The Adventures of Eloise and Abbey

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Umbrian day trips from Spello

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.

Ancona

3. Montefalco
We walked around the medieval hilltop town of Montefalco and had a very pleasant pasta lunch in front of the town gates.

Montefalco

Cartwheels in the Montefalco town square

Montefalco

Yummy in my tummy!

Lunch of pasta pomodoro in Montefalco

4. Gualdo Cattaneo

Another medieval village which was tiny and had one of the best gelatos in Umbria.

Gualdo Cattaneo

Sliding on the medieval ramps in Gualdo Cattaneo

One of the best gelatos we had was in Gualdo Cattaneo

The pace in this tiny village is pretty relaxed, especially during La Pausa time where just about everything in the town or village shuts down from 2pm to 5pm.

Abbey making friends with the locals in Gualdo Cattaneo

5. Collepino
A very, very tiny medieval village with a coffee bar that is being run by an Australian rock music loving guy

Collepino

6. San Giovanni
An even tinier miniscule village with nobody around but lots of quirky painted bikes

San Giovanni

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.

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!

Panicale cat !

Panicale

9. Trevi
Another medieval hilltop village

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!

Assisi

Mt Subiaso

11. Perugia
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 !

Gualdo Tadino

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.

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 !

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

Bevagna town square

Bevagna

Great butcher at Bevagna

Bevagna

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

Santa Maria della Consolazione

Todi

Lunch on the steps of the Todi duomo

Todi

Sunday, 5 April 2015

Happy Birthday Abbey!

Abbey's 5th birthday happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year so it was double the celebration with surprises from Easter Bunny and birthday presents for Abbey! First up was following the trail left by the Easter Bunny

Following the carrot trail

Then it was ripping open the presents

Then it was across the road (literally) to Bar Giardino for breakfast. It was croissants all around. Italians aren't big on breakfast. It is usually a coffee and a pastry if anything.

After breakfast at Abbey's request we went home. After quiet a few days of sightseeing around Umbria, Abbey wanted nothing but to stay home and watch movies for her birthday! And it was a great choice as we were all a little exhausted plus it was also a very cold day, perfect for staying in and watching the Easter crowds walk up and down our street.

Abbey's request was to go home after breakfast

Snuggled up on the couch watching Annie

Abbey was not expecting a cake this year as she thinks that you only get a cake if you were having a party so she was thrilled when we surprised her with a very Italian cake they call a pizze a pasquale, which I assume means an Easter cake ! I must admit it was not the niest cake any of us have had!

As it was Easter Sunday there was a marching band playing that accompanied the procession that carried the 'running' Jesus. So Abbey got serenaded by the band !

Happy 5th birthday my pasta loving girl ! Hope you enjoyed your Italian birthday xoxox

Friday, 3 April 2015

Easter in Spello

Easter or Pasquale in Italy is a very religious affair, well at least it was in Umbria. In Spello, a few days before Good Friday there were pictures depicting the 14 stations of the cross put out around town. The kids liked the story of the Stations of the Cross and were fascinated by the different stages that were depicted on the day Jesus was crucified. They especially loved running around Spello trying to find the different pictures for each station of the Cross.

On Good Friday night there was a haunting and sombre parade through the streets of Spello with the priest making blessings at each station of the cross. He was accompanied by the town people, all repeating the blessings after him.

The haunting Good Friday procession walking up the main street of Spello

One of the stations was in the courtyard just behind our house and the kids loved that everybody was there gathered in 'our' courtyard!

The blessing in 'our' courtyard

Then on Sunday, there is a running of the Christ where a group of men carry a life sized wooden carving of Jesus and they run from the church at the bottom of Spello to the church at the top. The priest then leads them into the church where there is a blessing which is then followed by a live orchestral band playing.

Easter Sunday blessing after the Running of the Christ. The Christ statute had just been carried up the hill.

Finally on Easter Monday night there is another procession with the cross. These pictures were taken from our kitchen window as we were not aware it was on until we heard the procession coming up our street!

Easter Monday procession