Assisi and Gubbio

I was much in need of a road trip and some fresh air after being snowed in two weeks in a row, moving apartments, job searching and the likes when I decided to get in the car and get out of Dodge.   I told Piero that he could choose the destination as long as, 1) it wasn't so far that we would spend the entire day in the car, and 2) that it was somewhere I had never been before. He chose Assisi.

Gubbio's Municipal Building

We set out Saturday morning with the plan of stopping in a town called Gubbio before arriving in Assisi that evening. I had to do some Googling on Gubbio and found out that aside from having an incredibly rich history, it is also where the story of St. Francis and the wolf came from.

To sum it up for you, there was a wolf who was terrorizing the Gubbians (totally just made that term up) and eating their animals and even the kiddos. They reached out to young Francesco for help and he was able to reason with the wolf and make peace on behalf of the townspeople. The wolf stopped terrorizing the poor Gubbians as they agreed to be kind to the wolf and even feed it proper wolf food.

So first stop Gubbio. GORGEOUS! Oh my good-Gubbio-God, it was beautiful. It was bigger than I was picturing with lovely homes and shops and gorgeous churches. It has one of the largest ancient Roman theaters still in tact plus a slue of churches and municipal buildings that really just knocked my socks off. Gubbio is set at the foot of a small mountain where at the top lies the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo. You can reach the top by a winding path that looked to me like 45 minutes of beautiful, but steeply-inclining torture, or by taking a peaceful 3-minute ride to the top in a ski lift type contraption, which is obviously what I did.

The current day Gubbians are known for carrying on several wonderful traditions. One is the Mount Ingino Christmas Tree, which is actually a light display built into the slope of the mountain in the shape of a Christmas tree. They claim it's the largest Christmas tree in the world. The second tradition is the Festival of the Ceri, in which townspeople gather to carry three massive wooden structures from the town center to the basilica at the top of the hill in honor of their Patron Saint, St. Ubaldo.

View of Gubbio from above

I could have stayed in Gubbio for the rest of the weekend, but Assisi awaited. We hopped in the car and in about an hour I was dumbfounded at the view driving into Assisi.

Assisi

We arrived at sunset and I threw down my bag in the hotel and ran back out the door to get some pictures with this amazing light. The down was basically deserted with most restaurants and hotels closed until mid March, tourist season just around the corner. So while we didn't find many places open, we did enjoy the town to ourselves and weren't bombarded by billions of tourists. We walked around "con calma" calmly and enjoyed the sights and sounds of this gorgeous gem set in the tranquil Umbrian countryside.

St. Francis at sunset

Front of St. Francis

On Sunday we went to mass at Francis, which was truly a religious experience to say the least, and saw the tomb of St. Francis. Then we walked around taking pictures and even visited the site of St. Francis' original home in Assisi. Before leaving, we popped in a shop with "prodotti tipici" or typical products of the region, and had wonderful fresh sandwiches with prosciutto and cinghiale, or wild boar, and pecorino cheese. Man I love that pecorino. So we ate our sandwiches and drank wine from Dixie cups as we browsed the store. And although I didn't purchase any, I thought these mule balls sure looked interesting...

Leaving Assisi, Piero had also planned on stopping in Spoleto on our way back. It's also a tiny little hilltop town in Umbria (as they pretty much all are) with a rich history. We stopped, we walked, we got back in the car. Unless you go for the annual springtime festival, don't go to Spoleto. It's for the birds.

Two other notable cities in the area that ARE worth your time however would be Todi and Orvieto. I have not been to either but based on everything I have read about them and all of the pictures I have seen, I can't wait to go to either place. Hopefully I will do that soon and get to share those experiences with you as well.

Alla prossima!

To view the entire album of photos from this trip, click here.