We just returned from a three week trip to Europe.  We traveled through four countries, including Italy.  Here are shots I took while visiting the Umbria Region of Italy, which is adjacent to the Tuscany Region and feels very similar in landscape.  This is central Italy with the hilltop cities.  We only visited a few of them, as there are many more to see on another trip.  The cities are very old and built on hills, some are walled in, and of course as with any city, the newer development spreads out in the valley beneath the old cities.

We stayed four nights in Perugia, the capital of the Umbria region (g's in Italian are pronounced "ch").  The Hotel Fortuna was our base where we would go on day trips to nearby towns. 

I was captivated by the oldness of this city.  The hotel we stayed at was built in the 1200's as many of the other buildings in old town Perugia.  The eggs on the breakfast buffet were hard boiled instead of the soft boiled eggs we had become accustomed to in Europe. 

The outside walls of the buildings seemed to be a variety of materials used for upkeep throughout the centuries.
You could see the old mixed with the new, satellite dishes hung on balconies of these ancient homes.

Many local cars were tiny, some with one three wheels, including trucks!  Many Italians ride motorcycles, and we could tell who the Italian cyclists were on our trip back into Switzerland by the way they drove - CRAZY! haha

The following day we drove about 20 minutes to the city of Gubbio, another hilltop city, very old, very fun!

The funnest thing in Gubbio was riding their cable car up to the mountaintop.  It was much like a ski lift in that you had to "jump" on (since it did not stop), but it was a cage that kept you safe as you climbed the high mountain.  Quite tricky getting on and off! But once you're on top of that high mountain, the view makes you forget your frightening experience getting up there!

Something completely different than our country, the death notices in these cities were pasted to the walls for everyone to see.

My favorite foods in Italy were Gelati (the best ice cream I've ever tasted!!), cannellonis and raviolis.  Yum!!

Other cities on our tour that I'll write about soon are Florence in Italy; Golino, Lugano and Appenzeller in southern Switzerland; Salzburg in Austria, and Fussen and Rothenburg in Germany.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

RayRay :-)