My friend Doug and I like to go to the Iris farm over in the Niccone valley every spring to admire the blooms and lovely gardens. It is called IrisUmbria. It is open on weekends in May.
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As an addendum to my Trip Report on Albania. Many people said they’d never go after reading it. I didn’t mean to put people off. The people are so very nice, the prices are so very low. The food is good. Fresh seafood is wonderful. The towns very pretty. The beaches are pristine. If you hike, the Albanian Alps are amazing and attract a lot of hikers. I feel for the people there. They had a very hard time so are a bit behind the rest of the former communist countries who didn’t live under as cruel a regime as the Albanese. It is so near Italy. We will go back, this time to a beach off season. It is just next to Greece and it’s beaches just as nice and at way less than half the price! Give it a try. Another thing that is of interest is that it is not Schengen. This makes it a place to go if you’re trying to do the Schengen shuffle. I will write about the Schengen Shuffle soon.
James, all true and all things we learned on the trip. Most spoke some English. We did look up the language and saw that it is unique and not related to any other known language. And as Luther said they were terribly isolated for 50 years. Like North Korea now. It is hard to recover from that. I was sorry many of my readers decided they didn’t wanted to visit. I will go back. Our cat carer and house cleaner is Albanian. She is great. And they all hustle for a buck as I say. We should meet for lunch soon
Hi Nancy, great post!!! Thanks for sharing what was obviously a fascinating trip. As you know, there are a lot of Albanians (now well-integrated) in Foligno. They have an incredibly interesting history and, I think many people forget that it wasn’t so long ago that Albania was one of the most closed-off countries in the world. It’s interesting also that most of the Albanians I know (and work with) have incredible linguistic prowess). Most speak English easily. Albanian is linguistically very unique and one of my colleagues says that Albanians, because of their difficult past, have become incredibly adaaptable. One of these days, I hope we can talk more about your trip!!!!
Antonia, it is beautiful!
Che bellissima! Grazie…
Antonia Allegra
Hi Lindsay, there are hundreds of different ones. Each has a name. Many I believe were developed by this couple. Believe it or not, my favorite is the white one. It is named Ghost.
What a lovely place to visit.
The flowers are so intricate, I’ve never seen so many different colours.
Very uplifting.