Happy Birthday Stefano!

 Today is Stefano's birthday. He was able to take the day off work, and we were lucky enough to spend the day with the family. We started our mystery tour this morning, ready to explore new places. We arrived in a beautiful town we hadn't been to before, in Umbria - 'Todi'. The buildings in Umbria are quite different compared to Tuscany. The stone is a lighter, white colour. We walked up the winding streets to the main piazza, stopping for a coffee and slice of pizza along the way. 

     

Even though it is three days after Christmas, the Christmas spirit in these little towns is still very much alive and well. The streets are still adorned with glistening fairy lights, giant decorated trees stand in the main squares and in some towns, Christmas music is pumped out through speakers throughout the streets. The Christmas festival lasts until around January 8th. There are many saint days in this period.

We visited a church with beautiful stained glass windows and an underground crypt.

All this walking made us hungry, so it was time for lunch. Rosalinda asked a local shopkeeper for a recommendation. We enjoyed more beautiful food, some Tuscan specialities like wild boar, and I had a succulent pork shin. We left Todi with full bellies and headed to another town on the way home to La Maesta. Deruta was a tiny little town that is clearly known for its ceramics. The main street was lined with Ceramic shops - each one showcasing different designs depending on the artist. It would be quite easy to spend thousands in these shops. I wanted everything! In the end, we settled on one special piece that is being shipped home to Australia. We generally buy one nice thing when we go away on a trip to bring home to remind us of the wonderful places we visited. This piece is quite unique and won't be to everyone's taste, but we will admire it, and it will remind us of Tuscany every time we look at it.

We arrived back at La Maesta around 6pm and enjoyed a birthday dinner with Stefano, Rosalinda and Virginia. Another magical Tuscan day.

Happy Birthday, Stefano.

Orvieto and Italian trains

An early start was needed to get the train at 7:55 to Orvieto, about an hours ride south from Castiglion Fiorentino.

We are becoming quite good now at purchasing tickets on the automated machine and following signs in the station to the correct train.

The ride was uneventful, apart from being on the coldest carriage ever, which in a way was not bad as it is very warm and humid here currently.

The train station at Orvieto is not actually in the town, as the town is perched on a hill there is no way for the tracks to be lied.

The only way is to transfer to a Funicular that expresses you up the side of the mountain.

The town has a number of attractions of which we went to. These were, the town itself, the monumental Cathedral of Orvieto, underground tunnels, and Museo Archeologico "c. Faina"

The cathedral was very impressive from the outside the front facade was covered with numerous mosaics and also many carvings into stone.  Normally when a cathedral is this spectacular from the outside it is quite bland inside, however this was not the case.

We entered the cathedral and were both gob-smacked by the beauty, there were numerous works of art and much of the walls were painted with religious scenes.

Next was the underground, basically the hilltop is compressed volcanic ash, and is very easy to dig.  The caverns were dug as initial residences then over time were expanded and the soil used to create the homes on top. So now all or most homes have a cellar. We were able to view two that are publicly owned and tours are run through.  The tour guide was great and very informative.

Lunchtime we used our best friend TripAdvisor to look for a restaurant and found a lovely family owned place away from the crowds.  Thankfully the menu was in English at the back but when our waitress read the daily specials it was all in italian. We picked up some words like formaggio, pasta, primi, secondi and bianco (cheese, pasta, first course, second course, white). So not being able to order from the special menu of the day we were able to make some selections from the menu, and we were impressed, and pleased we took a little time to find the little treasure.

Finishing off Orvieto we walked the streets, had a Gelato, and took in some of the vistas.

To be sure we never miss a train we always get to the station a little early, in this case it was about 20 minutes early. We stamped our tickets and then looked on the screens for our train. It was at this point we realised it was Ritardo 50 (delayed 50 minutes). There was nothing that could be done than have a cold drink and ice cream.

Tomorrow- Siena

Umbria - A change of scenery

Perugia is the capital city of the Umbrian region in central Italy and also was the city which welcomed us today.
Leaving around 9:45 just over 50 minutes later we were in the outskirts of the city boarding the MiniMetro. The smallest and train driver less system was installed to overcome some of the traffic issues in town and with a train at each station every 90 minutes, it is a quick way to get into the city.

On the MiniMetro

Our first stop was the city red bus, and were we in for a ride! Over the next 55 minutes we were jostled, bounced, tossed and tilted over the streets of this town.  As with all hill towns the streets can be very steep and narrow, so the only option was to run a small 19 seat bus with an open roof. While a bit scary at times, it saved us walking a long way! Much squealing came from Katie and Dani (a fellow guest at La Maesta) as we swerved parked cars, wound our way down hills and all at a pace we didn't think was fit for the narrow streets!The trip had audio guide, but with the speed we were doing down some of the inclines it was more like a roller coaster.

After stepping off the bus at the end of our ride, we had a look at the old Etruscan underground city and then a little lunch.

After which we then tried to do a little shopping, but found most of the smaller shops closed. The wallet didn't mind! We enjoyed a little gelati, as we were having withdrawals - a couple of days without it, how could we survive?! Rosalinda collected us and we picked up our other fellow guests on the way home. A group of 6 who are staying here, are on an art trip painting around Tuscany. Some of their work is beautiful. Looking forward to another delicious meal tonight prepared by the beautiful Lilla.

One of the cats at La Maesta

Tomorrow - Back on the rails - Orvieto