Contrast the previous description (Tuscan travel I) with the protagonist’s impression of the Umbrian countryside near Spoleto and the ancient family home in which she was staying:

The difference between the terrain of Tuscany and that of the Umbrian hills was remarkable. All of a sudden, we seemed to have crossed over from a world of rolling, vineyard-covered knolls bedecked with lush greenery to hills and valleys of much more dramatic highs and lows, with vegetation that I imagined resembled that of a desert clime…