edited by Lilli & Lilly

We are punctually met there to Arezzo Lilli it originated from Milan and Lilly from Naples.
After having taken an auto to rental we have departed to the time of the ancient Hamlet of Montegualandro on the Lake Trasimeno.
This Hamlet, absorbed in the green among secular olives, poplars and cypresses, it goes up again to 1650 around; outwardly it has remained as it was once while to the inside it is completely renewed, to its guests it also offers a Beauty Farm. (www.anticocasale.it)
The forenoon we spend it using some structures of the Beauty Farm what sauna, Turkish bath, swimming pool with falls for cervical, water-massage, room fitness while the afternoons to visit the outskirtses.

The first itinerary has been Cortona: situated medieval town in the hill to around 494 meters altitude. Its 2000 years of history make of Cortona a fascinating town with its characteristic violets with stairways, small main doors and ornate small balconies of flowers.
Crossing the principal road we have reached the famous Theater Signorelli. It's an interesting city as it regards the artistic beauties. The historical center is of Renaissance origin. To visit the Museum of the academy Etruscan, the Town Building in Republic plaza, and in Signorelli Plaza the Building Casali also said Building Pretorio. Very beautiful the church of St. Francis in Gothic style. To also visit the fortitude of Girifalco with a tower from whose summit is possible to admire a stupendous panorama of Cortona and the Valdichiana.
Among the forms of craftsmanship they are important the terrecottes, jewels and objects in wood.

Other destination is Assisi but before coming there, it covers obligatory it is Saint Maria of the Angels with its imposing Cathedral inside which there is the Porziuncola, place of high spirituality and religious center of the order of the Smaller Monks. After having abandoned the wealths of its own family St. Francis it found shelter in this ancient chapel.
The structure of the Porziuncola is typical of the Benedictine structures in the Romanesque style umbro; the church, roughly constituted by square stones, it has been unchanged to exception of the small bell tower, of a wooden portal of the slow one' 400 and of the façade almost entirely by Fred Overbek in the 1830 d.C.

To few meters from the Porziuncola, on the right side, there is the Chapel of the Transit. It was the infirmary of the primitive convent, one of the shed huts in the wood built by the Monks to live you. St. Francis spent here the last hours of his terrestrial life and died you making to be deposed on the naked earth the evening of October 3 rd 1226. Continuing the inside visit of this Cathedral a suggestive run can be begun among the places of the life of St. Francis, we are detained in front of his rose garden without spine "In a night in winter there, S. Francis, while he was praying, he was tried to abandon the life of penitence and prayer, to get further the demon that tried him, stripped him and it threw him in a bramble of thorns that was near his cell. Of sudden, to his contact the thorns a garden of roses they disappeared and it bloomed that is today still without thorns."

Other curiosity. Around to one of the statues of S. Francis in a corridor 2 white turtledoves flutter which it has us very excited.
We come then to Assisi to an altitude of around 420 ms., it is admired by this place an enchanting panorama of the earth verdant umbra, rich of olives and cypresses. We penetrate there through the door of the city crossing the street principal rich in handicraft shops, also here little roads and picturesque lanes are admired on the two sides of the road. You arrives so to the Basilica of S.Chiara where her bare are preserved and where the Crucifix of S.Damiano is guarded painted in the twelfth century by an umbro painter: the work introduces a strong influence of the painting syrian, as a result of the presence in Umbria of monks syrian.

The run continuing sees us the Basilica of S. Francis composed from two overlapped churches, that superior has Gothic aspect very bright and slender, that inferior instead, to which is entered by a 200 Gothic portal, it is low and austere. In the inside of this they are guarded "allegorical frescos" of Giotto, his "Madonna Angels and San Francis" and the "Five Saints" of Simone Martini and other works of extraordinary merit. The superior church has an only aisle with 1200 refined glass door and it is fresco with the works "You life of the Saint" of Giotto, the "Histories of the Old and New Will" of the school of the Cimabue and frescos of the same  Cimabue that go up again to 1277.

Our following destination has been the trip to the island Maggiore that is one of the three islands on the Lake Trasimeno, a sharp pain net of tracks, among olives, holm oaks, cypresses, poplars and other vegetation type Mediterranean it covers the whole island, from here very beautiful panoramic foreshortenings they are admired. On the summit of the island the beautiful small church of S. Michael Arcangelo is found gone up to the XII sec., the Church of the Good Jesus (XV sec.), the Romanesque Church of S.Salvatore (XII sec.), the Building of the Captain of the People (XIV century), or of the ancient Clock, summer residence of the notable ones that covered the position of Captain of the People and the Castle William.

The last day we have visited the attractive town of Passignano on the Lake Trasimeno. As he reaches Passignano it detaches the Fortress built in epoch Longobarda, the historical center in the boundaries medieval of the city has paved small street that climbs around everything, typical houses in stone with ornate balconies of flowers. Very beautiful the walk along the lake with the beach equipped with beach umbrella and lay down for spending a few times of suit relax.
Curiosity: to Passignano there is the greatest frying pan of the world (diameter m. 4,30) used for the parties of the feast of the fish (it can fry 2 quintals of it an hour).

Recipes and typical dishes of the kitchen Umbra