Orvieto to Ascoli Piceno to Puglia!

Spent Friday morning exploring more of Orvieto and visited the most amazing Duomo we’ve ever seen. It’s so beautiful on the outside and very impressive inside as well. The artwork is dramatic including two large paintings depicting both heaven and hell. The images of hell in this particular cathedral are disturbing, as they should be.

We loved wandering the winding lanes in the city.

This is where we had drinks the night before.

We shared a croissant for breakfast. It was delicious

Our hotel. It was comfortable and the people were friendly.

 We left Orvieto and stopped over in Todi, a great hilltop village. We made a mistake trying to drive into the old town, and I was yelled at by an Italian women, but I totally deserved it. We figured out we could park in the new town and ride a lift up to the old town. That worked out great. Also, taught me to learn a lot more about parking before I enter any of the towns.

The lift to Todi

View from our table at lunch

We ate on the porch of Restaurant Umbria with a fantastic view of the Umbrian landscape. It was amazing.

Betsy’s pasta dish

My polenta with mushrooms. Mushrooms are in season and we’ve eaten a lot of them. This is actually a huge portion and so was Betsy’s dish. We ate less than a third of our lunch, but it was very good.

Back down to our car

It was a long drive to Ascoli Piceno, but we were in no hurry to leave Todi. The drive took us through a lot of tunnels, and so did the next day’s drive. Some were over a mile long, which is a strange experience, but the roads were really great. The speed limit on the toll roads, which we used to save time, is 80 and the Italians consider that advice, not the rule.

We arrived in Ascoli Piceno after dark, and the roads were the narrowest we’ve seen since last year in Ireland. We had a very difficult time finding our hotel, despite the GPS. It kept saying we had arrived (and we learned later we had, in fact, arrived), but we couldn’t find the hotel. The signage was small and placed up high. By the time we got parked and into the lobby, we were practically in a panic. The hotel provided a private parking lot and told us we could move our car from where parked into the lot. Betsy plopped the key on the desk and said, “No.” She wasn’t driving another meter. We paid a staff member 10 euro to move our car for us, and that was a bargain.

We freshened up and got out to explore the town. I really wanted to see the main piazza because it is considered one of Italy’s finest. However, it was filled with tents because there was a chocolate festival under way. Something similar happened last year when I wanted to see the beautiful square in Brussels…a beer festival was in progress. There are far worse things than beer and chocolate, however.

This is all chocolate, and it’s actually quite delicious.

Again, all chocolate. Really cool.

 We walked a lot through the town and then came upon another piazza where a band was playing. We went into what was basically a dive bar. Betsy said she was ready to eat some meat and they had a hamburger on the menu.

Hamburger

We went into Cafe Meletti, an elegant and historic spot, and tried to order Frangelico, which is made in Italy, but apparently is not a thing here. We were served two glasses of champagne with a similar name. Then I showed the server a photo of Frangelico and they dug some out from somewhere and brought Betsy a glass. We have since learned that it was created in 1978 and is not some significant liqueur in Italy. In fact, it’s more akin to America’s Sloe Gin, in terms of being a 70s drink that ultimately faded away.

We left Ascoli Piceno about 10 a.m. and hit the road for six hours on our way to our vacation rental in Puglia. It was a tiring ride and we made it to our house about 5 p.m. Then, a couple of hours later, Bonnie, Emily and Lisa arrived from their 24 hours of travel. They were exhausted but in great spirits. We had drinks, wine and snacks and stayed up until midnight.

We were up having coffee by 9 .m. (some of us earlier) and enjoying this amazing view.

The view from our porch

At some point today, we are driving down to the beach and have a late lunch. We’ll buy some food and come back home and cook it for dinner. Then tomorrow we’re off for other adventures in Puglia.

Ciao!