Umbria

The staff at JFRC organized an on-site orientation trip to Umbria (known as the green heart of Italy) for all students last weekend September 4th to 6th.

We boarded the bus early Friday morning and headed for a visit to a farm near Lake Trasimeno. We watched farm workers thrash beans, weave wicker baskets, and bake pasta. I even tried my hand at crushing grapes (below) and making pasta dough.

looking like a class-A goofball here ^^^^

puppy at the farm

JFRC group pic (don't even try to look for me because I'm hiding in the back)

Next we went on a ferry on Lake Trasimeno to the Isola Maggiore with a population around seventeen. From what the guide told us, they aren't too sure how many people acutally live there. Most of the buildings are from around the fourteenth century and the majority of them are abandoned (because no one lives there...) but it was very beautiful.

Saturday was spent in Spoleto where our group's hotel was located. We went on a walking tour and explored the tomb of St. Isaac, a Roman theater, and the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, which was the last project the Renaissance painter Fra Lippi worked on before he died. The cathedral also featured statuary by Bernini and a reliquary containing a fragment of a handwritten prayer that St. Francis of Assisi had on his person when he died. Throughout the cathedral and other places in Spoleto were bumblebees, which are the symbol of the Barberini family, who had significant power in the region during the Renaissance.

Roman theater in Spoleto

square in Spoleto

fountain in Spoleto

Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

interior of Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

Fra Lippi frescoes

We finished the walking tour with a hike across a Roman acqueduct. The gorge was very, very, very deep. The acqueduct was unbelievably scary high. Some people took pictures sitting on the ledge but I could barely look over the side.

That evening we spent in the nearby city of Foligno where a city wide festival between the neighborhoods was taking place. Each "rioni" or quarter had its own colors, flag, and foods which were celebrated in between jousting matches. Unfortunately, we left before the festival started that night but the city was very much alive.

Here's a picture of me with a rioni flag.

Sunday was the final day of our Umbria trip. We went to the hilltop town of Todi for a walking tour, which despite its high altitude (1400ft) was once named "the world's most livable city" for some reason according to our tour guide. I might have walked up the tallest, steepest hill of my life here... I don't think I could live here.

Duomo di Todi

The last stop was Cascata delle Marmore in Terni, aka the Marmore Waterfalls. The Romans created the waterfalls in the third century BC so they are technically "articifical" but are still breathtaking. The falls were historically a popular stop on the European Grand Tour and Lord Byron famously calls them "horribly beautiful."

Ended the trip with a rainbow!