There’s no place like Italy
A true highlight for me today was seeing the wonderful views from atop the ancient wall surrounding the lovely village of Todi, Umbria, which we visited for lunch today.
Its hard to believe that so much of this area’s heritage stretches back into ancient times, as with Todi, which is about a thousand years old. Contrast that to Johannesburg’s buildings that have been built only within the last century or so.
Now, to fully appreciate the panoramas that we enjoyed today, allow yourself to picture the most fantastic Hollywood scenery of the Italian countryside; all rolling green hills and aged villas. Now imagine that image as ten times better and you have the real thing.
Up we go
To get to Todi,we parked at the foot of the hills on which the village is perched. Leading up the hillside is a little elevator/cable-car, into which we piled and took up. My first image of Todi as we climbed out was of the little park that opened before us, which happened to be the site of what some refer to as knitt-bombing, or the graffiti of knitting, where knit pieces are made to fit lamp posts, trees, or any other public structure. In this case it was far more creative than just that, with little knitted owls in the trees, and a woolen web spanning the park’s center, with large colorful spiders smiling from a nearby tree. So interesting,but not what you’d expect of an ancient city. More surprises were yet to come!
Stone steps, arches and ancient spaces
Being that Todi is built on the hillside, the village is rather a bit of a climb to explore, but this allows for a photographer’s dream. Leading off of almost every cobbled road is another, smaller pathway, defined by the darkened and dusty brick archway that announces its presence within the surrounding facade.
Moreover, the buildings are specimens of beauty themselves, some derelict and forgotten, others with patterns of the existence of previous doorways and windows left in their dermis. Some are painted, some are au natural.
A charming descent
Our trip to Todi accumulated with a reservation at La Scalette restaurant. Unbelievably, I was not all too hungry, but the pizzas fromthe other tables did look delicious, even if I wasn’t to taste them. Instead I tried a vegetable platter, which turned out mouth watering. It seemed that us girls were all a little bit stuffed still from the previous evening because we merely ordered veggies, while Piero chose a local soup for starters andthe meat platter for mains. My eyes were already drooping by the time we had coffee, so to get my system up and awake, I opted to walk off lunch with my mom by taking the stairs down to the parking lot from above. Its quite a steep walk, and the steps were not always in the best condition, but it was worth the effort to feel a sort of magic as we crossed down the front of the town wall, the massive trees around us, the stones beneath our feet covered in moss. One could almost imagine you were Juliet sneaking out to meet your Romeo.
Needless to say, all the drive back to San Terenziano I sat in the back with my eyes closed, ready for my siesta.
NINA IN EUROPE 