Dear Readers,
Another delightful day. Today we drove north to Gubbio; about 40 minutes from Perugia. It’s another medieval hilltop town tucked away in a rugged, mountainous corner of Umbria. The streets are dramatically steep. Marty was not happy! We found parking outside the medieval city on a side street rather than in the designated parking area. Look at how frugal we were!!
Our first stop was the Palazzo dei Consoli which was the 14th century meeting place of Gubbio’s parliament.
The palace is the home of a small museum. Here are some more lovely ceramic pieces.
It had an indoor fountain and fabulous views.
Here’s a typical street.
We walked past a giant wine barrel which dates back to the 15th century. It holds 387 wine barrels.
Next we went to the duomo/cathedral.
Up next was the Palazzo Ducale. I had read that it was closed on Mondays so was pleasantly surprised to find it open. Here’s the courtyard and a typical ceiling in the palace.
And then the surprise of the day: we entered a little studiolo. I looked around and said to Marty: “There’s one just like this at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” After we exited the studiolo, I read the plaque on the wall which informed me that what I had just seen was a copy and that the original is in the Met!! Apparently the original was sold by the owner of the palace to Adolph Loewe (a Jewish antiquarian) who subsequently sold it to the Met in 1939 for $32,000.
This is the Fountain of the Mad – an irreverent symbol of the city. Apparently if you run around it 3 times, you will earn the title of “honorary madman”. Nope, neither of us did it.
And again, here is lunch:
At this point we left the medieval city and explored the rest of Gubbio and its surrounding area. First up were the remains of a Roman theatre.
Then a ride on a finicular to the top of Mount Ingino. This was different from any other funicular I had ever been on in that 2 people stood in a little cage to go up and down the mountain. I loved it; Marty not so much.
Our last stop of the day was supposed to be an abbey I had read about. When we got to the destination, there was a closed up church and no real place to park. We drove around a little and found a guy mowing the lawn. Between his broken English and Marty’s sparse Italian, he said he would unlock the church (where St. Francis has also spent some time) and show us around. What a charming way to end our sightseeing day.
After our prior “heavy duty” dinners, I had decided that we should just have pizza tonight. While our other dinners had all been walking distance from our hotel, this one was a 15 minute car ride away; more of a local restaurant than a tourist place. It was great. The owner took special interest in us. He talked us into starting with their specialty- a charcuterie board. And then we shared a sausage and mushroom pizza. Not the best pizza we’ve ever eaten, but quite acceptable. It was a great ending for another fun day in Umbria.
Tomorrow we leave Perugia for our second base of operations- Spoleto. On the way a few stops, of course. See you then.
Keep those comments coming.
❤️
Irene