July 25, 2025 • 40 mins
Curious what happens when you mix Roman rooftop bars, a Vespa sidecar adventure, medieval towns, and the Umbrian countryside? Join host Katy Clarke and travel to Italy with her latest trip report, revealing insider tips, plus unforgettable highlights from Rome, Naples, Orvieto and untold Urbino.
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/283
NEW! - the Untold Italy app - DOWNLOAD FOR iOS • DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID
The app is FREE to download and check out our Milan guide and general travel content. Upgrade to PREMIUM for a one time fee to access Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Ischia, Tuscany, Lake Como, Lake Garda, Veneto, Lombardy, Campania, Lazio, Puglia, Abruzzo, Calabria with much more to come
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Join our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning checklist - subscribe here | Join us on tour: Trip schedule | Discover our Trip Planning Services | Visit our online store | Follow: Instagram • Facebook • YouTube • Italy Travel Planning Community • Online travel assistant
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/283
NEW! - the Untold Italy app - DOWNLOAD FOR iOS • DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID
The app is FREE to download and check out our Milan guide and general travel content. Upgrade to PREMIUM for a one time fee to access Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Ischia, Tuscany, Lake Como, Lake Garda, Veneto, Lombardy, Campania, Lazio, Puglia, Abruzzo, Calabria with much more to come
Support the show
Join our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning checklist - subscribe here | Join us on tour: Trip schedule | Discover our Trip Planning Services | Visit our online store | Follow: Instagram • Facebook • YouTube • Italy Travel Planning Community • Online travel assistant
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
- Subscribe to our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning toolkit - subscribe here
- Need help with your trip? Check out our Trip Planning Services
- Join us on tour. Browse our Trip schedule
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens when you mix Roman rooftop bars, a, fun Vespasidica,
to medieval towns of your dreams and the Umbrian countryside.
Join me as I recount my latest trip through Rome, Naples,
or Vieto and Urbino, managing the heat wave, cludging traffic,
and finding peace and perfection in familiar places.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Sawatuti and Benvenuti tu One Told Italy. The travel podcast
to where you go to the towns and villages, mountains,
the lakes, hills and coastlines of Bella, Italia. Each week,
your host Katie Clark takes you on a journey in
a search of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and
(00:45):
of course a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming
of Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to
the right place.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Dreaming of arriving in Italy, strolling into a gelatia and
ordering your gelato with confidence. If you've been learning Italian
with language apps but still can't string a sentence together,
it might be time to try another approach. My friend
Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical way to learn
travel ready Italian thanks to her unique eighty twenty method,
(01:25):
Michelle teaches you exactly what you need to know to
connect with locals and have more authentic travel experiences. There's
no getting bogged down in awkward phrases and unnecessary grammar.
As an adult learner herself with Italian heritage, Michelle really
knows how to bridge the gap between English and Italian.
As Roma from London said, the learning methodology is great.
(01:48):
I progressed much faster in the last four weeks than
I ever did on my own or using other language apps.
To find out more and claim your free Italian travel
phrase guide, visit untold Italy dot com home, forward slash
Italian or visit the link in the show notes. As
a bonus, you'll also get an exclusive twenty dollars coupon
code to use on any of Michelle's online self paced courses.
(02:11):
So visit untold Italy dot com, Forward slash Italian and
accelerate your Italian language your journey today. Jao one Johano, Friends,
Welcome back to another episode of Untold Italy where I
deep dive into my latest trip and spill the tea
on what I loved and learned on the ground. In beautiful,
magical Italia. It's important to me that I visit Italy often,
(02:33):
even though I live in Australia, which makes it at
least a twenty four hour journey to get to Italy,
and then I've got to come back again. Some might
say that's not such a tough life, and it's true.
I'm so grateful for this charmed existence I am living,
exploring Italy whenever I get a chance, and you know,
apart from the fact that it is absolutely gorgeous and
(02:53):
there's always something new to discover, there are a few
reasons why I like to go back regularly, and of
course one of those is to see for myself what's
happening on the ground. I like to have the latest
information so I can report back to all of you
as you plan your trips. And while we do have
an amazing team based in Rome and various spots around Italy,
(03:14):
it's great to see things through my own eyes. And
you know what, there's nothing more inspiring than being in Italy.
If you ask me, I get so many ideas. In fact,
you often have to stop me with my ideas. Speaking
of the team, it's also extremely important to me to
stay in touch in person as well, as online with
our amazing team. So another big part of the trip
(03:36):
was catching up with them, plus our partners, some clients
and podcast guests and gathering them all together to build
those all important bonds and connections that are the glue
behind this podcast, our trip planning services app, and the
small group tours. We through a delightful party on a
rooftop by in Rooms Taste District and it was just
(03:58):
a beautiful, warm night and everyone was in such good
spirits and laughing and having so much fun. In attendance
from Untold Italy. We're our tour hosts and content team
and a handful of our trip consultants. But best of all,
and I really loved this, we had multi generational gang there, babies,
(04:18):
kids and parents of our team. It was a beautiful
summary night in Rome that I won't forget for a
very long time. And after the celebrations, it was back
to work and exploring, so work as I call it,
and exploring some more. So here are some of the
highlights and learnings from my recent trip to Italy. First up,
(04:40):
you've heard this all over the news. Boy, it's hot
over there, and I you know, count stress is enough.
It's hot and you just need to be prepared. And
I always think I am, and you know what, I
wasn't this time so much. So I did actually get
a really great tip from my physiotherapist who was there
shortly afterwards, and she said, really, next time, go grab
(05:03):
some electrolytes, get some of gatorade or something into you,
because that'll really help stop any swelling that you get.
Because I have this thing where I do swell up
a bit when it's hot. So definitely not just the water,
but get some electrolytes into you if it's going to
be very hot. So it was around maybe thirty five
degrees celsius and that's about one hundred fahrenheits. So when
(05:27):
you're walking around and doing your twenty thousand steps a day,
it's a really important to keep yourself hydrated as best
you can. The other thing is, and you know what
I'm really terrible at this is to stop and rest.
I mean, I was there for work, so it's a
bit different than if you're on holidays, but I think
I could have done a better job of resting a
little bit more. But it's kind of not what I'm
(05:49):
known for, so it would be a big change in
personality for me to stop and rest a lot again. Shoes,
as I've always known, are absolutely critical. I only buy
shoes from one brand now actually, and they're called BED.
There are an Australian brand, and they're all very comfortable
(06:10):
and designed by foot specialists. So I've never actually got
a blister from one of those shoes, and they were
quite stylish too. I'm not sure if they ship overseas,
but if they do, they're fantastic. They call bed dot
com dot au and they're really really great. I'm not
advertising anything. I just happened to simply buy all my
(06:30):
shoes there. Now, what I was a bit surprised at,
and maybe this does have a little bit to do
with the heat, was that the Chenthrostoco or the historic
Center was not as busy as what I thought it
would be. And since then I've learned I've had some
stats that and the visitor numbers from the United States
are down slightly on last year. Maybe it's the heat,
(06:54):
Maybe I don't know everything else that's going on, but
you know, I didn't feel like it was as busy
as I've seen it in more recent times, so it
was quite nice, even though it was hot and sunny
to walk around some of the major sites and just
soak everything up. We had a really lovely morning doing that,
getting some nice footage for our social media. That was fun,
(07:16):
and we also did a lovely wander through Trust Devay,
where I always stay. And the reason I stay there
is because I can walk to the house of some
of my team, so they all live kind of not
in Tusta, but they live, you know, close by, so
I can go to their place and then I can
walk into the center and do all the things I
(07:36):
need to do there. So it's a really handy place
for me to stay. And I think if you like
a more kind of neighborhood feel, then trust Devay is
definitely a place that you would probably like to It
is very vibrant at nighttime, and so if you're not
really into a busy night life, then maybe it's not
the area for you. But for me, it's fun and
(08:00):
I like to stay there. Popular restaurants like Tonarella were
absolutely heaving lines out the door, but you know what,
I just don't line for anything, to be honest, these days,
I'm way too old for that. But you can still
find a lot of magic in that area and little restaurants,
local restaurants that make delicious food. I was able to
(08:23):
catch up with some people and find some really lovely
places that I would go to again. Unfortunately I can't.
Well I'm not going to share them because unfortunately what's
happened with my favorite restaurants is I'm no longer able
to get a booking there, and you know, I'm keeping
something a little bit special for myself. We share a
lot on this podcast, so you'll excuse me that one,
(08:46):
I hope. Now. One of the fun things that we did,
and this was thanks to our amazing partner, Live Tours,
who we've been working with for a long time now.
And the reason we like working with Live Tours is
because not only do they give an amazing tour experience,
but they are genuinely, really lovely people. They're a local business.
(09:08):
The owners that I know personally, Angelau and Christine, they
live in Rome, and they are very creative and fun
and they have very similar values to we have here
at Untold Italy. So we're always looking for ways to
work with each other and support each other. And this
time they enabled us to go on one of their
(09:30):
new tours, which is a vesper sidecart tour. Now. Before
they used to partner with another organization, but now they've
bought their own very very cute little vespers with sidecards
and it honestly is the best fun ever. So our
team did the vesper tour, zipping around Rome and everyone's
(09:50):
waving at you. You're having so much fun and it
is a really unique, you know, Roman holiday experience that
I can highly recommend done this tour at nighttime, but
this time we did it during the day. And I
have heard a few of my Italian team people that
live and were born in Italy on that tour, and
(10:11):
I've never seen so many beautiful smiles from the team,
Like it's an experience that even if you've lived in
Rome your whole life, that you can enjoy, So definitely
go check that out. It is very safe and if
you're in a group of two, someone will sit on
the back of the vesper behind the driver, and then
someone will sit in the sidecart. So of course we
(10:33):
put all the young ones with long legs on the
back of the vespers, and you know, some of us
that are you know, slightly more advanced in age did
sit in the sidecart and it was super comfortable and
just lots of fun. And I think kids can go
in it as long as I think they need to
be eight if I'm not mistaken. So it's something that
everyone in the family can do and it's really is
(10:56):
a huge amount of fun. Now live to thank you
very much for that experience. That was excellent, and we
will put a link to that in the show notes
because you definitely should check it out. The other thing
we did with Live Tours is they have a new
cooking school that's in the district of Party, which is
near the Vatican Museums. Party is, you know, quite an
(11:18):
upscale neighborhood. It's a really nice place. They're getting some
more hotels there and Airbnb apartment style accommodation too, and
it's a really really nice, charming area to check out.
They've also got a nice market there. But Live Tours
have a new cooking school there and we went there
and we learned how to make supri and pizza together
(11:41):
with the host who was a former Master Chef Italia contestant,
so that was really fun. And if you don't know
what suply are, they are little rice balls like aarentcini.
They're the Roman version of aaroncini and they're stuffed with chiese,
so that's like with it tomato, sauce and cheese stuffed inside.
(12:02):
So we got out of the heat of the day
and it's this beautiful air conditioned kitchen and we learned
from our chef how to make a simply pizza. It
was really fun. I think sometimes people get maybe a
little bit intimidated by cooking classes, but this one was
really well done. We had instructions to follow and definitely
(12:26):
can recreate what we learned again. And I've got some
excellent tips because we actually do make a little bit
of pizza at home. And for those of you who
are interested in that, we have an Ernie pizza oven,
and I love my ouni. It's so good. It can
cook the pizza. It gets up to a very high
temperature and you can cook the pizzas really fast and
(12:47):
it tastes really delicious. But if you don't have it
any oven, don't worry. She'll teach you how to make
it in the actual oven. But I think it's always
good to get different tips on how to make the
dough because the dough is everything in peat pizza, and
I think you have to refine your technique. You know,
the first time, you know, you might be a bit disappointed,
but it's try and try and try again. So we
(13:10):
made the suple and that was fun because you know,
you get your hands sturdy and you make the soup
le and you get this uzzy mozzarella that comes out
of it, so that was really nice. And then you
make the pizza and then you make a teller pizza
and who doesn't like ntella? So that was some of
the fun things that we did in Rome. One of
(13:30):
my favorite things is as well, was to go back
to Villa Fardese, which is beautiful villa down by the
River Tiber, which is in trust every So there they
have these gorgeous Raphael frescoes, you know, and there's no
one there and you can just wander around this beautiful
garden and villa and really enjoy the artwork. So this
(13:52):
is for someone who gets a bit overwhelmed with big galleries.
If you just want to go and dip in and
see some art, I can highly recommend that Villa pane Is.
It's beautiful. Now because I'm a little crazy and I
want to make sure we get absolute maximum value out
of this trip to Italy, I did sort of hussle
some of my team into doing a day trip down
(14:13):
to Naples. And the reason I wanted to do that
was a couple of reasons. You know, first, to go
make sure that you know it really is doable as
a day trip, which I think it is and I
have done that before, but I just wanted to do
that again and double check and see what was going
on with the trains. And also, you know, people have
(14:33):
mixed opinions about Naples, and you know, I love it.
I just love the vibe and the energy and all
of that. But I wanted to make sure that you know,
I'm not getting the wrong end of the stick and
I have got the right impression, which every time you
stiff off that train, you are We're coming from Rome
and Rome has got its own energy, and you get
(14:54):
to Naples and again it's a different energy. And that's
what I love, love, love about Italy. We did a
day trip. We just headed it over to Tammany at
about nine o'clock in the morning. And here's one learning now.
Because we wanted to do some shooting of videos about
how to use the trains, we thought we'd buy the
tickets there and then, but I think in peak season
(15:17):
you do need to book those fast feed trains in
advance if you want to go in the morning or
the late afternoon, either way, because everyone's got the same idea,
and it was a Saturday, so I feel like some
people Italians would have been traveling. So I'll talk a
bit about what happened when we got back a little
bit later, but I do suggest booking the trains. Look,
(15:38):
it's it's not fun for those of you who are
free and easy, but the reality is that things have
changed in travel and some things just cannot be left
to winging it. So make sure trains and things are booked.
You know, you don't have to go too crazy, like
six months or twelve months in advance, but at least
a couple of weeks in advance. I highly commend you
(16:00):
booking the train. So when we got to Naples again,
the energy just hits you straight away, and I just
love it because it's completely different to Rome. There's just
a different vibe. It's more local, and for those of
you who are familiar with Asian cities, I would say,
you know, it reminds me a little bit of Bangkok
(16:22):
or a really busy Asian city with like just sight, sound,
smells and everything going on all around you. This is
maybe not what everyone's cup of tea. So I was
able to catch up with some of our tour guess
later in the trip, and you know, they found it
all a bit overwhelming. So I probably wouldn't start with Naples.
(16:45):
I probably had that later in the trip if you're
someone that really is going to, you know, find that
really massive change in culture, something that's quite hard to
deal with. But I mean, I love it and it's great.
And what we did in Naples was up with a
guide from a company called with Locals. And what I
really like about with Locals is that with Locals are
(17:07):
a marketplace or it's a listing site for local guides.
So if you want to have a private tour with
a local guide, then this is a really good option.
And I've worked with them for a while and I've
had some excellent experiences with them. So how it works
is you go to their website and they've got like
(17:30):
a series of set itineries that you can choose from
or you can customize your own. And just so you
wanted to do like a walking tour of Naples. Then
you go to Naples, you go to the walking tour
that you want, and you know, sometimes it's good just
to have something to work from because unless you're really
familiar with or you really want to know about street
(17:51):
art in Naples, then it's a good idea to be
guided by them anyway. So you choose your itinery and
then you choose which local speaks. So they've got profiles
of all, you know, the guides that they have that
are available, and you know, it's fantastic. We had a
great old time going around with Maria. It was just
so lovely. She's got such a different perspective, as do everyone.
(18:14):
Everyone's got a different perspective of their city and how
they live. And she was super interesting because she lived
out by the US base out there, and she lived
her whole life out there, and her children were half American,
half Italian, and she had some really interesting insights into
(18:35):
the way the world's working and all of those things.
But she told us some really cool stories about the
hospital there that her mum used to work at. It's
not cool, actually, it's it's a little bit sad, but
it was interesting and basically it was a hospital where
babies that were unwanted were cared for, and so she
showed us the whole procedure of how they were checked
(18:57):
in and let's just say it wasn't very nurturing. So look,
it was really interesting to go around with her. And
we did walk the length of Spakanufaly, which is the
street that splits the city into two, and I've never
done that before, so that was really great to do.
We stopped for bites, including the famous life changing buffalo
(19:18):
mozzarella cheese, and we dipped into the cathedral where you know,
there was this amazing installation going on, and stopped at
the galleria and we had some delicious pizza fritte, which
is the fried pizza. Just go with it. It's fantastic. And
what was really fun this time in Naples is that
(19:40):
they just won the league, the football soccer league, and
so all the streets were festooned with decorations and people
obviously celebrating the win. Another amazing thing about Naples this
is some really fun street art. So if you're someone
that's into really a bit more of an edgy experience
when you go abroad, then Naples is really really fun.
(20:03):
It's really raw and it's high energy, so be prepared
back in a flash. Right after these messages, we got
down to the theater at the end of our walkdowns
back and Upperly and we were looking out at the
bay across to Carpre and you know, it's just such
(20:25):
a contrast between Rome, Naples and then Carfrey. It's just
this is why I love Italy. You get everything in
one little pocket and it's absolutely gorgeous. So that was
our fun day in Naples and it was super fun
with with locals. And again I'll link to that in
the show notes because they are a really great sight
(20:45):
to know about if you're looking for local guides. When
we got back on the train, oh it's busy, and
so again like I sound like a broken record, but
please don't take big luggage. You just don't need to
be dealing with it. It's just not it's not fun.
You will always manage, but it's about whether you're going
to be comfortable managing or not. But anyway, so we
(21:06):
got back to Rome at about i would say about
five thirty pm and the train ride takes about ninety minutes.
And then here's where the fun really began because there
were no taxis we needed to get over to trust
Evitey so you can walk. It would have taken about
forty five minutes, but we've been walking all day. It
was super hot, we were tired, you know, I wanted
(21:28):
to go to bed, and there were no taxis and
we actually waited an hour in the taxi line until
I had some other ideas. And during that time we
were waiting, I was also trying to book taxis on
free Now, which is like their Uber style app that
they have in Rome. And then after waiting for so
long and just being so tired and so exhausted, I
(21:51):
think the jet lag had caught up with me. I
decided to just go for the Uber X and book
the Uber X and that wasn't very cost effective. Let's
just say so. For those of you who know Rome,
it cost eighty euros to get to Trusty day from Tamany,
so just spare that in mind. I did do another
(22:12):
trip that I came back into Tamany later on the
week after and it was fine, But just to know
that that's a potential problem if you're coming in on
the train and you if you're coming in maybe on
the weekend and there's fewer taxis around, do you kind
of have a backup option. The thing is taxis are
very few and far between in Italy and specially Rome.
(22:36):
There's like I think there's a third of the number
of taxis in Rome as there are in Paris, similar
Sarize population, so it can be a little bit difficult
to get a taxi at times, so just to be prepared. Anyway,
that was those crazy days in Rome. So I was there.
You know, we did a few things. I had to
do some more work, which you know, it's actually delightful
(22:59):
because I get to work with some amazing people. But
it was pretty busy few days. And then one of
the main reasons for the trip was I wanted to
join our Umbria tour. This tour was you know, it's
been a long time in the making and we're so
proud of this one. It includes a visit to the
(23:20):
infia Ata Flower Festival, and you're going to hear a
little bit more about that next week, which is it's
a very special community event where locals get together and
build floral carpets and they work overnight to do that.
I'm not going to do any spoiler alerts here because
I think the episode coming up next week might actually
be one of my favorites of all times, so I'm
(23:42):
pretty excited about that. But I really wanted to join
this tour to say thank you to some of our
repeat guests and you know, to see how the tour
was going. And the tour this time was led by
our amazing Julia, who is a very special person to me.
She's been on the podcast a few times. And yes,
at the party, Julia's parents were there and I was just, oh,
(24:04):
it was just delightful to meet her dad again and
meet her mom for the first time. I absolutely loved it. Okay,
so the people that I wanted to do a shout
out to and who I was meeting for the first
time Rebel, who you'll hear from next week, but also
Carolyn and rich who have been the most amazing supporters
(24:24):
of Untold Italy really from the very beginning, and they
were on their fifth tour with us, and so I
felt like it was only right to go in and
say hi and meet them again because I'd met them
back in twenty twenty two in Sicily when we did
a tour there with my friend Karen la Rosa. It
was very special to see them again and to say
(24:46):
thank you for all their support. And I really loved it.
And it was also wonderful to meet Johnna and Mark
from Oklahoma and Moira and Peter from New Jersey. And
it was quite funny because john and Mark had been
listening to the podcast, but Maira and Peter I ain't
had no idea who I was, so they were I
think it was why Buddy I was like, Hi, I'm Katie,
(25:07):
a founder of un told Ell and they were like,
oh yeah. But Johnna and Market obviously they'd be listening
along and they'd heard my voice a lot, so they
knew who I was and had a lot of background
on me. But I loved hearing all their different stories
and reasons for joining our tour and visiting the Umbria region.
And it was really great to find out that a
(25:28):
CCI is a clear favorite place that people want to
visit Umbria. Obviously we love it, but we love so
many places in Umbria. And I guess you know what
I learned later and during the trip as it went along,
was that what makes our tour really special is that
we do go out of our way to help our
guests who are very interested in this particular town in
(25:51):
a CC to experience it in the way that they
want to. And one of our team actually lives in
Umbria and she has got some extremely detailed and very
special insight into the way that a CC is and
all this little special, unique spots that you're not going
to find if you do like a day trip from Rome,
(26:11):
because they're not in the main town. Ombria is a
favorite region of House And you know, I did not
disappoint so with the group. I was just there with
them for about a day and a half and I
managed to duck into all Vieto with them, and our
guide Maras showed us all the places that I missed
before when I had come on my own, And honestly,
(26:31):
there is nothing nothing better than seeing a place through
the eyes of a local guide. These people have trained
and they have so much passion for their town, and
it's quite astonishing just how many things have happened, just
unique and important local and international events that have happened
in a place that you might not know about. We
(26:53):
learn a lot from the guide and I'm hoping to
get her onto the show to talk about Orvieto because
it is a really beautiful place. We had a lovely
half day there, introducing our guest to the Sheikerato, which
is the iced coffee Italian's love that comes in a
martini glass, because why not. And we had a delicious
(27:13):
lunch with some trouffle pasta, and we met some locals
who are making some really unique historic beverages as well.
So it was super fun and just everyone is so
relaxed and enjoying themselves, and you know, you can't not
in a place like or Vieto because he's really charming,
and you know, there wasn't very many people. It wasn't
(27:36):
busy at all, actually, so if I compare it to
say a similar time in maybe Sango, Minano or Cortona
in Tuscany, you can't even compare it because I think
the most busy thing was there was a band from
a high school in America doing a concert in the
(27:57):
piazza and then they just packed up and went. It
was really it was really peaceful and charming, and that's
what I really love about that place. We did some
more exploring after lunch, and you know, the cathedral there
is one of the most beautiful in Italy, and it's
got this gorgeous stained glass window and some beautiful frescoes inside,
(28:18):
and we did a lot of walking, a lot, a lot,
a lot. You just can't you can't not do a
lot of walking in Italy. So that's good because I
enjoy walking, and you know, as you walk you see
so many more beautiful little sites. And we shared a
dinner that night overlooking the olive groves close by to
or Vietto, and I gotta say the food. We had
(28:40):
a few different dietary requirements and I don't have those
dietary requirements, but I was really enjoying the food that
was coming out from the rest of the team was
like on the table. They were enjoying all sorts of things.
The people that were eating gluten free that I had
was quite jealous. So that was lovely. And the next
day we stopped in De root Out, which is the
home of Italian ceramics and it's you know, got a
(29:03):
really strong reputation for really quality wares, and we visited
an artist and workshop there where the people that were
working were hand painting their beautiful works and that was
really delightful. So that that was the first bit, and
then I was whisked away into Umbria, and we had
a few jobs to do, but you know, as I said,
(29:26):
that my job's not that difficult. So we checked out
our main hotel for the tour, which is magnificent, and
the views from a CEC were incredible, and we had
another stop in a CC just to wander and have
some lunch with some more views, absolutely delightful. And after that, Sarah,
who actually lives in Umbria, she stopped by her friend
(29:50):
of hers that is a local artisan who makes beautiful
custom ceramics, and goodness, it is a charmed, charmed existence there.
It is so beautiful. And as we sort of, you know,
get closer towards Sarah's home at La Kukanya, which is
an agriturismo self catering agucurizmo close to Gubio and Peruja,
(30:12):
you know, I started to feel like I was going
to relax, and I always do when I go to
La Kukanya, So it does feel a bit like coming
home to me, and it's very peaceful and I always
feel extremely looked after by Sarah and sal who run that.
And finally we got to La Kukanya and there I
ran into podcast listener Ondre, who had found La Kukanya
(30:34):
via the podcast, and it was just so delightful to
hear about his tip that he was doing with his
family and his parents and his kids and everyone. And yeah,
I'm just so happy that they found La Kukanya via
this podcast because it is a very very special place, Okay,
marching On the next day, Sarah and I decided to
(30:56):
do a day trip from La Kukanya in Umbria to
Urbino in Marque. And I know a lot of you
wanted to hear about my impressions about this beautiful town
or it's a mini city, and my goodness, it is gorgeous.
And you know what, these ones that are a little
bit harder to get to a definitely worth the effort.
(31:18):
We did a day trip from Umbria and it took
an hour and a half each way to get there,
so it was a decent effort. And it is about
three hours from Florence by car and about three hours
from Rome. Three and a half hours from Rome, So
just to give you an idea, you got to make
an effort and you've got to get in a car
to get there, but it would be a lovely place
to settle in for a few days. You do need
(31:40):
a car, as I mentioned, but it's an easy drive
and it's so worth it. It's really up there as
an untold favorite because just those medieval streets, lovely piazzas,
a gorgeous local feel, like you know, I think there
was there were tourists there, but they were mainly Italian
school kids running around piazzas, having fun, eating gelato and
(32:03):
had a really friendly vibe. And it's because it's probably
I would say it's a university town, so I always
get that friendly student vibe when I'm in a university town,
and I really try and seek those out. You can
easily just hang out there in Urbino and enjoy the
magnificent architecture. It is a hilltop town, so the views
(32:25):
from the side are just magnificent. But you can also
check out so many different things. They've got an art
gallery there, a big cathedral, some of the churches there.
They've got some absolutely incredible frescoes that you can get
right up close and look at, and they went by
Raphael who was actually born in Urbino, but they were
(32:50):
painted by peers of his, and you know, you can
really enjoy them at your own leisure without any pressure.
So if you like me and you like your kind
of in bite sized pieces, this is the way to
do it. It was really fantastic. It's got a lot of
curiosities in Urbino, so a lot of little nooks and
crannies and it's a place where you can just go
(33:12):
wandering and exploring. And when you do, and I love
doing this, you find some really cool things. Like I
found this woman who makes ceramics, but she makes sort
of custom sculptions and one of the shapes that she
makes is the special Star that is the symbol of Urbino,
(33:32):
and it's based on a design that was created by
Leonardo da Vinci working with a local mathematician, and it's
based on a fucking octagon with pyramids on the outside,
so it's really three D and it's really gorgeous. And
she makes it with a local stone and then the
stone's brown and when it's fired it turns white and anyway,
(33:55):
so I had to get one of those home. Well,
this is quite crazy purchases that I like to make,
but it's really special and I'll get a photo of
it and we'll put it on the show notes there
so you can see what it is, because it's a
really special, unique thing that will always remind me of Urbino.
So yeah, it is a hilltown there. It's pretty steep,
(34:16):
like there's up and down and there's cobblestones and you know,
but it's super gorgeous and I really really had just
the most delightful day exploring there with Sarah. And we
also tried out some of the suggestions from our untold
Italy app and I hadn't written that content myself. One
of our team members had written it, so I was
keen to check out, you know, what she'd suggested, and
(34:40):
you know what, they're all excellent, especially the gelato, and
I was so proud to be part of that and
to know that we were supporting local businesses there. So
it was really cool. And then sadly we had to
go back to Lai Kukanya and not we left Urbino.
That was sad. I'd love to go back there. Incidentally,
(35:01):
it's actually only an hour and a half from San Marino,
so if you wanted to get another stamp on your
passport you could kind of do that. You might not
be surprised that we're thinking up an idea for a tour,
but anyway, more on that later. So it was our
last night in umbriat my last night, and Sarah took
(35:21):
me to a local I guess it's the local pub,
but goodness me the food. You know, in England you
go to the pub for beers. In Italy you go
to the pub for food. And I had this omelet
with truffles. Oh my goodness, you know, very simple, very tasty,
very very cheap. So you know, I think it was
(35:44):
seven euros. I didn't pay for it, but I was
like looking at this prices on the menu. Thanks Sarah
and sal for hosting me. That was absolutely lovely of them.
So we had this delicious omelet, you know, in some
wine and then we saunted off back to their place
at La Coucanya and as if by magic, and this
always happens to me at Kukanya on the last night,
(36:05):
the fireflies came out and I just went a bit
silly and I got very excited about the fireflies and
just loved that experience. So seriously, the main thing I
take away from this is Rome is fun. Naples is fun.
But you know, if you want some just pure joy
in your heart, get out into the countryside, go and
(36:28):
see towns like U Vieto Urbino and just have some
fireflies action in Umbria. You'll never regret it. So anyway,
I had to say goodbye to La Kukanya and head
back to Rome on the local train, which was slow
and steady and there was not a lot of room
for luggage. I had to have mine in the seat
next to me, and as I was checking out the
(36:48):
updates from the tour, I noticed that they all went
up in the Goubio birdcage. If you know. You know,
I've talked about this on our podcast before and they
loved it, so that was good because I found it
mildly terrifying. Anyway, the train stops at lots of towns
along the way in Umbria, and it was a really
nice journey, so if you had some time and you
(37:09):
wanted to travel by train, it's a nice way to
do it. This time, it was easy to get a
taxi at Termany. It was mid afternoon on a weekday,
so it was fine to get back to tust and
then I had a final dinner with my Room Tours
team in San Saba, which is a delightful neighborhood news
Circus Maximus. That was ten days in Italy and I
(37:29):
just realized I covered a lot of ground, And to
be honest, this whirlwind is not really what I'd suggest
for most travelers, unless, of course, you do want to
cover a lot of ground. It is your trip. You
should travel your way and not listen to anyone else.
If you really prefer to pack a lot in, then
that's your prerogative. Though, I would say when I do
(37:50):
ask people what their favorite parts of their trip were,
they usually say that they loved it all. No one
says they had a bad trip, do they anyway? They
loved it all, but they'll always remember that the days
they spent in the countryside. And my physiotherapist said exactly
the same thing. She just loved the time she spent
in Tuscany. And that's why I'm really so glad that
(38:11):
I had those peaceful moments at Laikukanya. It was a
moment to take it all in, breathe and be connected
to that slower pace of life. Now, working out where
to stop and stay in the country often gets people
stumped though, because of course these lovely spots are not
well advertised, So if you would like help with planning
that and making sure you optimize your route, or route
(38:32):
depending on your accent type. Check out our trip planning services.
Our team is obsessed with this type of travel and
will be delighted to help you find the perfect spot
for you and whoever you're traveling with. If you would
like the details of the places and experiences I mentioned
in this week's show, you'll find them in the episode
show notes at untold Italy dot com forward slash two
(38:53):
eight three four, episode number two hundred and eighty three,
and also in our Untold Italy app, which is includes
every single podcast episode at free, organized by topic and
place so you can find what you're looking for, and
you also get the pre release version of the podcast
every week. Two grat Simuli, thanks for listening to Untold
Italy and showing your support by purchasing our app, leaving
(39:16):
a review or dropping me a note. I just love
receiving them. Recently, I was sent a postcard from the
Chinquoterre by debraah Hill in Perth in Australia, and it
gave me such a thrill, such a thoughtful thing to do. Deborah,
grat Simulae, I really really loved getting it. That's all
for this episode. Next time, our tour guest Rebel, is
joining us to share her experiences traving solo, independently and
(39:40):
with our small group tours in northern Italy and Umbria.
It might actually be one of my favorite episodes, so
be sure to tune in. So until then, it's chow
for now. The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production
podcast editing, audio production and website development by Mark Hatter
Production This Distance and content writing by the are they
(40:02):
kJ Clark? Yes, there are two of us. For more
information about Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy dot com
What happens when you mix Roman rooftop bars, a, fun Vespasidica,
to medieval towns of your dreams and the Umbrian countryside.
Join me as I recount my latest trip through Rome, Naples,
or Vieto and Urbino, managing the heat wave, cludging traffic,
and finding peace and perfection in familiar places.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Sawatuti and Benvenuti tu One Told Italy. The travel podcast
to where you go to the towns and villages, mountains,
the lakes, hills and coastlines of Bella, Italia. Each week,
your host Katie Clark takes you on a journey in
a search of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and
(00:45):
of course a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming
of Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to
the right place.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Dreaming of arriving in Italy, strolling into a gelatia and
ordering your gelato with confidence. If you've been learning Italian
with language apps but still can't string a sentence together,
it might be time to try another approach. My friend
Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical way to learn
travel ready Italian thanks to her unique eighty twenty method,
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Michelle teaches you exactly what you need to know to
connect with locals and have more authentic travel experiences. There's
no getting bogged down in awkward phrases and unnecessary grammar.
As an adult learner herself with Italian heritage, Michelle really
knows how to bridge the gap between English and Italian.
As Roma from London said, the learning methodology is great.
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I progressed much faster in the last four weeks than
I ever did on my own or using other language apps.
To find out more and claim your free Italian travel
phrase guide, visit untold Italy dot com home, forward slash
Italian or visit the link in the show notes. As
a bonus, you'll also get an exclusive twenty dollars coupon
code to use on any of Michelle's online self paced courses.
(02:11):
So visit untold Italy dot com, Forward slash Italian and
accelerate your Italian language your journey today. Jao one Johano, Friends,
Welcome back to another episode of Untold Italy where I
deep dive into my latest trip and spill the tea
on what I loved and learned on the ground. In beautiful,
magical Italia. It's important to me that I visit Italy often,
(02:33):
even though I live in Australia, which makes it at
least a twenty four hour journey to get to Italy,
and then I've got to come back again. Some might
say that's not such a tough life, and it's true.
I'm so grateful for this charmed existence I am living,
exploring Italy whenever I get a chance, and you know,
apart from the fact that it is absolutely gorgeous and
(02:53):
there's always something new to discover, there are a few
reasons why I like to go back regularly, and of
course one of those is to see for myself what's
happening on the ground. I like to have the latest
information so I can report back to all of you
as you plan your trips. And while we do have
an amazing team based in Rome and various spots around Italy,
(03:14):
it's great to see things through my own eyes. And
you know what, there's nothing more inspiring than being in Italy.
If you ask me, I get so many ideas. In fact,
you often have to stop me with my ideas. Speaking
of the team, it's also extremely important to me to
stay in touch in person as well, as online with
our amazing team. So another big part of the trip
(03:36):
was catching up with them, plus our partners, some clients
and podcast guests and gathering them all together to build
those all important bonds and connections that are the glue
behind this podcast, our trip planning services app, and the
small group tours. We through a delightful party on a
rooftop by in Rooms Taste District and it was just
(03:58):
a beautiful, warm night and everyone was in such good
spirits and laughing and having so much fun. In attendance
from Untold Italy. We're our tour hosts and content team
and a handful of our trip consultants. But best of all,
and I really loved this, we had multi generational gang there, babies,
(04:18):
kids and parents of our team. It was a beautiful
summary night in Rome that I won't forget for a
very long time. And after the celebrations, it was back
to work and exploring, so work as I call it,
and exploring some more. So here are some of the
highlights and learnings from my recent trip to Italy. First up,
(04:40):
you've heard this all over the news. Boy, it's hot
over there, and I you know, count stress is enough.
It's hot and you just need to be prepared. And
I always think I am, and you know what, I
wasn't this time so much. So I did actually get
a really great tip from my physiotherapist who was there
shortly afterwards, and she said, really, next time, go grab
(05:03):
some electrolytes, get some of gatorade or something into you,
because that'll really help stop any swelling that you get.
Because I have this thing where I do swell up
a bit when it's hot. So definitely not just the water,
but get some electrolytes into you if it's going to
be very hot. So it was around maybe thirty five
degrees celsius and that's about one hundred fahrenheits. So when
(05:27):
you're walking around and doing your twenty thousand steps a day,
it's a really important to keep yourself hydrated as best
you can. The other thing is, and you know what
I'm really terrible at this is to stop and rest.
I mean, I was there for work, so it's a
bit different than if you're on holidays, but I think
I could have done a better job of resting a
little bit more. But it's kind of not what I'm
(05:49):
known for, so it would be a big change in
personality for me to stop and rest a lot again. Shoes,
as I've always known, are absolutely critical. I only buy
shoes from one brand now actually, and they're called BED.
There are an Australian brand, and they're all very comfortable
(06:10):
and designed by foot specialists. So I've never actually got
a blister from one of those shoes, and they were
quite stylish too. I'm not sure if they ship overseas,
but if they do, they're fantastic. They call bed dot
com dot au and they're really really great. I'm not
advertising anything. I just happened to simply buy all my
(06:30):
shoes there. Now, what I was a bit surprised at,
and maybe this does have a little bit to do
with the heat, was that the Chenthrostoco or the historic
Center was not as busy as what I thought it
would be. And since then I've learned I've had some
stats that and the visitor numbers from the United States
are down slightly on last year. Maybe it's the heat,
(06:54):
Maybe I don't know everything else that's going on, but
you know, I didn't feel like it was as busy
as I've seen it in more recent times, so it
was quite nice, even though it was hot and sunny
to walk around some of the major sites and just
soak everything up. We had a really lovely morning doing that,
getting some nice footage for our social media. That was fun,
(07:16):
and we also did a lovely wander through Trust Devay,
where I always stay. And the reason I stay there
is because I can walk to the house of some
of my team, so they all live kind of not
in Tusta, but they live, you know, close by, so
I can go to their place and then I can
walk into the center and do all the things I
(07:36):
need to do there. So it's a really handy place
for me to stay. And I think if you like
a more kind of neighborhood feel, then trust Devay is
definitely a place that you would probably like to It
is very vibrant at nighttime, and so if you're not
really into a busy night life, then maybe it's not
the area for you. But for me, it's fun and
(08:00):
I like to stay there. Popular restaurants like Tonarella were
absolutely heaving lines out the door, but you know what,
I just don't line for anything, to be honest, these days,
I'm way too old for that. But you can still
find a lot of magic in that area and little restaurants,
local restaurants that make delicious food. I was able to
(08:23):
catch up with some people and find some really lovely
places that I would go to again. Unfortunately I can't.
Well I'm not going to share them because unfortunately what's
happened with my favorite restaurants is I'm no longer able
to get a booking there, and you know, I'm keeping
something a little bit special for myself. We share a
lot on this podcast, so you'll excuse me that one,
(08:46):
I hope. Now. One of the fun things that we did,
and this was thanks to our amazing partner, Live Tours,
who we've been working with for a long time now.
And the reason we like working with Live Tours is
because not only do they give an amazing tour experience,
but they are genuinely, really lovely people. They're a local business.
(09:08):
The owners that I know personally, Angelau and Christine, they
live in Rome, and they are very creative and fun
and they have very similar values to we have here
at Untold Italy. So we're always looking for ways to
work with each other and support each other. And this
time they enabled us to go on one of their
(09:30):
new tours, which is a vesper sidecart tour. Now. Before
they used to partner with another organization, but now they've
bought their own very very cute little vespers with sidecards
and it honestly is the best fun ever. So our
team did the vesper tour, zipping around Rome and everyone's
(09:50):
waving at you. You're having so much fun and it
is a really unique, you know, Roman holiday experience that
I can highly recommend done this tour at nighttime, but
this time we did it during the day. And I
have heard a few of my Italian team people that
live and were born in Italy on that tour, and
(10:11):
I've never seen so many beautiful smiles from the team,
Like it's an experience that even if you've lived in
Rome your whole life, that you can enjoy, So definitely
go check that out. It is very safe and if
you're in a group of two, someone will sit on
the back of the vesper behind the driver, and then
someone will sit in the sidecart. So of course we
(10:33):
put all the young ones with long legs on the
back of the vespers, and you know, some of us
that are you know, slightly more advanced in age did
sit in the sidecart and it was super comfortable and
just lots of fun. And I think kids can go
in it as long as I think they need to
be eight if I'm not mistaken. So it's something that
everyone in the family can do and it's really is
(10:56):
a huge amount of fun. Now live to thank you
very much for that experience. That was excellent, and we
will put a link to that in the show notes
because you definitely should check it out. The other thing
we did with Live Tours is they have a new
cooking school that's in the district of Party, which is
near the Vatican Museums. Party is, you know, quite an
(11:18):
upscale neighborhood. It's a really nice place. They're getting some
more hotels there and Airbnb apartment style accommodation too, and
it's a really really nice, charming area to check out.
They've also got a nice market there. But Live Tours
have a new cooking school there and we went there
and we learned how to make supri and pizza together
(11:41):
with the host who was a former Master Chef Italia contestant,
so that was really fun. And if you don't know
what suply are, they are little rice balls like aarentcini.
They're the Roman version of aaroncini and they're stuffed with chiese,
so that's like with it tomato, sauce and cheese stuffed inside.
(12:02):
So we got out of the heat of the day
and it's this beautiful air conditioned kitchen and we learned
from our chef how to make a simply pizza. It
was really fun. I think sometimes people get maybe a
little bit intimidated by cooking classes, but this one was
really well done. We had instructions to follow and definitely
(12:26):
can recreate what we learned again. And I've got some
excellent tips because we actually do make a little bit
of pizza at home. And for those of you who
are interested in that, we have an Ernie pizza oven,
and I love my ouni. It's so good. It can
cook the pizza. It gets up to a very high
temperature and you can cook the pizzas really fast and
(12:47):
it tastes really delicious. But if you don't have it
any oven, don't worry. She'll teach you how to make
it in the actual oven. But I think it's always
good to get different tips on how to make the
dough because the dough is everything in peat pizza, and
I think you have to refine your technique. You know,
the first time, you know, you might be a bit disappointed,
but it's try and try and try again. So we
(13:10):
made the suple and that was fun because you know,
you get your hands sturdy and you make the soup
le and you get this uzzy mozzarella that comes out
of it, so that was really nice. And then you
make the pizza and then you make a teller pizza
and who doesn't like ntella? So that was some of
the fun things that we did in Rome. One of
(13:30):
my favorite things is as well, was to go back
to Villa Fardese, which is beautiful villa down by the
River Tiber, which is in trust every So there they
have these gorgeous Raphael frescoes, you know, and there's no
one there and you can just wander around this beautiful
garden and villa and really enjoy the artwork. So this
(13:52):
is for someone who gets a bit overwhelmed with big galleries.
If you just want to go and dip in and
see some art, I can highly recommend that Villa pane Is.
It's beautiful. Now because I'm a little crazy and I
want to make sure we get absolute maximum value out
of this trip to Italy, I did sort of hussle
some of my team into doing a day trip down
(14:13):
to Naples. And the reason I wanted to do that
was a couple of reasons. You know, first, to go
make sure that you know it really is doable as
a day trip, which I think it is and I
have done that before, but I just wanted to do
that again and double check and see what was going
on with the trains. And also, you know, people have
(14:33):
mixed opinions about Naples, and you know, I love it.
I just love the vibe and the energy and all
of that. But I wanted to make sure that you know,
I'm not getting the wrong end of the stick and
I have got the right impression, which every time you
stiff off that train, you are We're coming from Rome
and Rome has got its own energy, and you get
(14:54):
to Naples and again it's a different energy. And that's
what I love, love, love about Italy. We did a
day trip. We just headed it over to Tammany at
about nine o'clock in the morning. And here's one learning now.
Because we wanted to do some shooting of videos about
how to use the trains, we thought we'd buy the
tickets there and then, but I think in peak season
(15:17):
you do need to book those fast feed trains in
advance if you want to go in the morning or
the late afternoon, either way, because everyone's got the same idea,
and it was a Saturday, so I feel like some
people Italians would have been traveling. So I'll talk a
bit about what happened when we got back a little
bit later, but I do suggest booking the trains. Look,
(15:38):
it's it's not fun for those of you who are
free and easy, but the reality is that things have
changed in travel and some things just cannot be left
to winging it. So make sure trains and things are booked.
You know, you don't have to go too crazy, like
six months or twelve months in advance, but at least
a couple of weeks in advance. I highly commend you
(16:00):
booking the train. So when we got to Naples again,
the energy just hits you straight away, and I just
love it because it's completely different to Rome. There's just
a different vibe. It's more local, and for those of
you who are familiar with Asian cities, I would say,
you know, it reminds me a little bit of Bangkok
(16:22):
or a really busy Asian city with like just sight, sound,
smells and everything going on all around you. This is
maybe not what everyone's cup of tea. So I was
able to catch up with some of our tour guess
later in the trip, and you know, they found it
all a bit overwhelming. So I probably wouldn't start with Naples.
(16:45):
I probably had that later in the trip if you're
someone that really is going to, you know, find that
really massive change in culture, something that's quite hard to
deal with. But I mean, I love it and it's great.
And what we did in Naples was up with a
guide from a company called with Locals. And what I
really like about with Locals is that with Locals are
(17:07):
a marketplace or it's a listing site for local guides.
So if you want to have a private tour with
a local guide, then this is a really good option.
And I've worked with them for a while and I've
had some excellent experiences with them. So how it works
is you go to their website and they've got like
(17:30):
a series of set itineries that you can choose from
or you can customize your own. And just so you
wanted to do like a walking tour of Naples. Then
you go to Naples, you go to the walking tour
that you want, and you know, sometimes it's good just
to have something to work from because unless you're really
familiar with or you really want to know about street
(17:51):
art in Naples, then it's a good idea to be
guided by them anyway. So you choose your itinery and
then you choose which local speaks. So they've got profiles
of all, you know, the guides that they have that
are available, and you know, it's fantastic. We had a
great old time going around with Maria. It was just
so lovely. She's got such a different perspective, as do everyone.
(18:14):
Everyone's got a different perspective of their city and how
they live. And she was super interesting because she lived
out by the US base out there, and she lived
her whole life out there, and her children were half American,
half Italian, and she had some really interesting insights into
(18:35):
the way the world's working and all of those things.
But she told us some really cool stories about the
hospital there that her mum used to work at. It's
not cool, actually, it's it's a little bit sad, but
it was interesting and basically it was a hospital where
babies that were unwanted were cared for, and so she
showed us the whole procedure of how they were checked
(18:57):
in and let's just say it wasn't very nurturing. So look,
it was really interesting to go around with her. And
we did walk the length of Spakanufaly, which is the
street that splits the city into two, and I've never
done that before, so that was really great to do.
We stopped for bites, including the famous life changing buffalo
(19:18):
mozzarella cheese, and we dipped into the cathedral where you know,
there was this amazing installation going on, and stopped at
the galleria and we had some delicious pizza fritte, which
is the fried pizza. Just go with it. It's fantastic. And
what was really fun this time in Naples is that
(19:40):
they just won the league, the football soccer league, and
so all the streets were festooned with decorations and people
obviously celebrating the win. Another amazing thing about Naples this
is some really fun street art. So if you're someone
that's into really a bit more of an edgy experience
when you go abroad, then Naples is really really fun.
(20:03):
It's really raw and it's high energy, so be prepared
back in a flash. Right after these messages, we got
down to the theater at the end of our walkdowns
back and Upperly and we were looking out at the
bay across to Carpre and you know, it's just such
(20:25):
a contrast between Rome, Naples and then Carfrey. It's just
this is why I love Italy. You get everything in
one little pocket and it's absolutely gorgeous. So that was
our fun day in Naples and it was super fun
with with locals. And again I'll link to that in
the show notes because they are a really great sight
(20:45):
to know about if you're looking for local guides. When
we got back on the train, oh it's busy, and
so again like I sound like a broken record, but
please don't take big luggage. You just don't need to
be dealing with it. It's just not it's not fun.
You will always manage, but it's about whether you're going
to be comfortable managing or not. But anyway, so we
(21:06):
got back to Rome at about i would say about
five thirty pm and the train ride takes about ninety minutes.
And then here's where the fun really began because there
were no taxis we needed to get over to trust
Evitey so you can walk. It would have taken about
forty five minutes, but we've been walking all day. It
was super hot, we were tired, you know, I wanted
(21:28):
to go to bed, and there were no taxis and
we actually waited an hour in the taxi line until
I had some other ideas. And during that time we
were waiting, I was also trying to book taxis on
free Now, which is like their Uber style app that
they have in Rome. And then after waiting for so
long and just being so tired and so exhausted, I
(21:51):
think the jet lag had caught up with me. I
decided to just go for the Uber X and book
the Uber X and that wasn't very cost effective. Let's
just say so. For those of you who know Rome,
it cost eighty euros to get to Trusty day from Tamany,
so just spare that in mind. I did do another
(22:12):
trip that I came back into Tamany later on the
week after and it was fine, But just to know
that that's a potential problem if you're coming in on
the train and you if you're coming in maybe on
the weekend and there's fewer taxis around, do you kind
of have a backup option. The thing is taxis are
very few and far between in Italy and specially Rome.
(22:36):
There's like I think there's a third of the number
of taxis in Rome as there are in Paris, similar
Sarize population, so it can be a little bit difficult
to get a taxi at times, so just to be prepared. Anyway,
that was those crazy days in Rome. So I was there.
You know, we did a few things. I had to
do some more work, which you know, it's actually delightful
(22:59):
because I get to work with some amazing people. But
it was pretty busy few days. And then one of
the main reasons for the trip was I wanted to
join our Umbria tour. This tour was you know, it's
been a long time in the making and we're so
proud of this one. It includes a visit to the
(23:20):
infia Ata Flower Festival, and you're going to hear a
little bit more about that next week, which is it's
a very special community event where locals get together and
build floral carpets and they work overnight to do that.
I'm not going to do any spoiler alerts here because
I think the episode coming up next week might actually
be one of my favorites of all times, so I'm
(23:42):
pretty excited about that. But I really wanted to join
this tour to say thank you to some of our
repeat guests and you know, to see how the tour
was going. And the tour this time was led by
our amazing Julia, who is a very special person to me.
She's been on the podcast a few times. And yes,
at the party, Julia's parents were there and I was just, oh,
(24:04):
it was just delightful to meet her dad again and
meet her mom for the first time. I absolutely loved it. Okay,
so the people that I wanted to do a shout
out to and who I was meeting for the first
time Rebel, who you'll hear from next week, but also
Carolyn and rich who have been the most amazing supporters
(24:24):
of Untold Italy really from the very beginning, and they
were on their fifth tour with us, and so I
felt like it was only right to go in and
say hi and meet them again because I'd met them
back in twenty twenty two in Sicily when we did
a tour there with my friend Karen la Rosa. It
was very special to see them again and to say
(24:46):
thank you for all their support. And I really loved it.
And it was also wonderful to meet Johnna and Mark
from Oklahoma and Moira and Peter from New Jersey. And
it was quite funny because john and Mark had been
listening to the podcast, but Maira and Peter I ain't
had no idea who I was, so they were I
think it was why Buddy I was like, Hi, I'm Katie,
(25:07):
a founder of un told Ell and they were like,
oh yeah. But Johnna and Market obviously they'd be listening
along and they'd heard my voice a lot, so they
knew who I was and had a lot of background
on me. But I loved hearing all their different stories
and reasons for joining our tour and visiting the Umbria region.
And it was really great to find out that a
(25:28):
CCI is a clear favorite place that people want to
visit Umbria. Obviously we love it, but we love so
many places in Umbria. And I guess you know what
I learned later and during the trip as it went along,
was that what makes our tour really special is that
we do go out of our way to help our
guests who are very interested in this particular town in
(25:51):
a CC to experience it in the way that they
want to. And one of our team actually lives in
Umbria and she has got some extremely detailed and very
special insight into the way that a CC is and
all this little special, unique spots that you're not going
to find if you do like a day trip from Rome,
(26:11):
because they're not in the main town. Ombria is a
favorite region of House And you know, I did not
disappoint so with the group. I was just there with
them for about a day and a half and I
managed to duck into all Vieto with them, and our
guide Maras showed us all the places that I missed
before when I had come on my own, And honestly,
(26:31):
there is nothing nothing better than seeing a place through
the eyes of a local guide. These people have trained
and they have so much passion for their town, and
it's quite astonishing just how many things have happened, just
unique and important local and international events that have happened
in a place that you might not know about. We
(26:53):
learn a lot from the guide and I'm hoping to
get her onto the show to talk about Orvieto because
it is a really beautiful place. We had a lovely
half day there, introducing our guest to the Sheikerato, which
is the iced coffee Italian's love that comes in a
martini glass, because why not. And we had a delicious
(27:13):
lunch with some trouffle pasta, and we met some locals
who are making some really unique historic beverages as well.
So it was super fun and just everyone is so
relaxed and enjoying themselves, and you know, you can't not
in a place like or Vieto because he's really charming,
and you know, there wasn't very many people. It wasn't
(27:36):
busy at all, actually, so if I compare it to
say a similar time in maybe Sango, Minano or Cortona
in Tuscany, you can't even compare it because I think
the most busy thing was there was a band from
a high school in America doing a concert in the
(27:57):
piazza and then they just packed up and went. It
was really it was really peaceful and charming, and that's
what I really love about that place. We did some
more exploring after lunch, and you know, the cathedral there
is one of the most beautiful in Italy, and it's
got this gorgeous stained glass window and some beautiful frescoes inside,
(28:18):
and we did a lot of walking, a lot, a lot,
a lot. You just can't you can't not do a
lot of walking in Italy. So that's good because I
enjoy walking, and you know, as you walk you see
so many more beautiful little sites. And we shared a
dinner that night overlooking the olive groves close by to
or Vietto, and I gotta say the food. We had
(28:40):
a few different dietary requirements and I don't have those
dietary requirements, but I was really enjoying the food that
was coming out from the rest of the team was
like on the table. They were enjoying all sorts of things.
The people that were eating gluten free that I had
was quite jealous. So that was lovely. And the next
day we stopped in De root Out, which is the
home of Italian ceramics and it's you know, got a
(29:03):
really strong reputation for really quality wares, and we visited
an artist and workshop there where the people that were
working were hand painting their beautiful works and that was
really delightful. So that that was the first bit, and
then I was whisked away into Umbria, and we had
a few jobs to do, but you know, as I said,
(29:26):
that my job's not that difficult. So we checked out
our main hotel for the tour, which is magnificent, and
the views from a CEC were incredible, and we had
another stop in a CC just to wander and have
some lunch with some more views, absolutely delightful. And after that, Sarah,
who actually lives in Umbria, she stopped by her friend
(29:50):
of hers that is a local artisan who makes beautiful
custom ceramics, and goodness, it is a charmed, charmed existence there.
It is so beautiful. And as we sort of, you know,
get closer towards Sarah's home at La Kukanya, which is
an agriturismo self catering agucurizmo close to Gubio and Peruja,
(30:12):
you know, I started to feel like I was going
to relax, and I always do when I go to
La Kukanya, So it does feel a bit like coming
home to me, and it's very peaceful and I always
feel extremely looked after by Sarah and sal who run that.
And finally we got to La Kukanya and there I
ran into podcast listener Ondre, who had found La Kukanya
(30:34):
via the podcast, and it was just so delightful to
hear about his tip that he was doing with his
family and his parents and his kids and everyone. And yeah,
I'm just so happy that they found La Kukanya via
this podcast because it is a very very special place, Okay,
marching On the next day, Sarah and I decided to
(30:56):
do a day trip from La Kukanya in Umbria to
Urbino in Marque. And I know a lot of you
wanted to hear about my impressions about this beautiful town
or it's a mini city, and my goodness, it is gorgeous.
And you know what, these ones that are a little
bit harder to get to a definitely worth the effort.
(31:18):
We did a day trip from Umbria and it took
an hour and a half each way to get there,
so it was a decent effort. And it is about
three hours from Florence by car and about three hours
from Rome. Three and a half hours from Rome, So
just to give you an idea, you got to make
an effort and you've got to get in a car
to get there, but it would be a lovely place
to settle in for a few days. You do need
(31:40):
a car, as I mentioned, but it's an easy drive
and it's so worth it. It's really up there as
an untold favorite because just those medieval streets, lovely piazzas,
a gorgeous local feel, like you know, I think there
was there were tourists there, but they were mainly Italian
school kids running around piazzas, having fun, eating gelato and
(32:03):
had a really friendly vibe. And it's because it's probably
I would say it's a university town, so I always
get that friendly student vibe when I'm in a university town,
and I really try and seek those out. You can
easily just hang out there in Urbino and enjoy the
magnificent architecture. It is a hilltop town, so the views
(32:25):
from the side are just magnificent. But you can also
check out so many different things. They've got an art
gallery there, a big cathedral, some of the churches there.
They've got some absolutely incredible frescoes that you can get
right up close and look at, and they went by
Raphael who was actually born in Urbino, but they were
(32:50):
painted by peers of his, and you know, you can
really enjoy them at your own leisure without any pressure.
So if you like me and you like your kind
of in bite sized pieces, this is the way to
do it. It was really fantastic. It's got a lot of
curiosities in Urbino, so a lot of little nooks and
crannies and it's a place where you can just go
(33:12):
wandering and exploring. And when you do, and I love
doing this, you find some really cool things. Like I
found this woman who makes ceramics, but she makes sort
of custom sculptions and one of the shapes that she
makes is the special Star that is the symbol of Urbino,
(33:32):
and it's based on a design that was created by
Leonardo da Vinci working with a local mathematician, and it's
based on a fucking octagon with pyramids on the outside,
so it's really three D and it's really gorgeous. And
she makes it with a local stone and then the
stone's brown and when it's fired it turns white and anyway,
(33:55):
so I had to get one of those home. Well,
this is quite crazy purchases that I like to make,
but it's really special and I'll get a photo of
it and we'll put it on the show notes there
so you can see what it is, because it's a
really special, unique thing that will always remind me of Urbino.
So yeah, it is a hilltown there. It's pretty steep,
(34:16):
like there's up and down and there's cobblestones and you know,
but it's super gorgeous and I really really had just
the most delightful day exploring there with Sarah. And we
also tried out some of the suggestions from our untold
Italy app and I hadn't written that content myself. One
of our team members had written it, so I was
keen to check out, you know, what she'd suggested, and
(34:40):
you know what, they're all excellent, especially the gelato, and
I was so proud to be part of that and
to know that we were supporting local businesses there. So
it was really cool. And then sadly we had to
go back to Lai Kukanya and not we left Urbino.
That was sad. I'd love to go back there. Incidentally,
(35:01):
it's actually only an hour and a half from San Marino,
so if you wanted to get another stamp on your
passport you could kind of do that. You might not
be surprised that we're thinking up an idea for a tour,
but anyway, more on that later. So it was our
last night in umbriat my last night, and Sarah took
(35:21):
me to a local I guess it's the local pub,
but goodness me the food. You know, in England you
go to the pub for beers. In Italy you go
to the pub for food. And I had this omelet
with truffles. Oh my goodness, you know, very simple, very tasty,
very very cheap. So you know, I think it was
(35:44):
seven euros. I didn't pay for it, but I was
like looking at this prices on the menu. Thanks Sarah
and sal for hosting me. That was absolutely lovely of them.
So we had this delicious omelet, you know, in some
wine and then we saunted off back to their place
at La Coucanya and as if by magic, and this
always happens to me at Kukanya on the last night,
(36:05):
the fireflies came out and I just went a bit
silly and I got very excited about the fireflies and
just loved that experience. So seriously, the main thing I
take away from this is Rome is fun. Naples is fun.
But you know, if you want some just pure joy
in your heart, get out into the countryside, go and
(36:28):
see towns like U Vieto Urbino and just have some
fireflies action in Umbria. You'll never regret it. So anyway,
I had to say goodbye to La Kukanya and head
back to Rome on the local train, which was slow
and steady and there was not a lot of room
for luggage. I had to have mine in the seat
next to me, and as I was checking out the
(36:48):
updates from the tour, I noticed that they all went
up in the Goubio birdcage. If you know. You know,
I've talked about this on our podcast before and they
loved it, so that was good because I found it
mildly terrifying. Anyway, the train stops at lots of towns
along the way in Umbria, and it was a really
nice journey, so if you had some time and you
(37:09):
wanted to travel by train, it's a nice way to
do it. This time, it was easy to get a
taxi at Termany. It was mid afternoon on a weekday,
so it was fine to get back to tust and
then I had a final dinner with my Room Tours
team in San Saba, which is a delightful neighborhood news
Circus Maximus. That was ten days in Italy and I
(37:29):
just realized I covered a lot of ground, And to
be honest, this whirlwind is not really what I'd suggest
for most travelers, unless, of course, you do want to
cover a lot of ground. It is your trip. You
should travel your way and not listen to anyone else.
If you really prefer to pack a lot in, then
that's your prerogative. Though, I would say when I do
(37:50):
ask people what their favorite parts of their trip were,
they usually say that they loved it all. No one
says they had a bad trip, do they anyway? They
loved it all, but they'll always remember that the days
they spent in the countryside. And my physiotherapist said exactly
the same thing. She just loved the time she spent
in Tuscany. And that's why I'm really so glad that
(38:11):
I had those peaceful moments at Laikukanya. It was a
moment to take it all in, breathe and be connected
to that slower pace of life. Now, working out where
to stop and stay in the country often gets people
stumped though, because of course these lovely spots are not
well advertised, So if you would like help with planning
that and making sure you optimize your route, or route
(38:32):
depending on your accent type. Check out our trip planning services.
Our team is obsessed with this type of travel and
will be delighted to help you find the perfect spot
for you and whoever you're traveling with. If you would
like the details of the places and experiences I mentioned
in this week's show, you'll find them in the episode
show notes at untold Italy dot com forward slash two
(38:53):
eight three four, episode number two hundred and eighty three,
and also in our Untold Italy app, which is includes
every single podcast episode at free, organized by topic and
place so you can find what you're looking for, and
you also get the pre release version of the podcast
every week. Two grat Simuli, thanks for listening to Untold
Italy and showing your support by purchasing our app, leaving
(39:16):
a review or dropping me a note. I just love
receiving them. Recently, I was sent a postcard from the
Chinquoterre by debraah Hill in Perth in Australia, and it
gave me such a thrill, such a thoughtful thing to do. Deborah,
grat Simulae, I really really loved getting it. That's all
for this episode. Next time, our tour guest Rebel, is
joining us to share her experiences traving solo, independently and
(39:40):
with our small group tours in northern Italy and Umbria.
It might actually be one of my favorite episodes, so
be sure to tune in. So until then, it's chow
for now. The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production
podcast editing, audio production and website development by Mark Hatter
Production This Distance and content writing by the are they
(40:02):
kJ Clark? Yes, there are two of us. For more
information about Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy dot com
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