July 13, Deruta and Perugia - Pottery and Jazz

We decided to explore the towns of Deruta and Perugia today. We had been looking forward to seeing the pottery for which Deruta is well known, and we heard that Perugia was having a jazz festival. 

 

We went to the pottery studio of an artisan who is a friend of Letizia- the woman who owns the agrotourisimo where we stayed.

 He had such beautiful pottery!

He recommended a restaurant next door for lunch where my mom had "the best lasagne ever". It had mushrooms and a truffel béchamel. 

After lunch we went to look at a very famous (and very expensive) pottery gallery. 

 

Then we left Deruta for Perugia, making a few stops to take pictures of the fields and a little detour along the way.  

On the way to Perugia we stopped in a little town called "San Egidio". My mom had been looking forward to seeing this town because Egidio was her grandfather's name. 

 

 Next and last stop of the day- Perugia. The jazz festival was pretty cool. There were people everywhere and several stages and everywhere you went there was music in the streets...🎷🎤

July 12, Cooking in Asissi, and a visit to Bevagno

We had breakfast at the B&B which included homemade bread😋,  then we went for a walk down the road near the villa before meeting up for our cooking class. 

 

 

 

We saw some beautiful flowers on our walk. 

 

Time for our cooking class. 

We made a stovetop flatbread; panzanella salad;  pasta with zucchini, pesto, and ricotta; chicken cacciatore; and italian cookies. 

Then we sat down to eat lunch and enjoyed it all with a glass of wine.

 

 

 

 

 

 After lunch we called a taxi to take us into Foligno to pick up a rental car. With so many little hill towns to try and see we definitely would need a car. 

 

We then set off to explore............

 We visited the little medieval town of Bevagno. It was picturesque with stone streets and ancient buildings. There was also a beautiful church with Frescos and ornate chandeliers. 

We briefly visited the old town center of Asissi and then back to the B&B to have leftovers from our cooking class for dinner. 

 

Asissi at night.

July 11, Good bye Amalfi Coast, and Hello Asissi

We got up early to catch a bus into Naples where we would get a train to Asissi. Anett, one our our couchsurfing friends, was on the same early morning bus and we had a farewell cup of tea together at the station. 

 

After a long day of travel we arrived in Asissi at the villa where we would stay. 

 

The view from our window

 

This villa is on a farm that produces olive oil which we would used in our cooking class the next day. 

July 10, Amalifi and the last day of camp

The group hiked to Amalfi, but we took the bus instead and met them at the beach. We had a relaxing afternoon reading, swimming, and a little shopping. We took the bus back to camp with the group and mom and I made dinner (with lots of help) for the people who were staying for one more night. We were sad to say goodbye. 

 Beach at Amalfi

 

 

A few of our new friends:

 

 

 

 

 

July 9 the beach at Minori, roman ruins, a famous pastry shop, and a Rockabilly party

The couchsurfing group skipped the hike today and went all as a group to the seaside town of Moligno. We spent the day on the beach, explored some Roman ruins, and went to a famous pastry shop in town. 

Back at camp we danced until after midnight.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luca, the main camp organizer.  

 

A little watermelon break...

 

 

This was a Roman villa used by Tiberius. 

 

 

This is the brilliant pastry chef who is in charge of the shop. 

 

 

 

Back at camp there was a "Rockabilly" party with a great band and more dancing...

 

 

 

July 8, Amalfi and Positano

The couchsurfing group went for a 10K hike to Positano today. We opted instead to take a bus to Amalfi and then after doing a little shopping we took a boatride along the coast to Positano where we met the group at the beach.

The bus rides are terrifying. The roads are narrow and wind back and forth along the side of the mountain.  

 

 

Amalfi was lovely with terraces and homes all along the mountainside. 

 

 

 

The boat ride was abolutey beautiful with  views of the hillside villiages. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beach in Positano was small and rocky with very warm water. 

 

The town was a little bit like cinque terre

 

 

 

After swimming for awhile the bus came to pick up our group and take us back to the camp

 

Back at camp we showered and had dinner then after dinner there was music and dancing again and the music kept going until 2:00am. I had fun dancing, but at midnight I was ready to be done and go to bed.