Civita Bagnoregio! Perched on its mountain top for 5000 years

The very nice town of Alerona

Autumn colours, a vineyard from our room near Ficulle. Orvieto in the background.

The cathedral in Orvieto; the city is so nice we went twice

Hi again. Still having fun in fascinating Italy. Things are generally going smoothly although occasionally we have a major problem, e.g a few days ago at a restaurant a request for 1/4 litre (un quarto liter) of wine was actually for 4 litres (quartro liter). Luckily the waitress realised the mistake and we joked about it.

We drove 200 km from Mondavio to Ficulle and the weather improved to clear skies and 25 degrees. On the way we crossed 2 mountain ranges of up to 500m above sea level and climbed a third range to our rural house, also 500m high. On the way, in two different areas we saw young women seated alone in remote vantage points beside the road – waiting for friends or perhaps for a bus? They didn’t wave to us so we didn’t offer them a ride.

Our timeshare house is large, with room for 10 people. It is very old and the decor matches the age of the house, although we have mod cons like electricity and wifi. From the garden and balcony we can see across a large 300 m deep valley to Orvieto about 20 km away, looking over olive orchards, vineyards and woodland. Ficulle is a nice hill-top town, quite small and hundreds of years old. We came across the local Sunday market and shopped with the locals.

Most nearby towns have a town centre that is very old. Etruscans lived in this area 5000 years ago, then the Romans took over and many of the towns have buildings dating back to that era. In Mediaeval times they were rebuilt and remain largely in that style. Check out on google Earth or Google Maps such towns as Ficulle, Montegabbione, Orvieto, Chitta del Pieve, Chiusi, Sarteano, Alerona – they are all within an hour of us and are wonderful examples of 600- to 800-year old architecture. They have castles, cathedrals, theatres, piazzas, and of course, caves. Ficulle, 3 km from our house, and Alerona are the smallest of the towns that we mentioned. The buildings were originally made with stone quarried from beneath the towns and now most of the buildings, either private or public, have cellars used for wine, food and other goods. Our house is at Via Amelia 5, Ficulle (Google it) with a swimming pool that we can’t use because the water is too cold, even though the daytime temperature has been in the mid-20’s each day.

American travel writer, Rick Steves, reckons his favourite “old town” is Civita Bagnoregio, about an hour away. This place is amazing, a tiny town perched on a steep mountain, originally inhabited 5000 years ago, rebuilt by the Romans 2000 years ago and rebuilt again 1000 years ago. Now only a few families live there but lots tourists visit every day, served by about a few small restaurants. Everything needed to support the locals and tourists has to be carried or carted by tiny trucks across a steep narrow path from the main town of Bagnoregio. We prefer Ficulle because it is not a tourist town.

In the towns and amongst the farms near Ficulle we can see everyday life – tiny trucks, tractors with grapes, people chatting to each other as they pass in the street, men having coffee in, or in front of, bars and tabachis; people closing stores at lunch time for siesta or re-opening again at 4 or 5 o’clock. Locals are always quick with a smile and greeting and often they are happy to chat, in Italian of course as hardly anyone speaks English. We have had meals of local products, wines from Ficulle (Vitalonga winery) and Chianti and of course wonderful breads and pastries. Occasionally we have spoken to English speaking people, such as a couple from Philadelphia who we met at a parking ticket machine and spent the next 2 hours having lunch with – but generally most of the tourists seem to be Italian. We spent a few hours in Cortona, the town where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed, including a really nice lunch in a restaurant that was full of Italians.

The weather has been kind; 4 days of overnight and morning rain then fine afternoons with temperatures in the mid-20’s. We have been very lucky.

The past week in the Umbria region has been the best week of the 4 weeks that we have spent in Italy but it has to end. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will leave here and drive all day to Milan where we will return our wonderful Peugeot 208 after about 2500 kms. The car has been great and driving has been good fun – for the driver but a bit scary for the passenger, especially in the first few days.  The car and passenger have handled steep, narrow, winding roads and mountain tracks both rocky and muddy – the car and passenger are both keepers.

On Sunday we’ll fly to Istanbul and leave on Monday for a 12 day cruise through the eastern Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea. Wifi is not so reliable on cruise ships so we are not sure whether we’ll do another update before we arrive home.

Love to all. Hope you are all keeping well

Ted and Jo