Un viaggio da sola

Yesterday I decided to go it alone and hopped on the bus to Gubbio. Over an hour of windy roads later (bleh!) and I was on my way up the funivia (see silhouette below) to the top of the mountain. In the church of the Franciscan monastery at the top was the preserved (pickled) body of San Ubaldo in his vestments. I planned the ride so that I would be at the top for the funivia's pausa hour so I had plenty of time to wander around. A hike further up led to the ruins of an old medieval tower from which I took the 360 degree panorama photo of doom (email me if you want to see it. I don't think it will show here).

There is something very liberating about standing alone like that, with full visual command of the lands below. I sat at the backside for a very long time and I wished for my journal to record all that was running through my head. I have been wondering about the non-cultivated areas of the Italian countryside, and I saw a few yesterday. The pictures do not really show the contrasts of greens and browns. It's beautiful.

The rest of my day took me through medieval streets and a variety of churches, past bell towers and friendly local kitties. I stopped for a caffe macchiato in a local bar and realized as I was ordering that I picked THE bar in Gubbio where all the old me go to wile away their afternoons. I felt very out of place standing there, but I was also caught by another one of those "I'm in Italy moments".

These moments have a variety of forms.
1. "I'm in Italy! It's so beautiful and I feel like everything I see is a postcard photo."
2. "I'm in Italy! I can't believe it."
3. "I'm in Italy, wow, I am living in Italy. I know what I am doing here."
(Yesterday was of the third variety, particularly after on two separate occasions I was asked directions to places in the city by Italian tourists. I kindly responded, "Mi dispiace, no lo so. Non sono di qui.")


Like the sense of freedom of standing on the mountain, traveling alone was exhilarating. It is not something that I would want to do long term, it has the potential to be very lonely. But it was such a strong sense of self-confidence.

As the sun was setting, I realized that I had time before the return bus to step outside the city walls to the ruined Roman ampitheater. I don't know how many pictures I took, but I couldn't get enough of the site. Moss covered seats and the contrast of the two-toned stone construction. With the setting sun, it was perfect.