Road Trip!

Tom points to our campground in the distance

Last Saturday, we packed up the car and drove south into Umbria, to the mountains in the center of Italy.
We drove past Venice and Bologna to the East Coast of Italy.  After a quick picnic near the Adriatic, where locked fences kept us off the empty beach, we turned west and headed into the middle of the Apennines.  We past rolling hills and fields full of wildflowers dotted with poppies and grazing sheep, and arrived here to meet our Dutch/Italian neighbors for a few days.

The weather didn't exactly cooperate, so we crowded into their little chalet where Tom and I had twin beds on opposite ends of the loft.  We had a little trouble with a collapsing bed but the view from the porch was wonderful.  And it rained plenty, so we were happy we didn't have to camp!

We spent Sunday on a long hike up and down muddy hills.  I managed to sink into the mud once just to the top of my boot (stay tuned for pictures) but the rain held off and the views were spectacular.  We cut across some wildflower fields at the end of the hike to get to the little bar at the bottom of the hill where gelato was waiting for us.  Tom then jumped in the freezing cold pool, even though he didn't have the required swim cap, and we got a little more sun while enjoying books at the campground.

Flat land with no steps and
soft places to fall--heaven for
our neighbor's daughter!

The Pian Grande, a HUGE plain
surrounded by hills

More stairs--the towns were literally on
the tops of  hills!

On Monday, it was cold and rainy, but we found plenty to keep us busy.  We made our way to the Pian Grande.  Between rain showers we walked in the fields and enjoyed lunch at a roadside stand that deserves it's own blog post (more on that later).  We also visited some medieval towns built on the tops of hills, which meant more walking, and found some perfectly creepy places!


Tuesday we were supposed to head home, but the sun came out just before we left so we stopped for another hike.  This one took us to an old Abbey.  Tom was worried that it would be busy.  It was, relatively speaking, but we saw a total of 6 other people, all of them when we arrived at the Abbey.  After a picnic lunch and a hike back down the hill to the car, we drove past Perugia to Florence.

An old Abbey, built around 500 AD

The sheepdogs kept us far away from the herd!

The idea was to stay in Florence and spend an hour Wednesday morning walking around the city before leaving, but after over an hour in traffic and finding no hotels (except the Villa that was 450 Euros per night), we ended up only seeing the city from the surrounding hills.  It was beautiful from up there, though.

We ended up in a chain hotel near a shopping mall, but the bed was super comfortable, the room was quiet, and the shower was the best I've had in Italy.  Florence will get it's own trip later this summer.  We had an uneventful drive back to Duino, but arrived just in time for one last thunderstorm.

Stay tuned for Tom's better pictures of the weekend!

Dinner near, not in, Florence--at an
American restaurant.  Chicken tenders, fries,
a cheese steak and fountain coke!  We should be
embarrassed, but it was so good!