A fortnight since
Stuff has a habit of happening, and since we returned from Italy quite a lot of stuff has been happening. Daughter #1 is safely back from California, Daughter #2 is now in Edinburgh, working for a Fringe venue and loving it, we've been to a funeral, my essay has been completed and handed in. And suddenly it's a fortnight since we left Umbria and I've scarcely shared a thing.
We drove south through France, staying a night in Nancy (yes, that's a real town) and thus able to buy some wine in Alsace. I particularly love Alsace Gewurtztraminer wine, and we know a particular producer who makes some that's like spicy nectar...
Eventually we made it to Umbria, which is quite a long way down the thigh of Italy. It's the bit in the middle, to the right of Tuscany, with fewer tourists. We rented a house in a hilltop village called Castello delle Forme - Castle of the idealised forms, you might say. Nope, I dunno why either. It's on a hill because there seems to be a Rule round there - if there's a hilltop, build a town on it. This is the view from the lower road, down in the valley of the Tiber.
Our house is the little white building attached to the church on the right. This is what it looks like from a distance:
And this is the view across the valley to Deruta, where the last photo was taken from:
And an evening shot, all gold and pink:
Deruta is the tumbled mass of housing in the middle of that shot. It is known locally and throughout Italy for its manufacture of majolica and other hand-painted ceramics. The lower road is full of "outlet" places, all selling much the same stuff. If only we'd had a second car or a truck - there was some fabulous huge terracotta, and table-tops which would have brought a real sense of Italy to our back garden. As it was, we mostly just looked:
This was a copy of a mediaeval floor in the town.
Umbria is full of such small towns - golden stone, old buildings, random artistic masterpieces. This is one called Bevagna:
The pillar behind the pot plant is a leftover from the Roman Empire. You have to recalibrate your idea of what "old" means in Italy. Churches in this area seem to be mostly built before the Black Death, for example. (Once Umbria became part of the Papal States there was very little investment and much less building than in other areas. Which means there's a heck of a lot of Romanesque around.)
Not far away from us was Lake Trasimeno, scene of a major military action. In the Punic Wars. Yes, Hannibal (but his elephants had all died by then) hammered the Roman army in one of the most successful ambushes in military history. It happened roughly in the middle of the photo, on the far bank:
Now it's mostly used for tourism and fishing.
Castiglione del Lago is one of the larger settlements by the lake, and it has a rather nice castle. It belonged to one of the minor condottiere families (fancy word for mercenary thugs. Italy was riddled with them for centuries) who married well and built a bigger house with pretty frescoes, but kept the castle in good repair, just in case.
One of their "good" marriages. They had a passage inside a wall to get to the main castle, though.
In the summer it's an open-air cinema. With bar.
She got around.
There's a lot more, but this is probably enough for one post. There's still Todi, Assisi, Spello, Spoleto and Orvieto to do - quite enough for another post or so!
We drove south through France, staying a night in Nancy (yes, that's a real town) and thus able to buy some wine in Alsace. I particularly love Alsace Gewurtztraminer wine, and we know a particular producer who makes some that's like spicy nectar...
Eventually we made it to Umbria, which is quite a long way down the thigh of Italy. It's the bit in the middle, to the right of Tuscany, with fewer tourists. We rented a house in a hilltop village called Castello delle Forme - Castle of the idealised forms, you might say. Nope, I dunno why either. It's on a hill because there seems to be a Rule round there - if there's a hilltop, build a town on it. This is the view from the lower road, down in the valley of the Tiber.
Our house is the little white building attached to the church on the right. This is what it looks like from a distance:
And this is the view across the valley to Deruta, where the last photo was taken from:
And an evening shot, all gold and pink:
Deruta is the tumbled mass of housing in the middle of that shot. It is known locally and throughout Italy for its manufacture of majolica and other hand-painted ceramics. The lower road is full of "outlet" places, all selling much the same stuff. If only we'd had a second car or a truck - there was some fabulous huge terracotta, and table-tops which would have brought a real sense of Italy to our back garden. As it was, we mostly just looked:
This was a copy of a mediaeval floor in the town.
Umbria is full of such small towns - golden stone, old buildings, random artistic masterpieces. This is one called Bevagna:
The pillar behind the pot plant is a leftover from the Roman Empire. You have to recalibrate your idea of what "old" means in Italy. Churches in this area seem to be mostly built before the Black Death, for example. (Once Umbria became part of the Papal States there was very little investment and much less building than in other areas. Which means there's a heck of a lot of Romanesque around.)
Not far away from us was Lake Trasimeno, scene of a major military action. In the Punic Wars. Yes, Hannibal (but his elephants had all died by then) hammered the Roman army in one of the most successful ambushes in military history. It happened roughly in the middle of the photo, on the far bank:
Now it's mostly used for tourism and fishing.
Castiglione del Lago is one of the larger settlements by the lake, and it has a rather nice castle. It belonged to one of the minor condottiere families (fancy word for mercenary thugs. Italy was riddled with them for centuries) who married well and built a bigger house with pretty frescoes, but kept the castle in good repair, just in case.
One of their "good" marriages. They had a passage inside a wall to get to the main castle, though.
In the summer it's an open-air cinema. With bar.
She got around.
There's a lot more, but this is probably enough for one post. There's still Todi, Assisi, Spello, Spoleto and Orvieto to do - quite enough for another post or so!