More around Umbria

With Lisa and Dawn, Margaret and I had some active days around some of our favorite places in Umbria.  We had an outing to Montone, the town above us, where we met Slow Traveler Allen and his wife Jennifer, including a look at their apartment.

On Friday, after a brief stop in Città di Castello, we went uphill to Citerna where, as we remembered from before, a grocery store served at outside tables a tagliere, literally a cutting board, filled with excellent cold cuts and a little cup with ravioli with truffle sauce.  It was a pleasant time.

On  Saturday we didn't do much during the day, in anticipation of a big dinner where we were invited by Moira.   Her uncle was my best friend in my middle school days here.  Moira and her mother prepared a very full meal, so nice to be with her and her family, and her encouraging me to be active on Facebook basically led me to reconnect with Margaret, so how to measure the importance of that in my life?

We'd thought it best to avoid Gubbio on the day of the Ceri race Thursday, May 15, with the huge crowds that always go there; we went the following Sunday.  When I wanted to go to the easy parking area on Piazza 40 Martiri, access was blocked; I went way beyond there, not finding any place to turn around.  I eventually got turned around and went to the next choice, the Teatro Romano parking lot, where people were parked in the craziest way and I didn't want to take part.  I turned farther away from the town center and eventually found a fine parallel parking spot.  

We found that there were still crowds and activity there, because of the Ceri Mezzani, a version of the Ceri race for youth (mostly teenagers, I think).  Many youth were decked out in the colors of their teams, and we found people out there running around with smaller versions of these Ceri.  We went to Taverna del Lupo, a longtime favorite restaurant of my family's, where the truffled lasagne dish now had the title of sfogliatine.  Then a climb to Piazza Grande; taking the gradual street downhill, there was a table set up in the middle of the street, where wine was freely given to us.  

On Monday, Margaret wasn't feeling well, and it was time for Lisa and Dawn to move on to Spello.  I drove them, and it gets confusing where one winds up when driving there.  We wound up on the central piazza, and figured out where we were to go to pick up the keys at a bar for their rental apartment.  When we got there,  the bar-restaurant was closed on Monday, and there was no reply at the two phone numbers listed for the agency.  We were puzzling over what to do, and I went into the restaurant up the street, with the door open but well before serving time.  I asked the lady there, who was familiar with the agency, and found the owner's mother, who had the keys and let them in, a happy resolution to a potential problem. So we've had interesting times.