Days 9 and10

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday we were in the beautiful mountain village of Norcia staying in a four star hotel (or five?). The included breakfast buffet this morning offered food that  was  grown in the area, such as fresh milk and yogurt, soft pecorino cheese, fresh ricotta, jams from the village, fruit from Italy, fresh eggs with deep orange yolks, and the meat....oh, the meat...like the boar and pig pecorino and salami that we wrote about yesterday. There were also several pastries made on site, fresh squeezed orange juice, and various individually made coffee drinks.

After breakfast, we left  to drive up and over this beautiful mountain range. The directions on map quest said things like “series of curves”, “very steep grade”, over and over again. And there were many tunnels. The driver and co-pilot did well, and after a couple of hours we arrived at the Adriatic coast. 

One thing you notice in much of Italy is how many farms you see, even in the mountains. They earn their keep as the breadbasket of Europe.  And the land is not all dedicated to grapes and olives.  Also, we saw hundreds of solar panels on south facing slopes at dozens of locations.  We had heard when Chernobyl went radioactive back in 1986, the Italians decided to close existing nuclear plants and not build any new ones.  It always seems like solar would work in St. George and the sunny parts of the west.  

After an hour of driving along the coast, we arrived at our hotel. This is a resort area that the average Italian family can afford to bring their family to the beach.  The problem is, this is an unusually wet and cool spring, and the place looks deserted. Many resorts are very run-down, many look permanently closed, and plants are growing over the sidewalks. This is the view from our room:

This doesn’t look like the peaceful Adriatic we know.  The die-hard beach goers are without bathing suits.  

Our hotel is listed as a three star hotel, but our room makes it seem more like a two-star hotel. It’s very small with an uneven bed, and we don’t even have soap or shampoo!!! The only good thing is that it’s one of the few rooms that fully faces the Adriatic. We have a sliding door. and we can walk out onto a tiny deck and watch what WOULD have been the beach action during the high season. There are all these beach umbrella stands and folded-up chase lounges going for miles along the sandy beach, but no one is using them. 

Day 10

We are staying in Fano to enjoy the beach, but also to visit the popular walled hill city called Urbino.  On a whim, we were looking for new and hopefully exciting places.  Urbino is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - we are not sure what that means but it sounded impressive.  We headed into the mountains where it is located. 

Urbino is noted as the birthplace of Raphael, who was one of Michelangelo’s competitors when the Pope choose Michelangelo to paint the Sistene Chapel, the Pope’s Chapel at the Vatican.  Raphael left Urbino at the age of 16, and we didn’t find any of his works in his home town.

More noteworthy is Duke Federico, who inherited the dukedom of Urbino.  According to historical records, he was a born leader who was very skilled at leading armies and fighting - good skills to have in the 15th century.  During one of the many battles he fought, he lost the sight in one eye.  After this happened, it is said he cut off the bridge of his nose in order see over it with his remaining eye.  Hence, all paintings of him thereafter were a profile of his good side.  Also important was that he was rich and he loved the arts and architecture.  We visited his Palazzo Ducale, the Duke’s Palace.  

We have been telling you not to judge a book by it’s cover.   His palace is to the left of the Urbino Duomo.  It is about a block long and a block wide.  

Since it was raining, we were more than willing to tour the three floors.  There is an interior courtyard the size of four pickleball courts (one tennis court).  We managed to find the old well and the pulley that was used to pull up buckets of water back when pulleys were the latest technology.

We wandered through the many floors of art work left by the Duke, but what was most impressive were all the fireplaces the palace has.  Here is one of probably 20-30 examples from this one palazzo:

There wasn’t a speck of furniture in the Palazzo, but lots of art work (not shown), people to make sure you didn’t touch the art work, and a fireplace in every other room.  We understand wood heat and the amount of wood it takes to make a modest house warm.  The Duke must have had at least a couple of ‘foresters’ busy for much of the year gathering cord wood.

We did stumble upon a ristorante (restaurant) that looked enticing.  For those traveling to Italy, ristorante means most expensive Italian food.  The name of the place was Osteria, another kind of eatery which normally has very good food but not expensive as in ristorante food.  One of us got to try rabbit with endive which was good.

Our experience was tempered by the rain, so we didn’t see the many vistas the town has to offer. 

We finished the day with seafood in Fano.  It is the off-season for tourists, but not the off-season for fish.  Buon Appettito!

One last thing.  We have met many people on our trips.  While the people at our Fano hotel are not the richest, they are the friendliest.  We’ve had so many people come up to us and talk even though we don’t know Italian well enough to talk above a 1st grade level and keep trying to have a friendly conversation.  We love it!