Biking Walking and Eating across Italy

 Growing up, we are taught that the way we do stuff is universal: it works and we haven't been exposed to some "other way", so this must be it. One of the delights of travelling to other cultures is discovering the mundane tasks that are done differently.  In Portugal we learned about a different but tasty difference in the way orange juice is transported .  Lucky for the Italians, they do it the Portuguese way in Italy: fresh squeezed.  I'm beginning to think the US is the outlier here. On our "Camino walks" it was typical to stay in a different place every night: washing our clothes for the next morning in the sink.  After a few days the novelty wore off.  This trip we decided to stay at least two nights at each town, and reserve places with washers whenever practical.  After our first night in Rome, we were delighted to have a machine wash our clothes for us: a washer/drier like appliance was waiting for us, hidden behind a cabinet door.  After...

Should be water around here somewhere  The aqueduct, although not the water flowing through it, is easy to find. This section of the Aqueduct is raised above ground level, with the nearly flat walking path next to it. Looking back at Spello from along the Aqueduct trail There are many "inspection" ports, presumably to allow for maintenance and proper water flow.  Bright red poppies are guarding many of them. Looking downstream inside the now abandoned aqueduct.  Built by the Romans in 200ish A.D.  it was used as the water supply for Spello until 1944 when it was bombed by the allies in the war [ reference ].  The patches of light along the tunnel are from downstream inspection ports. In Roman times, water would be pouring from this fellow's mouth

 When standing in St. Peter's Square in Rome, it's hard to miss the statues looking down upon you from - well - everywhere.  There are sculptures of  140 Saints   just on the colonnade overlooking the plaza.  Most of the "popular" saints (there are more than 10,000 in total) have a particular iconography  so their likeness can be more easily distinguished from other, perhaps less saintly saints. On our previous camino walks, there always seems to be one Saint that, for some reason, catches our fancy.  When we walked the French section of the Camino Frances in 2017, I was fascinated by St. Leon  shown here holding his head. I even  wrote a blog post  about him.  When we were in Spain I was enamoured with  Saint Sebastion , who was always depicted quite full of arrows.  The likeness below is in Santiago de Compostela. Not surprisingly, St. Sebastion is the patron Saint of Archers.  When we got to Spello, in Umbria, the...

 Most everywhere we walked, the poppies, brilliant red, were in full bloom.                 Here are some of the other flowers that brightened our hikes Urospermum Dalechampil Blue Flax Domestic Rose Yellow Broom Lunaria Annua Cyclamen purpurascens Cypress Spurge Leopoldia comosa Rock rose Orchis Militaris Elderberry flower Rosa Corymbifera (thicket dog rose) Snapdragon

Our last few European Vacations have been "Camino Walks".  Once we began, we walked each day from town to town until we were done.  The days logistics consisted primarily of walking to our next nights lodging, and figuring out how to get in. This trip was more stressful, logistically.  Our transportation needs required a bit more than flying there and walking.  In the course of our travels, we used, in addition to our feet: planes, trains, subways, busses, private cars, Uber, taxis, and bicycles.  The planes, trains, and busses required advance reservations.  In addition, we took in the sights.  Since this is Italy, they all cost money to see, tickets are required (often months in advance), and all sights are closed on various days of the week and and times of day.  At one point, late last year, we built a spreadsheet of all the sights, open days, plane and bus schedules, and tried to figure out how to schedule a path through time that allowed us...

 When I visited Florence 15 years ago I recall the visiting the Baptistery,  the 1000 year old octagonal building next to the main cathedral,  as being an impactful event - I still remember the remarkable gold mosaics adorning the ceiling. Baptistery of St. John So when we got to Florence, I wanted to repeat the visit, to see how a different time and perspective had changed my perception of it.  Besides, I thought Mary would appreciate it, especially compared to the famous, but less impressive, church behind it. Photo of the ceiling from 15 years ago Like just about everything in Italy, you need to pay to get in.  Sadly, you can't just buy a ticket for the Baptistery: that would be too easy.  Instead, admittance is part of a "combo" ticket, of which there are many to choose from, depending upon which 3 or 5 other pay-to-get-in sites are part of the combo.  So I bought one of them.  The confusing part for me (perhaps I can blame Google Translate?) ...

 Spello, called Hispellum by the Romans who settled  in about -260, sits on a ridge of land jutting out from the flanks of Mt Subasio, overlooking the Umbrian plain. At 1290m, Subasio is the tallest point nearby in the Appenine mountains. Starting just above town, and encompassing the bulk of the mountain is Parco Del Monte Subasio, which is cobwebbed with a network of well marked hiking trails . Spello to Assisi  Our first hike, along the Via Frances (VF on the sign posts), follows the footsteps of St. Francis on his pilgrimage route to/from Rome in 1209.  I looked for his footprints, but didn't see any.  Perhaps the overnight rain washed them away.  The path consists mainly of a single lane gravel road that runs north along the slope at the point where the olive orchards give way to the forested slopes of the mountain.  In this section, the path runs through an olive Grove.  As the olive groves gave way to suburban housing on the outskirts...

When the citizens of Spello rebuilt the aqueduct that provided water to Spello since ancient times, they included stones carved with sayings of well known people. Here are some of the stones. Can you help us translate them? He who is unable to feel amazement and wonder is already dead and his eyes are incapable of seeing. Einstein I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.  Groucho Marx Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living.  T.S. Eliot In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends! Martin Luther King Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him Dostoevsky  I was sad because my foot hurt. Then I met a man with no legs.  Anonymous Sad is that little boy who does not advance his master. Leonardo da Vinci I Think about how you live (?) Demothenes The next world wa...