14 KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 2014 www.katherinetimes.com.au

REPOSITIONS VACANTRCI Cruises is offering good fares onrepositioning cruises at the end ofthe Australian season. DepartingSydney, the Radiance of the Seasrepositioning cruise to NewZealand, Tahiti and Hawaii is pricedfrom $1749 a person. The 18-nightitinerary leaves Sydney on April 10.The Celebrity Solstice repositioningcruise to Hawaii and Tahiti is pricedfrom $1899 a person, departsSydney on April 11 and includes 10days at sea over an 18-day itinerary.And the Rhapsody of the Seas 16-night repositioning cruise to Samoa,Fiji and Hawaii, from $1399 aperson, departs Sydney on April 18and includes nine days at sea.Phone 1800 754 500.■ royalcaribbean.com.au andcelebritycruises.com.au

AYERS AND GRACESVoyages Ayers Rock Resort has puttogether an Uluru Weekendpackage thatincludesdirect returnflights fromMelbourne,returnairporttransfers atUluru, two nights’ accommodationwith buffet breakfast and anindigenous activities program.Children 15 and under stay andbreakfast free using existingbedding (flights extra). The packagecosts from $899 a person twinshare. The flight schedule on theEaster (April 18-April 21) andQueen’s Birthday (June 6-June 9)weekends means the package isextended to three nights and ispriced from $999 a person. Thepackage will run every weekend foran initial 13-week season.■ ayersrockresort.com.au/melbourne

MAI OH MAICreative Holidays has a deal for afour-night holiday in Chiang Mai,Thailand’s “rose of the north”. Thedeal includes return economyflights to Chiang Mai flying with ThaiAirways and four nights at the four-star Centara Duangtawan Hotel, a512- room modern property in thecity centre. Daily buffet breakfast isalso included. The deal is pricedfrom $1005 a person, twin share,departing Sydney. It is valid for saleuntil March 28 and for travel from■ creativeholidays.com

JAPAN PLANIn a quiet area of downtown Tokyo,Hotel Chinzanso is a luxuriouslyappointed five-star hotelsurrounded by beautiful 150-year-old traditional Japanese gardens. Ithas some of the largest rooms inTokyo, 12 restaurants and bars, afull- service spa, health club, indoorpool and onsite parking. Hotels.comis offering 40 per cent off stays.Priced from $351 a room a night, thedeal is valid for sale and travel untilMarch 31.■ hotels.com

Enjoying Umbria’s slow pleasures

HOT DEALS

Wedged between Rome and Tuscany,the often overlooked region ofUmbria contains many delights, asBrian Johnston discovers by luxurycoach.

Beyond Rome’s tangle of highways,umbrella pines unfurl and burnt-orange villas slouch on hillsides.Umbria is a fertile landscape and an

ancient one. Umbria is less visited than better-known

Tuscany to the north. Some, who don’t knowbetter, call it the poor man’s Tuscany, in thesame way they sniff at coach tours.

As my coach heads up the highway, I amdelighted to be on a grand adventure in anunfamiliar part of Italy. I want to spend mytime absorbing the panorama beyond thewindows, and exploring Umbria’s slowpleasures.

Orvieto is the first of these, just 125kilometres north of Rome. Our coach parks atForo Boario, where a clanking lift hoists usthrough the rock onto its fortified walls. Fromthe ramparts, vineyards and villages aregorgeous enough to provide a stab ofhappiness.

Before we are let loose, we have anorientation tour with Marco, a local arthistorian and madly enthusiastic leprechaunof a man. He strolls us past old towers andGothic palaces, sparking with information.Ahead looms a black-and-white cathedral,zebra-striped, as if painted by teenagerpranksters.

Inside, the cathedral is dim and simple,capturing the solemn spirituality of an agebefore Renaissance doubt and baroquebedazzlement.

Soon our group dissolves, and I scamperoff to investigate Orvieto’s alimentare. Thetown is at the forefront of Italy’s slow-foodmovement, and shops are fat with cheese,salamis and porchetta flavoured with wildfennel that is grasso e magro (fatty and lean)from the pork shoulder and belly.

As our coach trundles north andpassengers gaze at the scenery or catch up onemails, I dream of a month in Orvieto, ormaybe even a lifetime.

The following evening in Perugia, I set offwith some newfound friends and find abackstreet pizzeria that could not be furtherfrom tourist-hotel restaurants.

Locals chortle over rough red wine as chefsshovel pizzas into a hunchbacked ovenwhere flames dance. Minutes later, I amtucking into a pizza scattered with oozingsplinters of cheese and curling prosciutto,burnt at the edges.

The main street, Corso Vannucci, is joyousin pale-pink stone. We stay two nights and, inthe evenings, this is the place to join a throngof locals on their passeggiata, that well-dressed, gelato-slurping, crony-greeting

promenade ritual so beloved of Italians.Later, jazz bars hum with the chatter ofuniversity students and restaurant laughterspills into shadowy streets that set cheekstingling with a promise of winter.

Morning views unroll across a cypress-dotted valley towards Assisi on the farhillside. It is by far the most touristydestination in Umbria, with more than 5million visitors a year. Pilgrims come from allaround the world to visit the home town andfinal resting place of St Francis, the wealthymerchant’s son who gave up the good life in1204 to devote himself to preaching andpoverty, and became a favourite Catholicsaint.

Streets are a bustle of brown-robed friars,Polish grandmothers and hallelujah hippies.Doleful supplicants hang off the metal grillearound St Francis’s plain tomb, whisperingprayers. The tomb of fellow poverty-preacherSt Clare is across town, a little overlooked.Shops line the streets between the two, aplastic eruption of saintly statues andsnowdomes made in China.

Away from the holiness, Assisi is stillimpressive. It has Roman remains, a hillycascade of cobblestone streets topped by awhopping papal fortress, and views to makeyou think you have gone to heaven. But beinga mere tourist among psalm-singingteenagers and Philippine nuns is an awkwardbusiness. Fortunately, Assisi providestemptations of the flesh for thoseincredulous by nature.

Every street corner seems to have a pastryshop gluttonous with fig-filled biscottipizzicato and mother-in-law’s tongues thatooze a sharp marmalade of candied lemonpeel.

Few of my tour group seem moved toreligious devotion, but this is no cookie-cutter itinerary. Some shop, some drinkcoffee, some Instagram lovely Umbrianscenes. The earnest press Belinda for history.Others ogle art. Then we climb back on boardand swap stories about finding a fresco, apear tart, a ceramic dish. It would be a dullsoul who did not enjoy a coach tour of Italy. ■ The writer was a guest of Insight Vacations.

>> travel

TYING THE KNOT?CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY?

Have your photos published in the Katherine Times - let usknow on 8972 1111 so we can send one of our photographers or email your photos toeditor.kathtimes@ruralpress.com

HAVINGA

BUSINESS FUNCTION?

AW12

4017

5