Easter in Umbria

By Nancy DiDio - When my husband and I planned a month-long trip to Italy last Spring, we realized that Easter would fall during our stay. Although we had visited Italy numerous times before, we had never been there for a major holiday. The prospect of spending the Easter holidays in a country that is so steeped in religious tradition was both exciting and a little intimidating. Expecting that places would likely be crowded during a popular vacation period, we carefully planned our itinerary so we?d be situated somewhere off the beaten track during Le Festa di Pasque, Holy Week.

Umbrian Farm (Photo by Nancy DiDio)

With some on-line research, I located a vacation apartment in Panicale, a tiny hilltop town in the heart of Umbria, in central Italy. It is situated a short distance off the main route from Rome to Florence, reasonably close to several places we were eager to visit, such as Cortona and Assisi. As with most vacation homes, the rental was weekly, beginning on Saturday, and so our stay there would begin the day before Easter Sunday. We wanted to be settled in somewhere nearby for Holy Thursday and Good Friday and chose to spend those days in one of our favorite Umbrian towns, Orvieto. We booked two nights in a B&B located in a palace on the edge of town.

Upon our arrival in Orvieto, we were pleased to learn that our room there was actually a self-catering apartment. Our hostess, Valeria, lived alone in the grand palace owned by her family for several hundred years. She offered breakfast to her guests, relishing the opportunity to visit with them. She showed us the impressive antique filled rooms of the main building, their vaulted ceilings and walls covered in elaborate frescoes, then led us to our comfortable apartment in a separate wing. We had a private terrace with a vista of tiled rooftops just below us, and the countryside in the distance. We ate dinner there that night, after shopping like the locals in the town's markets.

The following day was Good Friday, a day that would culminate with a candlelight procession through town depicting the passion of Christ. The normally bustling town was even more crowded on this holiday. We joined the throngs in the streets, and were carried along to the main square at the town?s pinnacle, site of Orvieto?s extraordinary Duomo with its remarkable facade of colorful mosaics and intricate carvings. We reacquainted ourselves with many of the towns? other notable medieval churches and buildings. I climbed to the top of the 150 foot high clocktower, Torre de Moro, partly for the fabulous view, but more to alleviate any guilt I felt about indulging in gelato that afternoon. We had looked forward to the evening?s pageantry, but unfortunately pouring rain forced its cancellation.

On Saturday, after enjoying Valeria?s marvelous breakfast, we set off to Panicale, our home for the coming week. Since it was not far, we took a leisurely route through the Umbrian hills. In the early spring, the land was lushly green. The farms dominating the landscape looked rather affluent and we surmised that farming was quite lucrative in this part of the country. In the late morning, we arrived outside the walls of Panicale, high on a hill of olive groves and vineyards overlooking Lake Trasimeno, one of the larger lakes in Italy. The landlord of our rental was the owner of the town?s bar, which served as the unofficial social center. We had been told there would be no trouble finding him, and as soon as we entered the main square, we spotted him standing outside the bar. He offered us cappucinos while he found someone to show us to our apartment. Sipping our coffees at a table outside, we watched a group of young boys playing a boisterous game of street soccer in the tiny square until an errant kick of the ball shattered a terracotta flower pot, and suddenly the boys vanished.