Umbertide

Our town has produced a new brochure that is now available in the Tourist Office.

The brochure is available in English as well as Italian! Yeah!  You are looking at a picture of the Rocca, a medieval fortress that was completed in 1389.  Today the facility is used as an exhibition venue for Contemporary art.

Wednesday is our big market day. Even though we have had a cold and rainy summer here, there are wonderful fruit and vegetables in the market.

You can also buy cheeses, prosciutto, salame, etc.

Even though the market is here all year round on Wednesdays, it has a special energy and vibration in the summer.

When you cross over the main road, there is a flea market that is hard to describe.  Think of a jumble of everything that you could find at a Target.  The prices are excellent, the quality is something that you must be careful about.

We have a large Muslim population in Umbertide, mainly Moroccans.  They also shop in the markets.

I love this picture.  It is such a good example of us all living together in harmony.

We had lunch today, (yes I know, another boring 2 hour lunch) at the Villa Doninno.  It is a gorgeous place up in the hills outside of Citta" di Castello.

We ate outside with our friends Nancy and Luther.  The food is excellent and innovative.

Hotel Villa San Donino

If you are in the area, I highly recommend it.  The service is friendly and although they speak English, they are very gracious with our attempts at Italian.

We received some happy news this week.  We will be spending Christmas in London with some good friends.  I have wanted to do this for a long time, so we are both very excited.

We leave tomorrow for Bolzano up in the Dolomites.  We have never been so we are looking forward to it.  Hope you all are having a very happy week end.