Rome Travel Guide

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Green Thumb Series: Gubbio Garden Shop

We're not gardeners.  Dianne does what she has to do with our 5 X 10 plot in Buffalo, though not without complaining.  Bill cuts unsightly weeds on the other side of the house, with an electric bush trimmer.  Last last year he trimmed the cord to the trimmer and then threw the trimmer away, thinking it was broken.  Two years ago he trimmed a low-to-the-ground bees' nest, was stung twice on the hand, and lost his watch (never found) while running for the house.  Together, we can identify about 5 plants, starting with broccoli. 
Nontheless, we were intrigued by an Italian garden shop that we spent some time in near Gubbio, in Umbria, while waiting for our friend Don (who was driving us to his 17th-century country estate) to purchase some tomatoes, or whatever.  We thought our readers might like to see what such a shop looks like. 

On the one hand, the place looked like any other garden shop.  It could have been K-Mart.  Small green plants are pretty much the same anywhere, he wrote.  For proof of this, see photo upper right. 




On the other hand, you know you're in Italy when you can think about putting an olive tree in your trunk (Dianne, at left). 



It was our sense, too, that this Gubbio shop had a bigger selection of rocks and wooden poles than one would find in the States.  And more earthen ware, all in that orangey color that evokes the ancients.  One section was devoted to fountains (the tall things in the photo, left), and some of the jugs were enormous.   

Bill
Dianne adds:  the "jugs" are classic amphorae from Roman times.  See our post on Monte Testaccio, built of broken amphorae.

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