Gubio and arrival to Todi

                Today we went to Gubio which is where Saint Francis founded his religious order of friars. Friars are basically monks but because of a couple small differences in the religious order, they are different. There we visited the Church of Saint Francis. The outside of this church was nothing special, but the inside was quite interesting. When you walk in, it looks like it is colored marble used throughout the church, but then once you look closer (and are told by the tour guide) you can tell that the marble is actually painted. It is really quite impressive that it is possible to paint something so well that people will not notice right away that it is not real.

                Gubio is built up on a hill and is made to look like it is a lot larger than it actually is. When you walk to the top of the town you realize how small of a city it really is though; the large buildings and the hill just make it look large. When we first started walking up the hill, we stopped on a street to see what the medieval houses looked like. We were able to see that there were two different levels of doors. This was because on the first floor of the buildings were shops so there was a door for the shops and then there was a separate door for the residential housing. There was also a door called “porta del morto” which is where the dead were carried out of. Often times there were fires in the houses which would cause only the top of the buildings to burn so the dead people would be carried out of those doors; needless to say you never wanted to have to use that door. It was also mentioned how there were no balconies to the houses and people used removable ladders to get in to their houses because of the risk of theft.

                We started to meander our way up to the main square from there. Because Gubio was built on a hill, it was sort of difficult to have a town center so instead they built up a town square. They created a building that on top was the town center that has a beautiful view of the surrounding region. The town center was used and still is used for celebrations and gatherings of the town. We then went even further up the hill to the highest point possible; there is a cathedral at the top of the town as well as the ducal palace. I really enjoyed our visit to Gubio. It was a very pretty city and the lunch we had there was probably one of the best meals I have so far.

                We then drove to Todi where we will be staying for three days. We had some free time and I walked around for a little bit. The little bit of the city that I saw was pretty; again it is built on top of a hill so it has a very pretty view. For dinner we went to a slow food restaurant. Slow food is basically considered food that is local and organic. It was a very enjoyable meal!