Relais Alla Corte del Sole Perugia

arrive hier en fin de journee a orvietto. pour atteindre la ville de orvieto, a partir de la gare, on doit prendre un funiculaire qui nous amene a l'entre de la ville. apres avoir fais un petit tour de la ville pour s'orienter un peu, nous avons rencontrer un couple d'irlandais a notre auberge et on a passe une tres belle soiree en leur compagnie a deguster le vin local au restaurant de l'auberge

Comme plusieurs ...

... paysage est tres beau, comme dans toute la toscane!!

dans les attraction principale , il y avais le duomo, quelque eglies plus modestes, mais chacune avais un petit quelque chose a voir. puis il y a les ruines d'une anciene arena romaine.

We ended up in Orvieto sa we saw a friends photos of the catherdral and thought it was a must see. The cathedral was like a mini Florence Duomo, but 100% cleaner as the one in Florence is nearly black on the outside with pollution. The front facade on the cathedral is covered in beautiful gold leaf frescos that were glittering in the afternoon sunshine. Had a wander through the old town which was full of life as ...

All vitamin D'ed up we arrived at our destination for the evening - Bagni di Petriolo - hot springs. Soon we were lounging in the hot sulphur pools watching the sun set. A fresh water stream ran alongside the springs and a dip in the water was very refreshing, although a little breathtaking at the same time! The pools were popular with the locals young and old as well as travellers as there were about a dozen campers parked nearby. As lovely as ...

Down the road from Montalcino we popped into St Antimo Abbey where the local monks say their (7!!) daily prayers in Georgian chants. We caught part of the 12.45pm prayers and enjoyed some down time while listening the chanting. The afternoon was glorious and once again we were in tshirts, so we made the most of it and had a picnic in the sun beside the Abbey.

The drive to Montalcino provided us with scenery I had only seen in paintings and thought it surreal. The fog rolled over the verdant green hills and as each set of hills moved off into the distance the hills became a lighter shade of grey, moving to silhouettes towards the horizon. Is 10am too early for wine tasting? We thought it ...

... it is suddenly and gorgeously green and balmy. I'm posting some pictures leading up to and including Easter weekend. Yet to occur - Tuesday night's Passover Seder that I'm trying to put together for some students at the Umbra Institute (yes, I have found matzo in Perugia)! Wish me luck and look for a separate posting on that event!!

... of two hills and to get to class for example, I have to walk up and down and I get SO out of breath. It's been a little bit rainy, foggy and windy so far but I think that only adds to the mystifying aspect of Perugia. So far I have visited a local farm and learned how to make pasta from scratch and I've begun my Intensive Italian Language course. I usually dred language, but this Intro class was great ...

... were going to get there successfully, since the bus went through suburbs and industrial areas, and finally let us off across a mini-highway from a mall. We looked around, and we could see a big building with a Nestle sign, but no Perugina. Which is apparently because Nestle bought Perugina. However, we walked down the road a bit and the Perugina sign came into view, so we knew we were in the right spot. After Val determined that yes, we were in fact in the right spot, and we ...

... lunchtime street parade didn't eventuate, and the rest of the program doesn't start till around 6.00 pm each day. Most of the items listed were American college, school and army bands, and so spread out in time that it would have been midnight before we could head home. Nothing in the program inspired us to either stay, or plan on returning on a later evening. On the other hand, the two nights of the Cortona Jazz Festival, which they bill as being the end of the Umbrian Jazz ...