Umbria, the place

Assisi, the church of Saint Francis of Assisi and his birthplace, a former stable
We did what Rick Steves recommends, we went to Assisi at night and visited the the church of Saint Francis of Assisi at night when not a single person was there. It was peaceful (PAX is written in big letters on the lawn in front) as is fitting the saint.





Assisi, views plus Tom reading Rick Steves in front of a cafe that Steves recommends





Assisi, the sweet shop where I had a Soffreiona al pistaccho and Tom had a Pane di San Francesco in the Gran Cafe on Corso Mazzini.





Perugia





Torgiano





Gubbio





Deruta


From our perch we headed to towns of interest all around: Deruta, the famous ceramic town, Gubbio, a weird little town way up in the mountains that once was the place Romans sent people who were "mad," Torgiano, home of a fabulous little wine museum, Perugia, an odd Medieval city sitting hodgepodge over several different hills, connected by a walkway above the city that once was a narrow viaduct carrying water and whose main street you enter from below on an escalator that takes you through a 12th century dungeon/fortress and spits you out of an old Etruscan portal. Finally, Assisi, which is pretty in pink -- pink marble that's striped and checkered -- with the cleanest streets and the best sweet shop complete with cherubs and reproductions of Botticellis.

We stayed in an agriturismo, Il Poggio degli Olivi, on a hillside overlooking a valley with Perugia visible to our left and Assisi shining pink on the hillside directly ahead. We passed turqouise-colored Lake Trasimeno on our way, famous for its eels (purportedly which, eaten in large numbers, killed a pope living in Perugia many centuries ago). The agriturismo sat in an olive grove and the proprietors made their own olive oil and salami. We ate at their elegant restaurant, Relais Panoramico, which was literally perched over the valley and were the only ones dining that night. We met our waiter the next morning pruning olive trees.

The first night we were there the restaurant wasn't opened but we managed to make our way to the Etruscan town of Bettona, the hilltop next door. Arriving at 6:30 p.m. we were out of luck with no restaurant opening until at least 7:30 p.m. Discouraged we were ready to eat a panini in the bar, when a restaurant proprietor saw us and opened the door. We told him we were really hungry not having eaten since breakfast. He told us that though no entrees would be ready for at least an hour he could give us something. He sat us down and brought us a huge platter of antipasto and opened a bottle of wine. After finishing that, he brought us pasta and gnocchi, then two main dishes, one of pistacio encrusted lamb and the other duck in a citrus and olive sauce. Seeing that we had finished the bottle of excellent, by-the-way, Umbrian wine from Montefalco, he offered us pours from another opened bottle.
We finished off the meal with glasses of Vin Santo and brought a variety of biscotti and tortes. When all of that too had been polished off, he wanted to pour us some grappa but we groaned a single "basta" (enough). The owner was such a gracious man, never indicating we were inconveniencing him by making him open up his restaurant two hours before any other patrons joined us. But I could tell that he was visibly pained that we were hungry and so accommodated us. That's Italian hospitality.





Cortona was on our way from Florence to Perugia and so we made the obligatory stop to see if we could take a peek at the Francis Maye's estate of "Under the Tuscan Sun" fame. We knew it was a hokey but we were so near after all. We didn't see it but we did look out over the valley in its general direction. After getting home (just a brief week ago) I went on Maye's website and several other sites and am now sure we were nowhere near.