Category: Italy 2025

Our drive north from Assisi was really good and fairly easy. We got away from our Airbnb early – before 8:30am and travelled mostly on major highways. We did have to jump off the first highway for a bit to avoid traffic but the rest of the way we were able to move along nicely. There were many tunnels as we drove through the north west side of Umbria into Tuscany. The last hour or so of our journey to Benabbio was exciting with hairpin turns, narrow roads and some crazy little villages. We passed through the town that claims to be the birth place of Pinocchio – well the author lived there at least. The town was called Collodi and they really embraced Pinocchio with all kinds of scary stores full of dolls, puppets and way too many Pinocchio souvenirs.

The final drive up into the western foothills of the Apennine Mountains was really crazy with many tight turns and extremely narrow roads. The town of Benabbio came into view when we were about 20 minutes away and we had very little trouble finding our Airbnb which was located right across the street from the church and main square. We will be staying here for the next 2 weeks!!

The Airbnb is a typical Italian structure with lots of tile and wood. It’s much larger than our last 2 places – 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and it has an awesome terrace on the top level (3 floors up!!). We explored the town upon our arrival (around noon) and found an awesome restaurant higher up on the hillside. Today, Sept. 16, we decided to have a quiet day and explored Benabbio a bit. Mostly we relaxed on the terrace, read, crocheted and then had a tasty Aperol spritz back at the same restaurant!! Matthew cooked a wonderful pasta dinner and we ended our first full day in Benabbio with a lively game of Yahtzee.

Sunday, Sept 14 was our last day in our Assisi Airbnb. We had a leisurely start, enjoying our coffee and watching the local hot air balloon (we’ve seen it many times this past week). Matthew found another interesting town to visit called Todi – a village known for having a view of the Tiber River and its well-preserved medieval and renaissance structures and streets.  We headed out a little after 10am.

Our drive was beautiful through valleys and over smaller hills than the more mountainous east side of Umbria. We passed by many fields of grapes – Umbria makes their own wine and it’s quite good. The valleys were a patch work of fields – vines, olive trees, hay, vegetables and sunflowers. We had a little detour around a road closure which took us through several very small villages. We had a good opportunity to see the farms up close!!

Todi was super easy to spot with its high walled town. The cathedral stood proudly at the very top of the town. Our climb up into this town was quite steep and we walked up several big staircases. This hillside town was much like the others except we were visiting it on a Sunday morning and everything was closed. As we came upon the central square, we discovered they were having a Ferrari car show. The square was full of cars and people!! I picked my car – a nice red Ferrari 😁.

We made our way back down the steep streets to the car a little after noon. We decided to look for a less touristy spot for lunch but quickly discovered most restaurants were closed (Sunday after all). We finally found an open restaurant in Deruta (where we bought our ceramic items). We drove back through Assisi, picked up some groceries and made it back to our apartment a little after 4pm. It was another great day. Next stop – Tuscany!

We started our day on Saturday, Sept. 13 with the idea of taking it easy and only doing one visit to the town of Foligno. We left a little later than usual – 10am and drove the roughly 15 minutes to the town. Parking was super easy (a nice change!) and we walked into the centre of the old town to the Palazzo Trinci – a renaissance residence turned into a museum. Calling it a “residence” doesn’t really do justice to this building. It was very impressive, not only for the museum pieces inside but for the architecture of the building itself. We spent some time exploring the many different levels of the palazzo and learned a few things about the area – including that the palazzo had 2 styles of architecture, romanesque and gothic, and it was the home to the Trinci family from 1305 – 1439.

By the time we were finished our tour of the palazzo, it was lunchtime. We decided to head back to our Airbnb instead of eating out. We went back out around 3pm to explore a town called Nocera Umbria known for its healing waters! This town was way up in the mountains around us so we had quite the crazy drive to get there!! The road started out with good pavement but changed to a gravel surface with many ruts as we made our way deeper into the hills!! It was an exciting drive as we went around hairpin turns and super close to the edge! When we finally arrived at Nocera Umbria we were happy we made the drive. Much like all the other hillside towns we have visited, this one had an amazing view. But the best part of this town was that there were very few visitors around. It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and we could look around the place without the crowds!! We’ve discovered that most shops and some restaurants close between noon and 4 pm so there were few locals out and about at that time.

We arrived back at our Airbnb after a grocery stop and Matthew made a lovely spaghetti dinner for us!! We had a busier day than originally planned but it was another good one! We have one more day in Umbria so we’ll see what journey Sunday brings!!

Today (Sept. 12) we decided to take a drive to Civita di Bagnoregio – an ancient isolated town that is over 2500 years old. It took us about 1.5 hours to drive to this amazing location and it was worth every minute. You can only reached this town by walking up the pedestrian bridge that climbs to the 70-80m height of the main entrance. It was a steep climb, especially near the end but we made it up and through the gates.

The walled village was small with narrow cobbled lane ways that led around the old buildings. The main square was dominated by a church that was being refurbished. There were many souvenir shops and restaurants. There were also several small hotels so you can have a very relaxed stay in the village. We arrived early – around 9:30am so the foot traffic was fairly light. It was also cooler which made our visit even more pleasant.

After looking around the place (which didn’t take long!), we went into some of the shops and we stopped to have a coffee. It was super nice to sit and have a coffee, right up until I got bit by some kind of bug! That got us moving!! We decided to head back to the car and make our way over to another ancient town called Perugia. Our plan was to have lunch in Perugia but when we finally arrived there, it was very busy with Friday afternoon traffic. We decided to just head back to our apartment with a stop for some groceries! It was a very good day!!

We started our day on Sept. 10 with a road trip to the valley town of Deruta. This town is known for its ceramic manufacturing and we were looking for a specific store called Ceramiche Artistiche Gialletti Giulio. We were on the hunt for some “made in Italy” souvenirs! We had a nice drive and found our destination with little trouble. We ended up shopping at the store beside the place we had googled (but I think they were connected somehow) and both Margie and I bought something from the shop!

After our excursion to Deruta, we headed to Spello which is about 10km south of our Airbnb. We had no trouble following google maps to Spello and we found another amazing walled town built on a hill. Unlike Assisi, Spello focused more on artists. Many of the shops were selling local artists’ work as well as local soaps, clothes and food. There was also more flowers and plants adorning the walls and walkways of the ancient walled town. Spello felt less touristy than Assisi but had the same cobble stone walkways. We had a very nice lunch near the top of the walled town and as we were enjoying the end of our lunch, the first rain of our visit exploded down on us! We scooted inside the tiny restaurant until the rain let up enough for us to hurry back to our car and return to our Airbnb.

Today (Sept. 11) our plan was to explore the highest peak in Assisi. We had a slow start but eventually made our way back to Assisi and around to a path that led up to the Rocca Maggiore. This very old castle looked down upon the town of Assisi. The view from up there was amazing!! We spent a bit of time exploring the grounds and then made our way back to our car (after a lunch stop and a bit of shopping!)

After a brief stop back at our Airbnb, we headed up into the hills around our area. Assisi is part of an Umbria state park (Umbria is the district we are currently in) and we decided to explore up into the hills around us. The trip was incredible!! Mark drove us around tight corners and along narrow roads that sandwiched us between cliffs and crazy drop offs!! We winded our way up to Collepino – a small walled village in the hills. It was very interesting to walk around in a non-tourist place that looked a lot like Spello and Assisi. We walked around the town and then made our way down the windy roads to Valtopina (a small town near Spello). We headed back to our apartment after a little grocery shopping stop in Spello. We had a great day of exploring the local area!

We picked up our rental car at 9 am on Monday, Sept. 8th and were on our way around noon. It was a lovely day – bright and sunny and the traffic was good once we left Rome behind. Mark was our driver and he made the fast highway driving look easy! I was the navigator using my favourite map – Google maps!! Our final destination was a cute Airbnb just outside of Assisi but we decided to make a stop along the way.

Margie found a very interesting little town called Sant’Angelo di Roccalvecce. With only 100 inhabitants (mostly elderly), the town was becoming a ghost town. In order to bring tourists in, female street artists were invited to paint huge murals on the old buildings of the town. It was an amazing transformation that brought life back to this community. We explored the small roads and took lots of photos! We even managed to find a little corner store that made sandwiches for us.

As we drove closer to Assisi, we started climbing into the mountainous region of Umbria. Our google maps route took us along some impressive winding roads. We could see many villages and towns way up on hilltops – spectacular views! It was very easy to spot Assisi because of the incredible structures way up on the hillside. We had a minor challenge finding our Airbnb but with a bit of searching, we found it nestled between a few farm houses.

On Tuesday, Sept. 9th we made our first trip into Assisi. We had a fun curvy drive up to a parking lot and then made our way down through the narrow, cobble stone streets. There were many little shops and restaurants all mixed around churches and museums. At the bottom of the little streets was the Papal Basilica and Sacred Convent of Saint Francis. What an impressive structure with its amazing stained glass windows. A mass was underway when we arrived so we silently explored the many side alters and little chapels. We also went down to the tomb of St. Francis. It was very busy inside the church so we didn’t spend a lot of time in there. We were very impressed with Assisi and will go back later in the week.

Our last turbopass excursion was on Saturday, Sept. 6th – a visit to the Catacombs of St. Callistus. We took the bus into the downtown and met up with our tour group. We had a fun tourist bus ride to the Catacombs with an Italian bus driver who gave us a little guided tour. He really loved his job as he excitedly shared various details about Rome.

The Catacombs were in a lovely estate area with a long tree-lined driveway and large grass pastures. We visited the first 2 levels of the 4 level catacombs which in total held over 500,000 people centuries ago. We descended about 15 m into the cool catacombs that were well lit. All together there were 20 km of pathways and all the tombs were empty. Our tour guide was very interesting although his English was hard to understand (he had a strong ascent that wasn’t entirely Italian). We didn’t do 20km – that would have been crazy, but we did see enough to get a good idea of how creepy catacombs can be 😁.

At the end of our catacombs visit, our bus driver returned us to the city centre a little after 12 pm, just in time for lunch. We decided to head to Trastevere – a neighbourhood in Rome known for its authentic cuisine. We went to a restaurant recommended by our bus driver and had a yummy meal.

After lunch we hopped back on the big bus tour and went to the Spanish Steps. Wow this was a very busy area – of course being a Saturday afternoon didn’t help! We walked around and went to the bottom of the steps to explore the rich shopping area. All the fancy Italy stores were there – Prada, Gucci, Giorgio Armani to name a few. Needless to say we didn’t do any shopping!!

The afternoon was hot and crowded so we gave up on the city centre and took the subway back to our little neighbourhood where we enjoyed some gelato and water before returning to our quiet, relatively cool apartment!!

Sunday, Sept. 7th was our last full day in Rome and we decided to give ourselves a break from being tourists! The 4 turbopass days were fantastic and we saw lots of the popular Rome destinations. This ticket service was very well organized and easy which made our touring days even more successful. But 4 days in a row of walking more than 10km each day really wore us out!! All we did on Sunday was watch the canonization mass of the first millennial saint and another Italian man from St. Peter’s Basilica on TV and then went out for food! A nice quiet, relaxing day!! In the morning (Monday, Sept 8), Mark and I will pick up the rental car and we’ll be driving to Assisi for the second week of our Italy adventure.

We continued our Turbopass experience on Sept. 4 with 2 scheduled visits – the Pantheon in the morning and Castel Sant’Angelo in the afternoon. It was another lovely sunny morning as we walked to the bus stop but we quickly learned that Rome was having a one day strike action for their Metro service!! Buses were still running but on a reduced schedule. It was a good thing we left early because we had a bit of a wait for the bus.

Our first excursion was the Pantheon. It’s super difficult to put into words the impact of our visit here. This structure defies my understanding of construction. It is truly unbelievable that the Pantheon is still standing after centuries and is still in use for some religious ceremonies. The architecture is only dwarfed by the artifacts inside – paintings, sculptures and many other items adorned every corner of this impressive structure.

After our visit to the Pantheon, we had a few hours of free time before our 2:15pm tour of Castel Sant’Angelo. We walked around the area and found many interesting shops, restaurants and government buildings. We made our way to Trevi Fountain (after a much needed coffee break!) and it was insanely busy!! We didn’t stay long in this area because it was just too crowded. Instead we found a great restaurant in the Piazza Navona. We also paid a visit to a little shop that sold limoncello!! After a wonderful tasting, we settled on 3 bottles (see last photo).

Our second destination for the day was the Castel Sant’Angelo – built in the 2nd century as a mausoleum by order of emperor Hadrian. We arrived early because we had to find the turbopass employee to get our tickets. We couldn’t find this person (who was supposed to be dressed in a red shirt holding an orange umbrella – yeah find that one person in a sea of hundreds!!!) so we went to the information kiosk. The woman there was a bit surly and when we said we couldn’t find this employee, she said “look better’! We had a bit of a laugh after that because it was so unlike all the other Italian tourist employees. Once we got our tickets and entered the Castel, we were very impressive by its condition and the other displays inside. Unfortunately we were all very tired so we were happy to quickly view the castle and then head back to our apartment.

The plan for Sept. 5th was simple – a visit to the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill (all located at the same site). We decided to start our day with a “big bus” tour (hop on, hop off bus). This was a great idea because we had the opportunity to see all the big bus stops in the downtown area. After our bus tour, we had lunch and made our way to the Colosseum. Again words just don’t do this place justice! It took 8 years to build this massive venue with it many arches and columns, plus the incredible underground tunnels and passages.

After visiting the Colosseum, we went to the forum and Palatine Hill. By this time in the day we were all feeling tired and sore (my feet were very unhappy). We quickly walked around the area which was super impressive and spent a bit of time among the ancient ruins. It was very humbling to look around the massive old structures and all the ancient ruins. I think we would have spent more time there if it had been earlier in the day.

Tomorrow (Sept. 6th) is our last day on our turbopass excursion. We only have one scheduled event – the Catacombs of St Callistus – Rome’s underground. After that we’ll probably go see some of the other stops on the big bus route (we have access to the big bus route for another day).

2 full days down and I can honestly say I am very impressed with Rome. Our first full day (Sept. 2) was spent exploring our local neighbourhood. Our walk was amazing – lots of little shops and restaurants. We walked through the arches of the old Roman wall, right up to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. This basilica had an amazing plaza in front with some impressive landscaping. We also spent a bit of time walking through a park that ran beside a stretch of the old wall. After a very nice lunch, we did a bit of grocery shopping and headed back to our apartment for a well deserved rest.

Today (Wednesday, Sept. 3) was our Vatican City tour. Talk about impressive!!! It’s hard to put into words the impact of a place that has so much history on display in an absolutely incredible setting. From paintings to statues to jaw dropping ceilings, we made our way through the Vatican museum, ending up at the Sistine Chapel. I think my photos will do a much better job at expressing the sheer beauty of the place. I actually got to the point where I just couldn’t take any more photos – my phone’s battery power was running very low.

We spent about 3 hours inside the Vatican and then we walked along the outside of the wall to St. Peter’s Basilica. Unfortunately we didn’t have tickets to go inside the basilica but we did go into the centre plaza area and have a good look around. Again it was quite impressive!

Our last stop before heading home was at the Atlante Star Hotel roof top garden called Les etoiles terrazza. We had an amazing view of St. Peter’s Basilica and the surrounding area. We also had the most expensive drinks so far this trip (and they will probably be the most expensive for the whole trip!!). By the time we got back to our apartment, we all had sore feet and were ready for a rest!!

Tomorrow (Sept. 4) we will visit the Pantheon and the Castel Sant’Angelo. It will be another full day of touring Rome!

We had an uneventful flight to Rome – just what you want! Neither of us slept much on the plane so we were a bit sluggish making our way to the customs area. It’s a good thing there were loads of people to follow from terminal 3 to the immigrations concourse – my brain was working in slow motion!! Our plane arrived with at least 3 other international flights – the line for customs was crazy!! We snaked around and around and finally got to the end where they had automated passport readers. It was super easy and efficient!! We scanned our passports, had our photo taken and then had our passports stamped!! The exit lead directly to a massive baggage claims area and fantastically, our bag came sliding down the conveyor belt in short order! We were all settled by 2pm and Matthew and Margie arrived about an hour later. We took a taxi to our Airbnb which is located in the neighbourhood of San Giovanni!

Our Airbnb is lovely – on the second floor of a typical Rome apartment building. Lots of marble stairs and floors. The unit has a central hallway and each room has a door (good for keeping the place warm!). It’s very comfortable!! The neighbourhood is very interesting with lots of little shops and restaurants. We did a bit of exploring on Monday but will do more today.