Ciao, and greetings from a very cold and wet Umbria! Such a surprise! Thought last week when we were melting on the sidewalk in Florence, that cool weather was a thing of the very distant past! But we were wrong! Weather started moving in on Sunday night; big dark clouds and rumbles of thunder in the distance, but we weren’t too surprised, as we are on the borders of the Mount Subasio national park. In fact, when we got up yesterday morning, all looked fine – blue skies, sunshine and warm! So, did we close the windows of our flat when we left for our drive? Noooooo.....We followed a drive from one of our guidebooks, which took us first to Bettona and then on to Bevagna. Stopped at the SIDIS grocery store in Assisi, and to be honest, it wasn’t much! We just needed things like veggies and matches, but the selection was poor! Bettona, however, was lovely. Small, hill-top town, great wall and gates, and undergoing lots of (re)construction. (We’re thinking that places are still being repaired from the last earthquake, in the late 90's.) Parked on the outside of the walls and headed through town; lovely views all around. Then on to Bevagna, where we’d stayed with Mom several (6 or 7 or more, possibly? Where does the time go??) years ago. I remember being disappointed initially when we got to Bevagna, as I’d thought we were booking into a hill-top town – and it wasn’t! Still, a small walled town; former Roman settlement; quite lovely! Parked in our old parking area, and headed through the gate into town. Ran into a lovely greengrocer with cherries out front, and ended up buying more than we’d bargained for! (Buy Robert cherries, and he’ll follow you anywhere!) The cherries were locally grown, as were the great green beans; can’t remember all we bought, but when we’d finished, the ladies in the little store asked if we’d of course want some celery and carrots, which they included in the bundle for free! How cute! (Although what we’re to do with a large stalk of celery and one carrot, heaven knows!) Then a nice walk through Bevagna, past our old hotel – very historic place; still a family home, built partly around the old Roman amphitheatre. Had lunch there – slices of terrific pizza margarita, then off to Montefalco. Definitely a hill-top town, with parking WAY down at the bottom of the hill! Quite a schlep up, but remember those 10,000 steps! We were almost there! Montefalco is known as the “balcony of Umbria” because of the views, and have to admit, they were spectacular ... as we watch really black clouds roll in, and wondered if we would be able to get back to the car before it started to rain! (Were actually carrying the umbrellas, as opposed to leaving them nice and warm and dry in our flat!) I did insist on my daily gelato, but even with that, we were back in the car after a nice stroll through town ... heading to the Fonti del Clitunno and Roman temple. This is a wonderful natural spring that has been going since Roman times; beautiful area, incredibly clear water coming out of the rocks and up from several locations ... so, that water arrived at the same time that the storm moved in! Talk about water, water everywhere! We wandered through the Fonti as best we could, with the thunder and lightning happening directly overhead, and then decided we’d seen enough sights for the day, were wet enough, and would head home. Good thing we did, because, as mentioned above, we’d left the windows open – and boy, had it rained ... water and puddles beneath the three windows (good lesson learned). Fortunately we have a lovely sealed tile floor, so easy to clean up; thankfully! As it was now past 3 p.m. and no let-up in sight, we decided to take the afternoon off; fortunately, more than enough groceries to make us happy! R made a terrific dinner!!! He did his boneless chicken with a mushroom/cream/wine sauce with potatoes and green beans – YUM! Just terrific and exactly what we needed on a cold rainy spring night!
Need to add that we’d tried several times to call the chiropractor in Florence, but got her Italian message machine instead. However, mid-afternoon, she called back to our flat! Don’t know how she got the number, as we didn’t leave it – we don’t even know it ourselves! Possibly from the second time we’d left a message, there is a way to recover the number? At any rate, we’re scheduled to see her this morning at 10:30, so will be heading out in a few minutes to be on the road by 7. I know it won’t take 4 ½ hours this time to get there, as there is a superstrada right below Assisi, but as the weather is still rainy, we want to take our time and be able to find her office. She improved my back so much last Friday! The pain is moving, but the beds are so soft here that I’m afraid I may have put it back! So, on to Florence!!
Lots of love!
m
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment