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Italy

Updated 29 August 2019: Complete! The last section, Fairs and Family, has been added.

After many years of thinking about this, we finally went to Italy.  We had a fabulous, wonderful time.  It will be difficult to convey what a lovely vacation and visit this was, as it exceeded anything we could have imagined.  We will start by showing a map of the area, with some locations that we visted highlighted.

This link is to a map of many locations that we visited.  I will reference the numbers on the map in different spots in the trip report.  If you don't want to use the link (where you can zoom in & out on the map), here are some screenshots.  First, a map that shows the locations in Marche and the vicinity of Fano (where we were staying). 

Map of Marche

Guide to map

This second map includes locations further away. 

Map of Italy

Guide to map of Italy

As mentioned above, we stayed in Fano.  Paul's cousin & his wife, Francesco and Doni, hosted us.  Fabulous hosts, and Doni is a fabulous cook who took great care of us (no meat, no garlic, no onions!). Here is Flo (their daughter), Doni, and Francesco the night we had risotto with white truffles (we can credit another cousin, Filippo, for the truffles; more on the truffle festival later).

Flo, Doni, Franceso

The two of us with the meal.  You might have heard that white truffles are nicer than black truffles; it is true.  And if you buy fresh truffle, keep it in a glass jar with a paper towel, unless you want your entire house to have the wonderful but pungent odor of truffle.

Paul and Anne

Here is another picture of us, this time including Flo's boyfried Tommaso.

Tommaso, Flo, Doni, Francesco, Anne, Paul

And this next picture is of just Anne, when we were about to have lunch in our apartment: fresh tagliatelle with a quick tomato sauce.  The flat bread you see is called piadina, and is extremely common in Marche.  And the pasta is from a local shop that makes, right in front of you, pasta of various types. (Pasta della Peppa; more on that soon.)

Anne and lunch

This intro page will have links to the other pages in this trip report as they are published.  We were in Italy for 3 weeks, and there is much to tell, but we will try to keep it to a reasonable length.

Page 1: Intro
This introductory page has the maps and labels, so you might want to refer to it as you read the rest of this trip report.

Page 2: Fano and Page 3: Fano Continued
The city where we stayed, Fano, was one end of the famous Roman road Via Flaminia came through. 

Page 4: Urbino
The inland city of Urbino has the twin Studiolo of the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Page 5: Sant'Angelo in Lizzola
This is the Diotalevi 'home town' in Italy.

Page 6: Tuscany plus Page 7 (San Gimignano), Page 8 (Siena), and Page 9 (Siena & Florence)
We spent our first weekend in Italy in Tuscany.

Page 10: Pesaro
The capital of the region.

Page 11: Medieval Villages and Page 12: Villages continued
A peak at some of the lovely and historic villages in Marche.

Page 13: Grotte di Frasassi and Genga
The Grotte di Frasassi are a famous and large cave system. Nearby Genga has a museum and lovely views.

Page 14: Tours and Page 15: Tours Continued
Vineyards, olive groves, and an archaeological site.

Page 16: Assisi and Gubbio
Famous medieval cities

Page 17: Fairs and Page 18: Family
The last 2 pages of this trip report cover some fairs and family activities.

 

 

Updated July 2020