BAC Le Marche

June 9 – Urbino

Please visit today's slide show

This morning we had breakfast at 7:30. It was one of the best buffets so far. There were hard-boiled eggs, prosciutto, cheese, yogurt, cereal, eight kinds of rolls, etc. The feature that I liked the best was the pot of strong coffee where we could serve ourselves. In all of the previous hotels, we had to wait for individual servings. Ann and I ate outside on the terrace with Don and Peter. It was a little cool, but very pleasant.

At 8:30, we met in the lobby for a guided tour of the city. Sylvia, our guide, spoke excellent English and knew the history of Urbino. The city is a renaissance town famous for its Palazzo Ducale and as the birthplace of Raphael. We wandered up and down the steep streets and alleys learning about the major attractions. Our tour ended at the palazzo after two hours.

After the tour, Ann and I went to a sidewalk cafe for a cold drink and a rest. We paid six euros for two soft drinks, but it was worth it to sit and watch the world go by.

We then went into the Palazzo Ducale. Our senior ticket was free so we paid three euros each for an audio guide. It was worth having the guides because there was lots to learn about – the architecture, the art, the history of the various rooms, etc. It was very interesting and worth doing.

It took us two hours to visit the palazzo. Afterwards we walked back down the hill to the main piazza and had lunch at the same outdoor cafe where we ate yesterday. This time I had flat noodles with a mushroom sauce. Ann had the house salad.

Later, we walked out into the heat and visited the Oratorio San Giovanni. This is a small church turned into a museum. There were frescos on the walls that were painted by the brothers who once ran the church. The crude paintings depicted many scenes from the New Testament.

After that, we had gelato and ran some errands.

We had no Happy Hour tonight, but we did take a group photo.

Front row: Julie Leever, Bob Peterson, Susan Smith, Peter Krichman, Kathy Patrick-Bass, Dave Smith, Tom Leever.

Second row: Bob Lynn, Ann Lynn, Carol Patnoe, Hal Bass, Ron Cohen, Bob Warfield, Margie Kirk, Sally McKinney.

Top row: Tim Presar, Harold Ashby, Ellen Cohen, Richard Pellerin, Carolyn Roth, Joe Galvagna, Judy Ashby, Richard Patnoe, Rod Harman, Bill Alkire, Don Martin.

We split up for dinner. We went to Restaurant Le 3 Piante with Don, Tom, Julie, Sally and Margie. When we got there we saw Harold, Judy, Carol, Richard, Joe, Bob and Bob. We sat on the terrace with a view of the valley below. The food was good, but not exceptional. I had pasta with shrimp in a lemon sauce. Ann had veal in a lemon sauce. We split grilled eggplant and zucchini. I ordered zabaglione for dessert. I expected a traditional one, but this one was frozen with chocolate sauce.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the town’s main piazza to watch all of the students mingling. There was a small group waving a Che banner and chanting slogans. Someone said the students were communists from Belarus. It was pretty tame.

We got to bed before 10:00.