Wednesday's activities

The main tourist attraction in Urbino, apart from the place itself, is the Palazzo Ducale, a Renaissance palace built for Duke Federico da Montefeltro, ruler of Urbino (1444-82). He was a soldier, but also interested in promoting the arts and learning. The palace now houses the National Gallery of the Marche, reputed to have one of the best collections of early Renaisssance art in Italy. I got there at 8.45, ¼ hour after it opened, and wandered around for ages. I had a list of about 8 paintings that various books I have read said were the highlights. I did not see another visitor – plenty of attendants in different rooms, sitting with bored expressions on their faces or reading books – and I went back and forwards a bit – till about 10am and that was a tour group of Italians. There was one particular painting Piero della Francesca ‘s Flagellation that was particularly interesting. Does anyone know or can someone ( that’s you K, pls) find out if I can put a photo of a postcard of a painting on this blog without breaking any rules? I’ll save my description till later.

I wandered around the streets till lunch and went back to the restaurant of the night before. John and I had a rule when we were traveling that we tried as many different restaurants in the one town as possible and as many different dishes, particularly local specialities as possible. I have decided that it is perfectly OK for me to only eat at the 1 place if I want. I did try 3 different things, though and a different white wine , a verdicchio.

I pottered in my room for a while then went for another wander. I went to a little church whose walls were covered with a series of frescoes depicting the life of John the Baptist.
Dinner was going to be a tomato and a bread roll, but I settled for an apple – too much lunch. I thought I had walked far enough to justify the food, but maybe not.