Day 8 Wednesday June 11th 2008

I woke up at 5:15 this morning and got on my computer to journal. We didn’t get home till 12:00 am as we packed it in again yesterday. I could tell we were going to get a late start, just because we got in so late last night. I journaled all morning and then we went to the bakery for some breakfast.

When we went to the bakery I tried to open the door but couldn’t and we thought they were still close. We were standing outside trying to figure out when they opened, reading their sign. I saw the lady in there but wondered why they wouldn’t be open. Then we realized we were opening the door the wrong way. We were laughing so hard at how dumb we were, but the funniest thing about it was to watch the lady try not to laugh or smile, since in their culture that would have been so rude. But we were laughing at ourselves about how dumb those Americans can be.

We got bread and pizza and then went to the supermarket to pick up some mozzarella di buffalotta. It was out in the case, but then we asked for it and they went and got some. It is like that with a lot of things over there. If you don’t see it, you need to ask. So we ate our salami we bought the day before with our bread and cheese and it was yumm-o.

We finally left and we headed off to Trevi; another old city on a hill. We found parking the weather looked grim. We decided to walk around the city. We found a neat linen shop and Hiedi and Mom bought a bunch of stuff there. While they were in there I took Mavis and walked down the street. We walked by a craftsman who was repairing a little vanity desk. We walked in; he could see we were watching him and I told Mavis he was making a princess desk. She was fascinated and wanted to show the other kids.

We went back but he was gone. So instead we sat down in front of a hotel that had a lot of chairs and tables out in front of it. We played restaurant and I ordered my meal from Braeton. Mavis wanted chocolate and ordered that. Levi wanted to be the waiter and told me what the specials were. The ladies cleaning the hotel could hear us outside and looked out the window to see what was going on. They just stood at the window and watched us. They were so fascinated we were playing. They even came down and got other people to watch us. Braeton wanted to talk about his girlfriend while we ate and that was pretty funny since he is only five. It was fun to pretend eat.

The streets and pathways are very intricate here too. I took a lot of pictures of them; I have gotten a lot of ideas for my house. Brit got a pastry and loved it and said I had to go have some; so we walked back to the bar and grabbed one. It was funny because Brit hates Nutella; I think just because the word has the word “Nut” in the title. He supposedly hates nuts and I’ve tried to give him Nutella before but he just crinkles his nose and wont eat it. As soon as I tasted it I knew it was Nutella, I asked the guy in front of Brit what was inside, cioccolata or nutella and he said Nutella. Yeah, another nut victory! I’m really still not sure what nuts he doesn’t like.

We walked to the wall of the city and it was a beautiful view. There were huge cherry trees all around whose branches were heavy with fruit, waiting to be picked. We sat and absorbed the view waiting for everyone; Dad and Braeton were still walking around. Dad came back without Braeton. He said he told Braeton to go up ahead and then to come back and tell him what he saw. Braeton obviously went to far and got confused as to which street to go back down. Luckily he was smart and went back to the café and waited for us. It took us awhile though because he went inside the café and so everyone was freaked out looking for him. While we were, it started pouring rain. Reminder….Dad can’t watch kids.

Driving out of the city was crazy again since the Garmin doesn’t recognize the one-way streets that exist. We kept on driving the same way and after the third circle and following other cars we made it out of the maze. Sometime you just have to disregard the GPS and follow someone else. It was raining so hard. Good thing we were driving right now and not trying to site see. We drove to Fuminglao which was on the way to Spello to eat a restaurant we found in a book.

We parked and then made a mad dash toward the restaurant. It was pouring so hard; we were soaked. It wasn’t bad for the adults, but the kids were cold and so wet. The place we went to was interesting. The bread was horrible to start with. But then we had the torta di testo which is like a fried bread and delicious. There is no menu, they just bring what they bring. We had panzanella salad that is like crusty bread mixed with tomatoes. It was probably the best salad we have had so far. It’s also the first time we’ve really seen fresh basil.

You had no idea what was coming. You could tell it was his girlfriend who was our waitress. She served everything and he was obviously in charge. They brought us water without asking us and it was gas water and they didn’t want to change it so we were stuck. They also were a little upset that we weren’t ordering wine. But it seemed they got over that after awhile. The guy came out and he reminded me of Ben. He got his knife ready and then began carving off the proscuitto from the leg in front of us. You could tell he had a fun personality although we couldn’t understand him.

They brought a yummy lentil soup some roasted chicken diavolo and a beautiful salad. Local cherries were for dessert and were so good. Pigs decorated the whole place and the kids loved seeing all of them. Levi found a pig that squeaked and played with that. There was writing all over the walls and you could leave your mark so we did. I love pork!

While we were there I saw these bags of grain; they were from La Chiona in Spello. They are famous for their lentils; that is what we had for lunch. The address is Azienda Agraria La Chiona, Via C. Piermarini 8, Spello. http://www.lachiona.it/en/index.html. They grow all types of legumes and cereals like lentils “Castelluccio di Norcia”, a local variety of tiny Chick Peas, the “Paradise Beans” and the “Saluggini” Borlotti Beans. On rotation with the Legumes they grow also Cereals like Farro Dicocco and Orzo Mondo.
He also told us about two farms that were very good to go to.

We went walking around the town after lunch and Mom found a pastry she wanted a big cherry tart. I tried some candies there but they weren’t good at all. Everyone else went and got gelato. Luckily it was lunch time so everything else was closed. The Duomo here looked very pretty from the outside. Then we couldn’t figure out what to do, everyone wanted to do something different. We decided to drive to Spello and then on to Assisi.

Spello was a very cool old town. It had unique architectural inheritances. We walked through its old stone and hand made brick buildings, down narrow streets with old arches, and small squares. It had a nice fountain and old roman historical ruins, it was almost like you were in the atmosphere of the Middle Age. We went into this bar area and they had a beautiful view out into the valley.

The main feature of the buildings here are the hand made walls, built by using the local “pietra rosata” carved out by hand from the Monte Subasio, on the south side of which Spello is located. It is amazing how all their cities blend into the landscaping. There was a garden tour going on through the city so it was beautiful.

Brit found a perfect truck for Ben. They have to be so tiny to get through the cities here. We took some pictures of how narrow the streets are. I love how they attach rings in their brickwork to hold their pots. There was another car we saw that was held together by scotch tape, not duct tape. It was funny and we were joking that our truck might look like that soon with Ben driving it.

There were people that looked like they lived here their whole lives walking around the town. This Italian woman captures the spirit of what they look like to me, and what they like to do, just sit and be peaceful. I love their whole shutter system too. I like opening the windows and letting the world in. The hardware on this stuff is really intense.

The alleys and streets were filed with plants and flowers. In contrast to the brick it looked so beautiful. There were bird nests in the city wall. I saw a poster for the Olive Oil Show. It would be fun to come back here when they are being harvested. The butcher shop here had proscuitto legs hanging there and they even had fur still on them.

After getting gelato here we decided to drive to Assisi since we still had daylight and see the famous Saint Francis of Assisi, the Saint of world peace. The town was beautiful and a definitely a monument to this Saint. We drove into this parking lot that was very far from the church and I had the feeling the church would be closed so I didn’t want to walk all that way for nothing. My knee was kind of hurting by this point in the day.

So Brit & I drove the cars around town and it was really pretty. The sky was turning black again and the scenery was incredible. I got some great pictures of the church and the valley surrounding the city with the sunset. It is amazing how they walled their cities off. The streets were even narrower in this city.

We drove around trying to get out of here too. Seems like this happens to us frequently. You could tell millions of tourists come here every year. We decided to eat a restaurant that served a lot of vegetarian food. It was called Pallotta. It was really good and the restaurant inside was beautifully old and had the right flavor of contemporary and historic.

The food was so good but we didn’t end up eating until 9:00 pm. The kids were so tired and feel asleep on the table. Mom & Dad got the vegetarian menu that had a lot of tastings of different items. They also had a tourist menu, I found that funny. We got the cheese ravioli, the sage & butter ravioli, the lasagna, cannelloni, the best dish was the ravioli with pine-nuts, pesto, and cherry tomatoes.

The strangozzi alla pallotta was really good too and we debated about getting another one but we were all too tired. It is an eggless pasta tossed with mushrooms and black-olive pesto with a touch of spiciness. Mom got a spelt and pea soup but it was very unflavorful. The speck, pecorino and cheese tortellini were delicious also. The truffle omelet was good, but not as good as the Umbrian ones we had. The potatoes took like an hour to cook. We thought they forgot about them but they did finally come. We were so tired but ordered dessert anyway since Mom & Dad’s came with their meal.

I took pictures of the inside of the place. It was decorated incredibly. This was the first restaurant where you could tell the décor was important to the restaurantor. I loved the beams in the ceiling with the tiles. They had a dessert cooler which was cool, literally 5.1 celsius. It was made of metal on the bottom but then looked just like a cabinet. The waitress served straight from there, it didn’t come from the kitchen.

Our desserts came, Mom got the torta di mele, an apple cake, Brit & I shared tortino al cioccolato fondente, a chocolate cake, not so good, but the semifreddo allo yogurt con zuppa di frutti rossi, which was a yogurt strawberry semi-freddo was great. The zuppa inglese, or trifle as we call it was okay, others liked it but I guess it’s not my type of dessert. My dad got the crème caramel and he liked it.

As we walked home the streets were lit up and it was just like you would picture it in your mind. Very romantic and a very fun day.