I have returned this past weekend from a journey to the Italian region
of Umbria. The trip was organized by the Rome Center as a part of our
orientation, and for me, the weekend passed by in a blur of eating,
bus-riding, and sight-seeing (and maybe a little more eating). I thought
I'd share some highlights from the trip, so here it is, in convenient
day-by-day format for your viewing pleasure:
Friday: We left early Friday on coach buses and drove a few hours to our first destination, the town of Deruta. It was my first time out of the city, and I thought the scenery - all the rolling hills, sunflower fields, and general country-side panorama - was delightful!
Friday: We left early Friday on coach buses and drove a few hours to our first destination, the town of Deruta. It was my first time out of the city, and I thought the scenery - all the rolling hills, sunflower fields, and general country-side panorama - was delightful!
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| Delightful Italian countryside |
The town of Deruta has been known for its ceramics since ancient
times, thanks to the local clay which is apparently very good. We toured
a ceramic factory, where they revealed to us the mystical secrets of
creating world-renowned pottery. A friend and I debated quitting school
and apprenticing ourselves to a master ceramics maker, but we were
loaded onto the bus again before we could make any plans.
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| Master ceramic artisan showing off his mad skills |
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| I had the urge to paint some pottery like these women while I was in Deruta |
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| Fancy Italian villa |
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| It's like Where's Waldo. Can you spot me? |
Lunch was followed by a visit to the capital of Umbria, Perugia. We
spent a short time there in search of the famous Perugian chocolate,
but, alas, it eluded us since many of the shops were closed for siesta
by that time. The town was really cute though, if I'm allowed to say
that about a place several centuries old...
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| We had to take these funny little mini metro trains to get up to the city, since it's high up |
We got back on the bus for the last time to drive to Spoleto, where we checked into our hotel and had some time to change for dinner, which was another several hour affair. Afterwards, a group of friends and I went out to explore the town a little, where we happened to just run into an ancient castle (you know, no big deal).
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| Okay, okay it's actually a fortress, but it's from the 12th century so that counts for something, right? |
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| Nighttime view, the cathedral is in the distance |
Saturday: Breakfast was served Saturday morning at the hotel, and
while this may seem like an inconsequential detail, let me just say that
it was a highlight of the trip for me. Italians aren't really big on
breakfast here, so I've been missing my favorite meal of the day!
We began the day by taking a tour of Spoleto, which included some fantastic sights:
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| Ponte Sanguinario, a Roman bridge, 1st century BC |
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| Italian photobombing bicyclers, 2013 AD |
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| I told you the views were amazing. |
The Duomo (Cathedral) of S. Maria Assunta was especially amazing; the
cathedral was built between 1175 and 1227, it contains a manuscript
letter by St. Francis of Assisi, and these beautiful frescoes by the
artist Filippino Lippi, who happens to be buried there. The main
frescoes behind the alter depicted the life of Mary and were just
amazing.
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| The inside of the cathedral |
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| A detail of the fresco; the coronation of Mary |
After the tour we had lunch at another picturesque little place called Spiritodivino (which translates to 'Divine Spirit' but also 'Spirit of Wine' if you separate it - my friends and I congratulated ourselves for understanding the Italian pun). Every time they fed us on this trip I was convinced that I could never eat again, there was so much food!
Following lunch, we then drove to the town of Bevagna, which is an extremely medieval-looking town known for its medieval artisan shops. The town has volunteers who work at some of these shops and give demonstrations in order to preserve the culture. We saw medieval silk, candle, coin, and paper makers. It was extremely fascinating.
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| Medieval candle-making |
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| Medieval paper-making |
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| Medieval silk-making |
We returned to the hotel from Bevagna to eat more and spent the rest of the night hanging out in Spoleto.
Sunday: More breakfast (yay!) followed by checking out of the hotel and getting on the bus where we traveled to Spello, another ancient town situated on a small mountain. We did a lot of hiking up hills while touring the town (I guess they wanted us to work out after all the eating we did) but the views were incredible. We could see the city of Assisi from Spello, and I was a little disappointed we weren't stopping there, but maybe I'll get a chance to come back at some point. Following the tour, we walked to an olive oil mill, where we had lunch among the olive groves. I think this was one of my favorite meals of the entire trip.
Stuffed with food, and exhausted from our mountain-climbing excursion, we finally departed for Rome, and made it back to the Rome Center in the early evening, where I promptly passed out for the rest of the day.
Other random highlights of the journey that I did not mention:
- Meeting backpacking Franciscan brothers
- Running into a random Italian concert on the streets of Spoleto at night
-Seeing (actually running from) a really huge beetle
- Having our coach bus pulled over by an Italian cop and listening to our program director argue vehemently with him in Italian
In conclusion, it was quite a journey. Also, I think I ate too much...
