27 October 2024—This was a day of changes. We began with a change in daylight savings time in Italy. We did not expect it until next weekend, thinking that it would happen at the same time around the world, I guess, but, we woke up having gained one entire precious hour! It was laundry day, typically not on Sundays, but yesterday it was needed. Call-the-doc day. Visit Collepino, Perugia, Umbria, Italy, and Gubbio. The day ended with dinner at our B&B and a delightful—always precious—FaceTime visit with our Addison Trutys. I love the recent kind of laundromat in Italy. The washing machines already come loaded with detergent, sanitizers, and whatever else one needs to wash a load of laundry. The wash cycle for the larger machines is around 47 minutes, but the clothes are actually cleaned, one hopes. The dryers can dry a large load in 15-20 minutes! AWESOME! While there, we researched how to visit a doc in Italy as a traveler from the U.S. People here don’t pay for doctor visits because it’s all included in their taxes. For us, the online video chat with a doctor from Rome, as it turned out, who spoke English well, was $24 Euros, that’s about $25-$26! The doc nodded as Dad described symptoms and so on, as if he had heard all of it before. He suspected that Dad has a gastroenteritis of some sort, cause unknown, but it seemed to the doc as “Travelers’ illness.” I guess it’s a “thing” that others have heard about here. Basically, his system is entirely disoriented and discombobulated, and the doc prescribed an antibiotic in addition to whatever he had been able to already purchase from the pharmacy at the pharmacist’s advice. Two a day for five days. Let’s see what happens. Fingers crossed. We traveled to Collepino, a very small and quaint little town near our B&B, nestled in the beautiful Umbrian landscape. It is, of course, medieval, but this one did not require us to climb uphill as much as Spello, for example, to which we initially drove, took a look at the town up a steep hill, and decided to drive away. I think there are about 35 residents in-season in that small town, but the views are fantastic, the weather was lovely, there was both a bar and a restaurant there (btw, a bar is not what one considers a bar in the U.S., serving liquor, primarily. Bars here also serve food such as tagliatelle, charcuterie trays, piada (sort of like a wrap that is warmed up), and panini (hard rolls stuffed with cheese, prosciutto, mortadella, and so on), and the narrow streets and buildings were absolutely charming. Then, we traveled to Gubbio, also in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. Now, this is a much bigger complex, it is medieval, and it is mostly situated uphill, in fact, the Duomo is literally perched at the tip, tip, top of the hill (keep in mind, that hills are often at least 2,000-3,000 feet above sea level, and these are the Apennine Mountains). The first thing one sees when one parks at the bottom of the hill, is the Roman Theater. This is a giant ruin, but pretty well preserved, of a round arena-like Roman theater, just as one would imagine it to be. There was a lovely parco di gioco, or play area, next to the Roman Theater that appeared to have been overseen by a fun-loving adult. Kids ran about and laughed and played games, on the equipment, and even with giant bubbles, challenging each other to keep the bubble growing and “live” until one backed up to a finish line in the grass. This was a really cool area even for people watching alone. Plus, I MISS the sound of children playing/laughing…. It was awesome to hear once again, even though these were not all of YOU! Dad stayed in the car because of the anticipated steep climb. I walked on, trying to convince myself to climb yet another one of these “hills.” I met a lovely older couple along the way who convinced me to climb, that it was well worth it, “e da vedere,” “vale la pena” (it is something to be seen, it is worthwhile). The couple was charming, as in, we wanted to hug each other good-bye after only about five minutes’ conversation. Soul mates? I believe in those…. So, I climbed. I walked through a lovely large courtyard, past an old, medieval-type hospital that was no longer working (I don’t think), and began my climb up to the piazza. By this time, it was starting to get a little dark even though it was not yet 6 P.M. Ugggh on this time change thing now! The lady I had met said I needed to get to the top to be able to enjoy a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape/town before sunset. I walked past a statue of St. Francis of Assisi (keep in mind that he is everywhere, he is the patron saint of Italy, after all). This was St. Francis with a large wolf resting its head on his lap. According to “I Fioretti di San Francesco,” (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis), this was close to where Saint Francis met the vicious wolf. The wolf was feared by everyone and everything because he was huge and ate everything and everyone. Saint Francis decided he would speak with the wolf, striking a bargain with “Brother Wolf” that if he promised not to eat anyone or any other animal from that point on, he would make sure that the townspeople would provide for all of its needs until its death. The rest of the climb, while steep at times, took me through arched passageways, past and through quaint cobblestone streets, hotels, bridges, and other old but renovated residential structures. I visited the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, and I made it to the piazza pretty high up. I thought I had walked as far as I could go—but I did not see a Cathedral. I saw a large open piazza, and I saw a large, looming Ducal Palace of the Consoli family. That is now an art gallery. The views were, indeed, spectacular, but it was dark outside by now. I decided to make my way back down. This time, I was looking for “arconi suspesi” (suspended arches) that my new friend had told me to definitely see. I did locate them, and it appears that they are the bases for the floor of the huge piazza above them. OKayyy…. I headed back down to meet Dad once again, because he had already texted to make sure I was planning to return at some point. At this point, the Teatro Romano was illuminated and a beautiful sight to share with you. (Be sure to check on SmugMug for additional photos throughout our trip, by the way. Granted, Dad has been less than actively photographing on his own this past week because of illness, but even so, if you do not see something on SmugMug, feel free to ask us about it because it is very likely that I will have at least 10 different photos of most things I’ve passed or seen. This blog limits us to 10 photos per publication). Our wonderful hosts had prepared dinner for the guests once again. This time, we were served pasta with truffles, a truffle bruschetta, and truffles with egg. Dessert was composed of wonderful cornetti (sort of like a softened-yet-crispy biscotto, this one with what tasted like almonds, or pistachios). Dad was able to eat plain scrambled eggs and plain pasta with a little olive oil and a tad of salt. It managed to stay down. Some symptoms appeared to have subsided, although some persisted for today. Tomorrow will be a different and even better day for Dad, and a wonderful day for new adventures for both of us! (By the way, I met with the very same lady I had met at the beginning of Gubbio adventure at a Church just below the Piazza. She asked me first of all if I had taken the wrong way to get where she suggested I head. I told her I had not but that I had not seen a Duomo. She said, “but, of course, you haven’t. You did not climb high enough. You have to go up, past the fountain, to the top of the hill. That’s where the Cathedral is.” I told her that I had climbed enough, that it had turned dark by now, I had seen the other things she had advised me to check out, and that I needed to head back down to meet Dad who had been waiting. I told her that I would just have to take a peek at the Cathedral on National Geographic or some other book or online source.:).
Our Travels 