Gubbio

One weekend not long after our trip to Salzburg, we decided to go to see the leaning tower of Pisa. It had just re-opened and they were allowing people to climb up to the top of the tower again after having been closed for quite some time for renovations. Just as we were about to leave, we found out that in order to climb to the top of the tower you needed to have a reservation. They only wanted a few people per day to climb up the tower and it took awhile to get a reservation. So we decided to go another day. What is the point of driving all that way if you are not going to get to climb up the tower.

Jeff and I couldn't decide where we should go instead. Our gas tank was full, we had snacks we wanted a trip. We decided to give the tour book to Mandy and let her pick where we would go that day. Mandy picked Gubbio.

Gubbio is a little town in the middle of the Umbria region. Italy is broken up into regions like we are broken up into states. Each region has differing characteristics just like our states are very different. For me the Umbria region is my favorite. While Verona is my favorite city, Verona being in the Venito region, Umbria is my favorite region and Gubbio is my favorite city in Umbria. That probably makes no sense to anyone but me.

There is not a train station in Gubbio, this makes it very remote. The Umbria region is mountainous and to get to Gubbio you have to drive and you have to drive along windy roads. It took forever but we finally found the little town.

While we were in Salzburg we bought a Christmas ornament for about $50, we saw one in Gubbio for about $2, you see the difference between being a tourist town and an out of the way town with no trains going through.

There wasn't a McDonald's or a tourist book at the newspaper stand. We saw a big castle at the top of the hill and decided to start our tour of Gubbio there. Aren't we clever? It turns out that the Castle/Fortress was turned into a cool museum. We had a lot of fun browsing the museum. Around the museum are little shops. We browsed the little shops and bought a ton of medieval weapons. They were very reasonably priced and authentic weapons. Like a ball and chain, a cross bow, daggers, etc. We spotted a suit of Armour. Head to toe, full suit of armour with amazing details. It was only a couple hundred dollars. We decided not to buy it that day. Can you believe that? I have regretted it ever since. Jeff and I often talk about going back to Gubbio, just to buy that suit of Armour. I wonder if it is still there. Probably missed our opportunity. Wouldn't that make the coolest library, a suit of armour and our massive weapons collection. While I collect art, Jeff and Mandy collect weapons every where we go. We have a ton of weapons,which is so weird, for a peace lover like me.