We Promised Parking Hints -- Here They Are

        We promised to do a post about parking in various Umbrian towns because so many visitors come by car and then don't know where to park. We don't know everything and we are ready for input from anyone who has a better idea to offer. For now, here are some  hints.

        GENERAL INFO

      If the lines for parking spaces are blue, you must pay for parking. Parking areas also have a P on a sign either at the spot or directing you there. Be careful not to park in a handicapped space. To pay for parking, you must find the machinetta, the self-service machine. Use coins if possible, as some won't make change. The search for the machinetta can be frustrating -- they are usually mounted on a grey column and have a P sticker. The prices can be different depending on the place, so add money until the display shows the approximate time you want to leave. Then push the green button and collect the ticket. Now you must go back to your car and place the ticket (not upside down) on your dashboard so that the police can see that you have paid and are not using an expired ticket. (At some places with blue lines and no machinetta, you may have to go in the nearest bar and ask if they sell parking tickets. If so, put it on your dashboard as you would a ticket from a machinetta).
       
        TODI

        We like parking in the Orvietano parking lot because from there you can take the elevator up to the top of the town. We also prefer the steeper road up to Todi, which is reached coming from Ponte Rio -- there is a bridge, then an immediate right. There is a small building right at the corner. It's a straight shot up the hill to the gates of the town. Turn right there and follow the walls (and signs) around to Orvietano parking. If the elevator isn't working, there is always a shuttle bus every fifteen minutes. If you stay past midnight, you will have to walk down the steps, which are reached by taking the road next to Oberdan restaurant down to where the stairs begin. It's a parklike walk. If you think you will be later than midnight, you must pay the parking in advance so that your token will open the gate to get out of the lot. Otherwise, you'll have a problem.
        If you prefer to drive up to the top, chances are you won't find parking. There is a parking lot at Piazza Garibaldi, which is usually full, and there is some public parking in front of San Fortunato church, which is also usually full. If you don't find a place, you'll have to drive back down and start over, which is why we really like Orvietano and the elevator.
         If you decide that driving straight up the hill is too daunting, take the next road to Todi, after the train station, and you will wind your way to the top. You will arrive at a round about at Porta Romana gate to Todi. Facing the gate you will follow the walls around to the left, passing the big Bramante church (Consolazione) and staying to the left until you see the sign for Orvietano parking directing you to the right.

       *** The Orvietano parking lot has a gate at the entrance. You will take a green plastic token from the machine at the gate. You will keep this token until you leave. The token is electric and the clerk will use it to see how much to charge you. You will put it in the gate to get out. See above for after midnight departures.

      ORVIETO

      In Orvieto we like to park across from the funicolare station, which is halfway to the top of the town. Follow the signs up to the centre, up and up until you arrive at the big parking lot on your right. The funicolare station is where the shuttle buses come to take you up to the piazza of the Duomo. Also, right here is the Pozzo di San Patrizio, the historic deep well that early inhabitants used to bring water safely up from the bottom of the rocca. Buy a ticket for the shuttle for 1 Euro inside the funicolare station. You will probably want to walk back down the hill to your car, as the streets are lined with shops, restaurants, and galleries.
       Your other option is to follow the signs to the train station and park there. You would then take the funicolare from there up to the station mentioned above, take the shuttle, etc.
      
        DERUTA
      
       Although we often buy ceramics at the southern exit from the E45, sometimes we like to go up to the old town. The ceramics museum is a good one and there are many small studios with working artists. Therefore, drive up to the centre, following the signs. Outside the gate of the town, there are some parking spaces. If those are full, there is a bigger lot just down the road across from the cemetery.

        PERUGIA

      Thank goodness for the wonderful Mini Metro. To catch it, get off the E45 when you see the sign for the stadium (stadio) at the Madonna Alta exit. You will find a very big parking lot and the Mini Metro station there. Buy a ticket from the machine and hop on this very clever transport system. Get off at the last stop and you will be steps away from Corso Vannucci. The parking here is free.

        SPOLETO

       We like to park across the Via Flaminia (SS3) from the town and walk across the old ponte  (bridge) and down to the town. It's a very dramatic way to enter Spoleto. What you need to do is find the San Pietro church, which is on the map, across the highway from the town. Follow the road to the left and you will arrive at the entrance to the walkway across the old aquaduct. Park there. With camera in hand, walk down the path and across this amazing bridge. When you arrive on the other side, look back and take a photo. Then walk down to the little piazzetta with the fountain with the face. You are now above the Duomo. This parking is free.
      Trying to park in the town is difficult because there is a series of one way streets and if you make the wrong turn or the parking lot is full, you will have to start all over. You could try Piazza Liberta', which is where the tourist office is located, as well as the Roman theatre. There is a machinetta here.

        ASSISI

      Assisi is the most famous town in Umbria and, therefore, can be overwhelmingly full of tourists in the summer. We take the road that passes through Santa Maria degli Angeli and drive up towards Assisi until we are almost to the top. There will be sharp turn to the right and to the left, you will see a piazza where the entrance to the big parking lot is located.
This parking lot also offers underground parking, which is very nice in summer. There are also restrooms. To get to San Francesco duomo, you will have to walk up the hill, but not nearly as far as if you park other places. You take a parking ticket when you enter the lot and pay at the booth before you leave.
       If you turn to the sharp right, as mentioned above, you will find another public parking lot on the right. From here you can walk through the entire town of Assisi to reach the Duomo, which can be interesting in cooler weather.

       MONTEFALCO

       Parking in the main piazza is iffy and the machinetta only gives you one hour. Plus, sometimes you can get up there, especially in tourist season, and find the road is blocked.
So, you should either 1) go in the Borgo Garibaldi gate on the west side of the walled town. As soon as you enter the gate, go left around the wall. There will be parking places along the wall, marked with blue lines, or, 2) turn left at Borgo Garibaldi outside the walls and go as far as you can toward the roundabout at the lookout point, Ringhiera Umbria. There are also parking spaces just beyond the lookout. From here you can walk up the Via Ringhiera Umbria to the Museum of San Francesco and the main piazza.

       BEVAGNA

      Coming down from Montefalco, Bevagna will be on the left just as the road turns sharply to the right. The landscape is flat here. The first entrance to Bevagna can be seen from your car. There is a parking lot before the bridge outside the walls to the right. The lot can be seen from the road. Otherwise, if you go to the other end of Bevagna (towards Foligno), you will find parking outside of that gate, as well.

         NORCIA

     Norcia is surrounded by a heart-shaped wall. We usually turn right along the wall and then left again at the point of the heart. There is parking along the wall and across the street from the gate that leads into the town on Via Roma. This is the closest way to arrive at the main piazza. 
        





     

The Most Amazing Place in Umbria

      


       Sometimes words really aren't necessary. In the case of the Gran Piano near Castelluccio during flower season, all you need to know from me is how to get there. 
      Drive 28 km. from Norcia, up and up and up into the Sibillini Mountains, about 5,000 ft. Come around that last curve, slam on your brakes, grab your camera, and marvel at the astonishing view of this vast high plain, surrounded by velvet green mountains, filled with wild flowers as far as the eye can see.
      
                                          Drive down across the plain. . .

 

Get out of your car and wander. . .

Visit the town of Castelluccio

Buy locally grown legumes from a farmer who plays an organetto diatonico.

                                     

     This is all you need to know. The spring flower festival happens in June, but the Gran Piano is beautiful anytime. In fall and winter, you might encounter cross country skiiers or hikers coming down from the trails in the national park for lunch in Castelluccio where the lentils are legendary; in summer you will see green mountains with that seem to have giant mossy patches -- look closer and you'll see they are forests. 

      Buon viaggio.

copyright Sharri Whiting 2011

The Healing Power of Ceramics

Therapeutic shopping is not today's subject, though indeed it could be, since nothing cures the blues better than wandering the ceramics factories in Deruta to discover something that I don't already own and didn't know I couldn't live without.

This is about completely different kinds of miracles, beginning with the story of a single ceramic cup found in the tiny Umbrian village of Casalina, near Deruta. In 1657, a local merchant named Cristoforo stumbled across a little cup, which was decorated with a picture of Mary and baby Jesus. For some reason, Cristoforo hung the cup in an oak tree near a stream. When his wife became seriously ill, Cristoforo remembered the cup and prayed to the Virgin of the cup to spare his wife. By that evening, she was completely cured. Thankful, Cristoforo placed a handpainted ceramic tile on the tree, depicting his wife sick in bed, he himself praying to the cup hanging in the tree, and the written story of the miracle.

Before long, word got out about the miracle and people started asking the Virgin of the cup for help; other tiles commemorating miracles were nailed to the tree. Eventually a sanctuary, the Madonna del Bagno (Our Lady of the Stream, the name an improvement over Madonna of the Cup) was built around the oak tree, which is still visible behind the altar, along with fragments of the original cup. The walls of the little church are completely lined with hundreds of tiles dating from 1657 to 2005, each one made by an artisan to give thanks to the Madonna for creating a miracle. On many of them are the letters "PGR," per grazia ricevuta, for grace received.

The Madonna del Bagno has performed some very interesting miracles indeed -- tiles from the 17th century illustrate people falling out of trees, getting struck by lightning, gored by bulls, falling through a ceiling or off a horse, and running from packs of red devils. More modern matonelle (tiles) show a man on a bicycle being run over by a big long car in the 1930s; another depicts the day dynamite made a man blind and the Madonna restored his sight. There is also one involving a train -- details about the miracle are not clear. Miracles that saved children cut across all time periods, with babes in arms visible from the 1600s through today.

This little sanctuary near Deruta is one of Umbria's secrets, hidden in the shadows (the word Umbria means shade) until discovered on the way to somewhere more known or popular. A devastating robbery in 1980 resulted in the closure of the sanctuary for seven years, but the people of Casalina, undoubtedly assisted by the Madonna del Bagno, managed to raise the money for restoration. Today it is a reminder of the close ties between art, history, culture and religion that have marked Umbrian life for a thousand years.

When we stopped at Madonna del Bagno, we were actually on the way to what may be Umbria's most divine restaurant. The food at L'Antico Forziere is so good, in fact, that it just may deserve a tile with the letters PGR. To round out a day devoted to ceramics, visit the Ceramics Museum, where the exhibit celebrates the work of the painter Pintoricchio with an exhibit of majolica pieces through June.
copyright Sharri Whiting Umbria Bella 2008

Seize the Day

Carpe diem! We have resolved to visit all the places in Umbria we haven't yet seen. We have set no time limit -- a lifetime, maybe? -- as our list is growing more complicated and we keep going back to places we love. From our house, La Casetta Rosa, we can jump in the car and be almost any place in Umbria in less than an hour.

In 2007, we discovered the only catacombs in Umbria, near San Faustino, south of Todi. We made an appointment for a tour and our little group was alone with the guide -- no lines, no jostling for space, just silence and a pervading sense of history. Nearby, hidden in a wooded gully, is an arched Roman bridge that has spanned an ephemeral creek for 2,000 years.

We made an entirely unplanned visit to Lake Piediluco. With some time to kill before a doctor's appointment in Terni, I started driving, looking for a coffee bar. When I didn't see one, I kept driving, finally ending up at the top of a mountain near the Cascata delle Marmore (a waterfall engineered by the Romans, which we will revisit in warm weather). From there, it's only six km to Piediluco, the little town that edges the lake. On that fall afternoon, the air was still and late sunlight slanted across the water, reflecting sky and trees. In the distance there is a tiny medieval village, shining white in the fading light -- in 2008 I am going to that village, though right now I don't know its name.

In the spring we revisited the Roman town Carsulae on the old Via Flaminia, where the grass was studded with wildflowers and tufts of clover sprouted from between the old stones. In the heat of summer, we reveled in the cool damp air of the huge Roman cistern down under the grand piazza in Todi; in Orvieto, we cooled off in the Pozzo di San Patrizio by following the double helix of worn stone stairs, used over centuries by donkeys carrying water to slake the thirst of the town. Our other summer pleasure is to take the ferry across Lake Trasimeno from Passignano to the Isola Maggiore, where stone buildings glow in the hot light and old ladies sit in the shade and crochet lace.

We went back to Spoleto for the umpteenth time, driving past San Pietro church to park on the far side of the huge arched ponte. Fortunately, we were able to walk across this amazing bridge one more time before it was closed for restoration.

An old man in our own little village, San Terenizano, told us Galileo spent some time here. The great astronomer and scientist left no mark that we can see in the medieval center and there is no plaque, but we like to think he admired the night sky from the towers. Our town, named after the first bishop of Todi, doesn't have much history of note -- there are a few very old churches and buildings -- so the idea that Galileo Galilei stopped by is kind of thrilling. (Lucretia Borgia stayed nearby at the castello Barattano while she was governor of Spoleto).
copyright Sharri Whiting Umbria Bella 2007