Gubbio

I have been having internet issues so I am writing this post at Bar del Gallo. It will be more pictures than words but hopefully give you an idea of this wonderful ancient city. Gubbio is somewhat off the beaten tourist track and in its heyway was a city of major influence. This is evident in that it has a Roman theatre that is of such quality that it is still used for musical events.

This was our third visit to Gubbio (some of you will recall the story of when we were half way up the mountain in a two person open funicular and a storm came and the power went out!) Yesterday's visit was primarily to  go for a meal at Taverna del Lupo, enjoy a delicious meal of local produce and collect another Buon Ricordo plate for our wall. But that will be the subject of another post.

Saint Francis is one ot the local heroes. The story goes that a wolf was terrorising the locals until St. Francis spoke to it, it became tame and a much loved part of the community itself.

There are two statues commemorating St. Francis and the Wolf, one outside the church of San Francesco and one on the spot where the incident occurred.

Magnificent buildings in light grey rock stack one upon the other up the hillside.  At the top of the hill you can see our destination on the occasion of the power outage.

 

As we wandered around we heard drumming! Not at all unusual in Italy in the summer really. Then up the steps came the group of the Rose, the Quartiere di San Pietro. No matter that it was over 30 degrees, this group was dressed in the full velvet costumes expected of such a display.... a banner bearer, about ten drummers and six girls promoting their rione.

After a magnificent lunch we chose to ride off the meal, rather than walk it off! We took the tourist train that runs around the lower parts of the city, giving historic background, pointing out important sites and showing video clips of their festival of the Ceri, considered to be second only to Siena for colour and passion.

Because of the steepness between the major buildings in Gubbio, they have installed two lifts which certainly make life easier. We used the lifts to take us to the Cathedral and the Diocesan Museum where the peace that seems to permeate any location associated with Saint Francis is very evident.

We arrived home in time for a well earned drink at the bar and then watched the sun set on a big day.