Not gonna lie, it was HARD to say goodbye to the gorgeous Villa La Massa, but we were excited to see what was next on the trip. We needed to be up and at ’em in order to make sure all of our luggage was completely packed by 7:30 (the bellmen come and get it, and you don’t see it again until the next hotel), and we were on the road by 8:30. So, another breakfast (I was going VERY small with breakfast by this point. I had learned the drill).

We started to Gubbio – by way of Arezzo. We started to leave the tall, thin cypress trees and get more into the lush green hillsides. It was interesting to hear about how young Italy is as a country (it’s only been a unified country since the the mid 1800s). We heard a lot about how many from Italy don’t identify as “Italian.” They identify as “Tuscan” or “Umbrian.” I thought about regionalism in the US and how many people identify as “Texan” or “New Yorker” or “Californian.” (I don’t identify as anything… I’m not that hip. lol.)

Arezzo is one of the smaller, less touristy towns we encountered on our trip. It’s also where the actor/director Roberto Benigni lives and where his GORGEOUS movie Life is Beautiful was filmed. You remember him, right? He’s the very excited guy who climbed over all the seats at the Oscars when he won? I was trying to watch the movie in the middle of the night last night but couldn’t find it streaming. I used to show it to my students after we read Elie Wiesel’s Night. It is so sad, funny, heartbreaking, poignant. I love it.

So, on each day we looked at “the churches.” I’m going to say here that all of the churches, cathedrals, and basilicas started to mesh together in my mind. They’re all amazing. They’re all full of history. They’re all centuries old, and they’re all VERY VERY expensive. I have mixed feelings on the amount of money spent preserving and restoring so many of them, but I will also say that my appreciation for visual art is not the same as many others. I understand that the art tells a story, and I do think it’s “pretty.” So, like most churches it had some people buried in it, some amazing floors, and ceilings, and a lot of gold.

Next off, it was the restoration center where a group of just a few meticulously clean every single square centimeter of these paintings. For the big ones, it takes $300,000 and two months. We got to see one in progress because Tauck pays for some of them to be done. Tauck really is an AMAZING company. They’ve been around since the early 1900s with the goal of “immersing” people in experiences, and keeping everyone happy. They did it well. If I do another land tour, I will SURELY use them again. (I did LOVE my Uniworld river cruise last year, and would like to go back to them again, too. Right now, the plan is SCENIC on the Douro. I like trying ALL of them out. )

We got to see work in progress in the restoration center, followed by a finished work in a church. On the way to the center we passed by a square being set up for a fencing tournament that weekend. As every city has their fountains (if they are rich) and their churches (no matter what), they ALL had their festivals.

After this, we had free time to get lunch and shop. The “shop” thing is always something of an issue for us. And, really, the “just find somewhere and eat” can be, too. I have an English/Italian translator on my phone, and I can point. I just get flustered in the moment. This day, however, we were very lucky. As we strolled around the corner, we found a LOVELY little restaurant, il Covo de Brigante, and our waitress had an AMERICAN accent. Now, I definitely don’t feel like people in Italy should cater to us. It was just so interesting! When I asked her about it, she said it was a form of rebellion against her mother who was fluent in English with British pronunciation. She wanted to be different, so she took three levels of American English, and her mom gets mad at her every time she says “water.” We had a PERFECT little snack (just Caprese salad and melon with prosciutto -by the way, if you think you could NEVER get tired of truffles, fresh mozzarella, and cured meat, you just may be wrong. Still, it was all delicious!)

And I love stopping at cafes because they USUALLY have “American restrooms” (I really do like my toilet seat). Our next two stops that day, I was not as lucky!

Then, the somewhat dreaded “free time.” An hour of free time is USUALLY perfect for us. (unless we need lunch AND wander time because it takes us too long to decide). We had more than two hours in Arezzo… and we’re not really shoppers. We didn’t really need to see another church. And MOST of the shops have all the same things. Arezzo, however, is known for antiques and jewelry. This was one of the most sweet and surprising moments on the trip for me. Richard and I do not buy one another gifts. ALL of our money goes to food, wine, and travel. We have cheap furniture, a lot that is hand-me-down or deeply discounted. We do not really decorate. We don’t care much about brand names and NOTHING about fashion. (Oh, and as for the not caring much about brand names… Brooks sneakers and SAS sandals -both expensive, and both worth EVERY PENNY if you need support for walking all day on those cobblestone streets. They were the best, but I digress…) When we were walking by a little jewelry shop, Artlinea, I saw the cutest little tiny ladybug necklace. I have an affinity for lizards, ladybugs, pelicans, and all things sparkly. I smiled, and kept walking. Richard called me over and said, “Did you see this?” I told him that I did, and I thought it was cute… but we don’t surprise each other with things. Then, I turned around, and he was gone. I saw him standing inside the jewelry store and having the ladybug removed from the window. Now, it’s mine, and my sweet reminder of the time Richard stopped on the street to buy me something to make me smile in Italy.

We still had half an hour left, and as much as I hate the phrase “killing time” (I want to have EXPERIENCES not “kill” them), we needed to do SOMETHING… so we found My Way bar, had some mediocre chardonnay and a “non” American bathroom before heading back to the bus.

From there, it was on to Lake Trasimeno for our first Gelato of the trip and a chance to stretch our legs (and use a non-American bathroom) before hotel #2. We figured out how to order in Italian, and I LOVED my mango/cantaloupe combination.

I had heard that hotel #1 was the nicest of all where we would stay, and that was true, but Hotel #2, Park Hotel ai Cappuccini was definitely the most modern. It was an old monastery that had been redone, so sometimes finding our way from floor #1 to #2 could be difficult. But the bed was good, the air conditioning was not bad, and it was BEAUTIFUL. There was interesting artwork around every nook and cranny. Plus the next day was to be a later morning because we got to spend two nights in each hotel. My only complaint about this hotel was the food. It was below average. It wasn’t bad. It’s just the fish was fishy, the gnocchi was boring, the desserts were plain. The main red grape in Umbria is Sagrantino, but they served us Merlot (it was fine; we liked the white better). The restaurant, itself, however, was gorgeous. We were exhausted with our allergies or something getting to us. (We both felt a little puny, but wanted to push through.) Richard, luckily, slept like an absolute rock. (He had also been napping on the bus during the day.) I did get to stay there with my eyes closed, but sleep was hard for me that night. Still, I was ready to explore Gubbio the next day! How often will I get to be in Umbria?!

And before we knew it, it was GOOD MORNING, Gubbio. Richard was hanging in there better. The cough he was afraid was on its way didn’t come. I felt the same, and tired, but no worse, so we were ready! (Besides, the sore throat made it very hard to overeat or overdrink so the hangovers of my first three days were behind me! Yay!) This was one of the first places where we started to hear quite a bit about St. Francis. Every city told the story of how he came to stay. This city had the story of St. Francis and the wolf. He tamed a she-wolf that he made his pet. I will say, the local guides often pointed out that things were more likely allegories to teach lessons to people who couldn’t read than they were factual histories, but they were enjoyable all the same. As we were taking our five minute bus ride to the church, our tour director kept pointing out that we should be sure to notice the parking for pregnant women outside the church. As soon as I saw it, I knew why! lol. Guess that’s what you look like pregant in Italy?!

Next up, we were to make the way to the top of the hill in our little park kiddie train. I am not at all disappointed that we didn’t climb all of those steep streets! The view from up top was lovely, and the stories in the church were interesting. We tried to climb to a higher terrace at one point, but we found ourselves lost in the alleyways, and it was time to get back. (This was one of those times we had only an hour to explore.) Gubbio is known for its pottery, so here, we were able to get our Christmas ornament (generally the ONLY souvenir we buy for ourselves on a trip.) We also tried a VERY natural wine and had our Sagrantino. There is no winemaker at all. They just put the grapes in a barrel and see what happens. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t to our taste enough to buy a bottle; our tour director gave us a pottery wine stopper as a gift. This might be one time we’d actually use a stopper! Ha! Then, as we were walking back down, Richard (who IS becoming quite the explorer), decided that he wanted to find a place near the BOTTOM of the hill (smart man) to have pizza that night. We went into Ristorante alla Balestra and tried very unsuccessfully to make a reservation. The staff were nice. We were nice. They didn’t speak Spanish or English (or were as uncomfortable speaking in Spanish and English as I am trying to speak Italian). Eventually, they gave us their phone number, and we decided to have the hotel make a reservation for dinner that night.

From there, it was to the truffle farm for lunch. This was another agritourism place, San Vittorino, where they actually keep all of their truffles for themselves to serve to their guests. The truffle hunter is self taught. Lunch was really spectacular. All of the truffles were the black summer truffles, so they are not nearly as pungent as the winter truffles (which I LOVE), but they still added a fresh, clean bit of flavor, and there were PLENTY of them.

After lunch, it was truffle hunting time, and this one felt more authentic than the one we did on the Rhone River last year. On the Rhone, it seemed like they just put some truffles under about an inch of dirt for the dogs. This time, the dogs – and Richard- had to dig! I was too busy taking selfies to notice that he had gone to the bottom of the hill and the truffle farmer handed him a vanghetto to extract it. (The dog was having none of it! Richard got growled at! lol.)

It was a STEEP incline, and we could take walking sticks to do it. I could have done it without, but I’m not going to lie – I was glad to have it more for balance going down than coming up. I’m just a TAD top heavy (lol). Almost all in our group did the “hunt.” It felt like a pretty good 45 minute workout and that you had accomplished something when you were done!

From there, it was back to the hotel. We made reservations for our pizza place, but decided we would walk there instead of taking a cab. Why not walk a mile in shoes of an Umbrian? I absolutely needed a siesta. Richard was feeling perky from his truffle hunting victory, so he went down to the pool. I was asleep before he left the room and woke up about an hour and half later- confused, wondering why he was at my door with another person. We only had one key, and I had my ringer on high so I could hear him if he needed me, AND there was a doorbell. I heard none of that. To his credit, he wasn’t angry at all.

We left for dinner about 20 minutes before our reservation and got there early. I was so impressed with Richard’s confidence and ability as we walked all the unfamiliar streets and went DIRECTLY back to the restaurant. It wasn’t like one or two turns… we were all over the place. I’m still not sure that we communicated that we had a reservation, but we WERE able to be seated. We started with a very unusual and very tasty eggplant parm. The eggplant was VERY lightly battered, and there were THICK slices of fresh mozzarella between the layers. We ordered two different pizzas to go with our Sagrantino – a typical Margherita pizza, which was the freshest one I’ve ever had! We also had a gorgonzola, mushroom, sausage pizza that really showed off why we wanted to have at least one pizza in Italy.

After that, Richard decided that a gelato a day is the way to do Italy, so we stopped on our mile back. (That’s enough exercise to get rid of all the pizza, right? Actually, even with all the food, I only gained four pounds in the end. Well worth it as far as I was concerned.)

Back in the hotel, we both went to sleep almost immediately after getting our bags packed. Tauck would get them bright and early the next morning. After all, it was time for the next hotel! On to Perugia, and on to the Michelin starred meal that we booked for the trip!