We’ve made it to Italy! We’ve been in Umbria, near the town of Spello, for two weeks. Unfortunately I had quite a bad cold (or covid?) for the first week plus, as well as for our one day in Milan, so not much has been happening. Our trip from Vienna to Milan was a thirteen-hour odyssey: walk, tram, train, train, train, subway, walk. We’d been planning to take a taxi from the train station to the hotel, but the line was probably 50 people long, so we turned around and figured out the subway. I slept for most of the next day – thank goodness I hadn’t gotten us opera tickets at La Scala, something I had seriously considered.
The following day we picked up our leased car and headed south. Sigh, that’s the end of our low-carbon travels. Well, at least the car is a hybrid… though not a small one. We had ordered a Citroën C4, but they told us one wasn’t available and gave us a free upgrade to a C5, which is a more American-sized car (though not the size we drive at home!). While it is comfy to ride in, it’s not so comfy to drive on the narrow, windy roads here in Italy.
And there are definitely narrow, windy roads leading up to our rental house, 500 m above the Umbra valley. The views here are amazing! Recuperating here was not a hardship.
Spello has a beautiful walled city center dating back to the Romans.
And yes, it’s Italy so there are plenty of churches here – 26 according to one website.
Food for the soul is good; happily there’s also a good pasticceria. We’re not Italian pastry aficionados, so it’s been a learning experience.
One of my favorite things to look for is how history shows on the buildings themselves.
Beyond Our French Adventure 