26 August 2016
It takes about 45 minutes to drive to Gubbio on the E45 towards Perugia. Do beware however that one of the signs that you pass on the E45 is completely the wrong distance to get to Gubbio and so actually is significantly further away than the sign indicates. I suspect it is a sign for the distance to the Gubbio turn off from the E45 but then the distance given seems too long. Answers on a postcard please.
We set the sat nav for the Piazza Quatri Martiri and found parking nearby for two cars for our party.
The walk up to the Piazza Consoli is quite steep but relatively short. The road winds around the back of the building and the entrance is on the Piazza Grande side, which is opposite the Piazza Pretoriale which looks as if it originally had a different shape, as it extended over into the Piazza itself judging by the protruding brickwork. When you pass in front of the Piazza Grande, if you are on the level below it, walking along the street it is worth looking up and you realise that the whole piazza is built on gigantic arches – really quite impressive.
The Piazza Consoli is a large building with a mix of art/archaeology. It has the Eugubian tablets in one room which is about 10 tablets written in old Umbrian. Some of them are almost comprehensible if you stare at them long enough. You can flip over for a translation if you cannot work it out yourself. There are great views over the square of the neighbouring valley from the museum.
The Via xx Settembre runs alongside the Piazza Grande. Some shops (lots of tat). The route up to the Duomo goes up on the Via xx Settembre and then back on itself the Via xx Monte Feltro. It takes about 10 minutes to walk up to the cathedral. There is a short cut which we only found on the way down. As you are coming back down you can turn right and rather than taking the winding route there is a short cut which takes you straight down to the Via xx Settembre through an archway. I think it would be a fairly steep climb up that route. I would stick with the more gentle route going up!.
At the top of the Duomo (which is fairly nondescript from the my recollection) is the Palazzo Ducale. It is rather more interesting. There is some roman era foundations exposed to view.
If you walk further up beyond the Duomo, about 5 minutes there is some lovely views back over Gubbio.
20 August 2017
We went back to Gubbio today. The normal car parking etc was all blocked off because of the Trofeo Fagioli which is a hill course motor race. Lots of lovely but quite small racing cars were parked up at the side of the road through the normal car park near the Teatro Romano. We parked in Via Russeau and then walked up Via Cavour into the centre.
My first stop was the Cattedrali San Francesco – which is diagonally right across the patch of grass which has the bus station at the far side. It is before you start to climb up into the centre of Gubbio. It is about 10 minutes walk from where I parked the car.
The church is lovely. At the far end there are two chapels which have lots of beautiful frescos, some in pretty good condition. The chapel on the right has a sort of shelf part way up the wall so effectively it becomes too a chapel and a wall panel above it but the style of the frescos above and below matches. I do not know why they felt it was a good idea to divide the chapel in that fashion. The chapel on the left has survived better without the divide and as a result I think it has rather more impact.
I then went looking for Chiesa San Agostino which is a 10 minute walk if you cut across the centre of the old town. It is probably easier to walk around the City walls to the Porto Romano which is the nearest gate.
There was a church service going on there so I sat at the back and practiced my Italian, if not any faith – it was a full crowd but I think the service was the anniversary of the founding of the church (it is possible that I am of course wrong about this). The priest taking the service spoken lovely slow Italian and so I strongly suspect a load of tourist were attending this service. It was all very casual and informal and quite lovely.
I remember a friend of mine telling me that Roman Catholics do not dress up to meet their god on Sunday but protestants do. There were several very cute looking alter boys and girls (who were sent around to take the collection – the Roman Catholic church clearly knows what it is about). I loved the fact that the boy and girl doing the collection nearest to me go to the back of the church having collected money and then had a competition to see who had collected more. I also noticed that confession was going on during the service, which seems to be a bit of double counting if you are attending church.
The hymns were interesting. Very poppy, guitar based, happy clappy songs – not what I was expecting at all.
The frescos over the alter were beautiful. Obviously I could not go up and look at them closely because of the service but it is definitely worth a return trip when there is no service going on.
It was 10 minutes or so to walk back into the centre of the old town, I had a coffee and after the coffee I went back to the Teatro Romano which has the archaeological museum to its left. It cost €8 to get in to the museum and the Teatro with a combined ticket. I am not sure if you can get into the Teatro on its own.
The museum is well worth doing but not fantastic. The young woman who sold me the ticket persuaded me to sit through a film in Italian on the site. She promised English sub-titles but I got English chapter headings instead. There are some interesting looking mosaics in the museum itself which some were slightly psychedelic in places.
The Teatro is in ruins but it is well worth a walk around it. I had not realised the size of the structure that existed behind the stage as a backdrop but you only get a sense of it if you wonder around. It felt like an odd juxtaposition to be standing in the old Teatro looking at the motor racing going up the hill for the Fagioli competition. There are some Roman mosaics about five minutes walk away in the park area but when we last went to see them they had been put behind wiring and fences so you could only see them at authorised hours.
August 18
Piazza Martiri is a good spot for parking if you can get in. You get a yellow plastic token which you then redeem at the car park machine to get out.
The Palazzo Ducale is now 12 Euros but combined with Duomo and one other building (can’t remember which). Etruscan tablets are the best thing in here I think.
December 18
Gubbio boasts the tallest Christmas tree in the world. It is a bit of a cheat really because the “tree” is Christmas tree lights strung up the mountainside above Gubbio. But since recent people to turn the lights have included the last two popes and the International Space Station, I think we can forgive the hype. Anyway we went on the first Saturday in December during the day. Bad mistake. Christmas market and hordes and hordes of people meant that there was no parking so we gave it up as a bad job. If you are going go early I think and be prepared for serious crowds.