Urbino part 1

After  a month of evenings planning a two month road trip to Spain leaving on 15th September it should really come as no surprise, because life is unpredictable, that we set off on 8th September heading for Gargano in Puglia. Don't ask. Leaving early has its advantages, since I was fed up of waiting for the great departure but also means that the last carrots will probably be a feast for the slugs, the catalogna will hopefully keep itself busy growing until we get back at the beginning of October, the kitchen never got its deep spring... er... summer ....well ....early autumn clean and more seriously there were one or two people I didn't get to see before leaving.

We depart under a deluge. The heavens opened would be the right if inappropriate expression (is heaven really so wet?). A continuous waterfall beats down on the car and floods the roads. I hang on tight to the steering wheel and feel that both me and the car huddle down a bit under the onslaught like in the cartoons. Fortunately and unsurprisingly, because who would want to be out early on a September Sunday in orange (so what is red then?) alert weather, there's very little traffic...

We slosh through the rain until a service station on the Milan Bologna motorway and stop to stretch our legs, it's packed out with people several deep at the bar in search of espresso and cappuccino. 

By just past twelve thirty we drive into the covered parking at Rimini Ikea. We often use IKEA as a cheap and safe alternative to stopping on the motorway. Ikea is usually strategically placed, in this case just 8 minutes off the motorway, is a safe place to park a car with a lot of stuff (motorway service stations can be dodgy in Italy and we would not go in together leaving the car alone). Also, for 7.40€ we get two small pizzas, two vegetarian hotdogs, one lot of chips, a free refill drink, 2 cinnamon buns, an ice-cream and two coffees. Well, two cappuccinos actually because the machine isn't working and sprays coffee everywhere except into the plastic cup, so we get sent upstairs for two free cappuccinos.

The rest of the journey is easy, a short stretch on the motorway and then some up and down and round about to our Airbnb not far from Urbino. The apartment is in a typical brick built building in the countryside and is a studio flat eclectically decorated with a country style impossible to imitate but which definitely works. The two nights here are paid for by our Airbnb superhost bonus so we are doubly well pleased. After taking up our stuff and the tomatoes, yes, they came too, we set off back to Urbino.

It's Sunday afternoon, and Micky, our artistic and helpful host told us where we could park free, right outside the walls near the Fortezza Altaroz, the first spaces are blue but then further down parking is free. First we explore the park in front of the fortress and from where there are superb views of the historical centre of Urbino and Palazzo Ducale. Inexplicably, some of the benches are facing in the opposite direction towards an insignificant lawn, or is it me who's out of touch and they are for selfies?

Walking down towards the centre there are quiet alleyways of perfectly conserved historic buildings. 

Urbino is sobre with style, the brick houses in beige, ochre, pale apricot, cream and all the shutters are light grey. It's only early September but there are so few flowers that a sudden straggling red geranium or an unexpected flowerbox overflowing with purple petunias seem all the more striking. The town is quiet on this cool and breezy Sunday afternoon, we wander its quiet streets, and we like it.

There's a lot of up and down and it's not a place for high heels, especially considering the steps, which are odd, sort of back to front, and a lot of the up and down is quite steep. 

Down by the tourist office we find the Rampa elicoidale which takes us back up to the square in front of Palazzo Ducale. It's getting cooler, but before heading for home we stop for the church service in San Domenico church near the cathedral, which is still closed after the 2016 earthquake. It's a long service and we are happy to get back to Micky's flat to supper and relax.