Toscana, Umbria

No doubt, Toscana and Umbria are picture perfect, hard to take a bad photo, everything that you see on the movies or in the catalogues. We decided since the school was closed most of last week, because of the earthquakes that have hit Ferrara and the Bologna area ( we have had a few tremors that we felt, but no real damage to Bologna) we would take a trip south, a long weekend. Good time to travel, not peak, not busy, warm and inexpensive. Jayne did her usual job, and found a great place to stay, Relais dei Magi, neat Citta della Pieve. The town of Citta della Pieve is well worth visiting, and the area is full of places to eat and stay. This place was wonderful, great hosts, great food, huge pool for the kids and a soccer pitch with goals, table tennis, and a treatment room, and not just a running machine in the corner with a fold up massage table, this was the bees knees.
So from there we travelled to Orvieto, which is essential to go to for the food, and the duomo, which is an Italian treasure, it is in such great condition, the outside is what you go for, not so impressive inside, and they charge you to go in, hard to put a sheet over the outside l guess. There are also the caves under the city that are worth seeing, sadly we ran out of time, and the boys were getting restless, though we gained sometime by buying a snow globe of the city. Orvieto is a city sitting proudly on a hill top, the best view of the city is from a distance, where you see the duomo silhouette. You park half way up, and catch an elevator to the top, like Sienna, and others l am told.
As usual, what is a trip without some amusing sites. On the way home we saw a motorcycle driving along the autostrada, with a passenger, who was attempting to light a cigarette, hunching behind the driver , with hands clasped, what an addict, what a goer. We had a great lunch at a tiny out of the way cafe, and the chef and owner was so impressed that Hunter had Baccala, it is a spicy style fish dish, which obviously kids don't have, he then finished some of Ewans gnocchi, and a salad. The owner kept coming out and praising him, and telling everyone how is this kid, l did think of asking him not to charge us for Huntys meal, like when you eat the enormous steak in america and they give it to you for free, but l don't think it would have worked. The only problem with the cafe was that the music speaker outside was playing an out of tune radio, l tried to explain this, but of course something went missing in the translation, and they just change the channel to another out of tune song.
The fact is everywhere we go they are rather impressed with Huntys and Ewans eating , mind you, there we are at the school where they want the kids to eat pasta bianco( plain pasta with some oil and cheese) so l dont think they expect much from kids. Which is odd, as parents they are so fussy and so good at cooking.
So the quakes keep happening, god knows why they decided to close the school for 4 days, even though it got the inspection okay on day 3. As if a quake wont happen on day 5.
Ewan left on camp today for 3 days in Toscana, unfortunately Hunty is sick, and we hope he will be better tomorrow and we will drive him down ( maybe it was something he ate) The boys were going to go an cave exploration, but so many parents complained that they did not want there kids going in caves due to the earthquakes that are occurring hundreds of km north, they cancelled it, you see where l am going dont you.
So hopefully Hunter will be better tomorrow, and Jayne and l will continue to travel south and stay in Toscana near Gubbio, Citta dell Castello, Assisi, Perugia. So look forward to more great photos and stories, ohhh isn't it exciting.

The new Jayne

 

Alberto Burri museum

Villa di Piazzano

Piazza Grande, Montepulciano

Relais dei Magi

Long and winding road, Citta dell Pieve

 

Too much to eat and drink

Boys at a bar in Citta della Pieve

Orvieto duomo