A Great Workout in Gubbio

At thirty nine kilometres North East of Perugia, there is a cosy, hilly city sitting on the edge of a sea of mountains. Gubbio - my landlady’s hometown, famous for ceramics.

The city is an hour’s coach ride from Perugia.

The excursion group consisted of Halina, Agnieszka, Kayoko, Tim, Jodi and myself. We continued our ‘’unwritten’’ rule of speaking to each other only in Italian – well, at least at the beginning of the trip.

We wandered around the historical central, visited Museo Diocesano, Chiesa Cattedrale and searched for a particular Basilica up the steep hills of Gubbio.

On our climb up the hill we were enchanted by the ruins of a Roman theatre just below the panoramic terrace of Gubbio’s main piazza.

Further up hill we saw a tombstone of a young German guy and we paused, trying to read and understand what was written on it.

We struggled up the hill in the hot sun and bit by bit we shed our layers of clothes. Only poor Halina remained in full gear – she was always so dressed up and well coordinated – in colours as well as with matching jewellery and scarf. This day, she was wet with perspiration and melting make up as she lifted up her long skirt to conquer the hill.

At one point we stopped for a rest and discussed if we should continue to the summit. From the map it seemed that we were almost there and it would seem such a pity to give up. We were most concerned for Halina, because of her weight and size. But she was very gung ho and insisted she could manage, albeit very slowly.

Tim commented, ‘’maybe we should go up on our knees and get some credit when we go to heaven; if we only used our legs we just get tired.’’

I saw some joggers and really marvelled at their strength and strong knees – to be able to run up and down such steep slopes.
We asked one of them about the location of the Basilica and he said it was only 500 metres away.

But it certainly felt like much more, after each painful step up hill. We saw ‘’cable cars’’ (funivia) hanging above, presumably for taking tourists up the summit. Maybe the only way to get to the summit was via cable cars, which were not functioning in fall. Jodi’s face was red and she looked absolutely exhausted. We finally agreed not to go any further up, as we needed the energy to get down.

On our way down Tim commented, ‘’did that soldier die on the way up or down? If it was down I would be very worried’’.

Going down involved almost ‘’running downhill’’ – imagine how steep the incline was. Tim said, ‘’I realised we use different muscles when we go up and down. Now both my front and back ache.’’

I told him,’’ That’s what I call a total work-out!’’

‘’Gubbio is not a city for sightseeing – it’s for exercise!” Kayoko joined in.

We finally got back to city centre after 2 pm, exhausted and starving. Kayoko and I were happy just to pop into any bar to get a piece of pizza or sandwich. But Jodi and Halina wanted a sit-down place for lunch.

We took some time to find the right place and in the end Kayoko could not wait for consensus anymore and just walked into the next take away pizzeria we saw to get a slice of hot pizza. The rest succumbed and hung around the place devouring our pizza. Kayoko actually ate a second piece as Halina sauntered in reluctantly – she had been the most adamant about finding a nice restaurant.

Pizza never tasted so good. And I have not had a total work out for a long time.