Spello was a great base in Umbria and over the 2 weeks that we were there we did lots of day trips from Spello to other villages and towns. Most of them were medieval hill top villages just like Spello. These are some of the towns and places we visited:
1. Grotte Di Frassasi caves in Le Marche.
The caves are millions of years old but were only discovered in 1970 and is one of the worlds most remarkable cave system with very well preserved stalactites and stalamites. The kids were fascinated with the almost surreal landscape inside the caves. No photos though were allowed inside the caves. But here is an image from the web.
2. Ancona,
Ancona is a large port city in the north of Umbria.
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| Ancona |
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| Ancona |
We walked around the medieval hilltop town of Montefalco and had a very pleasant pasta lunch in front of the town gates.
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| Montefalco |
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| Cartwheels in the Montefalco town square |
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| Montefalco |
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| Yummy in my tummy! |
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| Lunch of pasta pomodoro in Montefalco |
4. Gualdo Cattaneo
Another medieval village which was tiny and had one of the best gelatos in Umbria.
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| Gualdo Cattaneo |
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| Gualdo Cattaneo |
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| Sliding on the medieval ramps in Gualdo Cattaneo |
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| One of the best gelatos we had was in Gualdo Cattaneo |
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| Abbey making friends with the locals in Gualdo Cattaneo |
A very, very tiny medieval village with a coffee bar that is being run by an Australian rock music loving guy
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
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| Collepino |
An even tinier miniscule village with nobody around but lots of quirky painted bikes
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| San Giovanni |
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| San Giovanni |
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| San Giovanni |
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| San Giovanni |
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| Driving to San Giovanni |
7. Castiglione del Lago
On the shores of Lake Trasimeno was a very pleasant town with a castle and castle walls to explore.
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
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| Castiglione del Lago |
8. Panicale
There was a miniscule village on top of Panicale which was so small it did not even have a town square or a name!
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| Panicale cat ! |
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| Panicale |
Another medieval hilltop village
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| Trevi |
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| Trevi |
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| Trevi |
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| Trevi |
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| Trevi |
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| Trevi |
10. Assisi
A larger medieval city that is home to St Francis and is a place of pilgrimage for many Catholics. It was so cold the day we visited and it looked magical as we entered the gates of Assisi with snow flakes drifting down upon us. The real highlight of the day for the girls were the wild horses we saw when we drove up Mt Subiaso at the top of Assisi and the chance to have a snowball fight!
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| Assisi |
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| Assisi |
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| Assisi |
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| Assisi |
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| Assisi |
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| Assisi |
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| Mt Subiaso |
Perugia is the capital of Umbria, a town which we did not actually stop in because we could not figure out where to park the car ! 12. Gualdo TadinoSo we drove on until we got to Gualdo Tadino which looked almost the same as all the other small towns we've visited !
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| Gualdo Tadino |
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| Gualdo Tadino |
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| Keeping warm in Gualdo Tadino |
13. Foligno
Foligno is a larger town near Spello where we struggled to get lunch because it was La Pausa ! But we did see the Abbey di Sassivo just outside of Foligno.
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| Abbey di Sassivo |
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| Abbey di Sassivo |
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| Abbey di Sassivo |
We finally found a place that was opened during La Pausa to get some lunch but it was a gelato bar that served microwave packet pasta ... not quite the lunch we had in mine !
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| Foligno |
14. Bevagna
We also revisited Bevagna because we thought it was a very quaint medieval village.Unlike many of the other towns it was not on a hill but a river
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| Bevagna town square |
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| Bevagna |
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| Bevagna |
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| Bevagna |
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| Bevagna |
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| Great butcher at Bevagna |
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15. Todi
Another medieval town which had a very steep approach. Just outside the main old town centre was the Santa Maria della Consolazione, a Renaissance style pilgrimage church
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| Santa Maria della Consolazione |
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| Santa Maria della Consolazione |
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| Santa Maria della Consolazione |
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| Todi |
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| Lunch on the steps of the Todi duomo |
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| Lunch on the steps of the Todi duomo |
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| Todi |
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