Tuesday morning we drove 9 miles south to another of our ‘must see’ towns. Spello is made out of the same limestone as Assisi, but apart from sharing the same construction material they are completely different. Although it has a population of only 8,500 there are over 25 small churches and religious buildings, yes St Francis was a big hitter here as well, but you wouldn’t know of the religious influence unless you looked more closely behind the immaculate flower bedecked streets. The residents obviously take a great deal of pride in the appearance of their homes as you will see from the photographs.

Of the six gateways into the town the most dramatic is Porta di Venere (Venus’ Gate) from 1^st Century, which has two dodecagonal towers, both very much restored now. It was interesting talking to a Dutch campervanner who observed that when the Italians restore their buildings, they sometimes do it too immaculately, which is absolutely true.

After a lovely walk around the town we travelled about 80 miles northeast into the Marche region. We found a free aire with electricity (of course) at another ‘different’ hilltop town called Corinaldo, close to the Adriatic coast. In addition to all the services a campervanner needs, it had the added bonus of a bar which would be showing the Uefa League Final between Ajax and United the following night, this was starting to look like a 2 night stopover.

Rachel setting off on the 100+ steps into town!
Not Rachel really but this is how she felt near the top!

Notice the pigeons hanging onto the wall behind the fountain.

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It was warm on Tuesday but by Wednesday things were getting seriously hot and with no breeze the 35c heat was getting to us a bit. Added to that the presence of Mustafa the Mozzie and his mates was making life a little uncomfortable. Although we hadn’t yet heard the telltale kamikaze buzz, we are sporting a few calling cards, I suppose that’s one of the joys of journeying south of Penrith. Undeterred by these events we decided to have a pre match barbeque on Wednesday, but that did mean I was outside with trousers and a shirt on in an effort not to collect more insect trophies, not the most comfortable attire in that heat.

Warning: The following script could seriously damage your mental health if you’re not interested in football.

Talking about trophies United won another!! It was a rather bizarre experience watching in a bar which had a large room at the back with a huge TV. Although there were about 8 locals in the room, 5 were sitting around a table playing cards having bought nothing at the bar, the three or so others I think bought two ice creams between them throughout the whole match, I seemed to be not only the only person drinking beer in that room, but in the whole place! Anyway, when United scored I naturally jumped up, fisted the air and shouted “YES”!! as any self respecting footy fan would. I expected some kind of response from other people in the room but to my dismay that was the moment I realised I was sharing this experience with the Corinaldo branch of the Ajax supporters club….. great! When United scored their second, the place was gathering the ambience of a dentist’s waiting room, and as soon as the full time whistle went I was so intent on watching the celebrations that I had failed to notice the mass evacuation of the Dutch/Italians, there was only one thing for it, get a celebratory drink in and wallow in the team’s success.

Thursday morning we broke with tradition and treated ourselves, if that’s the right expression, to some paid for autopista driving, hopefully the standard of the surface would be better than the usual cheesegrater-like rubbish we had become accustomed to. Thankfully it was, but we have no idea yet how much the 90 mile drive cost as the toll booth at the end gobbled our card then spat it out without any indication of charge, but that’s Italy for you!

NOT the autopista but the more common Italian cheesegrater stuff!

We arrived in time for lunch at the town of Castel San Pietro Terme, which is about 15 miles from the centre of Bologna, although it was still hot enough peel paint off cars at least there was a breeze to make it much more bearable.