Umbria – Timdar Travel Blog

04/10/201508/05/2018

Post Script

Usual practice when returning a hire car is to fill it with fuel

Airports have many fuel stations nearby

Perugia doesn’t

So you travel a few miles to find all fuel pumps are self service

And only take cash, not cards

But you don’t know how much you need

So you either overspend or pay the surcharge for returning it half full

Response from hire company – yeah, we know!

Happy holidays

03/10/201508/05/2018

Saturday – last day

Photos don’t quite do it justice, but today was autumnal rather than brooding. Mists swirling around the grapevines.

Then clearing …

… then back again.

Even Eileen decided that you can have too much of a good thing, so stayed on the balcony and read for a while rather than exploring more towns and churches.

A little trek into Montefalco for some views and an ice-cream.

And some more views of the Umbrian countryside.

And more relaxing by the pool – still a bit cold for a swim, although a rather large frog was doing a few lengths!

And out to Bevagna for dinner. Food (and coffee) has been excellent, although it’s taken us the whole week to work out what to order without being absolutely stuffed.

03/10/201508/05/2018

Friday

Another day, more of the same! Sat in the sun reading by the pool in the morning (pics would be pretty similar to previous days :o).

Then headed off and guess what – found more stunning Umbrian towns. This one is Todi.

Inside of the church.

Quick selfie in the town square before the rain came.

And off to Orvieto – much bigger

With Duomo reminiscent of Florence.

Long drive back, mainly due to the dire state of the roads which meant speed limit of 30mph most of the way.

02/10/201508/05/2018

The forecast promised to be wet, and kept to its word. So umbrellas were the order of the day. Assisi wasn’t busy, but we occasionally got the sense (eg when two coach loads of tourists were trying to go to the same place at the same time) that it could be crazy.

Anyway, not surprisingly, lots of buildings, churches etc!

Stopped for a quick cappuccino at a pretty non-description bar, and presumably the owner wanted to be an artist. I think that’s the first time I have ever taken a photo of a cup of coffee!

The rain continued, and so did we

30/09/201508/05/2018

Wednesday – Trevi and other bits

Another day, another medieval hilltop town. This time Trevi – only half an hour away

and didn’t take long to walk around.

Eileen really liked this balcony, so thought we’d share it.

Back for lunch and a sit and a siesta by the pool.

Despite the sun and blue skies, it’s actually very windy – that’s our excuse anyway for not having a dip . Apparently, though, the locals see it as their friend – it dries the grapes for their local wine (Sangratino) which we haven’t tried yet as it’s incredibly expensive.

Headed off to Spello in the late afternoon, passing by a decent view of the house again.

Unfortunately no pictures of Spello as we hit a large traffic jam and it was nearly dark when we got there. And the reason for the jam (l kid you not) – the inauguration of a drive-through McDonalds. The mind boggles.

And so back to Montefalco for dinner in the same restaurant as the first night. Here’s a photo of the inside and they play Radio Swiss Jazz all night.

The weather is turning against us tomorrow, so, with apologies to Gene Kelly, we’ll be Assising in the Rain…

29/09/201508/05/2018

Tuesday Eve

This was just the starter (preceding the pasta and the main)!

So a quick walk around Montefalco in the nighttime (even quieter than during the day).

29/09/201508/05/2018

Tuesday – close to home

We thought we would enjoy a day of good weather and not getting lost.

First to Montefalco – only about 10 minutes away and small.

I am tired of churches before Eileen is, so contented myself in the main square. You can see that at this time of year it’s pretty quiet.

Then back home for lunch, read and brief siesta. Couldn’t resist more pictures of the view and the house …

Then looked in on a small town called Bevagna. Again, very close, and small enough to get lost in. More churches …

… and random pictures of medieval streets.

28/09/201508/05/2018

Monday – Spoleto

Spoleto is a very famous hilltop town in Umbria and well worth a visit – if you can find it! Finding it wasn’t hard, but we had been told about a brand new underground escalator that takes you to the top. Francesco (our host) gave us directions and we got hopelessly lost. A bit of a trend already and we’ve only been here two days.

Anyway, after about an hour of being frustratingly lost, look what we found:

It really is an underground escalator and does take you all the way to the duomo at the very top of the town.

We deserved some lunch …

… with quite a nice view.

Remember the selfies? Not really much improvement (and no, we do NOT want a selfie stick to anyone who even thinks about it!)

Better or rely on a nice American to do it properly.

Nice views from the bridge.

We rather like it here.

28/09/201508/05/2018

Sunday Evening

Pretty tired after the day’s exertions, but decided to have a little outing to the nearest town, Montefalco.

Bit of a sunset

… and a bit of the town.

Did very well for food, despite them sending Eileen’s main course out before her pasta and forgetting my pasta altogether, it was delicious.

28/09/201508/05/2018

Sunday 27th September – Umbria

Sunday certainly had a grotty start:

– a 4.00 alarm call

– Stansted Airport (those who have been will understand; those who haven’t may wish to avoid)

– Ryanair (as good as expected)

– car rental (even though everyone in the queue had pre-booked, it took 10 minutes per person to sort out, and the people in front of us had two drivers so took 20 minutes, and there was only 1 person on the desk)

– getting a bit lost coming out of the airport

– having useless directions to where we’re staying.

Then things took a turn for the better. Firstly we drove past Assissi which looked magnificent. It’s only about 10 miles away so will definitely pay it a visit.

Then found the house, which is quite nice