Gubbio, Loreto

We spent a day in Gubbio, in Umbria. We had both heard it was a really cool walled hill town so we drove a couple hours from Urbania to visit it. It's an incredibly charming old town on the top of a hill (of course) so our quads got a good workout. The views are spectacular.

The duomo had some really beautiful stained glass...here's a sample.

The town is as it was centuries ago with all these narrow little streets that somehow people manage to drive down (we parked in a public lot outside the town.)





After spending a few days in Urbania, we moved a bit further south to Loreto which is the site of gigantic pilgrimages because of the miracle that occurred there when the holy house of Nazareth (the place of the Annunciation) was PHYSICALLY MOVED to Loreto by ANGELS. The other story is that is was physically brought by ship from the holy land to Loreto by the crusaders. I think if you're a good Catholic, you buy the angel story. One of the carvings in the house was of the madonna and was a wood carving that appeared black because of the wood and this is the origin of the whole black Madonna thing. So here's this giant Cathedral in Loreto.




One of the reasons we stayed in Loreto was that it was close to the Adriatic Sea...yet another sea to see. From our info it looked as though it was really touristy right at the coast so we went inland a bit to Loreto. The touristiness was beyond our wildest dreams....it was wall to wall schlock and so thick it was hard to see the ocean.



Beyond the miracle of Loreto's church was the miracle of the GIANT NUTELLA!!!! We're not certain of its origin but we know that the 1st Nutella came off the assembly line in 1964 and this giant Nutella was brought to our very hotel by ANGELS from the Nutella factory. Here it is venerated daily by one and all. The miracle is that it is never emptied despite its use by everyone. The OTHER miracle is that it ALMOST made Dick smile but it's very difficult to smile when your mouth is full of Nutella.












We had a fabulous meal in Loreto at a restaurant called Andreina's. It rivalled the Gary Danko tasting menu. It was incredibly elegant and Dick ate THRUSHES!!!!........Yes, little tiny birds that you eat bones and all. One of the little tiny birds had a HEAD!!! He didn't eat the head. I couldn't bring myself to taste them. The rest of the meal was fantastic! For the winos wasting their time reading the blog, we had a Masciarelli wine that was also great and brought back fond memories for Dick of his good times BN (before Norma.)