Spello 6/4/11

Travelling 2 weeks back in time, the weather today in Belgium is just as gorgeous as it was in Italy than; Sunny and warm. We planned a trip to Dunarobba to see the fossilised forest and than make our way back trought the mountains and visit some more places. When walking to the car, which was parked just outside the old city walls, we found there was a market in Spello, so we had a quick look around. I liked the way they used umbrellas as baskets.

The colors of the trees were just stunning, fresh green mixed with warm browns.

We drove past a large industry producing bricks, just before we found the centre for the fosil forest. Not so strange it turned out as they found the trees in the clay they were mining for the bricks.

If you go to the above link or this one, you'll see what it looked like when they found it. Now all trees are covered with a tin roof to protect them from the elements. 

The wood is still wood, bone dry wood, it has not turned to stone. They date back from the time of the mamoets  and are all  under an angle as the ground has shifted position since. They are huge all over 1 meter in diameter and 1 or more meters tall.

 After all this amazement it was time for lunch with a large coke for a change, instead of wine, as we still had lots of driving to do.

Of course we came across some sheep in the mountains.

We stopped at Gualdo Cattaneo and hoped to climb the tower, unfortunately we were to early in the season and it was not open on Wednesdays yet. 

The views from the tower would have been more spectacular, but from the village we got some great views too.

We spotted a lovely ceiling through an open window, which was closed quickly when they heard us outside, but we got the picture anyway :-)

 We leave the top of the mountain and Gualdo-Cattaneo to drive to our next destination.

Montefalco, famous for it's wines (and oils).

We stepped throught the doors of another old church, Chiesa Sant' Agostina, dating back to the 13th century and were amazed, this was much older than any of the other churches we had seen so far, it had old beams for the ceiling, very few status and sculptures, but lots of wall panitings.

 The church also housed the exceptionally well preserved remains of someone. 

(I now know after reading about the church (see link above) that it is a 14th century unknown pilgrim)

It seriously gave me the creeps as he was suddenly there sitting in a glass box, so unexpected, that I needed some sun ....

....... and famous Montefalco wine to get rid of the chills.

We left Montefalco to have our dinner in Spello, with more local wines :-)

On the way we saw a place with old FIAT cars, the original version of the FIAT 500 we were driving, it's bigger brother the 750 and this tiny bus, isn't it the cutest one you've ever seen.