TDudette

Olive oil yums! A 3-day delivery miracle? Or business as usual by Brown.

whitehall

Although often cursed during the holidays, brown is beautiful. Because of Thanksgiving, and no activity, the actual shipping activity occurred in parts of only TWO days. There was even one mechanical failure in the US Friday morning listed on the tracking information.

I believe there were SEVEN airports involved. The olive oil sat at a MailBoxes Etc. store in Foligno most of the day Tuesday. And, then in the late afternoon it was trucked to a UPS facility near Perugia (San Mariano De Corciano). In 50 minutes, it somehow got to Ancona, which suggests a plane from Perugia airport to Marche Airport. The same evening, the package was flown to Bergamo Airport.

A little after midnight on Tuesday, the package flew to Cologne/Bonn Airport, from where, early on Wednesday morning, it was flown to Philadelphia, where it sat all day.

Wednesday evening, UPS flew the package to its center in Louisville, where it sat 31 hours through Thanksgiving day.

Early Friday morning, the oil was flown to Raleigh and then trucked to two locations before being put on a third truck to our home. Our doorbell camera at 1 pm picked up the UPS guy’s announcement to no one in particular, as he placed it on our porch, “Extra Virgin Olive Oil!”

TDudette

Bravissimo!

zebec

Yo WH,
How the hell did I miss this?!! Great TR, lovely pictures (love the added maps and arrow-directed views) and a remarkable itinerary. Not every day that we see imagery of Collepino, Sorano or Ancona.
Those food fotos are cruel and unusual punishment (salivates).
Btw, you mention Maine: when she was young, Mrs Z used to visit Ogunquit every September with her family.
Where to next?

I am done. the Ultimate Umbria

whitehall

Thank you for those comments. We had perfect weather and very few Covid inconveniences. And a few lucky finds of some old photos from airplanes, since we haven’t graduated to drone photography yet.

Before our first move to Maine (and then Florida and North Carolina), in our New Hampshire days, I had a job with lots of days off and we spent a couple days a week in the summer with our first toddler at Ogunquit Beach and the beautiful sand dunes there (before the Army Corps of Engineers decided to “rebuild” them). And, then we discovered the real Maine, further north, where the mountains meet the sea.

Up next for us is our third and much longer trip to Sicily, but it’s for the month of May, and we are hoping it will be as good as Umbria was to us. Even though we have been to some of the major places, we have a list of some 90 towns we have never been to, and would like to explore. Trying to whittle them down a bit and still plan some time with distant relatives we have never met, as well as some relax time in the Aeolian Islands. We have already blown our budget with the rental car. Hope these new prices won’t be with us forever. And, I have addd a few memories from our first trip to Sicily.


Cefalu 2008; area here was cleared for scene from new Indiana Jones film



View of Taormina theatre from Castelmola (2008)


Mt. Etna from Taormina, Catania airport window & from air.

zebec

Si Sicilia! Whitehall, your Cefalu shot above shows one of our 2012 rental apartments! It was in those far, upper-right balconies behind the largest palm. A pair of young guys managed (owned?) the rental business and one can see the entry to their office, that large arch with the brown sign above. All rental units had access to the massive, communal patio atop the building, a vista that gave peerless views of that church. We were there during a noisy lead-up to an election.

Might Petralia Soprano be on your list of 90 towns? We'd recommend it. It is yet-another hilltown, there in Madonie park, but it has one of those 'only-in-Europe' (only in Italia?) zig-zag paths running out the back of it. A unique sight in a nice little town.

Back to poor Castellucio. Our landlord there (Giuseppe) asked after the quake whether my wife and I might assist his daughter with her doctorate in tourism. We were asked to fill out a long questionnaire regarding local travel. It didn't take a rocket surgeon to read between the lines: that questionnaire was all about a last-ditch effort by locals to convince the government to provide funding, assets and expertise to rebuild the stricken village. We did our best to provide written answers that said, "HELL YES! MAKE IT SO, IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER!" but it felt like a long shot. The aerials that you have provided here, show the sheer scope of the demolitions. Fingers crossed for some federal aid, but I wouldn't count on it. Hopefully, I'm wrong to be so pessimistic.

Good to see Norcia back on its feet. We met a young Canuck gal there who was an archaeologist of some sort, restoring art inside the church all that year. Hope that she was elsewhere when the terremoto hit.

Best of luck with your return in May. We'll be in Ol Blighty then. Just discovered that an old high school classmate has remarried there. Her home is a mere 15 mins from our Cotswolds rental! What were the odds?
Tante belle cose Whitehall.
I am done. the resumption

whitehall

zebec Small world that I caught the pic of your rental apartment, but my 150-200 photos per day does capture a lot. We are going to stay away from some of the Sicilian beauties we have visited before (Palermo, Monreale, Erice, Trapani, Segesta, Marsala, Siracusa), and we will re-visit Taormina and Cefalu. Our list of 90 towns to visit DOES include Petralia Soprana, which is shown here with the white circle around it. The blue pins are our initial list. Thank you for the good wishes and best to you and Mrs. Z in the Cotswolds.



The best of Sicily

annhig

Whitehall, looking at your map, I can't necessarily spot exactly which towns they are but doing my best, of those we visited in 2016, I would strongly recommend Ortigya [though you most probably visited it when you were in Siracusa] Modica, Noto, Ragusa, Scicli and Castiglione. If you have not seen the Villa di Casale at Piazza Armerina that is also worth the trip, as Michelin says. We also enjoyed very much the area to the west of Etna and had one of our best ever meals at an albergo there that we just came across by accident but I have never been able to work out exactly where it was since.

I'm sure you'll have a great trip wherever you go and I look forward to the TR!

zebec

Maybe you have already been there and know this WH, but Noto has perhaps the best gelato on the planet (I do not say that lightly) @ Costanza's. Mrs Z and I both agreed that it was better than the nearby Bourdain-endorsed competitors.
I am done. the messy faces

whitehall

annhig : Good to hear from you again. We initially had hoped to split things up with four one-week bases, but Sicily, as you know, is quite large so we ended up with nine (9) bases over 33 nights: Acireale, Modica, Agrigento, Castellammare del Golfo, Cefalu, Savoca, Taormina, Lipari and Malvagna. A little more moving in and out (we travel light), but a little less time on the road and money at the pump. The last one is a tiny hill town of my grandfather. We also gave up our very favorable car lease from the Rome airport, and instead will pay the exorbitant rental fee in Catania to give us several extra days. All of the sites you mention are on the list, including a re-visit to Ortygia, from where our son sent us a video of an entertaining street vendor making the ultimate sandwich.



Ortygia 2008


zebec : Thanks for the tip on Costanza's. Added to our list. April 30. We ate gelato at four fabulous places in Rome last fall that all made product in-house. We have noticed a creeping trend of fewer places in small towns making their own gelato throughout Italy. Easier to have a central supply source, like too much in the world, especially when it is quite labor intensive to make so many flavors. Fortunately, some of the suppliers are still good and not like the ones serving some of the busier tourist areas with bright colored product. We always look for muted tones.



Frigidarium, Rome 2021

geetika

Making note of this for our visit next month, though as of now it’s a toss up between Noto and Ragusa, to be done as a day trip from Ortygia.

Whitehall, our apartment was near Frigidarium during our Italy visit in 2014 and we’d stop there every day for a gelato. Am happy to hear they’re still going strong post pandemic 👍

zebec

Yo Geet,
Sounds like a great time to visit!
Both Noto and also Ragusa are interesting in their own ways. The latter is steeper and demands ascension, but that's worth the effort.
Costanza's pistachio gelato and also their chocolate flavors were to die for.
A good Roman gelato place is: Galatone.

I am done. the crema di nonna

whitehall

geetika : In late August when we first went to Frigidarium, it was quiet as was all of Rome (end of Italian summer vacation and so many countries denied entry due to Covid but by late September, Rome was packed, and one night there were dozens of people in line for gelato there.

zebec : We will spend out last couple of nights end of May in Rome. Tried to google Galatone gelato there. No luck. Any other details?

In the spirit of great Rome gelato, I have attached photos from four of our favorites including Giolitti, Gelateria del Teatro, Frigidarium and Fatamorgana. And, if you like pistachio, how about "Verde Pistachio" with a pistachio-colored VW bus for a check-out stand?

Rome Gelato

zebec

Mi scusi amigas y campagnos, chiamo 'Il Gelatone' v. d. Serpenti 28.
Da paura.

I am done. the creme della Nonna flavor

TravelerKaren

whitehall, I just finished reading your fabulous trip report. Wow, what a great adventure; loved all of the details and pictures you included in this report. It's been many years since we were in Umbria (outside of Orvieto in 2019) and this report has me aching to get back there now. We are headed to the Amalfi coast and Puglia this September but now need to think about spending time back in Umbria. Now that you have had time to reflect, would you stay in Spello again or pick another town to base yourself?

Thank you again for your wonderful report.
Ciao

whitehall

Thank you! We loved Puglia and did a brief report here: 7 days/6 nights in Puglia
Since Matera is not in Puglia, that report did not cover Matera, but that should be part of any trip to Puglia, one of our favorite spots in Italy. Just left Sicily and will start working on a trip report similar to Umbria. The only other place we had discussed as a possible base in Umbria was Spoleto, simply because it is a little bigger. However, we think Spello was the right choice, due to its more central location to the region. Easy access to the highway is another important consideration. And, it simply is a beautiful place, even with the daytime crowds.

TravelerKaren

whitehall: We plan to spend 2 nights in Matera on our way to Lecce. We are really looking forward to that stop. I will be looking forward to your trip report on Sicily. We were there many, many years ago and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reliving that trip through your pics and report! Thanks for your opinion about Spello being a good base. My sister is headed to Umbria this fall and just finished reading your report as well. She was originally thinking of Assisi but agree that it's so crowded and it sounds like Spello would be a good choice.

whitehall

It is always good to get home after a long day. Spello truly felt like home. We took a few trains when we wanted a break from driving, and the station was only a 10-15 minute walk. Although we cooked in our apartment quite a bit, there were enough good restaurants to support a long term stay.