Ten day tour of Assisi and Umbria during Candelmaggio
 

I just signed up for a ten day tour given by Anne Robichaud. The 10-14 participants will stay at her agriturismo near Assisi and she will provide tickets and transportation to the three day Candelmaggio festival and give tours of Spello, Perugia, Bavagna and other near by towns. There will be festive lunches provided every day.

http://www.annesitaly.com/blog/annes...nture-join-us/

I am really excited about it. It is May 2-12. Anybody want to have a GTG there? :-)

Please keep us posted about it. I'm curious about how such tours appear to visitors. Most towns of any size have something similar, and I've participated for several years running in the festival of our town.

It's surely Calendimaggio, though. I'm sure the name derives from "calends", Latin <i> kalendae </i>, which is what the Romans called the first day of their months. Our "calendar" comes from the same root. The Italian name would mean "Calends of May" (which should be May 1st, but that's a national and religious holiday).

You are correct, Calendimaggio. Autocorrect fixed it for me and I did not notice.

I will let you know how the tour goes. Anne has been doing day tours of the area for years for Smithsonian and Elderhostel and on her own. This is her first ten day of her own.

I don't know her, but I've run across her posts on TripAdvisor. I don't live far from Assisi, less than two hours by car.

I will probably go to Rome a few days early to get over jet lag before the Assisi tour. I guess that it takes around three hours to get to Assisi by train. I have been there several times before, but have driven there from Florence or Orvieto.

I had a very good time on Anne's tour.

I stayed in Anne's apartment on their farm for a delightful ten day experience. Anne and her daughter did everything they could to make sure I had an enjoyable stay. One highlight was going to the Calendimaggio festival in Assisi. It was an unbelievable three day medieval pageant that must have involved the whole town's efforts for weeks. It was just beautiful - so well done! I also loved going to the nearby hill towns. Anne took us to places I would never have found on my own. Deruta was especially interesting. We went to a ceramic factory and got to watch beautiful objects being created. Anne took us to a very touching church full of unique tiles made by individuals giving thanks for being saved from death or disaster. We ended our ten days together with a rural life tour. Anne took us to three of her friend's farms in the hills outside Assisi. One was farmed in traditional methods by an eighty year old man. He enthusiastically looked after his pigeons, chickens, rabbits, ducks, cows, and pigs. We drank some of his homemade wine! Then on to another farm with lovely views of the Umbrian hills and a very old bread oven which was still used to make bread every week. Finally, we ate a delicious dinner at the third farm, antipasto, two kinds of lasagna, rabbit stew, chicken, salad and a delicious cake. Everything we ate was produced at this farm!

We toured with Anne about 10 years ago. Most excellent and she arranged a private wine tasting at Enoteca Properzio in Spello. Quite enjoyable, so much so that we bought a case of wine for $1000, including Fedex shipping, which arrived the day we got home.
We've stayed at several agriturismos (not Anne's), but really can't recommend any of them.
Anne does know her stuff. Good luck!

Thanks for reporting back, Saraho! It sounds as though you had a wonderful time.