A Vacation from Our Vacation

Ancona, Italy

We know how crazy it sounds that we would need a break from sailing around the Med. But sometimes a little land time, away from the boat, is a good change of pace. We have always wanted to see Umbria, the central region of Italy, some call it “the green heart of Italy,” so we parked Berkeley East in Ancona, rented a car and drove there, passing through the Le Marche region of Italy as well.

For five days, we walked miles through beautiful medieval hill towns, learned about the people who live there, sampled Umbrian cuisine and tasted their wines. We slept on a bed that didn’t move, took long hot showers, even bubble baths, and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning. Granted, navigating a car on windy, hilly roads with little signage isn’t easy, but it is different.

There are so many hill towns in Umbria that we could not see them all, but we did find a few favorites, Gubbio for one. The small town feels warm and cozy, but the day we were there the sky was dark, it was cold and we were dressed for more mild weather.

After seeing all the churches we could find (if we see a church with a door open, we go in, regardless of how it looks from the outside, as some of the plainest exteriors have the most elaborate interiors), we ducked into a little restaurant with a fireplace to warm up. Little did we know that the fireplace was for cooking our food. We usually can decipher an Italian menu without too much trouble, but this restaurant’s menu was more difficult. One waitress spoke some English and translated the items to help us order. Unfortunately, her translations were all wrong so while our meal was good, it was also a complete surprise.

Spello was another favorite hill town, simple yet beautiful, without many tourists.

We went to see the frescos, stopped at a little outdoor terrace for something cold to drink and were soon ushered through a local store into a garden patio for a meal and wine tasting where we met a man who lives in Southern California. He told us how he and his wife fell in love with Spello and now rent an apartment there so they can visit several months of the year. After hearing about what all his wife did to learn Italian, several emersion courses including one in Italy, we did not feel as bad about our poor Italian language skills, a few lessons on cd just aren’t enough.

Larger than most towns in Umbria, Assisi’s streets wind up, down and around one beautiful historic site after another.

The Baslica was built in honor of St. Francis (of Assisi) who was born and died in Assisi.

Perched on a 984-foot plateau, Orvieto is home to one of Italy’s greatest Roman-esque-Gothic cathedrals.

As with all areas of Italy, Umbria is a big wine region, with hundreds of interesting little, out-of-the-way wineries. Some were in homes on hilltops with beautiful views, some were in basements, one was in an ancient cellar once owned by a prince.

Since most require appointments to visit, all were very difficult to find, and few of the wine makers spoke English, we enlisted the help of an area expert for a sampling of some of Umbria’s smallest wineries with the best wines. One woman fed us plate after plate of bread, olive oil, salami, cheese, and cookies, along with her delicious wines. Another told us secrets of how they don’t really follow the region’s wine regulations (Montefalco DOC). When we asked one wine maker “parla Inglese?” he said no Inglese; Italiano or Francese. So we asked in French “parlez-vous Anglais?” He threw up his hands and walked away shaking his head. Desperate to communicate with him, we used the translate app on our iphone to tell him, in Italian, that we crossed the Atlantic Ocean just to taste his wines. He laughed and called us loco. So many fun experiences make it impossible for us to buy wine from a store. Without the memory, it doesn’t seem to have the same flavor.

There is some debate about which is the oldest olive tree in Italy, while this one may not be the oldest, it is close at over 1,000+ years.