) tell you that a place is "just over there, you can't miss it." they don't MEAN it.)

So, we walked just over there to get the bus tickets, and it took us three shops and three sets of directions from three different shop attendants to get to the (hidden) tabac where the tickets were to be bought before boarding the bus. So we got them.

Then we looked for the bus stop. This assignment was given to DH, because I had already decided I could not bear wearing my sweater, so I ran back to the hotel to leave it at the desk, while DH watched the bus go by not knowing it was the ONCE PER HOUR bus (Saturdays) to Bologna.

If I could glare like MTT's Tracey I certainly would have, but DH saved the day by saying,"Let's just drive in." One of the helpful staff gave us great directions and we nailed the drive and the parking garage with nary a hitch.

We wandered the town, we bought DH his new European phone which he coveted so highly (and which he almost never used.)tried to get in to the Morandi Museum, to no avail, and best of all we had lunch at TRATTORIA dal BIASSANOT on the via PIELLA, 16/A, TEL 051 23 06 44, suggested by another helpful Fodorite, and did we ever love it!! It was worth the drive for sure.

DH had the "piatto giornale" which consisted, as I recall, of some pasta with a ragu, a huge ball of fabulous fresh mozzarella, covered with grilled prosciutto, and mass of fresh cooked spinach. Well, doesn't it sound a little weird? He is STILL talking about it, and how positively absolutely delicious it was!! And since I am allowed to taste all his food, I must agree. I had the house special, a green lasagna, also delicious. It was a most charming place, locals only, except for us, in fact, most people looked like regulars. The lady of the house was a lovely motherly type, and we loved the "vibe." With difficulty, we chose just one dessert, fresh strawberries, to share. With wine and beer, the total was E39, and worth every penny.

Happily full, we went back to the parking garage, where we forgot to take the ticket BACK out of the machine after paying and didn't even think about it until we realized we had no way of making the exit bar raise up to let us out.

Several attendants later, and finally reaching the manager's office, (it was truly like a Mack Sennott comedy, DH sitting in the car, blocking the exit, horns honking behind him, and me chasing around the garage with the older parking attendant,) who was (I later found out) trying to find a place in this vast garage where he could get cell phone service to call to report me to the boss. (because of course, by the time I went back to the machine to retrieve the ticket, some lucky person had already found it and was on his or her way home, sans payment!!)

When I finally got to the big boss, he was really very sweet. He seemed to believe me; HOWEVER, he had to check on his computer, and apparently he could tell that our parking charge was E8.40, and that I had put a E10 bill in the slot,all of which I told him, and he checked! Believe it or not, I remembered the number of the ticket, because I couldn't read it, and asked DH to read it out to me, and it was 724300.
So, now, this nice guy is trying to get me a new "get out of jail" card, because he cannot fowl up the computer at the exit, so he has to re-create a ticket with the correct bar code.

As you can imagine this took quite a while, which was not a great problem, because all we had to do was check out by three, and drive to Umbria, and we had our friend Amber, who was coming back on duty at the Hilton Garden Inn at three.

HOWEVER, I was on some different floor from DH and the car, and all this time he had no idea where I was or what was happening to me. He decided he could not abandon the car, and he is not by nature a worry-wort. (I handle that role in our family)

He almost yelled at me when I returned, but then he saw the look on my face, (which basically said, I just got you out of jail, and it is only I who can get you out of Bologna.)

And out we got, and back to the Hilton Garden Inn, where Amber had my sweater safely behind the desk, and even bought back our bus tickets, which had never been used and would be good for other guests! All's well that end's well, and off we drove to Umbria.

Day Three is NOT over, but this is going on so long, that I will finish it later.... because it is another county ..... and another world....
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 01:45 PM
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"didn't even think about it until we realized we had no way of making the exit bar raise up to let us out."

Been there and done that. It's funny now in retrospect...Right?

By the way, only Spock can give "the look" like Tracy (although she has better ears). Great report. Keep it going!!

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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 04:09 PM
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Your trip report is off to a great start - looking forward to more.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 04:40 PM
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DAY THREE - PART DUE

So off we went, down the autostrada to Cesena, and then inland toward Citta di Castello, and a little further into Umbria to our final destination of the day, our little tiny rental house in a little tiny village.

This was found on-line, by sheer luck, just because I have a good memory for names, esp. in foreign languages, that is to say, I was taught to spell by the Sisters of Mercy, way back in the dark ages.

We found the village, and parked the car in a no parking zone, (which is de rigeur in Italy) and felt very Italian, as we lugged the two-heavy suitcases down the tiny street to our house, certain that we had stumbled on to a movie set.

It was amazing, a fabulous little gem of a house, not for everyone, for sure, but a perfectly restored jewel that was superb in every detail. Tiny though it was, it contained everything a couple could want in a rental, esp. a couple who could and wanted to cook. Impliments galore, kitchen complete with a dishwasher, a clothes washer in the basement, and a comfortable couch, large comfy bed and bathroom, a fireplace, lots of books, a tiny porch covered in a wisteria vine, overlooking a neighbor's vegetable patch, and a next door neighbor of dubious age, who happily chatted to us in Italian every day, while I flubbed around saying all the incorrect things I could attempt in my "travel Italian."

I knew I had done the right thing to rent one place for a week, even though it would mean missing Padua and the Scrovegni chapel, more of Bologna, Ravenna's mosaics, et cetera.

Instead we had our own home to return to every evening, and a village that became un-leavable. What a marvelous dilemma to have!

The little village piazza soon became our living room, and we always knew where to go for a cappucino, a bottle of milk or a glass of wine, or especially to people watch.

Just to finally end Day Three, we went to the one inn in the no-car village center, the Locanda del Capitano, had an aperativo with the chef, reminding him that we'd be back for dinner the next evening when our friends were arriving at his place.

We found one of the few other restaurants in town, the ERBALUNA, at which DH & I had another memorable meal: tagliatelle with funghi and truffo, followed by a cheese plate, with a fabulous house red wine by the glass, all for E47.50.

(By the way, we drank house reds almost always, at frightenly low prices, and they were always very good. Only a couple of the local or house whites were slightly off, and never in this village)

These local wines were reds of Montefalco, one of those never heard of (by us) in the states. In fact, our hosts left us a bottle, and we brought it home. We will drink it one evening, while we cry in loneliness, missing our tiny little house.

DAY FOUR WILL BRING A HUGE SURPRISE CELEBRATION TO THE VILLAGE
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 05:52 PM
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Oh taconic, your trip report is fanastic, informative and quite amusing as I can imagine your DH in the garage without any idea where you were or up to, lol. Truly hilarious although I know it wasn't at the time. But isn't it the most frustrating times that we remember the most?

I wish I had your ability to write such a trip report! You and maitaitom could be sibilings, lol!

Your charming little house, sigh, having stayed in similar ones I so understand your happiness.

And the dear homeless man at the Milano Centrale Station that "saved" your DH, that reminds me of the precious homeless woman in San Francisco that came to assistance when my mother collapsed on the sidewalk in front of Macy's. She too immediately took off after putting her blanket over my mother and to this day I wish I could have thanked her with more than just a "thank you". Angels for sure and they will never be forgotten.

I can hardly wait for the next installment of your time in Italy, thank you so much for sharing, since I can't get to Italy this year your report has me smiling while enjoying some wine.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2010, 05:58 PM
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taconictraveler,

Oh, I am loving your report! I wish I was there, and yes, that Sagrantino di Montefalco is fabulous. Unfortunately expensive here!

I can identify with the car park ticket too! I did my routine in Gubbio....

Do continue!
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 05:11 AM
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Thanks, all, for your encouragement. But I'm feeling the simple life of our village returning to me, so I may have to become a bit more impressionistic in this report (don't worry, I won't leave out any good recommendations!) or I'll never get through it until next year. (This report is making me so nostalgic! I want to go back! Now!)

SUNDAY - DAY FOUR - CORPUS DOMINI

Imagine my surprise when DH returned from the car with his forgotten hat, and exclaimed - "get your camera quick!"

I obeyed, an unusual verb for me, because he also said: "People are laying flower petals in the streets!"

I knew he'd had nothing to drink as yet this morning, so I went out the door, and up the steps to the narrow street, where groups of people were making patterns in the street with flower petals and leaves, forming oblong frames, and yellow crosses out of broom, monstrances out of rose petals and broom, and green leaves, covering virtually every corner of the street.

I can truly say I have never seen or heard of anything like it. From the crosses and the Sunday morning excitement, I figured it was some sort of religious ceremony.

In my brilliant Italian, I asked a tiny little old lady "Que cosa?" Since I have no vocabulary and a brilliant accent, she answered with several paragraphs, which might have come from Dante's Inferno for all I know, but I did keep hearing "Corpus Domini."

DH and literally raced down to the piazza where more decorating was taking place on all the streets leading therefrom. Much excitement was being engendered by all this activity, as townspeople of all ages were either bringing bags of petals, or making decorations, or coming out to water the already laid patterns.

It took a while, but I finally ran in to a beautiful young blond strewing flowers who turned to me and said in perfect British English "Boy are you lucky to be here today!" She turned out to be the sous chef of the Locanda. She said everybody takes part, it's Corpus Domini and there will be a parade from the church with the Blessed Sacrament.

Then we began to see children dressed as priests and nuns and best of all, the little toddlers dressed as angels, complete with gold cardboard wings! The families were gathering in the parking lots above the town, the excitement grew greater and greater. My camera was running out of battery power, and we were racing back down to the piazza to get a cappucino and watch this unbelievably charming event take place before our very eyes.

In short order we heard the brass band of mostly older men all dressed in red and black uniforms leading the children and then the altar boys and girls, and then the monstrance carried by the priest while two others carried the elegantly embroidered tent to cover the monstrance.

Right next to us in the piazza, the incense was lit, and the blessing took place, and the priest gave a little homily. From what I heard the message was basically "Suffer the little children to come unto me." (I"m paraphrasing, due to the aforementioned lack of vocabulary) Blessedly short, the sermon was the highlight, even though the parade continued all thru the town streets where I gather several other people, places and things were blessed, with groups of families following along all dressed in their Sunday best proud of their children and helping along the nonnas.Speaking of "nonnas" most of those old ladies were taking the steep town streets in much better stride than I was!

We felt blessed to observe the "insieme" of this town where every generation joined altogether and celebrated life in such a warm, loving and relatively simple way.

We had planned a very quiet day, to catch up on rest and reading and to try to absorb this simple way of life. As it got warmer, we sat on our covered terrace, and talked about how lucky we were.

Later I discovered we could get panini "a portare" at Osteria Antica in the piazza, so we took them to our house to eat for lunch.

After a nap, we met our friends who had arrived at the Locanda, where we had a much fancier than necessary dinner.
It started with a prosecco offered by the chef, Giancarlo, and then a white "L'Ultima Spiaggia" which I think was an Orvieto but might have been from Montefalco. I forgot to write down the red, but it was definitely from Montefalco, that lovely Sagrantino!
Oh, food: I didn't write it all down, but there was a marvelous fresh ricotta ravioli, with a lemon mint sauce, and though memory fails on the rest of the details, suffice it to say, it was an elegant dinner on a stone terrace in a place we had originally thought was a movie set, but were converted to the knowledge that at least for this day, we were in Heaven.

Parting thought for this day: Our neighbor, who is a thankfully displaced American, who came to water his vegetable garden in front of our terrace, told us that if he had met us earlier, he would have told us to go to Spello for the Corpus Domini celebration - because there they do Leonardo da Vinci portraits in the streets!! (I mean of that calibre, of course,)also out of flower petals. (I did later see photos of the celebration in Spello, and he was NOT exaggerating.)

But I wouldn't have traded a minute of our day....
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 05:19 AM
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Thanks, all, for your encouragement. But I'm feeling the simple life of our village returning to me, so I may have to become a bit more impressionistic in this report (don't worry, I won't leave out any good recommendations!) or I'll never get through it until next year. (This report is making me so nostalgic! I want to go back! Now!)

SUNDAY - DAY FOUR - CORPUS DOMINI

Imagine my surprise when DH returned from the car with his forgotten hat, and exclaimed - "get your camera quick!"

I obeyed, an unusual verb for me, because he also said: "People are laying flower petals in the streets!"

I knew he'd had nothing to drink as yet this morning, so I went out the door, and up the steps to the narrow street, where groups of people were making patterns in the street with flower petals and leaves, forming oblong frames, and yellow crosses out of broom, monstrances out of rose petals and broom, and green leaves, covering virtually every corner of the street.

I can truly say I have never seen or heard of anything like it. From the crosses and the Sunday morning excitement, I figured it was some sort of religious ceremony.

In my brilliant Italian, I asked a tiny little old lady "Que cosa?" Since I have no vocabulary and a brilliant accent, she answered with several paragraphs, which might have come from Dante's Inferno for all I know, but I did keep hearing "Corpus Domini."

DH and literally raced down to the piazza where more decorating was taking place on all the streets leading therefrom. Much excitement was being engendered by all this activity, as townspeople of all ages were either bringing bags of petals, or making decorations, or coming out to water the already laid patterns.

It took a while, but I finally ran in to a beautiful young blond strewing flowers who turned to me and said in perfect British English "Boy are you lucky to be here today!" She turned out to be the sous chef of the Locanda. She said everybody takes part, it's Corpus Domini and there will be a parade from the church with the Blessed Sacrament.

Then we began to see children dressed as priests and nuns and best of all, the little toddlers dressed as angels, complete with gold cardboard wings! The families were gathering in the parking lots above the town, the excitement grew greater and greater. My camera was running out of battery power, and we were racing back down to the piazza to get a cappucino and watch this unbelievably charming event take place before our very eyes.

In short order we heard the brass band of mostly older men all dressed in red and black uniforms leading the children and then the altar boys and girls, and then the monstrance carried by the priest while two others carried the elegantly embroidered tent to cover the monstrance.

Right next to us in the piazza, the incense was lit, and the blessing took place, and the priest gave a little homily. From what I heard the message was basically "Suffer the little children to come unto me." (I"m paraphrasing, due to the aforementioned lack of vocabulary) Blessedly short, the sermon was the highlight, even though the parade continued all thru the town streets where I gather several other people, places and things were blessed, with groups of families following along all dressed in their Sunday best proud of their children and helping along the nonnas.Speaking of "nonnas" most of those old ladies were taking the steep town streets in much better stride than I was!

We felt blessed to observe the "insieme" of this town where every generation joined altogether and celebrated life in such a warm, loving and relatively simple way.

We had planned a very quiet day, to catch up on rest and reading and to try to absorb this simple way of life. As it got warmer, we sat on our covered terrace, and talked about how lucky we were.

Later I discovered we could get panini "a portare" at Osteria Antica in the piazza, so we took them to our house to eat for lunch.

After a nap, we met our friends who had arrived at the Locanda, where we had a much fancier than necessary dinner.
It started with a prosecco offered by the chef, Giancarlo, and then a white "L'Ultima Spiaggia" which I think was an Orvieto but might have been from Montefalco. I forgot to write down the red, but it was definitely from Montefalco, that lovely Sagrantino!
Oh, food: I didn't write it all down, but there was a marvelous fresh ricotta ravioli, with a lemon mint sauce, and though memory fails on the rest of the details, suffice it to say, it was an elegant dinner on a stone terrace in a place we had originally thought was a movie set, but were converted to the knowledge that at least for this day, we were in Heaven.

Parting thought for this day: Our neighbor, who is a thankfully displaced American, who came to water his vegetable garden in front of our terrace, told us that if he had met us earlier, he would have told us to go to Spello for the Corpus Domini celebration - because there they do Leonardo da Vinci portraits in the streets!! (I mean of that calibre, of course,)also out of flower petals. (I did later see photos of the celebration in Spello, and he was NOT exaggerating.)

But I wouldn't have traded a minute of our day....
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 05:22 AM
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Woops, sorry that last went up twice.
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 05:49 AM
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A fellow Hudson Valley resident reading and really enjoying the report! Umbria is on our schedule for the next trip to Italy (maybe next Spring), plan would be to rent a place for a week, so reading this with great, great interest! Thanks!
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 12:16 PM
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Hi Owlwoman: Love the Hudson Valley to death, but am missing Umbria and Tuscany at the moment.

More report shortly. thanks for your kind words.
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Old Jun 24th, 2010, 02:55 PM
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Monday, June 7, DAY FIVE

Now begins our lovely series of day trips when we reluctantly tore ourselves away in the company of our friends for a series of exquisite day trips.

This was the day to start the "In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca" part of the trip. I probably would not have left our marvelous little town except for Piero, one of my favorites and an artist whose work DH had never seen.

I have a fantastic memory of my first seeing the Legend of The True Cross in Arezzo, while the restoration scaffolding was still in place, but one side had been completed. It was at least ten years ago, and I was at that time with an Italian speaking friend who used all her charm to get us up on the scaffolding.

Despite that never-to-be-improved-upon memory, I was most anxious to see this fresco cycle again.

We arrived in Arezzo with the help of the GPS which came with came with our car rental. (By the way, everything worked out really well with our car rental, and driving a manual diesel was really pretty easy.)

And yes, The Legend of The True Cross is well worth a side trip, anyday, in my book.

However, I would like to warn you all that the famous Buca da San Francesco, restaurant next door to the church, delivered a very much less than average lunch, and it was the only place where the house white wine was really (fill in your own expletive) sorry to say that, and maybe someone was having a bad day, but that's the truth.

If you go to Arezzo, do not leave town without going up to the Duomo to see the other Piero, the portrait of Mary Magdalene, called I believe "the Maddelena."

Also in the duomo are several amazing Della Robbia altars.

Walking through the square we were reminded that Arezzo is known for jewelry, but Claire and I were on our best "no jewelry shopping behavior." (Hint for others though.)

Just driving to these lovely towns all around was part of the fun, that is until we tried to get the Garmin Girl to help us exit Arezzo and get back on the country roads.

We must have misunderstood her directions a few times, and managed to get in all the wrong places (hope a traffic ticket doesn't show up in the mail in a few months, as has happened to others.)

Eventually we got out of Dodge, in our Dodge. (Yes, it was a Dodge, would you believe it?)

Must go now, but the day is NOT over, and next comes another incredible event in our little village!!
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Old Jun 25th, 2010, 06:38 AM
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Ok, this is probably getting boring -- but a wonderful thing happened in our village piazza that evening.

I had read something on a poster about a concert in the piazza by the local philharmonic group and the elementary school at 9 PM

We decided to eat dinner in the restaurant there, so we could be sure to see what was going on.
It was an OK dinner, but with a very good wine: A ROCCA DI FABBRI 2007 from Monefalco.

While waiting for our friends we had a glass of delicious white wine under the canopy in front of the restaurant for a measly E2 per glass, and no skimpy glass either!!

After dinner upstairs, with windows open to the magnificent views, we wandered down to the piazza and found the entire town assembled in apt attendance to the performances on various instruments of various groups of school children, helped along by their teachers, each one to rousing applause by their families and friends.

The enthusiasm was infectious as we all applauded whatever attempts (mostly quite good) the children made, sometimes backed up by a teacher or two.
But what brought the house down was a performance on keyboard by a young gal we had seen previously around town. It appeared to me that she had cerebral palsy, as she had difficulty walking, like a friend of mine with cp. I had seen her parents with her the day before lovingly helping her to see all the flower petal decorations.

We four sort of gasped when she sat down at the keyboard, not expecting much, and hoping for no embarrassment for this motor coordination deprived young lady.

To our amazement and followed by standing ovations, she played Nessum Dorma, the aria from Turandot so beautifully, that when she finished we all had tears in our eyes, as we applauded along with all the rest.

What a remarkable two days we had had in this village.It is very clear that every child in this village is loved by everyone. What a way to grow up!

I urge you all to forego large cities and wander the countryside in any part of Italy, to get a flavor of real life. (OK I grant you, real life includes being lost, losing your money, getting diesel fuel all over your hands, sweating as you walk up yet another hill town.)

TOMORROW WILL BRING A LITTLE ADVENTURE IN GUBBIO!!
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