Umbria | Jillian In Italy

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Umbria (Assisi and Spello)

As some of you may know a few weeks ago we spent a week in the gorgeous region of Umbria. It was mostly a week of hanging out at the pool with family but we did manage to fit in a few visits to some nearby towns. Umbria, in general, has the beautiful landscapes of Tuscany but without the masses of tourists (although this region is slowly becoming more and more popular).

Here are a few images of our visit to the towns of Assisi and Spello.

The views of Assisi as you’re driving up from the motorway are absolutely stunning with the monochrome coloured buildings and the impressive Basilica.

We were pleasantly surprised how easy it was to drive up into town and park at the ultra modern multi-floor underground parking lot. Apparently Assisi is one of the top places to visit in Umbria and is known to be FULL of tourists throughout the entire year. We were lucky to visit it in the morning before the big busloads of tourists arrived (and before the sun got too scorchingly hot to walk around).

Walking through the narrow cobblestone streets of Assisi you run into nuns,priests and monks visiting from all over the world. We were all quite impressed with the emotion a lot of people felt as they visited Assisi. There were people in tears, in deep prayer and in awe of actually visiting a place that obviously meant so much to them spiritually. Continue reading →

Tags: assisi, flower, italy, photography, spell, travel, Umbria

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Categories Family/Kids, Living in Italia, Travel

Vacanza

15 Jul

It has been pretty quiet around here lately due to end-of-school-year chaos and finally the summer vacation starting. We were all running around like lunatics until July 5th which was the last day of school (is it just me or does that seem really LATE to end school for summer?). I can’t even count how many going-away parties, end-of-year parties, summer parties and barbecues we attended in the last weeks. It was fun but exhausting (although I admit that at the end it was more exhausting than fun).

The day after school ended we packed up the car and headed south to the gorgeous region of Umbria with all the Belgian aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We spent an amazing week relaxing poolside at our villa, eating delicious meals and exploring all the small cities and towns Umbria has to offer. The weather was perfect (not too hot and not too cold) and the nine little cousins had the time of their lives together. There were tears at the end of the week when we all had to say goodbye and part ways. Lifetime memories were definitely made for everyone.

We stayed in the stunning Villa Enea which is probably one of the most gorgeous properties we’ve ever lodged at. There is actually a chapel, a library (including baby grand piano), a pool house (with kitchen, dining room, bathroom and changing room) and more than enough bedrooms to accommodate our very big extended family. Believe me, we enjoyed every second of our time in this gorgeous villa and region.

We visited the small city of Perugia (where the International Jazz Fest was being held), Assisi, Todi and our favourite small town of Spello (which was a flower haven!). We loved meandering through the old stone streets and alleyways, visiting ancient Roman and Etruscan sites and admiring the incredibly varied and impressive architecture to be found everywhere. And the fact that we saw a monk with an iphone, a nun with a hot pink glittery purse and a priest wearing a cowboy hat in Assisi was just icing on the cake. I’ll be writing more about these visits in my upcoming Classic Play travel column.

(Follow me on Instagram to see more photos of our time in Umbria).