Hey, it's Christopher Kimball from Mostri Radio. It sounds like I'm bragging, and I am, with the number one most downloaded food podcast in America. You know, Mostri Radio travels the world in search of the very best food stories. You'll hear about smuggling eels on the black market, the secret intelligence of plants, and insider tips to eating in Paris. In every week, listeners call in with their toughest culinary mysteries. Discover a world of food stories by searching your podcast app for Mostri Radio. Amateur Traveler Episode 999. Today, Amateur Traveler talks about festivals and fortesas, basilicas and saints, Romans and atrustkins, as we go to Umbria in Italy. This is Chris Christensen from Amateur Traveler. Let's talk about Umbria. I'd like to welcome the show, Katharina Ferrarra, author of seven ultimate festival and travel guides in the Travel Italy guidebook series, and host of the immersion travel Italy podcast, where she shares Italy through its history of festivals, culture and immersive travel experiences. Katharina, welcome to the show. - Thank you. - And Katharina has come to talk to us about Umbria, which we haven't talked about on Amateur Traveler for some time now. What is your connection with Umbria? Or your connection with Italy in general, you've written a lot of guidebooks in Italy. I'm assuming you've been there. - Yes, yes, countless times. And what happened was I started learning Italian and then I was watching Italian TV and I'm watching the news every day, and I'm seeing that they're at a different festival. It could be a food festival. There are 20,000 food festivals in Italy. It could be a religious festival. And every day, I'm seeing these incredible festivals and they have special festival foods that you have to find. And so I started including festivals in our travel several years ago. And what I found was if you don't speak Italian, you can't really figure out what's happening. So I thought how would other Americans in English speaking people include festivals in their travels. So I came up with the idea to write the festival guides. I also want to document the festivals because I feel like they're really special. Tradition that Italy has. I use my friend, Annalisa, as an example. She lives in Rome for work, but she goes to Ferrentino, her hometown, for the festival of Sant'Ambrosio every year. And that is the most important time of year. She says it's more important than her birthday. It's more important than Christmas. So to Italians, these religious festivals, these festivals in their small towns are very important. And really, they're also important for the economics of very small towns. - Sure. - And Stascio, Sagra, maybe their main income all year from tourism, for example. - Well, the festival you mentioned, that would be the festival of the patron saint of the town, I'm assuming. - Exactly, yes. And they've been celebrating that for 700 years, for 2000 years. So just depending on the town. So it's really incredible. And some of the food festivals that have been celebrated since Roman times. So even BC, these festivals are continuing on. - Excellent. And we're gonna talk about Ambrosio today. Why should someone go to Ambrosio in particular? - For me, travelers should include Ambrosio in their plans because the hill towns feel just completely suspended in time. These are beautifully preserved places that stay off the main tourist track because the region has no major airport. And the high speed trains are limited. But if you get there, you can really enjoy some time in the small towns, as well as in nature. There are incredible hikes and pilgrimage trails like the way of Saint Francis that also work for cyclists. So if you've been to Tuscany and loved it, to me, Ambrosio should be your next stop. Everything you came to is here. It's got fresco churches, olive oil, wine, truffles, and no crowds. There's no coaches bringing giant tours. And also the prices are excellent. Lodging an Ambrosio costs a fraction of what you're going to pay and Florence from Ravenna's. - Excellent. What itinerary you're going to recommend for us. - Okay, first I want to explain where Ambrosio is. So Ambrosio is in the geographic center of the Italian peninsula. And it's the only region in mainland Italy that shares no border with the sea or a foreign country. It's entirely landlocked and it's compact. It's about 150 kilometers from North to South. That's about 93 miles. And it's no more than 100 kilometers wide at its widest point. That's 62 miles. So you can drive from end to end and under two hours is a great auto strata. So if you give it a comparison in the US, I would say it's smaller than New Hampshire or New Jersey. Along the center is the Apennine Mountains, along the center of Italy. So they are the border between Le Marque, which is the region that's off to the east and Umbria. And they've got the Sibillini Mountains. And some of those peaks are 2,000 meters. So 6,600 feet with the highest being 2400 meters. So some good mountain hiking as well. And then you've got Lake Trezimenno, which a lot of people have heard of, because it's halfway between Tuscany and Umbria. And it gives Umbria an opportunity to be a little bit coastal. The geography is a lot of hill towns. And these are hill towns, limestone with dramatic cliffs. And the dark soil, of course, is volcanic. And it produces olives, lentils, which you'll see come up in a lot of menu items, spelt and black truffles, which obviously Umbria is celebrated for its truffles. The only thing I would add to that is historically, this is an area that was known not necessarily as much for the Romans. They came later, but for the Etruscans. Exactly. Pre-Dathe Romans. Yes. So we're going to be talking about the Etruscans in some of the cities, because some of the archaeological finds are Etruscan instead of Romans. So certainly, the Etruscans will come up. And where are we going to start? We are going to Landen Rol, which most of us will do, coming from North America. And we are going to head north to a town called Orvietto, then we're going to head on to a Cicengoubio. So landing at Fumicino Airport, we're going to rent a car. Here's why. Train coverage in Umbria is built around a handful of hub cities, which means a lot of routes require at least one connection, if not two. So some of the most beautiful places in Umbria also may not have a train station, so that car gives you the freedom. I do offer a train-based itinerary in the book. It's just a little more complicated to see Umbria that way. So we're landing at Rome. We're picking up the car at the airport, and we're heading north on the Auto Strada into Umbria. And the only thing I would add to that is having driven from Rome up into more Tuscany than Umbria, the thing I would say is that picking up the car at the airport is an important tip there. If you're going to do Rome first, I don't recommend what I did was picking up a car at the train station in central Rome and driving through central Rome. Driving in Italy is not bad except in Rome. And yes, we did make the mistake. We stayed in Rome first when we were there most recently in December, and we picked up the car from Germany. And it was fine following Google Maps to get out. But unfortunately, when we were coming back to Germany to return the car, we made the fatal error of coming back during rush hour. And not only was it rush hour, but it was the night before the feast of the Amacolata. So everyone was headed into Rome for that festival. We made one wrong turn and just to go around the block was 45 minutes. So yes, renting at Germany is a little more complicated, certainly, than renting at the airport. Very true. Excellent. So you got in the car and we're heading up to Orbieto. We're headed to Orbieto. It's under a two hour drive on the Auto Strada. You are going to pay tolls on the Auto Strada. Just tap your car. Don't try and come up with the change, especially if you've just landed, you might not have any. So it's easy to tap and go. And Orbieto is a really great place to arrive because it has ample free parking at the base of the hill. This is a hill town. And you're going to take a funicular, just five minutes up for two euros. You buy the tickets in the little gift shop. It's almost 7/11 at the bottom of the hill. You're going to ride up that funicular. And you're going to arrive at the Fortezza Albernaz, known as the Rocca. And that sits at the eastern edge of the cliff where you enter town. The construction of this fort is back from 1364. You're going to hear the name Cardinal Albernaz again because he built many of these fortresses in the 1300s. And part of this was the pope was living in Avenon, but they were trying to re-assert power in this area. So these fortresses popped up in several of the towns we're going to talk about today. So it was originally a major fort, and nearby is also another site that's well known in town. And that is a well, the Wall of St. Patrick. And that was built in 1527. And it's a very special engineering feat because the well, it's 175 feet deep. But it was built in a way that has a double helix staircase. So donkeys going down, don't cross donkeys coming up with water. And why is that so important? Of course, here on a hill town, if you're under siege, your main problem is you're not near a river, and you don't have water. So this well is very important. And it is a really cool thing to hike down and hike back up. The fort itself is great for scenic views, but it is a ruin at this point. So you've got the fortress walls, and you've got some viewpoints, but it's not a fort that's now a museum. It became a ruin because after Orvieto joined the Kingdom of Italy, there was no need for a military fortress. So it just decayed over the years. And now it's just a place to see Umbria. And it's a great first point for a visit because you can see all of the olive trees, a huge view of the valley, especially on a clear day. So it's a great first stop. OK. After we're done at the fort, we're going to head uphill. We're still going up to get into town. this first street ride.
on his Piazza cavore and it's got some great shops and cafes, some medieval stone buildings. Many of Orvietto's artisans have craft shops here and Orvietto, over the years, was known for ceramics and woodwork and leather and some hand painted objects. And one of the things I have a friend who lives nearby and she said, "You're going to really be surprised that Orvietto, although it is a great town to come visit because of its dwell mo there, we're going to talk about in a moment. It's also a great place to do some shopping." And of course that was sustained because it is somewhat of a pilgrimage site. We'll talk about why in a minute, but they also had lace and embroidery. And so when we went into these shops, the artist is just working. They're just painting. They're doing the lace and it's really nice just to visit with them and make sure in plan room in your suitcase for a little bit of artists and shopping for coming to town. Or ship a box home. We did find a DHL to ship a box home. And then it happens. You're walking up the street, browsing the shops and you see the street open up into a piata and you come face to face with the most extraordinary church facade in Italy and that is the dwell mo of Orvietto. And this dwell mo has golden mosaics, in different series on the facade. It also has stripes of black and white marble across the surface and carved biblical scenes, incredible detail and a rose window that was added in 1359 that looks like it's flowers and lace. It's absolutely captivating. And you might be seeing it. Well, it's so much more colorful than the outside of any church I can think of. It is. In the sunlight, it almost seems like it's illuminated from behind because there is so much color. Of course, the way the mosaics do the mosaics, they're not perfectly flat. So the light catches on them differently. It's just a really amazing spot to be. And you might be saying, why would this small town of 10,000 medieval inhabitants have one of the most extraordinary cathedral facades in Italy? And the answer is Peter of Prague. He was a traveling priest in 1263. He stopped by to have a mass in the town of Bulsena, which is just 12 miles from here. So not far. And he was having doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And at the moment of concentration, when he held the host up, the legend is that it started to bleed, staining the corporal and the altar. And the word of this miracle spread quickly. And Pope Urban IV, who was residing in Orviato at the time, ordered the relic to be brought to the city in a solemn procession. And in the church, you'll actually see some of this in art inside of the church. It's honor and enshrine this miraculous cloth. The construction of the Diomo began in 1290. So the corporal of Bulsena is actually kept here in the chapel of the corporal. And the frescoes tell you about the story, about the miracle, and about how it got here to Orviato. One other thing inside the church is beautifully striped with that black and white, which is striking. But there's also a chapel called the Chapel of San Brizio. And it contains Lucca Sr. relic's astonishing frescoes of the last judgment. It was completed in 1504. And the figures are muscular and twisting and interr and in revelation and art historians have long noted how Michelangelo had seen these before he did the Sistine Chapel. And in their opinion, these frescoes influenced that Sistine Chapel. You think about the muscular bodies on the ceiling there. So I think that's interesting. Not only did Sistine Arale do that work, but there were earlier frescoes in the vault by Fra Angelico and Venazzo Gazzoli. And these are really Sistine and luminous and angels. And so it's just a difference between the newer meaning 1504 and the older part of that chapel. So it's really a special place. Now, you might be asking yourself, this is a pilgrimage site. Can I see that miraculous cloth when I visit? The answer is no. You can only see it one time a year. And that's during the feast of corpus Dominic, the feast of corpus Christi. And this is a very important festival in the Catholic Church. Orviato is the home base. That festival was created specifically because of this miracle in Volsena. And so during the feast, obviously my book is about festivals. During this feast in Orviato, you've got historical banners and people in medieval dress and flower petals and processions, of course, with the corpus through town. And if you're timing allows, it's an extraordinary thing to witness. Corpus Dominic varies each year. So I can't give you an exact date because it's 60 days after Easter and Easter varies each year. So you're looking at end of May, early June. But it's a great time to visit town. The biggest surprise for me in Orviato was that it has this underground called the Orviato Salt Tarania. It's near the Duolamo where you take us into or as you don't go by yourself, you go with the group. And this is the underground city carved by the Atrustkins. So the Atrustkins, of course, were in this area before the Romans. And the two are offers this incredible view of the city below the current city. There's 1200 caves down there. There's Atrustkin Wells and Sisters where they would get and store their water. There's medieval olive pressing rooms. Towers carved into the volcanic stone. There's kilns. Three sellers and tunnels that were used for movement and escape. Of course, bring your jacket if you're going into the underground even in the summer because it's cool you're around in the underground. If you want to stay in Orviato and for our itinerary, I'm recommending two nights, three if you can spare them. The hotel you want to look for is the MA Palace Hotel. And the rooms are not huge, but they're comfortable in modern, which is really nice. They have a great breakfast. They're big on hotel breakfast because we wake at different times. So let's go first and get ready while the other person is having breakfast. And that's just about a five minute walk to the Duomo. It's near Piazza della Republic, which is another important Piazza in town. And as far as a restaurant, I have a really special spot. It's called the Restaurant Marizio. And it's near the Duomo not far in that sort of shopping area. And it's run by a man named Marizio Martinelli and our friend Marica, who lives in town, introduced us to him. It was one of these traditional three hour lunches on our first visit. It's a beautiful place. And it was three courses and local wine. Orviato Plasicco is a well-known wine in Umbria. That's a white. And they also had a couple of local red wines, Srirangelo Gray, and then a Srirangelo Black label. And we started, he did a sort of olive oil tasting for us where he brought the local olive oils and you just drank them out of a little spoon to get a taste. He does that with all the tables. So I don't think that was specific just because we were with one of his friends. But then we had a brosqueda tasting, three different types of local brosqueda. We had a local pasta. You'll see it on menus in Umbria called the Umbrecelli. It looks like fat spaghetti that's cut into pieces is my best way to describe it. It's generally served with tomatoes, olives, and capers. And they have the special local bread called the luma celli. And that's a savory bread. Luma, that name means snail bread because it's twisted into a bread roll. That looks like a snail. And of course in Umbria you're going to see the Papar deli, Ale Chingiali. Chingiali is a term you'll also hear in Tuscany because that's the wild boar. And when you're in the center of Italy, obviously you're not seaside. So these wild boar are on a lot of menus. They cook the wild boar for a long time. So if you didn't know it was wild boar you might just think it was pork. Or beef, it's not gimme to me. It's very good. And it's a traditional dish of Umbria and the interior. The menu is also going to have duck breast, wild mushroom pasta, a lot of beef. You'll find a lot of beef on the menus in Umbria, which both my husband and son prefer to have some protein on the menu. So they're always happy if they can find something that's not just pasta on the menu. I'm ready to head into day trips from Orvietto. Do you have any questions about Orvietto before I move along? No, let's move on. Okay, so day trips from Orvietto. The first one I want to mention is Bolsena because of course that is the miracle that we talked about earlier. Bolsena is about 12 miles, which is 20 kilometers from Orvietto. And you'll visit the Basilica of Santa Cristina where the miracle took place. This Basilica is from the fourth or fifth century and it's built on third century Christian site. So it's a very old building and it has been converted into a more Romanesque-looking building after the miracle. Beyond this important church in town is the Lago di Bolsena, so the lake. And here you have sunlit sea shores and nice breezes and quiet promenade. There's cafes along the lake, there's a nice medieval quarter and of course panoramic views. So it's nice to relax with a coffee and just enjoy the fishing boats moving around the lake and enjoy some lakeside living while you're in the middle of Italy. In the summer you can take boats, you can take nice leisurely walks and there are hiking trails that go all the way around the lake although that's pretty far. So if you want to go on a 5 kilometer or 13 kilometer hike, there's lots of options for that along the lake side which is really nice. So a Balsena is our first day trip or second one is going to be a Viteirovo.
And Viteirovo is about 24 miles, which is 40 kilometers from Orvietto, Southwest. This is a city that steeped in history because it was the seat of the papacy. And so the History Center is almost regal. So they've got medieval architecture, papal history, and thermal springs, which I do recommend while you're in the interior of Italy to take the thermal spring experience seriously. So during the 13th century, Viteirovo became the seat of the papacy. And the historic center reflects that thriving medieval capital. There's an area called the San Pellegrino Quarter, which is one of the best preserved medieval districts in all of Italy with stone archways and tower houses and quiet piazzas. I was once trying to book an Airbnb inside of the San Pellegrino Quarter for the festa of Santa Rosa, the Machina di Santa Rosa. And I asked, oh, this is September. So it can be hot in Italy. I said, I don't understand. I can't find anywhere that has air conditioning. She said they won't allow it in the San Pellegrino district. It is strict medieval rules. And so I thought that was interesting. OK, then she said, oh, no, it doesn't get that hot. Oh, OK. That actually probably informs the question of when should one be doing this trip to Ombria? What's the best time to visit? Obviously, around some of the festivals, as you mentioned. Yes. One of the things is that you don't have a super high other than a CC, a pilgrimage site. You don't have a super high tourist travels. So it's not like when you go to Sardinia, and there's a gazillion people there in July and August, or you want to really avoid Rome and travel during the shoulder season. Because these towns are less touristed, you really can go in June or July. Now, obviously, it can be hot. So I'm always going to prefer May, early June, before the rest of the kids get out of school. Or September, October, once the kids go back to school, just to minimize that impact. But we've been here in these towns in December. We had a jacket on, but it was still the lightful. And we really had the towns to ourselves. OK, excellent. Yeah. Oh, OK. So no visit to Vittarboa is complete without seeing that Palazzo de Papi, which is the Papal Palace. The popes lived here. Conclaves were held here during the 13th century. It's got a beautiful loja. I also mentioned the Machina of Santa Rosa Festival. This is an incredible feat. This is a 30-meter, 98-foot tall Machina tower devoted to Santa Rosa. It weighs five tons. And a hundred men carry this on their shoulders for their procession to the medieval center during the festival. Got it. OK. So it's a monstrance. It is incredible. Yes. They train for it. It's just once a year. And it is beautiful to see. And of course, it's so giant. You can see it from 300 feet away with no problem. And you mentioned it had a beautiful loja. And I'm going to make you define what a loja is because I had to look it up. OK. So the palace's loja is a covered patio, essentially, usually on a second or third level of a palace. And you think of it where the popes would speak down to the population. Right. But usually they're beautifully archaided, almost like an interior portico. And so it's just a beautiful iconic landmark with twisted carved balcony rails and things like that. So yeah. Thanks. Just in case I am not the only person who didn't know what a loja was. No problem. It's funny because I include terms like this in my book. And my editor will say, people don't know what this is. So yes. So the thermal bats here. They've been emerging and they're known since Roman times and at Truscant times. The water comes up at 58 degrees Celsius, which is 136 degrees Fahrenheit. Dante referenced these springs in the 14th condo of the inferno. And Michael Angelo was even said to have sketched this during his travels. In 1235, Pope Gregory IX elevated the prestige of the bats. And in 1450, Pope Nicholas V commissioned the Grand Palace here with the crenellated walls and vaulted ceilings. So it's a beautiful spot if you're looking for a thermal spa visit. And it's easy to get the ticket. It's the Terramé de Poppy. So the Pope's thermal bats essentially. Excellent. I've got two more towns I'm going to mention as it relates to day trips. But these are really quick. Tody. I can't not mention Tody because it has four important historic sites that sit on a really nice medieval piazza. And then the other town is Narni. And Narni is where C.S. Lewis came up with the name Narnia. So some of the founders to Oombrie. It's going to make that joke, but OK. Yes. It's another medieval hill town. It's got a beautiful fortress. Another rock of Albernars from the same cardinal that we saw. It's got a cathedral. And it has another subterranean area built by the Etruscans. So those are another couple of towns nearby. And that was the south. So we're going to move up to a Ceci next. And we're going to cover the middle, the cities of the middle of Oombria. And so we're checking out of Orvietto. And we're going to spend a couple nights in a Ceci. I'm going to say you want three or four if you could do that. It's a 90 minute drive from Orvietto into a Ceci. And I want to just mention, if you've decided to do this by train, and you're arriving in a Ceci by train, you're not actually arriving in a Ceci. Because a Ceci is up on the hill, the train is going to come into the town of Sant Maria deli, Angeli. And when you arrive, you're going to look up at a Ceci up on the hill. And you're going to think, yeah, I can't walk that with my luggage. Which you can't. So there is a bus. It just right outside of the train station, it's called the Line C bus. And you're going to get on that bus. It's two euros. And you're going to take the 15 minute drive up. People do walk it. But it's not very practical when you're arriving with luggage. An important site in this town of Sant Maria deli, Angeli, this near the train station is the Basilica of Sant Maria deli, Angeli. And it has a tiny chapel called the Poirotincola. And this chapel has been preserved because it is where St. Francis founded the Franciscan movement. So it's a grand Basilica with a tiny chapel inside. So if you're landing in town at the train station, you may as well just make the walk over and have a look at that. So we've arrived in a CC, which is the most famous town, obviously, and all of Umbria. And the Basilica of Saint Francis is a major pilgrimage site. The Basilica was started in 1228 just right after Saint Francis was canonized. So just two years after. And that Basilica is actually two Basilicas. It's a lower Basilica and an upper Basilica and both have incredible art. So the lower Basilica was finished in 1230. And its frescoes are from the 13th and 14th centuries. So you're going to see frescoes from Chimabue was the teacher of Jato who painted upstairs in the upper cathedral. Okay. Pietro Lorenzetti, Simone Martini, and these are frescoes of the life of Christ. And also the Franciscan movement. So really beautiful, colorful frescoes. It's a little bit darker in the lower church that it is in the upper church, just because of how the windows are organized. But the other thing in the lower church is the crypt of Saint Francis. So you go down the stairs on the left and you're in the crypt. This is an extremely spiritual space. Saint Francis was about poverty. And so it's not hugely enhanced there, but it is a place where people go to light candles and pray. So that crypt, to me, is the most religious, most spiritual part of the church. And we should mention that this church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Those people like me who collect those. So yes, we do too. Yes, exactly. Very good point. So then the construction of the upper Basilica began in 1239. It was completed in 1253. And of course they had to create these because there was such a surge of pilgrims to the area. And the Franciscans still exist there. The monks still exist there and they still are involved with the church. So the upper church, this was painted by Jato and it tells the life of Saint Francis. It has tall, gothic windows and one of those delightful bright blue ceilings with stars. They talk about the Sistine Chapel. You still look just like that before Michelangelo put his fresco up there. Jato finished this in about 1300. So it's an extremely good shape, soaring vaults, paintings and those stories along the walls. So the Basilica doesn't require a ticket. It's easy to access and it's a beautiful spot. It's also up on the hill. You will have to do stairs as far as I know. I didn't see a lot of options to get from the lower Basilica to the upper Basilica. We do have more sites to see in a C.C. but the restaurant I want to recommend is right here in Piazza Duomo. So I'm just going to mention it. With beautiful views of the Basilica out the windows is the restaurant bar San Francesco. And frankly, I would never have gone in here because I would have been worried that it looked like it was going to be in a tourist spot and it would be a tourist restaurant. But a friend in town said, no, I'm making a reservation for you because I promise you it's a local ingredients prepared well, local family. It's half pasted chariot. So if you're there, you can get some breakfast. And it's also got an incredible oombrie and lunch menu. So we started with a plate of local meats and cheeses.
We really had a good experience there. They also have that umbra celly, the local pasta I recommend. They have tortilla with the Norteja black truffle. Now Norteja is a city about an hour away from a Cece. So we're still talking local ingredients. - Okay. - And they also have some like, she pasta with rabbit, conelio. So they've got some of those meats on the menu. One of my favorite things to eat in umbra was the soup. If local lentils and vegetables, and then at the end, after it's ready to be served, they put new olive oil over the top. It's almost like olive oil soup. It's absolutely delicious. And of course when we were in there in December, it was a beautiful warm up meal at lunch. - Right. - For second courses, you're looking at Ville, also Bucco, duck breast, with sage, was also on the menu, lamb. You're gonna find a lot of lamb with rosemary. And of course, Ville with truffle sauce, because a lot of things have truffle sauce. So anyway, one thing I do wanna mention in umbra is a bread that is local to the area called torta altesto. And this is a bread that's from Roman times. So it's a very antique bread. The name means cake of the tile. And it's cooked on a cast iron disc. It used to be cooked over fire on a cast iron disc. And it is made solely from flour, water, and baking soda. Instead of a big leavening, it's just cooked with baking soil. And they put olive oil on top. It's often served as a sandwich with prosciutto or bitter greens or grilled sausage. So when you're in umbra, you'll end up seeing the torta altesto on a menu, certainly. - It's interesting that it has no salt because in some places in Italy, the bread without salt is served because salt was taxed. I have no idea whether that has anything to do with this here. - Yeah, Tuscany is known for that, right? Like in Florence, their bread won't have salt. So it could certainly be the same. I would say probably before the papacy, because it was the papacy doing that taxing. So perhaps there was a problem in old times, but not necessarily after the papacy took over the area. There is a suite of a seashore. And it's called the rotchata. Deseasine, it was a little bit of a surprise for us. Our tour guide took us into a traditional bakery. And it looks like strutal. It is an oombrian strutal. So it's a thin pastry with apples, walnuts, raisins, chugrin, cinnamon, baked, and it's that spiral strutal. So I thought, who brought this strutal down here, but someone did, you'll find it by the slice and any of the local bakeries. And so it is something that you want to try when you're in town, certainly. - I certainly can't fault anybody for bringing strutal any place. - Exactly. Somehow it seemed German to me instead of Italian, but yeah, that's their little space. - Well, at one point, the Frankish kings were patrons of the pope. And I believe that was when the papacy was not in Rome, but in this area. So that might be where it came from. - Yeah, certainly, certainly. So we have had our lunch and some dessert. And now we gotta get back on the trail of sites. There is a really cool site in the middle of town in the Piazza del Camune. And it is the Temple of Manerva, which is six Corinthian columns from Roman times. Why are they still here? Because they got turned into a Catholic church. Santa Maria, so from Manerva, over the Temple of Manerva. And so that's why they still stand that it's a really striking site because you've got six Corinthian columns. You've got the medieval tower and then this Piazza del Camune with the fountain, a major meeting point in town. - By the way, I read that the how do you pronounce this true to love? (laughing) - That, or rocata. - Rocata is predates Roman times. So it doesn't come from the Franks. It doesn't come from Vienna, possibly it's the other way around. - Yeah, there you go. So yeah, exactly, exactly. A nearby church is the church of Santa Maria, a majority and this church holds the tomb of St. Carlo Coutius. And it is after the pilgrimage sites of St. Francis and St. Claire, a very important pilgrimage site now in Italy. Carlo Coutius was canonized last year in 2025. He is the first millennial saint of the Catholic church. He died at age 15. He had leukemia and that was back in 2006. He was born in London but grew up in Milan and he was a normal teenager playing video games but he was also very religious. And he decided that he wanted to create a website that had all of the Eucharistic miracles available for people who couldn't travel to these sites and by himself after school, he figured out how to bring this website up. It was finally available in 20 languages. He had maps and descriptions and downloadable guides so you could learn about the Eucharistic miracles. So it was just a really neat story and he is of course here. He wanted to be buried in a CC. He was very devoted to St. Francis. You can actually see him. He's wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. It's a glass case. And he wanted to be in the place where St. Francis gave up his riches and decided to become a monk and serve the Lord in that way of poverty. And so that's where he chose and after his canonization, that's where he is. So that is very interesting. - Well that probably makes him also the first webmaster who's become a saint, which is significant to some of us who are older than millennials. - So. (laughs) - Yeah, he figured it all out on his own. So it's very interesting. The last site I will mention as far as churches in a CC is the Basilica of St. Clair. This is on the opposite side of town that the other gate from the Basilica of St. Francis. Construction of her church began in 1257. Clair was a devotee. Two Francis also gave up her wealth and riches. Francis cut her beautiful blonde hair and she became devoted to the church. This is a really beautiful building because it's striped pink and white and it's using the stone from the mountain that sits above you when you're in a CC Mount Subasio. And there's a crypt of course with her remains there below the church. And at another beautiful site, also a pilgrimage site with some beautiful art inside. Something off the beaten path in a CC is the Raka. Again, highest point in town, a fortress built in the 14th century. And on your way up, you're gonna pass the town's cathedral which isn't either of these Basilicas but another cathedral called the Cathedral of San Rufino. And that church is actually where both St. Clair and St. Francis were baptized. So that's on your way working your way up the Raka. So if you wanna hike, that's where you wanna go. One of the things that people don't know about a CC is that it's also known for its artisan workshops. And if you think about it, it makes sense because this is a pilgrimage town since the 18th century. - So a lot of tourists. - Yes, so they have, yeah, they have a tradition of ceramics. They have a tradition of tiles and decorative pieces. There is an experience there at A. Gallo Colors. This is a studio where water paints are mixed from natural ingredients from the area, using earths, minerals and plant pigments. And they use honey to create those in Rosemary oil. And he does demonstrations. There's also a tradition here of weaving, olive wood carving. When you think about a lot of people were the cross of St. Francis, that's local olive wood. And these are crafts from the medieval times, from the Renaissance times. And so that's a part of a CC that some people don't realize that there are a lot of artisan shops in town. As far as where to stay, we have two hotels. We have a three-star, which is the hotel Il Palazzo. It's in the center of the historic district. It's got quick access to the Palazzo del Camune and the Basilica. And it's an upscale three-star, I would say. If you want something more luxurious, the nun, a CC Relias, is a five-star hotel with a spa. And it is a little bit outside the town, but it has great views of the valley. It's probably a 20-minute walk from the Basilica of St. Francis because it's on the other side of town. But those are two options if you're there in a CC. Now we need to do our day trips from a CC. And the first one we're going to do is Spoletto. And this is my favorite town in all of Hungary. It's about 35 minutes. When you arrive in Spoletto, you're going to park at the Perquejo, which means parking lot. Spoletto Sfera. And the really cool thing they've done is this is a hilltop town. And remember, you don't want to drive into the center of hilltop towns because you're going to a ZTL, a limited traffic zone. And you'll think you're doing fine. And then three to six months later, you're going to get a ticket for $300 in the mail that you have to pay the bank transfer. It has happened to us multiple times. So we're very careful. And people say, why do you pay it? And I say, because I don't want to get pulled over in Italy and they say, oh my gosh, it's got $1,000 worth of unpaved parking tickets. So Spoletto has created a really cool system to get you from the parking lot into town. You take an elevator, and then there's moving walkways. So it's right through the rock into the mountain. And you arrive in the center of town from the main parking not ever having to drive into Curvy Hill town. So that is an easy way to get into town. And it's very much an umbria thing. You'll see the same thing in Perugia. So we go back to Spoletto every time we're in town. We take that walkway into town. And we head straight to Pasduchuria, Tebro. This is a feast.
family-owned pastichuria. And we love them. Sometimes we stop two times, once on the way into town, and once on the way out of town. They have a really special thing. You might have heard of the Mary Totso. When you go to Rome, you'll get a Mary Totso, which is a brioche bun filled with panna, which I would call unsweetened whipped cream. But pastichuria tebbro has done something different. They have the panna, but they also put in the pastry cream, which is that yellow custard cream. It's delightful. They have great coffee. They also make their own chocolates in-house. And so we've gotten some Christmas gifts there, some chocolate Christmas gifts. It's a really great place for coffee and tea just on your way in. So that is definitely a recommendation. We go every time we're in town. It is on the way between the parking and the Duomo. So we're headed to the Duomo of Spaletto. And it's in a beautiful quiet Piazza. It's got a beautiful Romanesque facade. It's that pink and white stone of the area again. It has a mosaic of Christ and throne from 1207. And that is actually one of the earliest and most important mosaics in all of Italy, because of its date. The church was built between 1151 into the 13th century, and it's dedicated to Santa Maria, Suntia. Now the next place we're going to go is uphill to the rocker. And the reason we want to go to this rock at Alburnaus is because it still stands. It is the true fortress that was there from its building in the 14th century. You can't miss it at crowns the skyline. Why is it still there? Because they turned it into a prison. So it was a prison until 1982. So because it served as a state prison, it survived as a building. So it's got four watchtowers. It's got its walls around the fortress. And from the fortress before you enter, you're going to see a really important bridge in town. And this is called the Ponce de la Torre. And it crosses the gorge between the town and the next hill over. And this was a 13th century medieval aqueduct. Again, remember, you've got a town under siege. You need water. So this is providing natural spring water into the rocker, into the castle fortress. But it was built on an earlier Roman aqueduct that was in the same spot. So it's a beautiful site. And one of the things I do recommend in town is there's really great hiking trails that take you to the rocker, to that bridge that's down below and into town. So this is a great town for hiking there forested trails. So it's a nice hike even on a hot day. Spoletto has our Roman theater. Several of these towns still have them. And as far as a restaurant, I want to talk about it'll Tempio del Gusto. So Strangotsie Pasta is a typical pasta of the area. And here in Spoletto, they have the pasta, the Strangotsie Pasta, and it's made for flower and water. So it looked like Tagliatelli, but it's without the eggs. And it's from this area that's between Spoletto and Fuligno, another town that we'll talk about. During the times of the papal states, anti-clarical rebels would strangle clergymen passing by with their shoelaces and a pasta takes the name from that situation. So you've got to share that pasta story. There's another story related to the pasta. And that is that Frederick Barbarossa was coming in town to sack the towns. And he had this special pasta with truffle. And after he had it, he decided he wouldn't sack the area because this pasta was too delicious and he moved on. So it would tell you the pasta also performs miracles. So if you want to stay in Spoletto, your hotel is the Palazzo Leti Residenza Depoca. It's an aristocratic home. The biggest surprise for us about Spoletto is that it is off the tourist track. And we really don't understand why. It's got a beautiful d'Vomo. It's got an intact fortress. And I also want to mention from a pop culture perspective that Don Matteo, which is a very long running Italian TV show 15 Seasons, is filming here, if films in Spoletto. It started filming initially for two years in Gubio. So a lot of the outside scenes of that very famous TV show are based here in town. Another day trip, possibility is Spello. And Spello is a quick 15 minute drive from the center of a CC. Again, you've got a special hilltop view here. And parking was not a problem. We weren't able to drive right into Spello. So it's not as ETL. They have a really important artistic site inside of the Church of Sant'Amerilla, a Joré, which is an 11th century church. It's the Baglioni Chapel. And it holds Pintericios incredible frescoes. And it's so colorful. It's absolutely incredible. It looks completely untouched. It was painted in 1501. My favorite of the paintings of the frescoes is this one called The Dispute with the Doctors. And this is where Mary and Joseph find Jesus doing his teaching in the temple. And so there's a young Jesus standing in the center. You've got Mary and Joseph off to the side. You've got this temple in the background, even the mosaic floors are created in the view. And it's really colorful. So it's worth going to visit. And again, we're the only ones there in the Church. It's just incredible. These small towns, like I said, they're not on the tourist track. The church also has a couple of important paintings by Perugino. So Perugia is nearby. Perugino is from Perugia. And he has two paintings that are on both sides of the altar there. One of them is St. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. And the other one is the Madonna and Child with St. Catherine of Alexandria. So you'll see those really important granisons painting. Those are from like 1521. Spello is known for its festival called the Infuriata. And this is where they put flower petals in art designs on the ground for the feast of corpus dominion, that same feast we talked about in Orviado, which is strongly celebrated in this area because of that. Miracle that happens nearby. So in Spello, if you need a restaurant, you're looking for Il Molina. They're going to have that tour to Altesto that we talked about, that traditional bread. And they also have some handmade pastas there that are delightful with the local free range pork. Another dish you'll see a lot in Orvia is called Percata. And when I think of Percata, I think of Orisha, which is outside of Rome. Percata is pork that they roll seasonings into. So think Rose, Mary, Sage, then they roll it up and bake it. And so that Percata is on a lot of menus in Orvia. Again, a pork dish, but absolutely delicious. So a third town that you can visit from a CC is Fuligno. This is about 22 miles away, 30 minutes on the train. My friend Sylvia is from Fuligno. So I've been hearing about this town for years and years. So when I finally got to visit, I was so happy that I got to see the incredible cathedral there, the Duomo. But in the same pias as the Duomo is a museum, it's the Palazzo Trenchy. And this was one of Fuligno's most important families. And we were so surprised, because we thought we would need an hour to walk through this Palazzo. But it is an incredible source of both frescoes that are painted in the Palazzo, still perfectly intact. In the basement are Roman foundations. So you can travel back in time to the Roman times. So as you go through the rooms of all this art, painting, the collection of this family, it's just absolutely incredible. We were so surprised. A small town that maybe you've never heard of had such an incredible art collection. But it all goes to that Renaissance family who started collecting. So this is right in the center of town. The cathedral is next door. That is the cathedral of San Felice. And that's their major festival each year. And that isn't the Piazza della Repubblica. We had-- this town is very much alive with locals who live here. We did some Christmas shopping in town. There were clothing shops. Everything you need, kind of 18 T store. The people truly still living here in town. It was very easy to park in Fuligno, because it is not a hilltop town. It is a river town. So you simply pull up before you get to the gate and park and walk in, no elevator, no hill climbing needed. So that's also really nice. I'm going to recommend a restaurant here that is also a hotel. So we get to hit two birds with one stone. And that's the restaurante albergo Lemura, right along the river and that historic curtain wall that protected the city during medieval times. In Spoletto, we talked about the Strangazzi, Alessbo Lentina, that pasta. At this restaurant, they have that same pasta, but they do it a little bit different. It's called Strangazzi Piccatini, which is spicy pasta, with Cuisciale, which is the pork cheek, tomatoes, and pepperoncino. Really delicious, something spicy, almost collaborative in the middle of this town. They also have some pasta with ricotta and pecorino. Sheeps cheese is also going to be another oombrian staple. So I wanted to mention that, solidly oombrian. Another town that you can visit from a CC is Perugia. It's about 35 minutes away. Perugia is a university town. And it is one of the bigger towns that we're going to talk about today. It is the capital of oombria.
And when you arrive here, again, it's on top of the hill, so you've got to get up there somehow. You can take the elevators up into the garden, or you can also take the mini-metro, which is a little funicular to get up to the top. Here is Parageno's masterpiece in the Collegio del Cambio. This is a small Renaissance guild hall. There are a couple of them along the main street by the cathedral. Pintericchio's finest fresco cycle is located here. And it's just absolutely stunning, full of color. It's from about 1498. And of course, Parageno is from here, from Perugia. One of the other important things of Perugia is, of course, the Perugina chocolate, which is here. The cathedral in town also has a museum. I'll mention that, but right down from the cathedral is a store for the Parageno chocolate. And one of their most famous chocolates is the Bacci, which means kisses. I don't know if Hershey stole the idea. But this is just a delightful chocolate, and you can go to multiple chocolate shops in town, or if you want to, you can go to the House of Chocolate by Parageno chocolate. They do tastings. You can go on a factory visit. If they're in production at the time, they've got a museum. So that's another interesting experience if you're in town. Now in Umbria, they claim that Perugia is the capital of chocolate. But if you're in Piedmont, they're going to claim Turin is the capital of chocolate. So it really just depends on where you are. Oh, and I should mention, in Sicily, modica is the capital of chocolate. So, that's what the true capital of chocolate in Italy is. If you're in Peru to over lunch, we had an incredible lunch at the Austria-Priori. This is a family-owned small restaurant. And so I would tell you, go ahead and get a reservation on Google that you can do the reservations through there, because it was full of locals. And I feel like if we didn't have a reservation, we would have never gotten in there. It's a local lunch. They served the torta al-Testo worm from the oven. They also had an olive oil tasting for us at three different times of oil. Very proud. And it's a little market. So they sell that grandmother soup that I love. They sell olive oils also in the restaurant on the first level. Perugia is known for its jazz festival called Umbria Jazz. And that takes place every year in July. So if somebody is interested in music, that's a good music festival to visit. And the hotel, if you are going to stay in Perugia, it's a little more busy in Perugia. But if you want to stay there because it has good train access, then you can stay at the Priori Secret Garden. It's in the historic center. And it's new, new clean rooms. And it's a good option in the center of town. So I looked to double check who got the idea of kisses, who stole it from who. And I can't tell you, but I can tell you that both Perugia chocolate and Hershey's kisses came out in 1907. So don't know which is first. Interesting. Okay. Maybe somebody got the idea and shared it. But either way, yes. So their botchi is their famous chocolate. I will mention another thermal bath area, which is just outside of a CC, the Termae di San Rogeo. So if you didn't visit the thermal bath, when we were in Vittarbo, you can visit them here. It's one of the region's oldest thermal sites from the second century before Christ. So the Romans were very good at tapping into these thermal areas. And according to them, their treatments are specifically to help with the digestive system, the liver, and the biliary tract. So perhaps if modern medicine doesn't work, you can go on vacation and visit that thermal bath. So now it's time that we check out of a CC and we're going to move north to the town of Gubio, where I'm going to recommend to or three nights, depending on what your itinerary allows. Gubio is a town that is celebrated because it has an incredible intact medieval center, stone streets, Gothic palaces, and a beautiful central piazza. The Basilica of Santo Ubaldo is also here, but it is actually up on the hill. So when you want to go visit it, you're going to have to take a finicular to get to their cathedral. They have a Roman theater from the first century, as a lot of these in the area do. And they have a really beautiful central piazza that has a lot of the 14th century buildings. One of the reason that Gubio has such an extraordinary center is because of the Montefeltro dukes. And this is about 1470 when those dukes took over, think of the Duke of Orbino. A Federico da Montefeltro was one of the most successful military commanders during the Italian Renaissance. And he was known for having this court that was much like the Medici court. He really valued humanism and art. And so that is the reason this center is so extraordinary. Like I mentioned, you're going to take the Funivia, which is the finicular to get up to the Basilica. It rises above Gubio, and it was built in 1501, of course, to house the relics of their saint, their local saint. If you're in Gubio and you need a restaurant, the Austrian day, Rey, has a nice selection of local oombrian foods, and it's just a cozy spot on a winter day if you're there in the winter. As far as Gubio's hotel, I want to recommend the Park Hotel, I Capuchini, so think of the Capuchin mucks because it is in a 17th century monastery that's been refurbished into an upscale, beautiful hotel. It's about 13-minute walk to the center of town, but it has a fitness center, and I love a fitness center. Those are very hard to come by in Italian hotels. Like I said, you get all your exercise during your walking, but I really want to lift some weights when I'm over there for a while. Guidebooks generally overlook the fact that Gubio has an incredible, aqueduct path. It's a panoramic walkway, ancient walkway that traces that hillside engineering to that ancient aqueduct. So it's shaded, nice hiking trail, and it has views of the mountain, and then over the rooftops of Gubio. So as long as you take the finicular up, you may as well do some hiking around there. And one of the advantages of an aqueduct path is it's going to tend to be fairly level, just a little bit of a slope, so the water would flow. It's not going to do a lot of ups and downs because you can't get the water to do that. That's right. That's right. Yeah, the slopes, they were so good, the engineers in Rome, the slope would just be like a centimeter, but it was a nothing to keep the water flowing. And of course, if they needed to go uphill, they'd have a big downhill to go uphill. It's really incredible engineering. I don't know if we could do it today. I always wonder if we could do all of that without the computers and every all the tools that we have now. I only have one day trip from Gubio and that is Chita di Castello, which is close to the Tuscan border. And the 15th and 16th centuries, this town hit its absolute peak, the Vitelli family formed this town, and they are known for a lot of the works that they collected that are now in the Penaco Teka of their old palace. So we're talking Rafael, Lucas, Senior, Reilly, Giroland, Dio, Rafael Lino, Del Colet, which was our Rafael follower. So this town really has some incredible landscapes, buildings as well as that, Palazzo with an important art museum. I'm assuming there's a castle in town, because I'm translating this town name as the city of the castle. So the whole town is the castle, really the whole town in the castle walls, stone, castle, not a huge town, but yes. Their cathedral is for their saints, San Florello and San Amandio, and that is their important festival during the year. This is an 11th century church, which of course has been updated during the Baroque time. So it's got also an interesting bell tower. It's cylindrical, and they call it a Ravenna type bell tower, which I think is interesting because Ravenna obviously has a lot of 5th, 6th century history as part of it. One thing that I want to mention as we wrap up today's episode is something that Italians know and cherish, but a lot of visitors don't realize, and that is that Umbria is well known for the way of Saint Francis, a very important pilgrimage trail. You can do the way of Saint Francis as a multi day itinerary. You can do it on a bicycle, or you can just do a one day walk or a half a day walk. So it is something really special about Umbria. This way of Saint Francis also includes a part of Tuscany, Santa Polchro. It comes through Chitade Castello, where we just visited. It comes through Gubio, which is the town we were staying overnight in. It comes down south to a CC. So this follows the same route as Saint Francis, and it is something that the Italians cherish and really enjoy spending their time off the grid, going on these long walks for five or seven days. I know some of us don't have that kind of time when we're in town, but even if you just want to do a half day walk, it really is an experience and you're often with other pilgrims traveling the route. And as I mentioned, if you prefer to do it on an e-bike, I won't call it cheating. Very good. So that's really it for my sights. I hope that was a good amount and not too much. No, it was great. And makes me want to go to Umbria. We're over an hour here, so I'm not going to do a lot of extra questions. But anything else people need to know about Umbria before we get to some of our wrap-up questions. No, I think we're good. We mentioned some of the wines in Umbria. We mentioned all the foods. I think we're good. I think we're good on major. Excellent. You know our wrap-up questions. You're standing in the prettiest spot in Umbria. Where are you standing? What are you looking at? Now my gut instinct here is to say the Duomo of Orvieto, but I
I'm not going to because we already talked about that. So I can see why you'd say that though. Okay. Yes. I want to mention the Cascada del Marmeray. And these are a huge waterfall. It's actually a three tiered waterfall, 514 feet, that one of the tallest waterfalls in Europe. And it's man-made, made by the Romans in 271 BC. They were trying to drain stagnant waters from up top into the Valino River below. And it's really incredible. Surrounded by forests, there's easy parking, upper and lower. So that's where I would go to the waterfall. Now remember that waterfalls are seasonal. So if you're there in the early summer spring, that's when you want to really see that thing flowing. Well, and people should know that in terms of the weather here, as I recall, because of the climate, you're not going to get a lot of rain in the summertime, if any. And therefore, it's going to dry up by early fall, probably. Yes, so not the best time to go to see a waterfall, if you're there. OK. Yeah, in the fall. Good to know. There is a website where you can track. Because sometimes they do let water go out of the upper lakes down. So you have to want to check before what the water flow is. Just check their website, because God had down Marmeray. Good to know. Excellent. And one thing that makes you laugh and say only in Ombrea. It's truffles. Truffles on everything. Truffles on scrambled eggs. Truffles in your pasta. Truffles on your pork. You want brisketta. It's truffle brisketta. You just want it. Some tomatoes chopped up. So that for me was the one thing that we say only in Ombrea. Everything is truffle. And if you had to summarize the region in three words, what three words, would you pick? Timeless, authentic, and devout for Ombrea. Excellent. You were ready for those questions. You are going to trick me. I've been watching this podcast for 10 years. I know your questions. Our guest again has been Ketterina Ferara. And Ketterina, if we wanted to send people to your-- Obviously, you've got the guide book just about Ombrea. And I'll put a link to that in the show notes. But any other articles we want to send people to get more information about Ombrea. Yeah. My website is ketterina with the K Ferara, f-e-r-r-r-a.com. All my book links are there. My blog is there. And you can get in touch with me there as well if you have questions about planning your trip to Ombrea. Excellent. And we'll put a link to that website in the show notes as well. Ketterina, thanks so much for coming on amateur traveler and sharing with us your obvious love for Ombrea. Yes. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Have a great day. My thanks to Ketterina for such a great episode and a special thanks to the patrons of the show who help support amateur traveler financially. If you're interested in learning more about becoming a patron of the show, go to patreon.com/amateur traveler. If you're interested in learning more about traveling with me to Bolivia and South America in May of 2027, go to amateurtraveler.com/trips. And with that, we're going to end this episode of amateur traveler. If you have any questions, send an email to
[email protected] or better yet. Leave a comment on this episode at yougestedamateurtraveler.com. And as always, thanks so much for listening. Have a great day.
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