Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Oct. 14-16, 2012

Sunday:  Another day of relaxing and staying in Spoleto.  We visited the local ruins; a Coliseum for open air theater plays with actors, an adjacent Roman home, and an excellent museum displaying artifacts illustrating their life style.

We had dinner at a local restaurant with a connection with one of our favorite restaurants back home.  We had eaten at the local restaurant before and had enjoyed their meals so we had become friendly with  the proprietor, a young lady with a boy friend who was the chef.  

In talking with them tonight the conversation resulted in them asking where we were from and we normally respond with Seattle, as nobody would recognize Sequim.  The lady was surprised and indicated that her boy friend had been to Seattle and in fact was a good friend with the owners of a restaurant there called Grazie's, which is a local restaurant outside of Bothell that we have eaten at numerous times. It is amazing how small this world is, six degrees of separation holds true.   

Monday: We took an early train from Spoleto to the town of Cortona,  about 70 miles away in the Tuscany Region and at a cost of 12.80 Euros per person round trip!!  Traveling by train is certainly convenient and inexpensive.

Just some views of the town with all it's beautiful  narrow  streets.  

Each narrow alley pulls you in to see what is around the next bend.

Cortona, is a lovely hilltop town famous for the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.  An interesting side note is that the fountain in the movie actually is not located in the town of Cortona.  This we found out by asking a local waiter where the fountain is located.  It was obvious from his immediate laughter that that question had been asked many times. It is our understanding that the fountain was just a prop and does not exist.


We arrived back to Spoleto just as a nasty lighting storm began.  Shirley and I decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant that was about 4 blocks uphill from our apartment. The unfortunate part of our decision was that the peak of the storm occurred mid way in our walk with the wind blowing sideways, something we had not encountered yet on our trip..  We arrived thoroughly soaked however it did provide some amusement for the restaurant owner who could not believe we were out in the storm.  It was wonderful to have the restaurant to ourselves so we could enjoy dinner and watch the lightning storm and listen to the heavy rain come down.  At one point the proprietor came into the dining room and looked up at the ceiling where we noticed there had been a previous leak.  I love a good lightning storm and this one was a good one!


Tuesday:  Today Shirley and I decided we would rent a car and take off to see some of the hillside villages in the area around Spoleto. After some humorous moments at the gas station where the station attendant and I tried to find the button to unlock the exterior gas cap on the Alpha-Romao.  The humor stopped when I paid the bill, diesel at around 1.9 euros per liter.  

One of the many hill top villages dotted throughout the area.

The entrance into Norcia, a town without cars in the central area.

The town of Norcia must have some connections with the wild boars as many of the store entrances had partial boar heads mounted on the entrance walls.

At one point Shirley wanted to be able to say she had driven over in Italy.  Here she is!  

A beautiful and tall bridge we were passing over.

Our adventure took us to the hilltop towns of Norcia, Cascia, and back to Terni and Spoleto.  The hillsides were dotted with numerous castles and small villages.  It is quite an amazing sight to see the antiquity of the area.  Simply beautiful but unless you know Italian  can be quite frustrating to navigate, as my co-pilot can attest.  Her excuse is that the map is in English and the roadway signs are in Italian.  She says she does not know North from South but we made it home and she is still smiling and so am I.

Since we will probably not be driving again I must say that the experience was a good one, however I would never consider driving on the Amalfi Coast or in any of the major cities like Rome.

Tomorrow we are heading to Assisi and Thursday we visit Trevi, both by train.  Hopefully I will get the opportunity to give a brief description of those towns before we leave.  

Friday we pack for leaving Spoleto on Saturday where we take the train to Rome and then flights to London where we spend a night and then back home on Sunday arriving around midnight :-).  Fortunately our good friends Pat and Irene will be there to pick us up at the airport and let us spend the evening before we head home to sunny Sequim on Monday morning.

It is a sad feeling leaving the beauty of this country with all the friendly people and the historical buildings plus the beautiful country side.  My concern for not knowing much Italian has not been an issue.  Yes, there have been a few times when we smile and say thanks and move on but those times have been rare. It has been easier here with Bob having a fairly good knowledge of the language, especially when we purchase train tickets or question someone for knowledge of the area.  

Good Night,

73,

The Traveling Huntley's
Shirley and Roger

Friday, Saturday, Oct. 12, 13, 2012

Friday, October 12, 2012: 

This was our anniversary as I posted yesterday.  We had cancelled our car trip due to the weather which was a good decisions   We woke Friday morning to a lighting and thunder storm which resulted in rain on-an-off through the day.  We did get in some enjoyable shopping (well one of us did) and had an nice dinner together. 

The happy couple celebrating their anniversary dinner.

Saturday, October 13, 2012:

We took the early morning train from Spoleto to the town of Spello, about 40 miles away. Spello, another hilltop town is located on the southernmost slope of Mount Subasio at a height of about 300 M.S.L.  

The entrance into the town.

It seems everywhere you look you see beautiful narrow streets or paths with steps all leading to another beautiful street.  Spello is  one  of the most prettiest cities we have seen to date.  If we were to come back we would certainly consider renting a house here.

Heidi, this one is for you.

We stopped at many ceramic shops but this one caught our eyes. We ended up purchasing some beautiful ceramic plates and accessories.

 

Roger also did his fair share of spending today by spending some time in a wine shop where he purchased a bottle of Merlot.

This bottle cost around 4,500 Euros.  We did  not  buy this one!! 

This one was only 100 Euros.

The happy proprietor.

Two other love birds....

We made it back to the train station just ahead of a thunder storm.  The grey you see at the end of the track  actually is a heavy rain storm coming our way.

Tomorrow we had hoped to get a car but it does not look like that will happen since the shops are closed on weekends.  We will probably just do more walking and exploring the wonderful narrow streets.

73,

The Traveling Huntley's

Shirley and Roger

Wednesday, Thursday, Oct. 10,11, 2012

Wednesday, Thursday, Oct. 10,11, 2012:

We started Thursday morning by taking the train to Perugia.  I still can not get over how wonderful and inexpensive the trains are here for traveling.  The round trip from Spoleto to Perugia and back, approximately 60 miles by my wild guess, cost only 10 euros each or approximately $13.00.  

A good view of the fortress located on the hill above the town of Spoleto taken on the way to the train station.

The door  across the alley from our front door is quite unique.  The handle consists of the hand shown below.

The happy couple waiting for the train to Perugia

View of the countryside from high in the town of Perugia.  It is interesting that the population drops off quite fast when you get away from town leaving nothing but occasional homes and rolling hills.   

Strolling along the Corso Vannucci  going towards the  Cathedral of St Lorenzo.

We had lunch at a restaurant that another  traveler had recommended to us.  The pizza was very good.  This was a couple living in Spoleto who have lived in both Arizona and Anacortes.  Delightful couple.

An excellent wine we had with lunch.

Sorry for the quality of this picture taken through the window but when I tried to take it from inside the shop they said NO!. Shirley wanted the picture as  she thought this would be great on the granddaughters for a sewing project.  She also saw a wine colored double knit sheath with 3/4 length sleeves and a shawl collar for another project.  The girls would really enjoy the clothing styles.

Notice the dark rectangle under the arch.  The picture above is an enlargement of that cavity.  There are so many little niches throughout all of these towns where small hidden treasures are waiting to be re-discovered.

What looks like a long narrow path actually was an aquaduct in earlier times.

In this arch notice that the bricks at the top left have  slipped  at some point in time leaving a crack above the arch.

Just one of many beautiful small streets in Perugia

Alex, this picture is for you.  I can not even imagine what the cost would be for this bottle of 1886 wine. Also can not imagine what it would taste like, maybe good, maybe vinegar. The label on the front actually was a stamped seal.

We took the mini Metro  down the hill to the train station.  They consisted of  several small cars that operated on a continuous loop track so that every 5 minutes there was a car approaching.  At the end of the track the car did a 180 degree turn and started going back down the second track.

Being an old model railroader I thought it would be fun to try and operate a real one!

Tomorrow, October 12, is our wedding anniversary.  Since we will never be able to reach the milestones that several of you have reached we celebrate our wedding anniversaries every month.  We were married on September 12, 2009.  

In our wedding ceremony we had a beautiful yellow rose so each anniversary we give each other some form of a yellow rose.  The picture above is my gift to 'Shirl this anniversary.

We had planned to rent a car and drive into the mountains southeast of Spoleto tomorrow but the weatherman has other plans with a 90% chance of rain and lightning so we have postponed the trip and we will just spend the day together "shopping".

Good Night,

73,

The Traveling Huntley's
Shirley and Roger