Galleria, Galleria

 Monday 14th August 2023

Today was a sad day as Ben and Izzy were leaving to go on 

It was in this sombre mood that we decided to go to the village cemetery to check out some family history of those who had checked out. (sorry)

Italian cemeteries are like little villages with little houses of family crypts as well as those that are on walls around the cemetery. I should have taken a photo and will include it later if i do

We found my grandparents, Dad's mother and father and I did take a photo

 We ran into Manuela who was 'visiting' her husband Sergio. She was able to give us a bit of history and helped us find other relatives we had never heard of. We had already found Zia Ada and her husband, Santo as well as Zia Janina and her husband. With her was buried Manuela's first child who had died days after birth.  We also saw Ermano, LallaMaria's husband who died a few months after we saw him in 2019. They include photos on the graves which makes it even more poignant.

And then back to the hotel to farewell Ben and Izzy who will continue on to Orvieto and beyond.  It is hard to explain how wonderful it has been to have them here with us for these few days. More time than I have spent with Ben in years.  They have also really enjoyed being here, though more to do with meeting family and forging ties. I think someone said something like they will be able to return without me or something like that. I think they were talking about my imminent demise or something. I don't mind as long as they look after Ben and Izzy and it seems they definitely will (with or without me).

After they left, we went to Umbria.

The plan was to visit Franco, Christina's uncle who is a regular on facebook and we had met on line a few weeks previously. He lives in Fontignano in Umbria, Christina's family home and is the brother of her father, Dom.

We had been to Assisi the previous day and it was the same route but a bit further. We did well in driving and navigating until the latter part where we took a few wrong turns. I was the navigator so be it on my head. 

Photos of the route over the mountains.  We went through at least 20 gallerias or tunnels, many longer than the lane cove tunnel.

 

We arrived early and tried to have lunch at the only bar/food outlet we could find. It was a tabachi which is a tobacconist cafe place. Anyway there was nothing gluten-bloody-free. Surprise. This was our lunch. Paul had a nice pizza sandwich and I had a packet of chick pea chips. Paul was the only one smiling.

We found the church that Franco had told us about we think, It was Saint Leonardo's and was next to a pretty park and kid's playground.

The town is famous for the Renaissance artist who died there, Perugino.

Apparently one of his paintings is in a church, maybe this one. The inside of the church was beautiful and we may even have found the painting.

Franco made contact with us and he suggested we wait at the church and he would pick us up to take us to his house as it takes some skill and local knowledge to get there. It certainly i thought as he sped through tight streets, higher and higher, The only way he got in his garage  was having both his side mirrors taped down. 

It was a typical stone house which required climbing steps to get into the  main areas. It seemed a very large house with lots of bedrooms. We had some wine and then went up to the terrace to see what he claimed as being the vest views of the city and beyond.

The steps were worth it.

And we took a couple with our kind host Franco

                                                                                                            

And then back to Sefro discovering new roads to get home (got lost again) and really confusing the GPS in the car. I don't think it was up to date as it missed roundabouts and roads. I blame the GPS and it being so slow at rerouting when it got it wrong!

More gallerias

After a brief rest, we were to go to Carmine and Tiziana's place for apertifs at 7pm and dinner maybe. We were to be picked up a it is a vertical walk to get there. However at 7.10pm, we saw them walking back to their house. We walked with them and i managed the vertical walk, which was not as bad as some of the Assisi streets. So we got there about 7.30ish and food and drink were prepared. Perhaps by 8 we got our first drink of spritzers and some chips. Spritzers are very popular here. At about 9, we declined the offer of dinner and climbed down to get back to our hotel.  I was  pretty exhausted as was Paul.   

A huge travelling day for us both fueled only by chips for me. So we had a quick pasta at the hotel. My gluten-bloody-free spaghetti was suspiciously good and very different to previous pastas. I kept asking to make sure I did not have a repeat of last glutening.

All good. Looking forward to a big day tomorrow, the Sagre di Troutta,  or trout festival. There re 400 people at the hotel for lunch including us.  Hope there is more of the gluten-bloody-free spaghetti.