Gubbio

[fumobici]

Gubbio is a town located on the Northeastern frontier of Umbria in the province of Perugia. It is sited on the Western flank of the Apennines, looking down on the Tiber valley and is on the roads connecting that valley and the nearby towns of Umbertide (Uhm-BEHR-tee-day) and Perugia with the Marche to the East and the Adriatic coastal towns of Fano and Ancona.

It was raining when I arrived the day I took these pictures. This is the view from the municipal car park looking up past a church towards the iconic Palazzo dei Consoli.



We'll walk up to the Palazzo and its adjoining piazza and then to the Duomo at the top of the town center.









There's a stream running through the centro.

















OK, we've climbed up to the "hanging piazza" that is Gubbio's signature.





I seem happy it's stopped raining, but it still looks dicey off to the West.



Let's look around.

[fumobici]

Before we go up to the Duomo I wanted to show you a series of mostly animal themed hitching rings around the Palazzo dei Consoli. Quite whimsical.

























I'm honestly not sure what animal some of these are inspired by but no matter.

[fumobici]

And on up to the Duomo,













And on back towards the car.









We'll close with some election posters from the Rifondazione, the primary Italian communist party which still uses the hammer and sickle as a symbol.





Thanks comrades for looking!

[mich64]

How fortunate for you to spend time in such a wonderful place. Many quality photos of interesting articles. I love how the Europeans hang their bedding out there windows... so fresh when you crawl back into bed at night.

Cheers,
Mich

[Deleted]

Lovely, lovely. The waterways in some parts of Europe always fascinate me. How on earth did they build houses and other structures right on the water like that and why? I find architecture intriguing, and Gubbio looks like it's full of history.

[Deleted]

While all of the photos are fantastic (and the rest of can't even see the rain, just the umbrellas!), the hitching rings got my imagination working, trying to picture travellers arriving on horseback and enquiring about an inn to sleep and something to eat. And where were they going? To Rome for religious reasons or so some trading area to buy fine silk imported from Asia or spices from the Middle East? The town is so well preserved, and more than half of your photos managed not to show cars in the street, so it really sends me back in time rather than just thinking "old restored buildings."

[fumobici]

The centro is amazingly preserved as are many of the towns in this part of Italy. They didn't need to import silk to Italy, silk was produced and woven locally- in fact it was a huge industry even by the 12th century or so. There was a huge pilgrimage route (early tourism) coming down the Tiber valley- can't recall the name- but Gubbio seems sort of out of the way for that. I'm sure they passed not too far away though.

[Kimby]

Gubbio was one of our favorites from our 2007 trip to Italy. We were lucky to arrive on the weekend of the Truffles Festival in October, and stumbled upon a parade of medieval-clothed lords and ladies on a red-carpeted street with buglers and flag-tossers. Enchanting place.

[bixaorellana]

Sorry for only now commenting on this wonderful thread. The computer was so balky before I had it fixed, that it was too hard to load the picture-rich reports.

And what riches in this generously pictured report! I'm sure the town is beautiful in the sunshine, but the wet gray day seems to perfectly suit the stone textures and subtle colors.

Is that the church in the 4th photo? It's height and elegant simplicity give it such a modern look -- just beautiful.

The town's inhabitants must have bands of steel for leg muscles. As always, you managed to get just the right angle to show both lovely vistas and intriguing hints of more around the corner. Do old towns in that area have modern suburbs and shopping around them?

Well, off to look at the whole thread again, as there is so much to appreciate in each picture. This thread is on anyport's facebook page, for easy sharing with the world.

[fumobici]

The church in the fourth photo was at the base of the hill near the parcheggio municipale. I didn't explore it as the exterior didn't really appeal to me. The interior church photos later in the post are from the duomo (cathedral) at the very top of the centro. There are a number of blocks of more modern construction at the base of the town having the usual commercial stuff and newer houses of course. Hard to site a Fiat dealership or a supermarket inside the walls of most of these towns.

[lagatta]

bixa, I loved studying in Umbria precisely because it was possible to indulge in the wonderful food and wine as much as we wanted ... and still lose kilos. Of course we were also younger then. I still don't mind the effort, but those old staircases without railings can be a bit scary for older people in the rainy season - to say nothing of the wintertime. Central Italy doesn't get very cold (except the very high mountains of Abruzzo) but it does get ice and some slippery wet snow in the high hills.

Note that Rifondazione's pink poster has a feminist theme - more than a bit appropriate in Berlusconiland.

There are more modern constructions downhill from the larger old hill towns, but there are also fairly strict rules on respecting materials and colours, especially roofs that seem to have to respect the general structure and tone of the medieval buildings. There is a large supermarket in central Perugia, the COOP near the main railway station, though it is beneath the oldest part of the town. Indeed car dealerships tend to be farther out. When I first studied in Italy, the Perugina chocolate plant was in that area too, though it has been moved out to more modern, slightly farther out facilities (This is a small compact city, and there is good public transport by Italian standards). Surprise! It became a condo/shopping development.

Gubbio is of course famous for the legend of St. Francis and the wolf.

A more modern story - the Mausoleum of the Forty Martyrs, shot as a reprisal for a partisan attack on the Germans. This is a long story, as of course the Italian fascists and German Nazis were allies, and I can't really go into everything that happened after Mussolini's government fell and the Germans came in to make sure fascism was seriously enforced. You've seen that Umbria is a fairly "red" region (though nowadays that means social-democratic with partisan references).

annesitaly.com/blog/?p=2626

Unlike the Fosse Ardeatine outside Rome where most of the reprisal victims were Jews, partisans or both, the Gubbio martyrs seemed to be just anyone in most cases.

Deyana, streams and rivers were important for cooking, washing, waste disposal (!) and economic activities, certainly processing cloth and leather, and pottery. Gubbio was also famous for majolica decorated pottery - still a draw for tourists and lovers of crafts, though I was afraid to buy anything and traipse around with it on several buses, trains and planes before getting back home.

[bixaorellana]

Oh, LaGatta ~~ your reminiscences and excellent filling in of detail enhanced this already wonderful thread immensely. Thanks for that, and for the links to that great blog.

[lagatta]

Nothing to do with Gubbio, but "Anne Robichaud" is about as Acadian as a name can get. In Louisiana it is often Robichaux or Robicheaux, as deportees had to sign deeds with an X if they couldn't write. Ste Anne is of course the Acadian patron sainte.

I think I may have run into her somewhere in the blogosphere, perhaps on the Slow Travel board. She isn't from Louisiana or an Acadian region of the Canadian Maritimes; I think she was originally from somewhere in the Northeastern US, but she did indeed have (Maritimes) Acadian ancestors.

[bixaorellana]

Well, our minds were chugging on the same track. As soon as I saw her name on the blog, I clicked on all the "about" links. I didn't learn where she's from, but certainly was dazzled by her accomplishments. Parts of the NE US are heavy on French last names, but I'm not sure if they're from the Acadian diaspora or not. I never knew that detail about the x on the end of so many Cajun names!

Well, enough thread-jacking. Obviously my mind & Fumobici's were not running on the same track re: the exterior of that austerely beautiful church. Going through the pictures on this thread and others taken by anyporters around the world makes me want to learn some architectural history. The photo looking under the massive stairs on the civic museum and the one of the interior of the church dome make one feel tiny and insignificant, as was probably the architectural intent.

[nycgirl]

I love the old hitching rings. I think I can make out a rooster, a pig, maybe horses and dogs?

Terrific photos! Gubbio looks very charming.