Assisi, Urbino

Originally published on: Oct 15, 2007 

Hiking along Mount Subasio

My last day in Assisi  was spent hiking along the olive groves and forests on Monte Subasio. I'm especially content to experience the countryside of Italy on my own. The village was starting to swell with tourists coming for a weekend stay, so I was ready to move on.

Early morning in Assisi, near the Temple of Minerva

I left early in the morning to begin my longest travel day, to Urbino. I had two train changes and a bus, all slow-moving because of the many stops along the way. But I enjoyed the scenery, traveling through Umbrian hills to the seaside of the Adriatic coast, which continued from Ancona to Pesaro. Now that I've returned to Le Marche region of Italy, from Pesaro we traveled again into hills even more picturesque than the scenes around Assisi.

Palazzo Ducale di Urbino

Just before I left Assisi, I had a surprise....one of my penpals decided to join me in Urbino for a few days. Francesca, who lives near Milan, arrived yesterday and is staying in the same hotel as me. It will be a different adventure to have a native Italian to see the sights with, eat and converse with. She's never been to Urbino before, so we'll be seeing the same things for the first time.

Having a heated discussion in the piazza.

I arrived in Urbino about 3 pm (nearly 8 hours of travel and waits), only to find that my hotel was located 30 minutes by foot from the town center...it took a 10-minute bus ride to get there. It's the only accommodation I was unsure of, opting for an internet "bargain"without any personal recommendations. Fortunately the hotel is quite comfortable, with a balcony and a wonderful view of the hills west of town....great sunsets!

Cattedrale di Urbino

 Urbino is another small hill town with its medieval wall still intact. Most of its 25,000 inhabitants are university students at " Carlo Bo," where many foreigners come to learn Italian before they can be matriculated into other Italian universities. On the surface, Urbino reminds me more of Gubbio than Assisi...it's a "working" town, less frequented by visitors. Assisi is more quaint, lyrical, geared to tourists, clean and compact. Urbino seems more impressive as a fortress against attack, with high walls and a formidable presence. And yet it sits like a gem amidst the pastoral beauty of the surrounding hills.

Urbino has an interesting history, too lengthy to explain now, and is the birthplace of the painter Raphael...in fact, I walked by the house where he was born just this morning. It is also the home of the painter Piero della Francesca.

Francesca showing off several gold rings she found in Urbino.