For our next trip in Italy we headed south to the provinces of Marche and Umbria. These both have many old hill towns and plenty of mountain scenery. We left Milan on Friday afternoon and by early evening we were in pulling up near the beautiful hill town of Urbino. Set on a ridge top it is a compact place that is well preserved within its original walls. We had dinner there on Friday night and wandered back into town for coffee on the Saturday morning. Having the whole central town area so well preserved gives a very strong sense of history.
We then headed further south and had lunch in Gubbio. This is a town set on a hillside and features an impressive cathedral that looks over the plains below. Next stop was Assisi, perhaps the most famous of the towns in the area. It was a rabbit warren of tiny streets and had plenty of visitors. We looked through the Basilica - it is beautifully decorated inside and despite the many normal tourists it still remains a place of pilgrimage and worship for many visitors. We wandered around town before setting off to find some where to stay for the night. On the way we passed through Montefalco and sampled (and bought) some of the famous Sagrantino wine. For many years this was apparently a favourite of the popes – we can only agree with their selection.
We stayed the night at Spoleto and then headed in a big loop back home. First stop was coffee in Norcia, a small town deep in the hills of Marche. Then we climbed up onto the ridge near Monte Sibilla. This is a remote and very bleak looking spot, but was very scenic. Up here is the village of Castellucio, a lentil growing village that holds an appellation (the European process that protects Champagne, Parma Ham etc.) protecting its centuries old lentil farms. They certainly don’t seem to make a lot of money from it as the village looks very run down – huddled on a small rise below the bare mountains.
We were soon on the highway north and were making good time sitting on around 160km/h along the autostrada. But then rain, roadworks and the end of holiday season crowds combined to create a series of monster traffic jams - in heavy rain it took us 6 hours to do 250kms. Luckily we had the Italian CDs and book in the car so I managed to get something done.
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