whitehall

progol No monopoly. I am enjoying these exchanges. We also saw no other traffic.
Jackie44 Although we had some walking 10-mile days in Rome, that’s 7.5 miles round trip to Collepino. And, we thought we were among the first people to find this tiny place. Who knew?

whitehall

Perugia 2015We weren’t sure we would go to Perugia on this trip, even though it is less than half an hour away. It is the largest city in Umbria, the capital, and it is a big university town, drawing students from all over the world. And, therefore one place in Umbria where you hear lots of English, because that is often a default lan gauge when lots of foreigners gather in Italy. Six years ago, we were here in the fall to go to its annual chocolate festival. As lovers of chocolate, we were disappointed that the event seemed to be small, repetitive and frankly boring. It is also the city that demonized Amanda Knox in a case that, in our opinion, gave the Italian judicial system a big black eye.

It is a Saturday, and Perugia has a gigantic weekly market in what looked like a big parking lot across from the stadium for the local professional soccer team A.C. Perugia.

Hustlers were helping people find free parking spaces and were pushy to get tips. I took a photo of one of these guys, and they pressed me to pay them for taking their picture. We parked across the street, closer to the stadium.

This market felt more like a flea market than the typical village markets, probably because it wasn’t located in the midst of medieval buildings.


The produce looked great, and we purchased some.


One place had crates of eggs, crates full of chickens and birds, and boxes full of little chicks. If you bought some, your live purchase was packed in a box.


Lots of apparel, and I did buy a pair of lightweight shorts for 10 euros. Wish I had bought a second pair. One guy had a sign for inexpensive "Made in Italy" shirts, but they were packing the stuff up in boxes that said "Made in Bangladesh". Several booths had tons of wrinkled clothes piled up for one or two euros, kind of like a Salvation Army outlet. There were lots of pork vendors and all had lines, mostly people looking for a sandwich for lunch. That made us hungry, so we decided to take a second look at the rambling old city.


Perugia has many squares and magnificent buildings, but it is not a major tourist destination as such. But, on this week-end day, it feels very much alive, with lots of young students, packed restaurants filling most of the main thoroughfares. In that way, it is a more authentic Italian city with what looks like so much to see, you probably would need to spend several days here.

Perugia has about 170,000 residents and looks out onto rural Umbria.



Perugia is known for chocolate thanks to its name sake Perugina, manufactured in this city for 115 years. And, since this is a city that values education, Perugina started a popular chocolate making school in 2007. Nestles has owned the brand for 33 years.



We needed to replenish our cash and noticed an ATM partner to our bank. We were able to use the ATM machine, although the bank was closed for the week-end. When the bank is open, it appeared a customer has to enter via a glass tube that resembled an airport security screening device. Seemed odd to us.

With cash in hand to leave our American tip, we found an outside seat on a busy street, ordered pizza, salad, roasted potatoes, wine and mineral water. Within minutes, the well organized staff delivered our food. It didn’t taste like fast food, but boy was it fast.

We walked off lunch, criss-crossing a big section of the well preserved old town.

It is not unusual to see wells in medieval villages, but this one, in front of Palazzo Sorbello is considered a marvel of Etruscan engineering. From the highest point in Perugia, there is a tour that takes visitors down close to the water that once served this community as early as 300 BC.


After we headed south to Spello, we briefly thought we were back in New England when we came upon this covered wood bridge.

We went to the grocery store in Spello and found this No Name Prosecco from south of Lake Como. We liked it. Even better, we liked the $3.99 price tag.



And we put away our produce haul from the Perugia market. Juicy peaches, our favorite vegetable (Romanesco), really sweet and large prune plums, and more.

TDudette

More great shots of Perugia. It is a shame she became more known because of the horrid crime. We based there and our hotel was on the main square:

https://www.italyscapes.com/places/u...a-iv-novembre/

It was semi-pedestrianized and all the students gave it a great vibe. One of our bar pals said there were 6 universities. And as many institutes and research facilities. Were there a lot of students at the clothes markets, whitehall?

whitehall

We didn't see students at the market, but I believe there is another weekly market in the old town. We did see lots of hip looking fast service restaurants scattered around the city. We also passed Mysticanza, a “growshop, seedshop and headshop” since 2003. Not sure if they have been selling all that in all those 18 years, since Italy, at times, has had some significant laws on the books against pot. But today, they do curbside pickup and deliveries.

TDudette

"But today, they do curbside pickup and deliveries."-------It's a different world for sure. 🙃

annhig

Love those photos of Perugia, Whitehall. Definitely on my list, but now I've seen it, perhaps not on Market day!

Jackie44

Whitehall: I saw that you had some 10 mile days in Rome - so impressed!

whitehall

It was a beautiful Sunday, and we decided to take a hike. We found a suggested one online that would complete a circle, take us through a couple of villages and supposedly be about 5 miles. It would take us to the fringes of those mountains we had to crossed to get to Norcia a couple days earlier. The thing we quickly noticed, motorcycles really love these roads, and they love to weave in and out of traffic, leaning in ways that help them squeeze, in death-defying fashion, between two passing vehicles, sometimes even on hairpin turns.

We were glad to get off the road and park in Cerreto Borgo, a little place that had several restaurants catering to these bikers.


Cerreto Borgo

The old hill town of Cerreto di Spoleto was above us. Hard to believe, but the “Cerretans” from that small, quiet community in ancient times included so many quacks, hucksters and swindlers that the term “charlatans” supposedly came from here.

Our hike was through the Borgo, uphill with some stone steps but mostly a dirt path, which a kind lady directed us to. Not that she had much directing to do. For the remainder of our walk/hike, we would be the only ones covering this loop today.



For perspective, we noted the highway bridge in the distance below. Our hike would take us across a mountain and well beyond that bridge, before bringing us back to our car.

Cerreto di SpoletoIt was a quiet Sunday morning in a tiny village, but my wife and I still managed to become separated when I got ahead and took a turn into a gate to take a photo. I even ran back down part of the trail to make sure she didn’t run into a charlatan, but she was already at the top of the town. The only people out and about were coming out of a church.

A bit of whimsy and a bunch of grapes. Since the grapes were sticking out into “our” right-of-way, we tried a few, and they were ready to eat.

Part of our path was a community fitness trail that included several fairly new outdoor gyms. And, we did see one family from the village out for a walk on this section.

Then we got to the interesting part. The descent. And, we learned a new Italian word. “Pericoloso”. It was on big letters at the start of the skinny trail. We checked our phone translator. “Dangerous”. The sign didn’t seem to detail what the hazards were. Wild animals, snakes? I don’t like going back. The path was over-grown, and the loose dirt and stones made it slippery and tough going, but we continued.

Triponzo

At the bottom of the hill, we walked around a highway tunnel. Although we thought all of this was new territory for us, when we reviewed photos yesterday, we discovered a photo, taken a couple days earlier, from our car of both this tunnel and the town of Triponzo that was our next stop. Our only regret is that we missed an ancient Roman inscription that a nearby sign indicated was carved in the rock we passed that now encloses the tunnel.

Triponzo also suffered some earthquake damage in 1997, and we saw some bracing still on a church. More significantly, it has one of the few surviving Umbrian watch towers. Most have been ruined by war or earthquakes. The tower at the top of the town was so badly impacted, they thought it would have to be demolished, but they came up with a new, and then unique, way to support it using a steel spine so that it still stands.

The next part of our hike had a mixed bag of wide and narrow trails, including part of it along a small river. The bridge over it was in bad shape, but it got us where we were going.

Eventually, we came upon that impressive highway bridge and could see Cerreto and the mountains we had crossed in the distance. This sure looked like more than five miles. As we crossed under the bridge, we noticed that it leads into a mountain tunnel, one that we also just figured out that we drove through two days earlier.

The trail soon turned into what we believe is a section of the old Spoleto to Norcia rail bed, parts of which are popular with bicyclists and hikers, We didn’t see anyone else, but we did get to walk through an old railroad tunnel.



As we came out of the tunnel, we got our clearest view yet of the entirety of Cerreto di Spoleto.


And it was way past time for us to have a fresh panini. Salami and a thick chunk of pecorino on fresh bread, it was made by a woman, still pleasant after a steady stream of customers.


We made a quick stop in the nice looking town of Sellano. We earlier had considered taking a hike from this area to nearby waterfalls and caves, one of which had been inhabited by the town’s patron saint. The town originally was a walled castle, but invasions and earthquakes wiped out any trace of that. And, although the community did a makeover after the devastating 1997 quake, there are still some exterior supports on a church in town.


We saw more quake damage along the way, perhaps from 1997, mostly with cracks in buildings, some abandoned. We also saw clusters of what probably is permanent replacement housing, some of them nice one-story wooden buildings. Along the way, we also saw more Italian whimsy.

This part of Umbria is fairly remote, and all of a sudden we saw traffic slowing down, parking every which way, even some buses. We had no idea why so many people were stopping along this remote road, but we joined the party, finding a space about half a mile away from a little town.

Perhaps it was a fall festival, since there was a food truck and someone selling new potatoes, onions and garlic at one end of town. There was also a long line for a Covid friendly gelato place near the center of town.


Rasiglia

What we discovered was one of the true secrets of Umbria, not on any lists we made before coming. The town of Rasiglia. There was no event. Some of those who stopped were there to see this wondrous little town. Others, like us, were just sheep following the herd.


Rasiglia is also known as the “village of streams” or “village of brooks”. It is small, but a river feeds the constant movement of small streams and waterfalls that surround the stone houses.
They have preserved the weaving and textile equipment from the past. We were fascinated with the impeccable condition of the paper “punch card” rolls that hang from the ceiling, a very early nod to computer programming.


A truly beautiful place, although less than 50 people reportedly live here now. You only need an hour or so here. If we go back, we would like to see the castle ruins above, but they seemed to be off limits. And, we have read there is a chapel that has claimed some miraculous results related to the healing waters in the area.

There is a strong sense of appreciation for the history of the town, exemplified in the many large photos of people in earlier days working and playing.


It also was a great place for a water fill-up. The water was so clean, that, all you have to do is look at the top photo. That is a plant growing; and the water is so clear, it’s hard to tell that it is fully submerged a couple of inches below the waterline.



One more unexpected stop on this Sunday afternoon was Pale di Foligno, high up against Mt. Pale.



There is a building as you turn into the town that houses hydroelectric facilities to capture some of that river water that flowed through Rasiglia. The river helped created textile, grain and, later, paper mills. There is a small creek (inhabited by a few rats) that we followed into the village.

Pale di Foligno

We didn’t see any obvious damage here, but the 1997 quakes caused such damage that everyone had to move out at the time.

The waters of the Menotre River have created caves underneath Pale, and we paid the fee, showed our CDC cards, put on lighted miner’s helmets and went down, despite the tour being in Italian. Lots of stalactites and stalagmites and a location for an old underground pond that we understood to be, in essence, for a cistern that, at one time, was the town’s water supply.

Adelaidean

Such a fantastic ongoing read. Thank you for the interesting narrative and wonderful photos.

There is a town (not much there) called New Norcia, north of Perth (Western Australia) named after Norcia in Italy.
A tiny Benedictine monastery, DH has a cousin who is a monk there.

hope the link works, an old article

https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/new...08-gdkr1w.html

whitehall

Jackie44 If your legs work, it is very easy to do 10 miles in Rome if you are in awe of everything as we are every time we are there. Our average of maybe 6 miles of walking a day on this trip is lower than our 10 miles a day we walked during our "16 countries in 30 days" trip when we showed a relative Europe in 2015. It makes me cringe every time someone says a travel day is a lost day. It doesn’t have to be.
Adelaidean Thank you for sharing the article on New Norcia, which was from 2004. We looked at their current website, and they are still going strong. As a product of a Benedictine education, I am especially happy for them.

TDudette

All of these towns were new names and very enjoyable. Have you been to Lyon, France? The textile museum there popped into my head as I read about the punch cards in Rasiglia.

whitehall

Only a train stop years ago, but it has been on our list (a rather long one). Thanks, I will try to remember that.

(And we are still surprised at how little Rasiglia is publicized; maybe they don't want any more people there.)

Jackie44

whitehall: I completely agree with you about the "lost" travel day. Or that if you have 4 nights (for example) in a place, that it is actually only 3 days. Like you, we do a lot on the arrival day and on our way to other places. Really enjoying your report and the abundance of photos!

whitehall

Thank you. I do all the driving, and while my wife is often holding on for dear life on some of these Italian roads, she rightfully gets annoyed when I nag: “Did you get that picture of such and such?" Trying to upload all of them at the end of the day provides a lot of competition for the often relatively slow data speeds to begin with.

whitehall

We planned to sleep in this day, even though we had plans to go to a Tuscan town we have never been to. For a change of pace, we decided to travel by rail, with tickets booked for late morning.

But not before one of the happiest days of the year for the Spello community turned into tragedy.

We woke up this Monday to the happy sounds of children, maybe more than a hundred of them, on this first day of school, walking below our apartment window. Our apartment was literally a stone’s throw from two of the town’s squares. Below us, the square is where the high school is located. Above us is the square for younger kids.

Due to Covid, and the closure of many schools in the past year or more, this was a big day, a family day. We saw Dad and Moms with their kids, some stopping at the bar across the street to share a pastry before school.

And then an ambulance. with a blaring siren, sped by our window and stopped a couple hundred feet from us. We never see police in this town, but now they were all over the place.



On one side of the small square above us is the school, with all its windows open as a Covid precaution. Just across from there is the Church of St. Lawrence. And, right in front of the church, only steps from the school, a young father of one of the children had a fatal heart attack. To make matters worse, they couldn’t remove him until a coroner could come from another town. Very sad start to the day for this tight community.

It was obviously a quiet and somber morning in Spello. We had some extra time and walked a couple of streets new to us. We found a nondescript building that had a plaque indicating it was a community theatre, and there were signs of an upcoming 3-day “stravagante” (Extravaganza?) coming to Spello. We would have to look into that and will share more on that in a few days.


Spello

I have mentioned the over-tourism element of Spello a few times. And, I usually refer to the main road in Spello that runs from bottom to top. I don’t usually refer to its name because it is a mouthful: via Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour ( a lessor known politician in Italy than say Garibaldi, but nonetheless another key figure in the 19th century unification of Italy). But for those who get off that main artery, the community is simply perfect in its appearance.

Our train was delayed. While on the platform, we heard the first American voices here in nearly three weeks. A lady from Jacksonville, Florida, was going to Assisi. A taxi driver she had used the day before, to her astonishment, arrived and presented her with a pair of eyeglasses that she had left in his cab.


Montecchio Vesponi

For the third time in a couple of weeks, we passed by Isola Maggiore and Lake Trasimeno, on another sunny and beautiful day. Near Cortona, we passed a well preserved castle and fortress (Montecchio Vesponi). The 90-minute trip brought us to the Arezzo station, large and busy. It fronts the newer section of the city, but only a sort walk to the historic center.

Arezzo

Piazza Grande is the centerpiece of Arezzo, where they do jousting matches twice a year. You may also have seen this large square in the film “Life is Beautiful”. The buildings are elegant, and it’s no wonder, since the columned loggia in the square was designed by the same guy who planned the Uffizi in Florence.



The city is full of other beautiful buildings. The library, a onetime Palazzo, is full of coats of arms from the city rulers from the 14h and 15th centuries.

We can quickly get “churched out” on our longer trips to Europe and especially Italy. But, of course, there is so much history, and some of the greatest artworks of every kind in churches of every size, and in nearly every community. I have kept our coverage of churches in this report to a minimum, but Arezzo has many churches of note.

The duomo/cathedral, located at the highest point of the city. It is the Cathedral of Saint Donato & Pietro. Although the exterior has an early 20th century finish, the stained glass windows are considered masterpieces from the 1500’s.



In the duomo, we noticed the only temperature measuring device we saw in a church that registered when you walked by. That’s 97.3 and appears to be close to normal for both of us on this trip.


And the duomo is surrounded by a large shaded park, big enough for joggers and even has a snack bar.

Santa Maria della Pieve church doesn’t look like a church from the outside, but it is impressive nonetheless. It is known as the “tower of a hundred holes”. A close inspection shows that all the columns are different, one is even a statue. Inside, there is a noted altarpiece in an unusual elevated area.

Although our interior photo is terrible, due to the lighting (although apparently there were switches where we could have turned on lights), we were able to see the highly regarded fresco fragments of the Basilica of San Domenico. Over the high altar is a crucifix by Cimabue in the 1260's that has been restored.

The Badia or Abbey of Santa Flora & Lucille had some of the most beautiful artwork of the various churches we visited thanks to Giorgio Vasari, painter, architect, engineer, who was responsible for the church’s design, artwork and altar. He is the same guy mentioned above who designed the Uffizi in Florence and the loggia in the main square here in Arezzo.

Arezzo is a nice place for lunch, lots of places, but many are simple panini and charcuterie places. That was okay for us.

The newer shopping area, closer to the rail station, blends nicely with the medieval parts of the city and its typical streets and many grand buildings.

We saw lots of antique signage on businesses, some looking for new occupants..

Our overall take was Arezzo has great access, due to having rail service close to the center. It seemed relatively tourist free and has a good feel. If we were to return, it might be largely for lunch and shopping.

Back home in Spello, after all the pizza, pasta, and cold cuts lately (and the gelato, the photos of which we haven't shared recently), we chose two different bean soups, one with farro. They hit the spot, although not as spicy as I prefer. This was at Enoteca Properizio (that’s where the owner provides a personal presentation with each glass of wine). We wanted to avoid that this time, especially since we were repeating our wine selections, and were pleased that the owner instead was wining and dining a film crew focused on Spello.

annhig

How awful that what should have been a joyous day was so marred, Whitehall. Doubtess a day they will remember but for the wrong reason. But I am loving your photos of Arrezzo which looks like a terrific place to visit. The centre reminds me somewhat of Siena with that sloping pavement and I should imagine that the jousting draws quite a crowd. Definitely one to add to my every growing list.

whitehall

Photos suggest that the jousting is super crowded, definitely not Covid friendly. We had hoped to go to the monthly antiques market in the same square, which gets good reviews, but we just missed it. We like antiques, and you see a lot of different stuff in Europe/Italy. We have been to a couple elsewhere, including a memorable one in Lucca a number of years ago.

whitehall

Back in the car. And, there are many tunnels to get through the mountains between Umbria and the Adriatic Sea.

All three towns today are part of the beautiful Le Marche region. We last stayed in this province nine years ago and loved it. We avoided Ancona then, because we had been led to believe it had been flattened during WWII, leaving little behind but a modern beach community. This is far from accurate as we discovered.

To hedge our bets, we decided to make two other stops along the way. Anyone who has ever rented an apartment or home in Italy has probably seen some Indesit appliances (partner with Whirlpool); they come from Fabriano. However for almost 1,000 years, Fabriano has been better known for its paper making, mostly high quality papers, often with watermarks.

The paper they made contributed to the economy in Foligno, community that eventually did a lot of printing. They still make some of these fine papers in Fabriano. We saw the paper museum; it was open. It also looked like no one else was there, the admission seemed expensive, and we were in a hurry. My biggest regret of the day was not taking the time to go in.

Fabriano

After parking our car, we walked through a large park, which runs alongside the old town.


The old town had few people milling about, but streets, homes and businesses were neat and clean. It was said to have been heavily damaged in WWII.

We saw a sign for an in town “gymnasium” and fitness center. We took a peek inside, and what we saw resembled a social club.


There are many impressive buildings and churches, but, for us, this was a quick visit with little extra time to explore.


Most of the few people we saw were having coffee in the striking main square of the city, which holds most of the significant buildings from its rich local history. It also has a fountain similar to a noted one in Perugia. The loggia of St. Francis runs alongside the town’s library.



These planters caught our eye.



We haven’t seen many pre-WWII vehicles since we have been in Italy, so this one was a surprise as we entered Jesi, which is sometimes spelled “Lesi.”


Jesi

In 1194, by happenstance, an Emperor was born here while his mother was traveling through. This allowed it to be named a Royal City, from which it got many elegant and impressive buildings.

The emperor, Federico, was born in a royal tent in a Roman forum, now the middle of this grand Federico square.



The thing that caught our attention most was the beautiful old theatre building. We saw many theatres on this trip, but all of them have been closed. Once in Milan, we bought inexpensive tickets to an off season performance and landed a box right over the stage at La Scala. But that was the only time we have been in one of these sumptuous Italian theatres.

We inquired at the ticket office about the possibility of seeing the place but were told maybe later in the week. They suggested we double-check with the tourism office. Soon, the person from the ticket office conferred with the tourist office, and bingo, a tour was now scheduled in 15 minutes, but it would be in Italian only.

A couple from Belgium earlier had asked us for help figuring out how to pay in a nearby parking garage, and we became fast friends after we told them it was a free lot. We saw them grabbing a coffee in the square and ran over to advise them about the chance to see the theatre.

They returned the favor by being our interpreter for the small group tour.

This opera house was a private enterprise from the late 1700’s until the family could no longer maintain it in 1925. That is when the city took it over. Although it was refreshed in the 1990’s, it is one of the few Italian theatres that survived fires, earthquakes and old age in such nice original condition, and today is the most prominent building in the historic square.

The lobby and gathering areas have a museum quality, including a portrait of its namesake composer Giovanni Pergolesi. Born in Jesi, Pergolesi is considered a significant contributor to “comic opera” despite dying at age 26.



The seats are the only things that are not original in this beautiful theatre, since, as we understood it, in the early days, patrons simply stood.

The details inside the opera house are magnificent with everything original including the painted curtain.


In the 1700’s the townspeople erected the Clementine arch to honor Pope Clement for abolishing a tax on wheat grown there and for completing a highway to the sea. Today that arch is the beginning of a main thoroughfare, popular evening walks, restaurants and bars for what is said to be a very vibrant night life here.This seemed like a great place to return to.

This lovely city has many blocks of beautiful buildings and squares.


The Cathedral of San Settimio includes the burial place of its namesake former Bishop. Just another grand church.


Jesi has a weekly market in what we started referring to as the opera house square. But we were excited to discover a large block-long indoor market building. Once inside, our delight melted when we found only a couple of vendors. The fruit seller was nice and enthusiastic about his products and we did leave with some more fruit. (Off topic: have you ever noticed in Italian markets that oranges have fresh looking stems/leaves, even when they come from such far-away places like Argentina?)


Ancona

Time to move on to the Adriatic Sea and Ancona.



This is a busy city, but driving wasn’t too big a challenge. We found a parking garage and found ourselves walking on a long tree-lined pedestrian boulevard, with helpful people pointing us to the city center.


As I noted earlier, we expected modern, post-war buildings that would have replaced the annihilation from hundreds of US Air Force bombing raids in 1943-44. The target was port and rail facilities, but collateral damage destroyed the historic center and took 1,000 orm ore civilian lives. To our pleasant surprise, they rebuilt, over 15 years, much of the 70% that was in ruins.

Stately tall buildings, with lots of windows, shutters and balconies line the streets into the old city.

Signs of earlier days are all around.


And even ancient times as well.



We made a bee-line for the busy working waterfront. Surprisingly, the city does not provide an easy or clear path in that area, but, despite some industry, we found it awesome. At times, as we passed various military-style booths, we were uncertain if access was allowed. But as we went under an ancient arch toward a long stone walkway into the sea, we knew this was meant to be enjoyed, even if few others were around.



Ancient marble arch of Trajan from 115 A.D. in honor of the emperor who built the por, leading to the stone walkway with great views of the harbor.



Numerous port ferries were coming and going while we were there. Destinations include Croatia, Greece, Albania and Turkey.


Having taken many cruises over the years, we have always been fascinated by the ships. Despite some concerns about their environmental records, and other things, among other trips, we have taken a few two-week long transatlantic cruises, often for little more than the airfare. However, we caught a bug on our last one (not the dreaded stomach one) and self-confined, eating only chicken soup, for the week-long ocean voyage. That may have been our last one.

However, we were excited to see the Fincantieri shipyard, where they were building three new cruise ships, mid-size by today's standards. They still are large, upscale ships for Silverseas and Viking. Everything, including piles of modular sections, were laid out in front of us. This is only one of eight Fincantieri worldwide shipyards producing a large percentage of the world's cruise ships.

The marble Cathedral of Saints Donato & Pietro, built over the remains of an ancient Greek temple, sits on the top of Guasco Hill and overlooks the harbor. The 11th century cathedral, with two marble lions on either side of its entrance, was surprisingly bland and a little bleak. In the basement crypt, where the namesake martyr St. Donato is buried, there is more color and decoration.

As we headed back to our parking garage, we walked a variety of beautiful streets. As we got closer to some of the newer areas, we saw lots of young people, perhaps looking for a night out after a day at work.


Loreto

It was a long return ride home, this time on the road we call 'the two dozen tunnel highway", but we saw many medieval villages. One place in particular piqued our interest, and we feel foolish for not knowing anything about it. From the car, it looked like a large fortress, but it is the town of Loreto, built around a significant religious pilgrimage site. Santa Casa was the Virgin Mary’s house in Nazareth, basically three walls around a rock cavern. The cavern is still in Nazareth, but the three walls were brought to Loreto by invaders in the 1290’s. These stone walls are housed in a sculptural masterpiece enclosure in Loreto. We have looked at photos and wow! How could we have missed that?!


Back home in Spello, we decided to eat out, but we were tired. Literally a foot from our apartment back wall is Extra Vergene Oleoteca, friendly people, and a limited menu. Our stairway window looks down on all the diners, and their often loud music fortunately doesn’t go into late hours and is familiar English language oldies, stuff we like. So, one wall of the outside terrace is our apartment; and, on the next side a lit up, and much photographed, antique wooden loggia provides the evening ambiance. The loggia is connected to some municipal offices. We just needed to offset our daily gelato, so all we wanted was soup and bread.We weren't in a hurry and know that soups sometimes take the longest to come out, becaus,e in many Italian restaurants, they make them to order. Bruschetta in Umbria takes various forms, but the basic one is bread (and often without salt like Tuscany), served with only a high quality EVOO. We had that with lenticche or just simple lentils with pesto. Yes, simple, tasty and, surprisingly, one of our more memorable meals on this trip.

TDudette

Wonderful, whitehall! All new places. More great shots. Continued thanks.

annhig

Looks like an excellent way to end a long and exciting day, Whitehall. You certainly packed a lot into it! Loving your photos - Ancona looks like a fascinating mix of old and new. i think that a friend of mine got a ferry from there to Greece once.