This vacation in Italy immersed us in a landscape that is at once raw and romantic, a subject of poets and authors from many nations.  Our excellent coordinators and guides were multilingual, perhaps a common thing now in Europe.  This well-planned tour was perfect for me, combining physical fitness exercise with evenly spaced fascinating destinations.  We may never revisit Italy but I tried to capture the moments so I can review them when my memory dims.  I  present to you some of the images that I collected below, gleaned from the 500 images that I took.  I hope you enjoy them.  I invite comments and corrections from our guides, fellow Elderhostelers, and whoever else reads this photo journal.

TUSCANY, APRIL, 2007 - Our Active Elderhostel tour of Tuscany and Umbria began in the town of Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo da....  There we join a jolly group of Elderhostelers at the Hotel Gina.  A number of organizations brought this tour together, and I list four of them.  We apparently are the guinea pigs for this hiking/gastronomical tour of the mountains of Tuscany and Umbria.

Vinci, Tuscany	April 18th, 2007			Visit the website of the Hotel Gina, Vinci	European Walking Tours GMBH	Lyon Travel Agency	Elderhostel Program #14308 - Tuscany And Umbria: Walks Through The Past And Present
	April 19th	Quiet downtown Vinci	View outside our window	Katrin Dehne and our guide Till Riecke	Taking a break on our hike up to Casa Vinci	The house where Leonardo was born in Anchiano	Relaxing before trudging back to town	Katrin and Till surrounded by us hikers
		Feisty hikers	Museo Leonardiano in the Conti Guidi castle	Mario Ceroli's "The Man from Vinci" Sculpture	School kids doing relay races during their school trip.	Leonardo's ideal geometrical figures	Guide explains Leonardo's tank design.	Museo da Vinci

Katrin and Till both come from Germany.  Their primary language now is Italian but their English is good.  Till tends to 40 olive trees and makes oil for his own needs and for gift giving.  He is a botanist and translates names of plants and trees back to English for us.  Read more about Till, his violin and cello making, family pictures and the farmhouse that he has fitted out for rental that he calls Pian del Falco.

Cerreto Guidi,	April 20th	Streda				Medici Villa of Cerreto Guidi - Hunting and Territorial Museum
Villa Petriolo				Table set for twenty	Duomo in the Piazza	ItalianVisits.com - Welcome to San Miniato in Tuscany

The meals are more than ample, usually four courses and occasionally with dessert.  Red and white wine and bottled water, frizzante and still were always on the table.  Although one wonders why they serve bottled water in a region where brilliant, chilled spring water flows so readily.  First course is usually a large bowl of pasta or an antipasto plate.  Spelt salad or lentil soup is usually next.  The main course varied widely, including chicken, veal, pork, lamb..  Vegetables were limited to leafy and tomatoes but that is fine with me.  In central Italy, broccoli and brussels sprouts are not part of their cuisine, also fine with me.  Meals usually consumed most of siesta time, between 1:00 and 4:00 pm when the shops are closed.  Our supper started between 7:30 and 8:00 pm being similar in presentation and quantity as lunch.  In Vinci we usually dined outdoors at the Restaurant Nicchio.

Saturday in Lucca The Lure Of Lucca - Tuscany	April 21st	Starting our guided walk	The walls of Lucca	Our guide, Gabriel, was very proud of his town.	Rapt attention - Howard's picture	First, teach your child to ride a bike.	Underneath the walls.
		Trattoria F.lli Buralli	San Michelle church			Duomo di San Martino	Welcome to Tuscany - Lucca page
Sunday in Collodi	April 22nd		...almost totally uphill but I made it! -Linda	Ostriches in Tuscany?	Cemeteries are above ground, decreed by Napoleon	Villa Garzoni and its garden	Carlo Collodi - the pen name of Carlo Lorenzini
		Above this castle is the little hillside town of Collodi.	In the new butterfly house	Climbing up to the maze	Another merry lunch	Parco di Pinocchio	Linda playing Pinocchio

Dinner that night was in the Restaurant Nicchio, as usual during our stay in Vinci.  Linda wrote, "Best time ever.  We laughed at Hunter, using his best Italian impressions, and Moreno, our bus driver."

Bus to San Baronto and walk atop Montalbano	April 23rd	Till led us uphill, smiling.		The local spring furnished us a timely drink.	We arrive at Casa Carbonaia.	CasaCarbonaia.com once manufactured charcoal.
		Till, Simone Cecchi, Katrin	Simone drizzling olive oil onto bruschetta	Katrin and Till	Our moment under the Tuscan sun with plenty of wine	"Lunch at an Italian farmhouse was lovely!  5 Star - bread, Penne pasta (wild mushrooms, onions, cream), squash quiche, tiramisu for desert.  Best meal yet!" -  Linda	Some of us purchased wine and olive oil from their shop.  View their apartments at Arianna & Friends.
Dave with Canon Digital Rebel XT Jane's picture   Cortona	April 24th	Our guide, Giovanni, conveys excitement about...	new finds at the Etruscan walled cemetery.	Howard's picture of Giovanni	Giovanni's wife is from Dallas, TX.	Cortona - history, art and architecture of Cortona
		Baroque painted ceiling?  In just any apartment building entryway	Sheldon admires something	A Nino Franchina bronze in medieval setting	Bambino	Snaps of locals or tourists in the Piazza della Republica	Pleasant day in Cortona, scene of "Under the Tuscan Sun"

Lunch was at Trattoria Dardano.  Giovanni was also the guide for Rick Steves' Europe in the episode Touring the Hill Towns of Italy.  This afternoon we transfer by private coach from Cortona to Spoleto.  We leave sunny Tuscany behind and move on to the lush mountains and valleys of Umbria.

Spoleto	April 25th, holiday in Italy celebrates liberation by allied forces	Tiziana Manganiello leads us to the bus for our trip to Valnerina (2100 feet)	The Albornoz Fortress above Spoleto	Incredible Abbey of Saint Eutizio perched on a cliff		Benedictine austerity	First portrait - Sheldon and Barbara (Golden Valley, MN)
Norcia		Giuseppe leads us on a hike up to Castelfranco	Spectacular view	Virginia and Hunter (Morehead, KY)	We merrily chose to walk but...	We could have rode on a donkey.	We'll trade you some wine for some hot dogs.
		Cantina de Norsia for lunch	Doin' the San Benedicto wave.	Preserve the old!	Monastero di San Benedetto	Young boy intent on riding the bike.	Good map of our travels in Umbria at Bella Umbria

Food in Umbria immediately takes a turn.  Our lunch at Cantina de Norsia starts with three soups, lentil, garbanzo and spelt.  Followed by trout, bread, chicory salad and Spanish green beans.  Our wine was a Rosso del Umbria 2005 LeLucrezio.  We are about to visit a valley which grows the highest quality lentils in Italy.  So, we see it on the menu in Norcia.

Castelluccio altitude. 4767 feet	April 26th	Gathering in front of Hotel Clitunno	Boarding the bus - the start of every day	We arrive at a rugged mountain town.	Lentil fields spread out below	Sun breaks through the clouds.	Snow is still on the mountains.  Mt. Vettore is 8129 ft. high.
Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini		Taking a drink from the spring	Beware of the dog	Locanda de Senari	Warm restaraunt after cool, rainy hike	Good spirits	Local product
		Tiziana hollers "Gruppo"	We hike down to the "hole"...	where the lake drained away.	Back on the bus back to Spoleto...	with black tie supper and jazz music at the Hotel Clitunno.

Our hike amongst the highest mountains in Umbria was refreshing.   An uphill climb was rewarded with views of the town of Castelluccio and the verdant lentil fields below and a drink from a spring that usually only the sheep enjoy.  The fields were once a a prehistoric lake bed which drained through a " hole" in the limestone and left the rich, alluvial soil.  A slight drizzle began but we were all ready with our rain gear.

Scheggino	April 27th	Patty and Jackie (Georgetown, TX)	Walking past the archeological museum	Ben & Jules heading for the bus.	Fisherman are out in force along the River Nera.	We walk under the limestone crags.	An Umbrian Rails-to-trails conversion
		Tiziana translates...	Giuseppe's knowledge of the trail.	Catch and release policy	Umbria framed by a rail tunnel		Castel San Felice
Vallo di Nera		where we have lunch.	Romanesque Church of San Felice	austere interior	Stay at the Abbey San Pietro in Valle?  Make Reservations	Lovely alleyway back to our hotel	Imagine being secure behind this door.

A nice change was this hike along the roadbed of a discontinued hydroelectric train which ran from Scheggino (Sheh-gee-noh, Moreno corrected me loudly) to Spoleto.  The hike was perfectly flat, no uphill climbs, what a relief.   Lunch at the Abbazia de San Felice in a cellar beneath the abbey was wonderful with fresh greens, chicken and veal.

Saturday at Cascate delle Marmore	April 28th	Scheggino	Ben and Jane (Ithica, NY and Indianapolis, IN), Umbrian background		Reflections	Jigsawing the product of the day	Terni Waiting for tickets Thanks, Howard
		We arrive just as they switch on the falls.	and we appreciate the full torrent..	Ah, to take the Grand Tour as did Percy Bysshe Shelley..	It's hard to read - see the text below.	Key personnel - Moreno, Tiziana, Giuseppe	Mike and Penny (Nanaimo, BC) in the spray of the cataract
from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by George Gordon, Lord Byron		LXIX The roar of waters! -- from the headlong height Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice; The fall of waters! rapid as the light The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss; The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss, And boil in endless torture; while the sweat Of their great agony, wrung out from this Their Phlegethon, curls round the rocks of jet That gird the gulf around, in pitiless horror set,			LXX And mounts in spray the skies, and thence again Returns in an unceasing shower, which round, With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, Is an eternal April to the ground, Making it all one emerald: --  how profound The gulf! and how the giant element From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent
Abbazia San Pietro in Valle and return to Spoleto		Stephen (Arlington, VA)	I knew there was a rainbow somewhere.	Woody and Jean (W. Bloomfield, MI) in front of grotto	Cascate from above	Mary and Howard (East Northport, NY)	Linda beneath a crag
		The little people below	8th century Langobard Abbey of St. Peter	Interior	Bike race in Spoleto
Dinner at the Hotel Clitunno		antipasto	tortellini	...with artichoke	and yummy desert.	Tiziana had to admit that when the trip is over for her, she will eat salads for a week...and yogurt.  The meals that we had were more like you'd get at an Italian wedding.

This feature of the European Grand Tour, created by the diversion of the river Velino by the Romans in 271BC, filled us modern tourists with excitement.  Joining the throng of Italians bathing in the mist of this imposing cataract on a Saturday morning was a joy.  We can forget about the fact that they usually switch it off during the day.  Returning to Spoleto, we found the local police helping the kids race their bicycles around the town.  Precious moments.  We returned to our hotel where we were always served meals that were more dainty with reasonably sized portions.  That I can take after the lunches meant to fill the hikers belly.

Monte Martano	April 29th	Group picture	Our goal -the little village on the left and the tower on the right...hmm.	Dashing hiker, Jules (NY, NY)	Uphill	Helen (Thornton, CO)	Morcicchia	Cooling our heels in the shade.
		Door for a rotund housewife or for barrels of wine	That tower doesn't look so far away.	Italians don't hike...but they do bike.	And yet uphill through the fields...	Merry wine break	Bongiorno	The tower was closed.
		The hike should have ended there.	That's the bus just over there...	Another toast - Howard's picture	And another toast - Jackie's picture	Wild boar hunter - Jackie	Merry hunter's toast	Ristorante Il Buongustaio

In Il Buongustaio, we were seated at a long table beside an even longer table for the local gun club.  The sound was deafening with Italians making merry on a Sunday afternoon.  The cook came out and mingled with our group.  Some of the men from the gun club came over and mugged for the cameras.  If any of you have pictures of that moment, please send them to me so that we can all enjoy them.  Till Riecke has kindly corrected many of my misspellings for which I am grateful.  Make any suggestions you may have to the webmaster.

What we all expected to see, wild natural beauty and history that has been preserved for millennia, we saw,  The people have a lifestyle that we can hardly match.  They have a wonderful cuisine, a microcosm all its own, based upon semolina, olive, grape, lentil, tomato.  In all of our travels in Tuscany and Umbria we saw little sign of McDonalds, KFC or Starbucks.  They certainly don't need that.  They have modified their lives to adapt to a long leisurely lunch to allow for proper digestion.  I did catch their version of Deal or No Deal on TV.  It certainly was more homey in Italy.  The steel briefcases with numbers on them were replaced with shoe boxes.  One difference was that the host of the show was able to peek inside the shoe boxes to see what the denomination in euros was.  Funny.

P.S. - A week or so after returning home from our tour of the hill towns of Italy I was browsing the books at the PTA thrift store in Carrboro.  The silver print on a little paperback attracted my attention.  It was titled Fishing with Amadeo by Martin Attwood.  I thumbed through it and saw that it was the journal of an Englishman who spent two decades living in a farm in Tuscany.  The book is hilarious in parts and a serious guide for a back-to-the-lander in other parts.  Learn how they catch fish, render a hog, make charcoal, coppice a woodland in Tuscany.  You've heard about these things but here they are described in detail.  At the end, Martin teaches art to troubled teenagers in Arezzo.  In that capacity he encounters Saint Francis in a monastery and has his students create medieval altar pieces using ancient methods.  In this last experience they shed light on the wood of the true cross.  A fascinating read if you can get yourself a copy (The Bookshop, Inc., 400 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516).  I should have read it before I went to Tuscany.  My copy of the book is autographed by the author.  It cost me a quarter and if any of you elderhostelers would like to borrow it, I'd be glad to mail it to you.