02.10 - Day 261 - Ancona (ferry) to Silvignano, ITA
Wednesday 2nd October - Ferry to Ancona, Italy - Silvignano, Italy (Day 261)
Everyone sleeps through in their bunk aboard SS Aurelia as we steam across from Split, Croatia to Ancona on the east coast of Italy. By 6am muffled announcements on the tannoy greet everyone to ensure no one is asleep by the time we arrive in port at 7:30am. As one of the first on the ferry we’re one of the last off, 3 point turning on car deck 3 to emerge out and into Italy.
With check in not till 3pm at our next place and only a 2 hour drive ahead of us we make two stops.
First Gubbio - after an hour along non-too impressive roads. This is Umbria territory which means rolling countryside and medieval villages and towns perched on the sides of valleys or atop large rock plinths, often surrounded by protective walls.
Gubbio fits the bill as we park adjacent to the old wall and walk in and up. And up again. The streets are mostly deserted and on the main plaza we’re the only ones here which gives the kids even more licence to run around chasing after one another or playing with the conkers we’d collected on the way up.
It’s all quaint and after subjecting the kids to just one church we stop for a second breakfast at our first Italian bakery; doughnuts, biscottis and espresso.
A further 1 hour drive brings us to Assisi - popular enough amongst (lazy) tourists that they’ve installed escalators from the lower car parks half way up the hill in the old town.
It definitely is more popular and crowded here - plenty of American voices standing out - while we sit on a bench in the main plaza to eat our sandwiches.
This town is all about St Francis and the large basilica we stroll down and into is certainly impressive in scale and yet detail.
It just about holds the kids attention as we walk through in silence though Seb is teetering from tiredness, even the crypt under the basilica not grabbing him. Some snacks outside help everyone and we quickly pass through Cathedrale di Dan Ruffino and Basilica di Santa Chiara / Claire which are a bit too whitewashed for us.
Our home for the next three nights is Casa di Luca Pietro in the tiny hamlet of Silvignano near Spoleto, having driven another 40 minutes past that-looks-nice hillside or hilltop walled villages.
We’re met by Luca, a bald hairdresser whom we can connect with as he only recently returned to Italy after 14 years in Adelaide. His pet project is this rental (despite living in Florence) and it’s certainly one of the nicest places we’ve stayed with cakes (more than one) and breakfast treats (kids won over with nutella sachets) included, even if there are 85 light switches to battle with each day and night.
After a long day, our Italian adventure is well and truly underway.