Perugia, Italia

We had 4 nights in an old farmhouse in Perugia.  At the house there were some chickens and two dogs.

We went to loads of medieval hill top towns. 

They included:

-          Assisi

-          Spello

-           Montepulciano (Mon-te-pulch-iarno)

-          Pienza

-          Orvieto

Some streets were so narrow you couldn’t drive through them.  When we walked through the towns, we noticed that most of the buildings were tall and narrow sometimes arches were used to join two houses together (so you can go from one house to the other), or they were used to divide two buildings and create a walkway.

Almost all of the towns had at least one well in the town square.  This would have been where the town collected their water.  My favourite was the well in Assisi because it was really ornate.  It even had statues and seating around it.

Montepulciano's well.

Assisi was the biggest of the hilltop towns, it had a big church; the church of Saint Francis which was built more than 830 years ago.  You had to have your legs and your shoulders covered up to go inside as a sign of respect to the church.  Unfortunately for me I was wearing a singlet top and shorts – They had pieces of fabric for tourists who were not covered up, so I had to wear a piece of blue fabric like a skirt to be allowed in. 

In spring Spello is famous for its flowers, nearly every house is decorated with hanging baskets full of flowers.  It was really pretty.

In Italy there are lots of old Mini’s and Fiats, which are really small cars.  They have really narrow roads in some parts of Italy so you need a small car to get around in the old towns.  Another reason for it is that it is much easier to find a car park.  Here is one of one of the old Fiats that we found.  Look how small it is!