Our third stop of the day (excluding a pit stop for lunch which I'm not including in this gallery) was in the small mediaeval town of Gubbio. We didn't have a lot of time (this is becoming something of a refrain, isn't it?), we were already late after our earlier adventure, and frankly everyone was hot and tired and quite over walking up long, high hills in mediaeval townships. Frankly, though, that's probably being unfair to Gubbio. If you had a day to spend here, you'd probably spend it well. We had less than an hour if I recall correctly.

There was a lift at the far end of town. Not a chairlift, but rather it's a lift in which the riders go up in the open air in buckets. That led up to an even higher hill above the town. By the time we walked up there only one of us decided to bother going up. (See also, hot, tired, over climbing hills.) The other three of us went off in search of the blessed relief of lemon granitas; a lemon flavoured ice beverage which probably saved our lives on multiple occasions when heatstroke seemed only moments away. Okay, that's probably a slight exaggeration but really, if you're in Italy in summer, even at the end of summer as we were, you need granitas and you need them regularly. I also managed to get us a couple of packets of truffle flavoured chips. (The mushroom truffle, not the chocolate truffle kind.) One of us disliked them. I didn't mind them but I wouldn't be rushing to get more.

In Australia you will normally see one or two cars outside each home whether it be an old style detached house, or blocks of apartments. In Italia, however, the roads are narrow and the parking minimal. (I must have been squished up against the far wall to shoot this, because the road is JUST wide enough for parked cars, and one lane of traffic.) This is therefore the kind of sight that you are much more likely to see.

This shot was taken on one of the narrow roads leading up to the aforementioned lift, specifically the Via XX Settembre which is named after the date of the recapture of Roma (20 September 1870), which was the final event in the unification of Italy (the Risorgimento).