Day Eight, August 25, 2010

Day Eight, August 25, 2010


I have reached an official week of being in Italy today! We wake about 8:00 AM. I slept okay in spite of the hot air in the room. The bathroon is steps away but shutting the door is difficult and it makes a noise when it opens back up so I hope I did not disturb Jane too much. This shower has a roaming temperature guage so you are constantly hopping out of the stream shreaking from the searing or freezing temperature! We get ready and then decide to go search for food before we are to meet with the group at 9:30. Jane wants fruit for breakfast and I wouldn't mind getting some as well. We find a little fruit and vegetable stand just steps away from our hotel. I get a nectarine, a few plums and some grapes. Jane
stocks up as well. The woman does not speak any English but pointing seems to work just fine. I speak fruit in Italian though (comes from all those gelati flavors)! I want to find yogurt or perhaps a croissant. We step in another store, not what I am looking for but Jane buys a banana. We wander a little more but then just sit down and have a little breakfast picnic with our fruit.

We meet at our appointed time at the hotel. First stop is in a shop to get makings for a picnic lunch. It is busy in this little shop. I just decide to have sandwhich, the same as Davide since he knows what he is doing. We walk up the street to a school...well some type of religious school for kids. There is a permanent,elaborate navitity scene in a room off this school. Small figures over a large pastural setting that encorporates this entire room, quite detailed and impressive. The Christmas music going does not seem quite right though as we stand here sweating ( I guess the Aussie's are used to that..because they always have a surfin Santa because December is in summer Down Under). We then see a church dedicated to the patron saint of this town (Ubulo?). It is almost 850 years since this saint did his thing here in Gubbio (creating miracles of letting the blind see and stopping wars was his gig according to Davide), so there is due to have a big celebration for him. We also see these massive wooden structures that are carried around the town on some large celebration on May 15th. It seems to be some type of competition amongst neighborhoods and seems like the pallio in Siena. We then take a little hike up to the Funivia( kind of like a chair lift but little cages where only one to two people can stand). We have to take a running start to get on to the little cage and then the attendant shuts the door, definetly this part is like a ski lift but it is nice to have worry about your poles out of the way or keeping your tips up. Amazing views are to be had along this ride up the hill. I ride up with young Annabel. She starts college on September 6th and she will be studying accounting. I tell about my niece and nephew staring college soon. She asks what they will be studying. Oh, in the States, I explain, you have a got a few years to make up your mind, which seems like a strange concept to her. We get to the top and an attendant helps you dismount (the Russian judge gave me only a two but the Australian judge was much kinder :).

We have a little hike to the very tip top where there is look out tower from ancient times. This would be good spot to view oncoming armies where as you can peer for many miles across the valleys and the hills from this vantage point. There is a large wired structured up here that is made to look like a star at Christmas. There is an image of Christmas tree that they have upon this hillside, "the world tallest Christmas is in Gubbio", the locals tout. I would like to see it, it seems quite impressive from the postcards. The rocks are shale up here and it is easy to slip but luckily none of do but Ann does have a little bit of a close call. We now are ready for our picnic. I ask Davide what is the name for picnic in Italian. He says "that's a hard one"...picnic (the same). Good one more word I know in Italain and you don't even have to put a vowel at the end of it. Davide had picked some type of local pork (porchetto) for our sandwhich on some type of local flat bread and it is quite delicious. I also have my nectarine from this morning so it is nice to have a full belly again. There is a path to walk back down the hill and the Cuban family decides on this option but the rest of take the funivia. I take the trip alone this time and enjoy the views. I had "fun on the funivia", I declare at the bottom. We head back down into town and we are now on our own until we meet for dinner at 7:15. You can buy an audioguide to take around the town, which we would like to do but Jane and I decide to take a nap. I take a power nap (my nap is short two hours..ha, ha) compared to Jane's lengthy nap, which is three hours long. We then get up and rally and head to the tourist office about 4:00.

They are out of audioguides at the tourist office! Luckily we run into Kurt, Ann and Steven and they have two audioguides so we all decide just to put the audioguide on loud and we will all listen in. We see a few churches(of course) and the main piazza but the scooter and car noise is slow loud here that is hard to hear( oh I am wishing for the quieter sounds of Venice now). We see a small square that has a large fountain. Kurt says he has heard that the legend if you run around this fountain three times that it means you are crazy. I have to do the thrice around just because I want to know the verdict but the locals do probably think I am a loco tourist. We have to have gelato of course. I try pesca(peach) flavor this time, not bad but I still like other flavors better. After sitting in the large square for awhile watching kids kick around a soccer ball, we decide we are done with the sight seeing for the day. We drop off the audioguides and then make the small trek back up the hill to the hotel. We change into our finery for our dinner at 7:15. The dinner is just downstairs but it seems nice to dress up a little.

We sit in the outdoor patio across the road from our hotel. I decide to take a break from pasta and all things Italian this evening. But I do have an plate envy for those that ordered the bruchetta though. I join in with those who order a pre dinner drink, a liquer of Montenegro..not bad.(They serve the drink in the same type of glasses I use for wine at home...I could be in Seattle!) I have roasted chicken (they are known for their steak here but as you know I just don't go for a big slab of meat but I know all my Wilson/Manning crowd would be jumping at this option.) I order mixed vegetables...it comes just it all is just cooked spinach...I guess it was just mixed up when they cooked it (Popeye would approve of this meal..lots of iron and protein). I don't have dessert tonight, just a cappucino for the finale for me. Jane gets something called zuppe inglese(english soup?!!!). It looks good but it turns to out to be quite bland... looks like a trifel...colorful but no taste so it is left at the table. We have a grand time at dinner. The group is finally gelling a little and we enjoy each other. It is interesting for me, everyone has an accent, luckily I am good at sorting out different accents but still "pardon me?" comes out my mouth a little more than I like.

We wander up the hill for an after dinner stroll. There are a lot of people out and about enjoying the weather and the small streets...I love this. I wish we have more open streets except just when there is a street festival. There is a rock band playing at the street with St Peter statue at the end. Alice Cooper seems interesting when played in this venue. After awhile, we had enough of the young Italians' interperation of acid rock so we go off to bed. Time to pack because we are leaving early in the morning. Drat, some of my clothes still have not dryed even though it has been two days...darn this humidy. I will have to finish the packing job in the AM. We are off to sleep in our last snooze in the little town of Gubbio.