Le Lac du Salagou

We drove about an hour northwest to a large lake, the Lac du Salagou, for a hike. The day started off quite cloudy and the mistral (a strong, cool, dry wind from the northwest) was blowing. We were glad for all our layers as we started out over the wine-colored dirt. But wait, I’m getting […]

Montpellier

We’re down near the Mediterranean in Montpellier for a month. Our rental is quite the change from an Umbrian hillside. We’re in a residential neighborhood near the historic city center and can walk to everything we need. A good bakery is a mere eight minutes away, the grocery store is 15-20. We still see beautiful […]

Odds and Ends

Somehow I forgot to mention in an earlier post one of the things that makes hiking here so special – herbs! As we hike along the aqueduct, or just walk up the road, wild herbs are everywhere – rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay laurel, … Sometimes they are a little hard to identify; they often have […]

Hill Towns

That picture you have in your head of what an Italian town should look like – old stone buildings with weaving, narrow alleys, sudden bursts of flowers, ancient walls – Umbrian hill towns have it in spades. Even the one valley town we visited looked that way, too; we just didn’t have to huff and […]

Assisi

We spent a day in Assisi, learning about the town and Santa Chiara (St Clare) and San Francisco (St Francis) from Rick Steves. (Our guests, J&L, introduced us to Rick’s free audio guides and we all gave him a listen as we wended our way through town.) We were surprised to learn that the Franciscan […]

Near Spello

The view was ever-changing from our terrace above Spello. Sometimes the clouds poured over the nearby the mountains, or drifted below us in the valley, or completely filled the valley… and a few times we were inside the clouds. Very cool! It was hard to tear ourselves away from the comfort and the views, but […]

Spello è bello

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 […]

Vienna: Art

Art is everywhere in Vienna, but we got our biggest doses (or perhaps just our most informed doses) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Albertina. As promised, here are some views of the inside of Kunsthistorisches Museum: It’s no surprise that the world’s largest collection of paintings by Bruegel are in this museum. They are […]

Vienna: Look Up!

As we first walked around Vienna, we noticed a few interesting details when we remembered to look up from the cobblestones, people dodging, and window shopping. So we started to remind each other, “Don’t forget to look up!” Good advice in any city, but especially here. And then there’s the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Historical Art Museum), […]

Vienna: Schönbrunn

The Hapsburgs’ summer palace, the Schloss Schönbrunn, is about 30 minutes from downtown by public transit. (That is, if you get off at the correct stop to transfer (oops!) and don’t have to wait a really long time for that transfer, once you finally get to the right spot.) We toured the outside first, and […]