Our Trip Blog

The Events of Tuesday, March 15, 2011

                Buongiorno! That’s how Italians say “good morning”! Our morning began in what has become the typical beginning of our days in Europe. Some showered before a splendid breakfast, and some showered afterwards. Today, we had hash browns for breakfast, using the potatoes that our hosts bought for us. Then we prepared to embark on whatever adventures the day might hold.

                Today’s adventures consisted of a caravan drive through the Italian countryside with our host and hostess, Giovanni and Rosalba Biconne. When we were ready to go, they led us up the mountain behind their lovely home to a town that is being reconstructed to look just as it did before the massively destructive earthquake of 1997. Next, we drove through Foligno, where we saw Italian schoolchildren singing in a celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy. Ironically, the nation was united in 1861, the same year that the United States of America split, divided by Civil War. Every year, the Italians celebrate their Unification Day with a huge festival, with men dressed up as knights riding horses and trying to throw a spear through three rings and feasts of all different old-fashioned types of Italian fare. Somewhere in the city of Foligno, we saw a stone wall with a gate in it that was supposedly the “Gateway to Rome”! Next, our wonderful tour guides took us to the public square where St. Francis turned his back on worldly goods. On this square was also the printing press where the first edition of Dante’s trilogy was printed and distributed.

                After the Biconnes had shown us around the city a bit more, we went to the mobile phone store to get a SIM card for our Italian cell phone. We can use the same cell phone all over Europe, but we’ll have to get a different SIM card for each country we visit from which we want to call. (Sorry, fan club and family – that means no phone calls home to the United States!)

                Next, our host and hostess led us to Montefalco, where we looked over Umbria Valley. Gianni pointed out four towers used for protection. These towers were on the highest point on the four highest hills in the valley, and they could communicate to one another in times of danger. They also pointed out the vineyards of Montefalco, which are famous for a sweet dessert wine.

                Bevagna was our next destination, where we saw the laundry machine of the olden days, a large pool of water where the ladies gathered to wash their family’s clothes and socialized. We also visited several beautiful churches and peered through a window to view a Roman mosaic on the floor of a friend of the Biconnes. This friend was remodeling his house, when he dug up the floor and found a Roman mosaic beneath it. The site used to be a Roman bathhouse!

                After Bevagna, we drove on to Spello, where we parted paths – the Biconnes to Rosalda’s birthday party, and we to what has become home. However, we drove past the Cerqua Rosada Residence, and up the mountain behind Valtopina, where we parked by an old castle, hiked up the hill and sat down to eat a picnic lunch, looking out over the Umbria Valley. We saw two geckos and a few bugs, but no pigeons, and no other people. It was wonderful. We ate three different kinds of meat (two types of Italian sausage and some leftover roast beef) and three different kinds of cheese (the first tastes like parmesan, the second like a sharp Jack, but more complex than jack cheese, and the third slices of cheese we’d brought from California). We also had the first delicious apples we’ve tasted in a long time. They were Fuji apples, but actually, they were Italian fujy, spelled with a ‘y’.