Lunch at Castiglione del Lago

Market day at Castiglione del Lago again today but all we bought was a salami and 3 kg of nectarines.

Later we had lunch at La Cantina in Castiglione, a place where we celebrated a big birthday 17 years ago. The outdoor setting is especially pleasant here and as the temperature was back up above 30 degrees, our table under the umbrella in the garden with the view across the lake towards Cortona was perfect for a long lunch.

I had a delicious pasta with Cinta Senese DOP pork and black truffles and Kel had pici pasta with a fresh water fish sauce. 

At long last I got to have dolce! Desserts are not high on an Italian's meal plan so at restaurants I find that it isn't often that I am asked if I would like dolce. One day I even ordered but it never arrived!  

No such problems today as I had a gorgeous millefeuille with poached nectarines, cinnamon ice cream and a toffee almond sauce. Kel chose to have a glass of Vin Santo with cantucci biscuits.

This evening we visited 'Il Roseto', our home from last year. We went for drinks with Ros and Noel and had a fun evening swapping travel stories and suggestions for future outings.

Frescoes, the mountains and Todi

Today was a big day out, especially for the driver. We set off heading east, going cross country through little roads to Cerqueto, another little town that is documented from the 1200s. We visited the church of Santa Maria Assunta to see the Pietro Vanucci 'Il Perugino' fresco, San Sebastiano. Painted in 1478 it is one of his earlier works and in our opinion lacks the brilliance of his later works.

San Sebastiano

In Città della Pieve on Sunday we saw four Il Perugino works and there is a stunning one in Panicale. You can see how his work developed and understand how he became the teacher of Raphael and other noted artists. He has work in the Sistine Chapel.

Just visible behind the altar is the 'Madonna in Glory with Saints'

'Baptism of Christ'

'The Adoration of the Magi'

'The Martyrdom of San Sebastiano'  (in Panicale)

We often hear people say they are churched out in Italy but the churches are the places to see much of the wonderful Renaisance art. We rarely visit art galleries but he have seen many of the great art works of that time.

We drove on to Marsciano but it was pausa time so very little to see. I think Marsciano has outgrown its historic centre but there were some beautiful buildings and signs of a ceramics industry.

Then we started on the green scenic route to Orvieto, so designated by the Michelin Guide, but in our opinion it means steep and very winding with lots of trees beside the road. There is rarely a view and never anywhere where you can stop to admire or take a photo. We climbed to 837 m. It was 2 pm before we found a small bar at Colonnetta and had a quick snack. We then headed back on another green route road to Todi. What a pleasure to finally see Todi!

This was our third visit to Todi (in seventeen years) so we mostly re- visited places we has seen before. Two more new flavours of gelato tried today. The gelateria had at least a dozen new flavours and I'm not going to be able to try them. Moan!

                     Tempio di Santa Maria della Consolazione - exterior and interior

     

Cathedrale delle Santissima Annunziata

 The Piazza del Popolo

Chiesa di San Fortunato. Rotary has financed a lot of restoration work in this church.

A steep walk back down to the car park ... you can imagine the steep climb up to the piazza.

When we left Todi we got onto the E45 motorway and arrived home a lot faster than the outward journey.

The olives are loving it but I'm not so keen.

Today was what you could call a washout! It was raining when we woke up and thunderstorms were predicted throughout the day so the planned big walk was cancelled, the planned trip tomorrow was cancelled too. No new photos but a few from previous weeks.

0 kilometres is a popular concept around Umbria. The idea is that you source your food from as close to where you live as possible. Roadside fruit and vegetable stalls often have the zero kilometres sign displayed.

You can't have zero kilometres food without 'zero kms' farmers.

We wondered who had been on steroids here - the tractor or the animal.

Some more popular modes of transport around town.

This photo taken from above shows a pop up 'club bar' that appears each summer for the young people of Panicale. It only operates for 2-3 hours an evening as night time events don't start until well after 9 pm and noise never goes past 12.30.

Our day concluded with drinks with some fellow Aussies. This photo is for Ros and Noel at 

Il Roseto.

The Palio dei Terzieri at Città della Pieve

We went to the Palio dei Terzieri historic parade at Città della Pieve again today. Last year it was spectacular so we couldn't miss it this year. The three rione compete for the coveted flag with the main event being an archery competition held after the parade. The festival actually goes for ten days and today was the finale.

Once again the parade (which took two hours to pass by) was a diverse mix of beautiful costumes, animals, music, crafts, warfare and village life in the past. The parade concludes with a huge flour fight which we avoided this year. You will see one photo where a flour bomb has just been shot into the crowd!

As I took over two hundred photos last year and I only have the compact camera working this year, I planned to take just a few photos for the blog. A few turned into 104 so here are a selection from another wonderful day of free entertainment.