Italy
This year's travels have us return to France in the spring, and Italy in the Fall.
We fly from Vancouver to Paris, Paris to Rome via Air France. In Rome we pick up our car and drive to Collicello in Umbria where we will stay for a little over a week.
From Umbria we drive to the town of San Ginesio in the Marche Region. This town is continuing to rebuild after a series of earthquakes in 2016 devasted many towns in the Marche Region. We stayed in the Marche last year and want to return. Mountains and valleys generally run east-west meaning travel distances and times can be longer than expected when wanting to go north-south!
We will then continue south to Puglia returning to the town of Carovigno. The town has an authenic feel complete with an impressive Castello -- Dentice di Frasso (or Orsini-Balzi) was built around the 12th century. It served as a defensive fortress with a triangular shape and three towers, overseeing the coast from Torre Canne to Brindisi. Carovigno. This will be our base to travel in the south of Italy. I like the towns, food and wine! I am hoping to continue to explore the old coastline towers as well as towns and locations south west of our location. There are some towns that get busy with tourism but many seem to be undiscovered and are very enjoyable.
Then we will start the trip to work our way back and drive to Napoli. This is an exciting city. We are in Napoli for less than a week so we will be staying at the Chiostro San Francesco, Casa di Ospitaliotà Religiosa rather than renting a house or an apartment.
After that we drive up to Rome and drop off our car. No driving in Rome for us! We have an apartment in the Rione Prati - which is a residential area of Rome, and thankfully, away from the areas with the highest amount of tourists.
The castle has
The castle has an attractive Italian garden and also worthy of note are the "Mammalocchi" Busts, original travertine columns with allegorical figures standing at the entrance to a private villa.
This is the oldest town in Umbria. It stands on a rocky spur, almost entirely surrounded by ancient Cyclopean walls that date from the 7th and 4th Centuries. The campanile of the cathedral was erected in 1050 using fragments of Roman buildings. There are four main gates: Porta Romana (south) as the main access to the city, Posterola (north), Porta Leone (east), and Porta della Valle (west). The centre of the city is Piazza del Duoma with the cathedral and the Torre Civica.
• San Francesco, Piazza BVera, a cloister and convent.
• Sant'Agostino has an annexed cloister (1492)
A town with an exceptional medieval layout. Arched entryways. Hexagonal shape hilltop castle. Walls partially demollished, two low towers remain. Nearby are ruins of Laguscello - an ancient castle, S. Angelo di Ciricano a Benedictine monastery
A hamlet of Amelia, this small town has less than 200 residents. There are remains of the castle with sections of walls and towers and entrance gate. Churchm Sanctuary and Monastery of San Bernardo which is now a private resort.
On the list of I Borghi più belli d'Italia. There is the partially excavated roman villa. Church and convent.
A castle refers in a number of documents, although the original one was built on a different hill. The Pope was involved in approval of walls and towers. Of the original castle complex, a short section of the city walls remains, connected to a square-based tower, now a ruin, the ground floor was used as a dwelling. I found way to many Trip Advisor listings, so there could be a centre for vacation rentals, but it is located just down the road from where we are staying.
