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Published: November 13th 2010
Citta della Pieve
This is the path I took to the center of town.Day 14 Perugia to Citta della Pieve
We had our ups and downs (literally and figuratively) on our first day with a car. We arrived at the train station by bus, after waiting out a hail storm at the hotel. We didn't see our car rental place and asked at Hertz for directions. Either through an honest mistake or due to a mean and vindictive nature, the man at Hertz send us on a complicated search far from the station. We soon stopped and called, finding out that the rental place was in the same building as the station. We retraced our steps, got our Fiat Punto, and navigated quite easily out of Perugia in the rain.
We took a scenic route east into the hills to Gubbio, arriving in a downpour. We thought we would just look up at the medieval city from the car and move on, but the rain stopped and we did a quick tour, complete with the most surprising church interior so far (see photo). We drove west on another mountain road, towards Lago Trasmento, with sun for part of the afternoon. On the way across the mountains to Lago Trasimeno, we drove by
the place where the Romans met their worst defeat ever, at the hands of Hannibal (who, remember, was defeated by the brave people of Spoleto).
After leaving the lake, we decided to look for lodging before it got dark. We waited about 20 minutes too long, and night fell without a hotel in sight.
After a few deadends (including a drive down a very dark dirt road to an over priced agri-tourist place), we decided to brave the maze of one way streets and complicated parking rules that come with the charm of hill towns. We drove into Citta della Pieve, off the tourist route but with "A Place to be Discovered" as its motto. It has a fort, cathedral, museums, and an Etruscan obelisk.
We easily found free parking, a tourist office with a list of hotel and prices, and an open trattorria for dinner, in that order. We spent the night in a fake medieval, down-on-its-heels hotel that still cost $100/night (with breakfast). In the morning, I walked back into town along a lovely path and visited a few sights we'd peeked at in the dark the night before. I learned that the townfolks here were
quite unruly and that the towers and fort had been built by Perugia to keep them in line. The towers were high enough that troops could signal (with fires) to Perugia for help if the locals got out of hand. Its a very quiet place today.
Day 15-16 Citta della Pieve to Orvieto to Spoleto
We took a beautiful mountain road to Orvieto, where the cathedral lived up to the high expectations we had set from all the people we knew who had seen it. It is magnificent, second only to Florence and more impressive in a way, since it is more in the open. We could see it from many kilometers away as we approached. We took the funicular up to town from the free parking behind the rail station (thank you, Lonely Planet!), visited the Cathedral, walked around, went to the well (which we didnt visit due the high entry fee), and enjoyed the free Etruscan temple ruins right next door, before going to the grocery store for picnic supplies.
The beauty continued on the road from Orvieto to Todi and then on to Spoleto. We were alone on the roads most of the time.
Nearly every hill has some kind of tower or fort or monastery, it seems. It is wild boar hunting season, so there were hunters parked along the road in places. We picnicked on a mountainside, tried to visit Todi (there was some kind of huge market day going on and no parking to be found), and crossed the hills to Spoleto. It was 4:00 pm so we decided that it might be risky to find a hotel in the mountains beyond the city, so we are back here for the night. We will drive into the Sibillini Mountains, Le Marche and on the Adriatic after that.
Day 17 Spoleto to Teramo
We visited the Friday street market, right outside our hotel in Spoleto, before leaving this morning. I bought a wool tunic, from a Chinese couple. Most of the new clothing stands were run by Chinese. Each stand was overseen by a young Chinese couple, who spoke competent Italian.
We headed across more mountains, eastward this time. We saw no cars at all on the first stretch and very few in general, except when we used a highway from time to time. We first visited Norcia, well known
for cured meats (in fact, the name for a butchershop, Norcineria, comes from the name of this town.). The town is very pretty, with a large central piazza. We ate lunch in the car in the carpark and fed our cheese rinds to the local cats. We headed down into the Piano Grande, a high valley, where there are many sheep and few people. After visiting the almost deserted town of Castelluccio, we continued on into higher mountains where we saw our first snow. The sun came out around this time.
We had hoped to find a B&B in the town of Ascoli Piceno, but the combined efforts of the GPS and local citizens were not enough to find us lodging. So, we drove out of town and over more hills/mountains, to the next town, whose name I’ve actually forgotten. (I looked it up this morning, it’s called Teramo). There we finally found an agri-tourist place outside of the city, where we are now staying. The woman who greeted us was in the middle of harvesting olives when we arrived. She took off her work clothes, drove up to the rooms they rent, showed us around, put back on
her work clothes, and continued to pick olives until dark. Then she went in and made dinner. We were told to arrive at 8:00, and we walked down in the dark under stars. It turns out she has a restaurant, which slowly filled up with customers. She ran back and forth with meals, cleaned the floor when a kid spilled his dinner, and stayed cheerful while trying to communicate with us. Her husband helped a bit, but mostly watched TV…
The food was great, but there were two TVs going at once, so the ambience wasn’t the best. Our room is Spartan, but they did fix the heat, which will be on until midnight. Who knows about tomorrow?
Day 18 Morning
We slept well, and woke to a beautiful sunrise (at least I did…). I’m sitting outside the restaurant in the sun, waiting for Bill to bring the car down. The owner just came out and said he’s going horseback riding…We think we are going to head to the coast and go down the east side of Italy today, but palns may change….having a car makes it so much harder to decide where to go next…there
are so many possibilities!
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