day in the life of... spello

 Welcome to Spello. This sign down near the train station is the most modern thing (aside from the little traffic light below) you will see here. "Why?" you ask. "Because," say I, "you are now transported back to an ancient Roman colony that existed years before Christ."

Spello was... is there any way to describe it? One of the most charming cities of Italy. Spello literally took us in and swept us off our feet. It was only our plan to lodge in Spello - we were wanting to visit Assisi, which was a short train ride from where our lodging was. Assisi ending up being unseen, because Spello was so much more wonderful. (Or so we think!)

Unfortunately, Spello didn't make a very good impression on us at first. A taxi was supposed to arrive down at the train station and give us a free ride up to our lodging. That didn't happen. No siree, we ended up making a very long, long trek to Spello, and up the steep hills to our apartment. When we finally arrived, our hostess was absent when she said she would be present, so some complications took place, and part of our day was wasted. But, we made the most of it, tried to relax, and had Dad get a hold of her from the States. That worked, and within 5 minutes, she was at our apartment. She let us in...

...and other than the fact that it smelled awful, we were glad for a place to put our stuff.

Comfy porch swing I relaxed on while we waited for her to show up

We were ready to go (as I love to say, but don't really mean) "raid the town". And wow... it was as relaxing as relaxing could be. Imagine being transported back to before the days of Christ! The structures of the buildings and the doors... oh the doors... We look back now and wish that we had taken pictures of all the fascinating doors we saw. We could've made a whole book titled "The Doors of Italy", and it could've become a best seller!

Oh dear,  I realize I interrupted myself in the middle of a sentence. As I was saying, the structures of the buildings and the doors were absolutely amazing. We got to know the town of Spello, and went up and down the entirety of it several times. We also tried to get lost there, but it was nearly impossible. Somehow, we couldn't get anywhere other than where we'd already been... even though we tried!!

One of my favorite things about Spello is that tourists don't know about it. It was just about tourist-free (except for us and some other... Americans. Just a thought for the American traveler - travel quietly and respect the locals. I was ashamed to see how some Americans acted down there. It was rather embarrassing.)

Spellotonians are known for making beautiful flower arrangements all over their town. And as we walked the streets, every corner was filled with flowers! It was a gorgeous sight.

As we walked, we found a lonely porcelain shop, where we bought a ceramic dog to bring back home for a kiddo. Then we found an olive wood shop were we bought a beautifully-made rolling pin for Amanda. As we walked, we marveled at how people actually called this place "home". We witnessed a man, suit coat over his shoulder, headin' home to his family.

After exploring the town, we went back to our apartment to rest. We planned a dinner out at 8:30, because Italians eat late. We'd tried in Venice to have an authentic dinner, but... that was a total failure. We shan't discuss such things.

So, off we went, at 8:30, still believing it might be too early to eat with the locals. Um... that was very untrue. I think the Italians in big cities eat late because tourists are there in the earlier hours. In a small, non-touristy town, I guess they eat early. By the time we got out, places were closing down, and we were about to go dinner-less, which wasn't going to be fun.

After being rejected a couple times, we found a nice little place, and got the whole restaurant to ourselves! They fed us a delicious dinner, and were excellent hosts.

After being stuffed with pasta and meat, we headed back up to our apartment in the dark (thankfully we'd been up and down there several times already! We knew our way very well.), and slept, sad to leave the next day, but also ready for our next adventure... Sorrento.