We're BACK! ... or just MY back...

Ciao!

It is now Saturday evening, and we are settling into our new Agriturismo, on Monte Surbiso, immediately behind Assisi. It is a lovely place – once we were able to find it! (Absolutely the worst directions we have ever seen; all written, not a map, with places like “T-intersection” not identified clearly, and my personal favorite, this gal actually labels round-abouts as “stop lights)...But the agriturismo itself is great. Spotlessly clean and modern; lovely big bedroom and huge bathroom with BOTH a shower and a jacuzzi tub! Nice living room/kitchen area. No stove, but a 4-burner cooktop; small fridge; nice new washing machine! It does, however, SMELL like a farm, which is what it is ... but hopefully we’ll get used to that “horsey” smell soon! Present of homemade wine, fresh eggs, lettuce and honey awaiting us! Very nice! But, to go back a day or two...

Last Friday, as we were getting ready to leave Ravenna, I bent over to get something out of the suitcase, and suddenly was grabbed in the lower back area and couldn’t move! Have never had any lower back problems whatsoever (other than the odd bout of sciatica, which this definitely was not!), so wasn’t sure what was going on! But it REALLY hurt! I was amazed! Took lots of ibuprofin, but didn’t seem to get much better. So, on Wednesday, decided that enough was enough, and I wanted some medical advice. (Actually what I wanted were some hard-core drugs to stop the pain...by this point, while I could walk with no problems at all, sitting or lying down was excruciating!) We have an international travel policy with HTH Worldwide, which we have never used before. (It’s really for traumatic injuries/emergencies, and if we needed to be medivac-ed back to the states.) Was able to contact them on Thursday, and through their website, found an English-speaking doctor – but the closest one was in Florence (within 100 miles included Bologna, which R refused to consider...that “bologna factor” strikes again...Florence, and CROATIA! So...called the guy in Florence, and he actually answered the phone! What a concept! Made an appointment for the following day; 12:40 p.m. So, off to Florence we were going. Figured we needed to leave about 8 a.m. to allow plenty of time, but we were ready by 7, so decided to go then ... which is a good thing we did, as otherwise, don’t think we’d have made it! While the distance on the map as the crow flies isn’t that far – no crows in this crowd, for sure! It took us 4 ½ hours over the mountains (absolutely beautiful roads and mountain passes; national park; all curves; but boy was that bad for my back!) The doctor’s office is RIGHT downtown; easy to find, albeit tiny, situated (fortunately enough) above a 24-hour farmacia. Drove into Florence, parked the car near Santa Croce, and headed in. Were early for the appointment, but he was seeing patients on a first-come first-served basis, and we were the second ones there, so not bad at all! Other than the fact that it was probably in the 90's in Florence, and every English-speaking person in Europe seemed to be there that day! What a ZOO! Dr. Stephen Kerr is a Brit, with a very busy Italian practice! Lots of referrals from all the colleges who send their students to Florence. Nice guy; young. Examined me and determined that it was most likely muscular, and prescribed high-dosage ibuprofin, muscle relaxers and tylenol with codeine for the pain (Yea!) and also got me in to see an Australian chiropractor – right away! So, left his office, walked downstairs to the farmacia, handed them the notes from the doctor, walked out with the above drugs for 18 Euros for ALL three ... (That’s even less than our usual deductible per prescription!) As I needed to take the ibuprofin with food, and we hadn’t had much to speak of, we went to our favorite pizza place in Florence; Pizza Piccadilly. Just a hole-in-the-wall, but good pizza, by the slice. Then we headed to the other side of the Arno to see the chiropractor. As it was Friday, the chiropractor wasn’t working from her office, but was at home, but nicely enough, had agreed to see me there! What a hoot! She’s Australian and suffered a mid-life crisis, sold her chiropractic practice in Adelaide and moved to Florence to study singing! Really a neat gal ... and what a great chiropractor! Discovered that I had really pulled the large muscle that holds the ribs in place, and was all out of whack! Adjusted lots of things, and what a great improvement! I still have a considerable amount of real discomfort, but for the first time in a week, I can sit down – and lie down! What a concept! Which was good that she did that, as it actually took us 5 (yes, FIVE) hours to drive back to Monteguiduccio! Actually made it out of Florence across the Ponte Vecchio without really stopping to look at jewelry! (I know – I must be hurting!) Did insist on a gelato stop, though, before heading back to the car. And, with the drive, we got back by about 7 – 12 hours, round-trip! Whew! Can only say that we will be thinking twice about spending any time at all in Florence (other than Fedex, of course, and the chiropractor, who I want to see at least once more...) – just WAY too many people, and much too hot! We did catch a wonderful rainstorm as we were driving back through the mountains, but it didn’t get as far as our Agriturismo; too bad! We were totally exhausted by the time we got back, but fortunately had some leftovers so we didn’t have to cook too much; also cleaned out the fridge! I went to bed in bed last night, but sometime in the middle of the night ended up in the living room, pushing two chairs together around the large ottoman, and sleeping there, as the bed MUCH too soft.

Up fairly early to get packed and ready to go. Didn’t have all that much to do, and were done by about 9; had to be out by 10. Headed down to the clubhouse to settle up the bill and also check email and post last blog about 9:30; ended up on the computer until about 10:30; sure those folks will be glad to see the end of us!! From there, headed toward the coast, as we had 5 ½ hours to kill before we could check in at Agriturismo #2, Brigolante.

Joined the coast at Fano, and headed down the beach route, paralleling the main highway, looking for a nice place for lunch. Found a great place, right across from the beach (and the beach here, by the way, is none of that lovely soft sand that we had in Rimini – this was ALL stones; looked VERY uncomfortable to sit, lie or walk on!) Lovely day; felt like in the 80's; not many people in the water, but more than a few folks on the beach ... pebbles, I should say! For lunch, I had “the usual” ... bresaola with arugula and parmesan; R had a plate of spinach! He thought he was getting a spinach salad – instead, he got just that – a plate of cooked spinach! He loved it, though it was WAY too much green stuff for me! (I prefer mine either fresh or with a bit of cream cheese, some breadcrumbs, etc...) For mains, R had gnocchi – light as a feather (and I usually don’t like “dough lumps”) with a cream sauce; I had the raviolinni (little ravioli) filled with ricotta and pesto; a fresh tomato sauce with bits of ham covering...but the portions were HUGE! Wish we could have taken them home with us!! But everything was GREAT! Decided then that we’d better cover ground, as while it looked like we didn’t have too far to go, our prior day’s visit to Florence taught us that it takes a long time to get anywhere on the back roads! So, onto the autostrada south, then west, as we headed toward Foglio and Assisi.
Again, beautiful countryside and roads; lovely rainstorm, washing everything clean! But finding this place?? Whew – didn’t think we were ever going to find it. R absolutely foaming at the mouth over the instructions. Finally – and I mean finally – we found the place. Fortunately for Rebecca, the lady who runs it, she wasn’t there, as R was in fine fettle and breathing flames! Shown to our apartment by the cleaning lady; lovely lady, who speaks no English! Only enough to say Rebecca would be home later. So...we unpacked our things (it was by now after 5:30 p.m.) and we still hadn’t hit the grocery store. Managed (again, thanks to Rebecca’s directions) to miss the first grocery store, so headed on for the second – the “mega” store in a suburb of Perugia, about 10 km away ... which we eventually found...and wow, what a ZOO! The store is a big COOP (pronounced as in chicken...) which corners a large shopping mall...and we can now tell you, absolutely truthfully, exactly what every Italian in central Italy does on Saturday night! They go to the COOP mall and (try to) buy groceries! It was incredible! My ears are still ringing from the DIN! First of all the COOP has EVERYTHING from groceries to undies to television sets and DVDs; there is NOTHING that store doesn’t contain! So now, imagine Saturday night, entire families there, meeting and greeting friends, blocking all aisles – and trying to find food! It was completely and utterly overwhelming! Close your eyes, if you will, and imagine Circuit City meets Costco on Christmas Eve! The lines for checkout were incredible! And they had LOTS of checkers on duty! Did see a new favorite trick – twice! Man goes through with groceries; checks out and pays. Wife of man realizes she needs more groceries and goes back...man with groceries has finished his transaction, and someone else is now ready to check out – but woman with groceries barges in front of new person, and gets waited on! Saw it happen twice in just the line ahead of us! UNREAL! A new (or could be old, for all we know!) Italian pasttime! At any rate, it was such a din, and SO overwhelming, that we bought what we thought we needed – enough for breakfasts, and for R to make pasta sauce, and another dinner or two, and then when we have time to think about it, we’ll put together a second list and head to the smaller market (which I now know where it is...) and get the rest of the things we need ... not sure if I could handle the COOP again!

So ... made our way back to the Brigolante (MUCH easier once you’ve done it!) only to find that we have no telephone access (have telephone, but no plug for computer...) yet again, and will have to work that out with Rebecca to use the office phone ... what a PAIN! And, as she’s not back yet, that will, of course, have to wait until tomorrow. Have decided that tomorrow will be a fairly easy day, as I want to get a little extra recovery time for my back (and I can’t take the muscle relaxers or the codeine and drive). So, will drive the 5 or 6 km back into Assisi (have now seen it from EVERY possible angle!) and put on our 10,000 steps there! Looking forward to it, as we haven’t been to Assisi in four or five years!

So take care, dear friends, and we promise more pictures tomorrow!
Love,
m
We