Assisi and Gubbio.

4-10-11 PERUGIA, ITALY: Another spectacular, blue sky, warm day for seeing Assisi in the morning and Gubbio in the afternoon. Both are hill town built of local stone and ceramic roof tiles for almost every building. The streets are also stone and brick. Seeing each town means lots of walking up, up and up, and, later, back down. Half of the streets are stairs. We all earned our three meals today. Both are medieval towns, making it now on tourism. Both were packed this Sunday, mostly with Italian tourists. Both are gorgeous, full of churches and fortifications. Assisi is bigger with more huge churches and St. Francis. Gubbio has better ceramics and pottery.

Spring is in full bloom here, trees are out, iris, wisteria, tulips, lilac, poppy, lavender, chestnut, wildflowers, bees all over, except on the mountain tops where the trees are just starting. VT is still snowy, and NJ is a month behind Umbria.

Today we saw Assisi in the morning, had more pizza in the piazza, and then, spent a hour trying to find the garage where we parked—duh. Ultimately, we went on the Gubbio and found a great parking spot on the street. After that hill climb up and down, we found a parking ticket on the car. Judy and Lynn took umbrage at our treatment in Umbria.

Tuscany tomorrow.


Assisi-St. Francis.

Assisi. Stony Town.

Assisi. Lots of stones. It was good to be the mason.

Gubbio is famous for pottery and ceramics.

Gubbio. More stones and roof tiles.