Italy 2018: Norcia and the mountains

lots of lovely wild flowers along the windy road from Norcia to L'Aquila 

Wednesday, 13 June 2018: travelling from Spoleto to L'Aquila 

First stop is Norcia, a town, that has been struck by the heavy earthquake of 18 months ago. We had visited Norcia about 15 years ago when all was still in place. So many buildings have been destroyed or are heavily damaged, among them the beautiful church of Norcia. The image we had in our mind of Norcia: a restaurant on a large square with yellow parasols wasn't there anymore.

what's left of the church

Walking the streets of Norcia and passing a lot of shops that sell the famous Norcia sausages with/without truffle, cured ham, cheese, olive oil, and more.
The guy on the pictures offered us a lot of things to taste, which we loved all. We bought a nice sausage with truffle: yummie.

Peter thinks this is the same guy where we bought saucages 15 yrs ago, he recognized him.

it started raining

lots of ruins from the earthquake along the way

We selected a tour through the mountain area from Norcia to L'Aquila, 2 years ago struck by a serious earthquake in the region of Amatrice. It felt very uncomfortable to drive through. Lots of collapsed houses, especially the oldest in the centre of the villages.

The beautiful scenery of the mountains conflicted with the devastated buildings and lives of the owners.

another church packed in steel frames in a small village in the earthquake area

more wildflowers

le penseur

I had to be on my knees in the wet grass to make capture this small but beautiful butterfly

sheep on the way

We arrived at our next home for the coming 2 nites; La Compagnia del Viaggiators in L'Aquila, where I blogged and we had a nice drink.

Afterwards we had dinner in the restaurant Spapizar which is part of the hotel, wow what an enormous place and sooo many customers. It's a meat restaurant for sure. 

So for all our veggie friends here some photos of our dinner: