Getting to Pratale is no problem. Just follow the instructions below. You can just turn up with a sleeping bag - we'll be happy to see you. Please shut the gate because of the grazing animals, and bring the car down if you have one, don't leave it at our neighbour's. Please switch off your mobile at Pratale! 

HOW TO GET TO PRATALE

Pratale is 200 km north-east of Rome, on the Perugia-Gubbio road, 8 km before Gubbio. If you fly into Rome Fiumicino airport by midday, you can catch the SULGA bus to Gubbio just outside International Arrivals at 2.30 pm. You can also pick the same bus up in Rome at Stazione Tiburtina at 4pm. It reaches Mengara (our stop) at about 7pm. It costs about E.15 and runs every day except Sunday.

There's a new airport at Perugia, with buses that connect you to Perugia city, at 14. 10 and then 17.40. You then catch a bus to Gubbio- Going home through Perugia airport means having a flight time after 3 pm so that you can use buses to get to the airport.

It is possible to fly into Rimini or better still Ancona and get trains through Falconara to Fossato di Vico and a bus to Gubbio.

Alternatively there are trains from Rome to Fossato di Vico, on the main RomeAncona line. From Fossato, take the bus to Gubbio and then a bus towards Perugia and get off at Mengara. Ticket from newsagents.

If you come by train from the north, you can change in Florence for Perugia. Catch a bus outside Perugia station for Piazza dei Partigiani and there you catch a Gubbio bus, which takes about an hour to Mengara & costs E. 4

AT MENGARA,

At Mengara take the track signposted Valdichiascio (on the right coming from Perugia) and follow the signs for Chiesetta delle Ripe as far as Ivo's house. It is a 3 km walk from Mengara to Pratale. (Good idea to arrive by daylight and travel light!) You count 5 farmhouses from the first fork(where you go right, off the asphalt) Casa Vecchialla Brocca, Scipioni, Coccia Antonio, Coccia Gina, Ivo Feliziani. Ivo's house is a big white house with wooden shutters on the right. Here you turn down through his farmyard to our gate. If you come by car, please don't leave it at Ivo's but bring it down our hill to the parking space.

The Rome bus from here leaves Mengara at 6- 10 am, reaching Rome Tiburtina at about 9.30 am and Roma Fiumicino airport about 10.30 am, every day except Sunday.

Etain Addey Martin Lanz - Jan 2004