Yesterday we went to a hilltown called Pietralunga. It is a quite remote area past Montone up into the hills. Pretty drive and a very pretty town.

There were little patches of carpet each with a chair next to it along the streets and walls. It seems the town encourages artists to come and bring their work with them to sell and exhibit. There were a number of artists here as well as many empty spots (you can see some of the art in the 3rd picture below). It is a good idea to promote their town and bring visitors. We had come to the town to view the Civiteli Ranierie artists’ works which we did. They were interesting if not terribly notable.

Here are some pictures of the town. The first two are the main piazza and church (dating from the 8th century) area.

At the top of the town was this tower and these arches also dating from the 8th century.

These next two pictures are interesting. All buildings in Italy have metal covers over the water, gas and electric meters. In Pietralunga many of them are painted by artists. You can see that these are little doors. Much prettier than the ugly gray covers we have on our house in Umbertide.

After our visit we headed out to find lunch which was more difficult that we thought it would be. We ended up at Trattoria di Botticelli. It was along the road between Montone and Pietralunga. It was quiet and they cooked us a nice lunch to include antipasti of meats and cheeses as well as deep fried squash blossoms and bruschetti. Afterwards we had pasta and the guys got yummy desserts and they brought refreshing after dinner drinks of either melon or banana. These had been kept in the freezer and were frozen and slushy and yummy. It was fun.

Here is a picture from my walk this morning of a pretty chicory flower. The picture below that is of a farmers cart full up with buckets of roma tomatoes destined to become sauce. I love tomato season!