Foligno

may I introduce to you the flattest town in all of Umbria.....

I was completely amazed to see people on bicycles here!! I mean a woman riding through the piazza on a bicycle!! and an old man even!! eh, wait that doesn't sound right....the old man was riding a bicycle I meant....

see how flat??!?!? ok, well maybe not from that shot, but I swear, it really is FLAT....but this is a nice segue into the gratuitous church photos (of which there seem to be many)

here's the outside (from street level)...

and the inside.....

I wish I had a baldacchino like this in MY house!

never missing an opportunity to showcase everybody's favorite virgin.....

I especially love the moon and snake at her feet.....robbing the pagans again I see?
There is also a military base here (which thankfully I didn't have an opportunity to photograph) and this was a relatively short trip....next stop: Spello!!

un Ponte ed una Fortezza

No, it isn't a puppet show.......It's....(can I have a drumroll please??)

SPOLETO!!!! YAY!!!

In addition to the aforementioned Ponte and Fortezza (also lovingly referred to as a Rocca) hang on, photos to follow.....
we also have a lovely chiesa....

lovely both outside .......

and inside.......

ahhhhh, now what would you pay???




I finally managed to get a focussed shot of the ceiling fresco..... this was no easy feat, trust me!



Spoleto has a delightful park with breathtaking panoramic vistas....

the Rocca is visible from the park as well....


I spoletiani call it Fortezza Arnoz on account of the ex-owner of said fortezza.....
my friend Françoise (whom I met at the train station in Perugia.... completely unplanned!) and I took a trip into the Fortezza which sadly, was used as a jail for quite some time; in fact, up until very recently. Many of the freschi were destroyed by either the state constructing cells or the inmates being bored to bits.....well, we weren't permitted to take pictures inside the Fortezza. The whole trip is rather interesting: the "tour" lasts about 45 minutes and is guided: the museum-goers are taken through the rooms that were previously palatial, then incarceratory, and now some are used for important town functions such as official gatherings and the like, and its obvious function as museum. So anyway, they take you up this hill (and steep too!) in a small bus....trust me when I tell you that long winding roads in Italy were not meant to accomodate vehicular traffic....not to mention the fact that this is, after all, a FORTRESS and I suppose that they probably did not want just anybody to have easy access to their fortress and whatnot, but I digress.....anyway, after this short but very bumpy ride, (which really now, would have taken ten minutes to walk and it wasn't like it was too cold or something but whatever......this is Italia we don't ask these sorts of questions here) we arrive at the fortress which is locked....of course the tour guide has keys and you enter into the courtyard from which you can see the six original towers (and of course none of them were open but the tour guide informed us that if we come back tomorrow, the inaugural opening will take place...thanks lady, but I'm only here for the day) so anyway, after said tour of the fortress, which was quite interesting and educational.....

we walked around in the park a bit.....and found......(another drumroll please) the PONTE!!!!!!

view from one side.......



and from the other side.....



this was an aqueduct once upon a time......and is still a functioning bridge actually......apparently, people take their evening passeggiata (stroll) here quite frequently.....

Spoleto (like all Italian towns) has the best strade strette..... (narrow streets that is)


and the coolest time-keeping devices!!!

Le Marche

So far, this trip I've been in four regions....Campagna, Lazio, and the two new ones (Umbria and....Le Marche!!)
Here are some images of Urbino, a lovely renaissance town just south and east of the province of San Marino....P.S. I almost made it to Rimini, but alas, ran out of time....no matter.....Urbino was amazing
Who could lament with scenes such as these??

What would an Italian city be without a Duomo??

please ignore the scaffolding while we restore this beautiful edifice...thank you for your patience

apparently, no one here likes him either......don't blame me, I voted green party!!

the rock and roll scene is alive and well........

as are the gratutituos arty photos....

Urbino.......in all her glory......oh, that facciata!!!

Le Marche definitely deserves more exploration someday.....

Corso dei Ceri

Corso dei Ceri is something that they do annually in Gubbio. They have these ginormous "candles" that are actually huge hunks of wood in the shape of sort of candles but not really. anyhow, they weigh 300 kg and stand 5 meters tall each. Each one is dedicated to a saint and to a profession: the muratori follow Sant'Ubaldo (also the patron saint of the city...he was a bishop back in the 1200's apparently a great guy....he's interred in a glass casket up on the altar of the Duomo which sits on the highest mountain in the town....why anyone would construct a church that is nearly impossible to reach is beyond me...but more on that later) these guys wear bright yellow.....the commercianti follow San Giorgio (not so famous, no bishop and no church) these guys wear screaming blue, and finally, the contadini follow Sant'Antonio (my personal favorite....maybe because I come from contandini) these guys wear black (another reason perhaps that I like them and will always secretly pray that they win the corso). So anyway, there's this whole big celebration every year where they take these huge Ceri down fron the church, bring them down to the Piazza della Signora (more commonly known as Piazza Grande) and they run with the for three minutes.......whoever makes it back to the loggia wins....

the loggia is kind of cool I think....very medieval looking....as is most of the town......

so, to make it up to Sant'Ubaldo (the church and the body coincidentally) you have to take the birdcage funicular (and no, this has nothing to do with transvestites, crossdressers, or transsexuals) which is called (affectionately) the Funivia.....it's a little freaky because when you get on the thing doesn't stop.....nor does it stop when you get off......you kind of have to hit the ground or the funivia running (depending on whether you're ascending or descending from the funivia)......

but as you can well imagine, the view is incredible:

There is also a roman anfiteatro (amphitheatre? how do you spell that in English??)!! yay!! some history of sorts (not that the church is not exemplary of history, it's just that you can really only see the crucifix and bleeding saints a certain number of times before their aesthetic value disappears completely)

The coolest thing I got to see here was the 7 Tavole Eugubine....tablets which describe religious ceremionies, daily laife accounts, prayers....but the kicker is that five of the tablets are written in Umbran (language of the Eugubine people who populated this area, which is not Etruscan and is pre-Roman) and the last two are written in Latin......I stood there, completely awed by what I was looking at......the tablets are bronze and they're inscribed (obviously by hand) with the words........

and then there's the gratuitous "arty" photo.....can't be too history oriented, can we?

the loggia and the sunset......... (I know, I know, thank you Captain Obvious!!)

Città alla cima della collina

A city on a hilltop (which actually describes just about every city in this area).......

First stop: the Pozzo di Patrizio.....a well built by the Romans (what a surprise!) which is ridiculuosly deep.....but only because they put this one on a hilltop and therefore had to dig deeper to get to the water table....because the level of the water table doesn't change......


It's constructed in sort of a spiral fashion....one level to ascend and the other to decend.....genius....that way, you don't bump into each other with huge containers of water......could be dangerous, no?

the view looking up:


and the view looking down........

and then there's the panoramic landscape.....




a casual stroll along Corso Cavour......

turn left at the clock tower........and then you lose the ability to breathe......on account of this:

neither words nor photos can do justice to this massive edifice......

practically the entire upper part of the facciata (I think it's called a façade in English, which is really borrowed from the French......) is a mosaic......and not just mosaic, but there's an awful lot of gold in there....

the detail is incredible........


the rosette window from the outside...

and from the inside.......

but it wasn't all duomo all the time......

there are museums.......pretty streets......and Orvieto Sotterraneo (thanks to the Etruschi....Geniuses!!)......

have I mentioned the Umbrian landscape lately??? It sometimes reminds me of a patchwork quilt...