Good Things From Italy - Le Cose Buone d'Italia

It is about 2.5 hours from Umbertide through the mountains and deep in Le Marche. The town has a history that is older than Rome's. It was originally on the salt road that took salt from the sea down to Rome. It's history is too long and complicated to recite here, but suffice it to say there were many battles, rulers, and fights with their neighbors. It is now a city that has some industry, Barilla, the pasta company, but still depends on farming and quarries. It is not easy to get to, which is probably why most Americans have not discovered it, but if you have a car, and the time, it is worth a detour on your schedule.

There is a bar that Hemingway frequented. It was recently restored and feels like a cafe in Paris.
This is the inside of the cafe. If you order an alcoholic drink you get a lovely little snack, water and cocoa gets you a smile.
This picture so reminds me of Italy, so beautiful and just beyond reach. A Girl was eating Ascoli olives, which sound disgusting but are fabulous. They are stuffed with meat and the breaded and cooked. She is alone, and never turned toward us.
This piazza is one of the most beautiful in Italy. So elegant, so well proportioned. In the summer the piazza if filled with laughing students and tourists.[...]

Via Mariano Pallottini