Unlike other mornings, we headed east over the mountains as we left our villa for Gubbio. As we drove up the mountain switchbacks, it was as remarkable how dry it was compared to coming down the other side. We had entered into Umbria, the green heart of Italy. Truly a remarkable change in climate and landscaping just 10s of miles apart.
We arrived in Gubbio just outside of a memorial to the 40+ town folk who stood up to the Nazis and were hung in the town square during WWII. We walked the small narrow steep streets, going up and still going up, to the Duomo.
It was quite large inside, unexpectedly very nice paintings. There were several tombs in the Duomo with two that were remarkable First was from 1026, I believe a saint who lived in the hills, a hermit but I guess a holy hermit. The second one was a local resident who was a member of the Catholic Church – he could not have been more than 4 feet tall – but now spends all of eternity in a glass box in the Church – that’s being a “real local resident”!!
From the Duomo, we walked down many streets looking for places for lunch. Mary was keeping an eye open spotting a local architectural feature that dated back for 100s of years.
If you looked at the building stone walls along the road, you could see small narrow doors that have been bricked in. These are called “porta della morta” or doors for the dead/death doors. The legend has it they were built just large enough to take coffins out. These doors were actually thought to be for security and defense not for accommodating dead.
We trekked from one end of the city to the other finally having lunch in alleyway with a beautiful cantina.
After returning home, we sat but the pool (yes, not heated, yes, cold water! But we saved a lizard that was swimming not so well in the pool). Later, we went into town to shop and visit a place we visited together in 2019. St Margaret’s Church is located on a cliff overlooking the Cortona valley, known as the Val di Pierl. St Margaret’s seems to hold up the wall containing the simple grandeur of Cortona!!
We returned to the same spot of dinner as Tuesday, Ristorante I’ll Cacciatore, and both have PICI with pecorino and pepper!!!
Tomorrow, we leave our little modest farmhouse in the outskirts of Cortona to another villa, this time in the outskirts of Orvieto. We feel we made a really good decision finding villas within 10 minutes of a major town. That brings supermarkets, and a nice town with upscale shops and restaurants.