Day 10 - Gubbio

Day 10 -- Wednesday, October 14 -- The Frost is on the Pumpkin (or should I say zucca?)



Temps dropped overnight and today was our first chilly day. But as sunny and beautiful as yesterday. Paolo arrived with a huge sack of chestnuts for Charlie, and the special pan to use on the grill to cook them. Gubbio was today’s destination, but with a late start (we need to get serious about getting going in the morning) and a longer than usual drive, it was nearly time for riposo (siesta, when everything closes up for 2 - 3 hrs.) when we arrived. We had taken country roads a good bit of the way and getting there was indeed half the fun. The hilly countryside is twelve different shades of green with the characteristic buff or grey villages spotted every few kilometers. We climbed pretty high and much was forested.

Gubbio sits near the bottom of its mountainside and is stretched out lengthwise along the base, so though it’s still uphill from arrival to the top we took the long streets crosswise and climbed gradually, switching back and forth, sort of traversing. It has its own character, with wide streets (that is, room for a row of parked cars and a lane of moving traffic as long as the pedestrians step into a doorway for passing cars). There are still steep steps up walkways, but fewer of them. And not so many flower pots. Really a pretty plain visage with a sort of utilitarian look about it. Very quiet, few people about, maybe it was just the time of day.

Gubbio has had a relatively peaceful history, unlike gory Perugia, but probably one of the longer local histories because Iron Age artifacts have been found a the bottom of the hill. The Etruscans followed, moving up the hill a little, and the Romans followed, starting to climb. There is an interesting Roman amphitheater, still used for summer productions and a small “antiquarium” we went into. It’s built right over the Roman ruins and you walk on iron grates and can see the stones that remain. They’ve done some restoration on mosaic floors, a mini-Pompeii.

We had another superb midday meal -- another Frommer recommendation, and again with mostly locals eating there. They comped us (and I assume, everyone) the local starter, a fry-bread with proscuitto on top.
I wish I could remember the name for it. It started with a b-- but isn’t bruschetta.

We stopped at Assisi on the way back to pick up Charlie’s eyeglass case and the proprietor/craftsman greeted Carlo and “the lady” (me!) like long lost buddies. It looks like any other black leather case, but is small enough that his clip-ons don’t slide out. He’s pleased with it. I bought a scarf for the cold. The other reason for stopping there is that it has a café that’s the closest wi-fi spot in this area. So we caught up on email and posted yesterday’s blog. While in Assisi we tried the lower basilica of San Francesco, which we hadn’t been able to see the other day because they were having a mass. It’s very dark inside and one really can’t see the frescoes very well, so I was left unimpressed again. The town, however looked entirely different without the mobs, so I guess many of them were Italians out for a Sunday drive. Or church.

Coming down the mountain in the dark we must’ve made a wrong turn and even though it became clear we needed to turn around there was no opportunity to do it. So we kept going for a while, until my Carlo, the newly Italian driver decided to turn around anyway on a very curvy narrow road with almost no visibility and no shoulder. I just held my breath and kept my eyes closed. A very pleasant and low key day, in spite of that little drama.

Started the laundry (this little machine takes 1½ hours to run!) and had leftover pasta for supper. But when C. went to roast his chestnuts, he found the fire starter didn’t work! And so to bed sans chestnuts.

12,103 steps