Flag of Italy
I heard that they are trying to set the leaning tower of Pisa upright. Tourist love to be photographed leaning as if holding it up. They also climb it for a view.
Any suggestions for the revised name? The non-leaning Tower of Pisa? The Upright Tower of Pisa. The pushed up tower of Pisa.
I put out a request for new names on Facebook. My friend Maggie from Writers Summer School suggested Realigned. That inspired my new thoughts, remodeled, recycled, reinvented, upright, uptight. .
Perhaps a children's story? The Tower of Pisa, the Princes and the Pea.
I heard it cost a lot of money to right it. The Loaning Tower of Pisa.
The No Longer Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Not Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Slightly Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Ex Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Righted Tower of Pisa.
Maybe somebody else can build a leaning tower. Enter at your own risk. The leaning tower near Pisa.
Why not just add retaining ramps like flying buttresses. The leaning tower of Pisa Cathedral.
Or build a second tower leaning towards it with a cross beam, like the Malaysian twin towers.
Flag of Singapore
Or add two more towers, the central one upright, creating a hotel and shopping complex with an infinity pool on top, like Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.
I can see somebody saying, you should get out more. I can imagine somebody else saying, you should stay in more.
For those of us who have already seen Pisa and Florence and the beaches of Viareggio, what next?
St Francis St Francis The patron saint of Italy is St Francis. You can see many frescoes and sites associated with him in Assissi and elsewhere in Umbria.
Umbria and Perugia
See my other posts on Umbria. Make sure you see the capital city of Perugia, with is massive Etruscan gate set into the cliffside.
Etruscan gateway into Perugia, capital city of Umbria in Italy.Photo from Wikipedia.
Walk uphill on the cobblestones to the piazza with the fountain and cathedral at the top.
So many cities on the hilltops in Umbria. Your tour bus drops you at the car park or by the roadside and off you go uphill through the steep quiet old streets to a cafe or restaurant at the top, or a church or museum with murals of St Francis. You feel like a character in one of those medieval paintings.
Agritourisme
If you really want to go back to nature or back in time you can stay on a farm. Or in a restored medieval castle, or take the trail across the countryside from one St Francis site to the next. I went by minibus, back to a lovely castle hotel.
You can have a homestay in a guest house painted like cathedral, marry in a teeny chapel in the building before flopping into bed in the room next door.
If you would rather pay more and see the place in style, you will find a wonderful spa hotel where you can sit chatting to old and newfriends in the water by while being massaged by the jets, and the sky darkening to stars overhead. As the sky turns from sun to stars and when it turns from warm to cool, retired to the indoor pool or a leisurely restaurant.
Umbria is the twin sister of Tuscany, and many tourists like to see both in one trip. Umbria also had a chocolate festival which is bound to feature the Perugian chocolate with silver foil wrapper, Perugian kisses.
The other local Umbrian speciality sweetmeat is truffles, savoury truffles, which can be flavouring for anything from an egg starter to a meat main course, or a truffle flavour chocolate to go with your coffee.
Dates for your diary:
I like summer in Italy, but you might like autumn or winter. If so:
October chocolate festival in Perugia
December in Assissi. (Away in a manger!)
Ciao!
To mug up on italian:
duolingo.com
Useful Websites
umbriatourism.it
http://www.montesubasio.it/en/assisi-christmas-nativity/
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi
Author
Angela Lansbury, Travel Writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please save and share links to your favourite posts.
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