Italian Adventures – We Bought a House in Italy!

Located in the central area of Umbria, Gualdo Cattaneo is a medieval village up on a hill on the slopes of the Martani Mountains in a charming position. Beyond this quaint, historic town, there is a system of medieval castles & buildings in the surrounding 20km. Today, our adventure is focused on finding and exploring as many of these castles as possible before lunch. Website link HERE for more information.

Gualdo Cattaneo (GC) is just under an hour drive from Casale Giulietta, making our plan for the day reasonable. We loaded up on cappucini and cornetti, dusted off the powder sugar from our shirts, and began our drive.

GC is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. The view from il centro storico is beautiful. Besides the castle, you will find a lovely square, a beautiful church with an interesting 13th century crypt – glass-encased saint and all, and the cylindrical tower of the fortress, built in 1494.

We headed out in search of more castles & ruins. The next stop at Castle of Marcellano was a bust, it was a little town that they turn into a living Nativity scene (Presepe) during Christmas. Our next castle was a small hamlet in which someone bought the entire thing and turned it into a resort of sorts with a wonderful restaurant, many apartments for rent, a giant swimming pool and views for days. See below.

On our way to the next location, we had to pull over and snap a few pics of the castle across the valley. I am certain we will be heading there next but the view from this side was spectacular.

On a day like this, you never know what you are going to find. But after a long and busy day in Florence yesterday, we were ready for some tranquility and slow time. Not a lot at the next stop but some cool archways and a great tower,

Along our route we passed this amazing abandoned stone house with a fantastic view of yet another castle across the valley.

Next up… Castle of Barattano. This is an abandoned castle that locals have created apartments & a B&B inside, and a tiny little community surrounding it. So much so that a nice old man came out and across the street to see if we needed any help.

It’s nearly time for lunch so maybe one more stop along the way. Castle of St. Terenziano here we come. Now more of a town than a castle, it gets counted just the same!

At an elevation of 500 meters, you will find the castle built in the 14th century to defend the people. The locality has ancient origins (1st cent. AD): the Romans called it loco petroso (rocky place) for its quarries of travertine and limestone. The castle was indeed built from the local stone, in a traditional square plan. It took the name of Terenziano, the first bishop of Todi, whom the emperor Hadrian had decapitated together with Flacco, the high priest of the College of the augustali: the next night some Christian women gathered the corpses of the martyrs and brought them to the Petroso upland plain, which from that moment on was called San Terenziano.

We headed back outside the gate and decided to wander down along the valley road and take a peek at the church. Yet another spectacular view!!

The church was modest but the grounds were very beautiful.

Now our stomachs were grumbling loudly so we headed back up towards our car and found this delightful little trattoria that happened to be open, despite us being the only customers. It was run by an older husband and wife team, with the husband being a bit gruff and cranky. But the food was amazing!

We had ordered a liter of white wine and some water. After we finished eating, the wife brought over a bottle of some type of digestive, made by them of course. Heather tried it first and it was very strong, so I decided to dilute it in my remaining water. This helped but one drink was all I needed. Time to hit the road.

On our drive out of the area, we came upon what appeared to be yet another castle. It was beautiful and someone clearly had bought it and was fixing it up into an amazing home. Looking back at the pictures now, I think this may be the castle we saw from across the valley when we stopped to take a picture of the abandoned stone house. Look back and tell me what you think.