Still more pictures...

Just had a few more pictures we wanted to add that wouldn't fit on the last post!

Take care!
Love,
m

At Home At Last!

Hi from Sunny (and VERY warm) Arizona!

As I’m sure everybody knows by now, we opted to come home early because of (my) illness. (Medical update: Sore throat is fine, and I have my voice (mostly); back continues as a major problem, with my second appointment since Sunday with my new chiropractor...) But, I have heard from folks that I need to “finish” our blog and bring everyone up to date, so here goes! However, as blogs post last to first, this means I would have to work backwards ... which is a bit more than I am up to at the moment, so I’ve made the executive decision to begin from where we left off on Sunday, May 27, which ultimately means that Sunday, June 6 will hit Sunday, May 27 ... so let’s all be confused, shall we?? (And before anyone suggests cutting and pasting...NO, thank you!)

Note: As I was writing up Monday, it felt so VERY familiar, so I went back to check – and found that I had written up Monday, May 28, but had never posted it! (Which explains why when people told me I hadn’t written since the 27th, I was confused...chalk it up to the Ibuprofin!) So, if you’re following us, please read the posting headed “Wrote this but hadn’t posted it; Duh!” FIRST!

Tuesday, May 29 ... on to Florence...and in Italy, always remember, you can NEVER leave early enough!! While we were on the road by 7, and on the autostrada by 7:30 or so, we were actually late for our 10:30 chiro appointment!! Here’s how! There are basically two exits into Florence, Florence Sud (South) and Florence Certosa (North) ... I would like it to be on record that I wanted to get off at Florence Sud ... however, my navigator preferred Florence Certosa, so that’s where we exited. Well, let me tell you a little bit about Florence traffic – especially in the morning. We came in from the north, and had to go over the Arno river. Traffic was incredible; completely stopped. At one point, it took us something like 35 minutes to go something like 1 ½ km...between the traffic, buses, motorbikes and pedestrians, all trying to get through a major traffic circle and over the bridge ... very frustrating, as we watched time tick by! Finally, we decided to forgo finding the chiropractor’s office ourselves, and as soon as we crossed over the bridge, we parked in the first available car park. Paid and then started looking for a cab; which of course there weren’t any...However, the folks at the Jolly Hotel, which was right on the corner, were wonderful – they called a cab for us, which actually arrived. And took us WAY out beyond the train station to the doctor’s office ... we would NEVER have found it on our own! We were only about 5 minutes late – but happy to be there! Had a good adjustment and then got another cab back into the main part of town; quite a walk, to be sure! Fortunately, the rainstorm had brought cooler weather, so walking in Florence was decidedly better than the prior week. Decided to have lunch before heading out of town, and found a nice little restaurant for salads and pizza. To be honest, while I really wanted to look at earrings on the Ponte Vecchio, figured that we would have other opportunities...from which I have now learned that when in Florence, go for the gold NOW rather than later! Found the car and were back on the autostrada about 2. Stopped in Santa Maria degli Angeli (at the foot of Assisi; lovely town) to see the Cathedral; very much worth a visit! They have built the church around some of the sites associated with St. Francis (like the monastary cell in which he died); lovely church! Back to the Agriturismo about 4:30. Dinner was tomato salad with parmesan cheese followed by fresh ravioli filled with spinach, ricotta and herbs and R’s sauce! Yum! Problem, though, as I was beginning to feel like I could be getting a sore throat ... yuk!!

Wednesday, May 30 - Today was the day for Spello and Spoleto – a very hill-top-y kind of day! My throat was feeling pretty raw, and my back was fair to partly ache-y, but figured that a good walk (uphill, of course!) would be beneficial. Found Spello first; quite lovely and small. Parked outside of the walls and then walked up to town through one of the old towers. Just beautiful; sparkling and clean (amazing how rain washes everything!) and filled with flowers. Saw some of the churches, and stopped at a wonderful look-out area for coffee (½" of sludge) for R and hot chocolate for me. Have to say a word here about Italian hot chocolate – it’s unlike anywhere else in the world! If it’s done properly, it comes out in a cup looking like slightly thinned down chocolate pudding – crust on top and all! And you eat it with a spoon (at least I did!) rather than drink it! Felt good on my throat! We then walked down through the main Spello walls, which encompass some Roman remains, including the original sewer system for the city, and three gates; lovely! Then on to Spoleto, which is a VERY large city (for hill-top towns, that is; certainly nothing like Florence!). Found parking along the Roman walls within the city center, and headed up (of course) on foot. Actually marked the place on our Michelin map where we’d parked so we would be able to find the car on the return trip! Went first to the Casa Romana, an old Roman house that is still being excavated. Beautiful mosaics. From there we went to the Roman amphitheatre and museum. Excellent! The amphitheatre had been restored to its original plan some years ago, and while you can see what is modern and what is ancient, they had done a really good job. (A HUGE cherry tree right next to the amphitheatre, FULL of cherries – unfortunately, all those within reaching distance had already been harvested – but boy, if we’d had a ladder...) The museum highlighted Roman and Etruscan pieces that had been excavated in Spoleto and the surrounding area. Gave us some good ideas of additional places to explore. Found a small place for a quick slice of pizza on the plaza, and then headed back to the car. Enough exploring for the day, so home for dinner. By this time, my throat was having major difficulties, and dinner was difficult. I was having such a hard time swallowing, and almost everything we had – anything like tomatoes or sauce; anything with acid in it – really was burning...

Thursday, May 31 - Woke up to a very bad throat and decided to seek medical attention. Our landlady said that her doctor did not speak English, so she suggested going to the Emergency Room of the local Assisi hospital ... joy! However, as I had no idea what was wrong, and if/when it would get better, we decided to take our chances (and NOT another drive in to Florence, thank you very much!). Cute little hospital on the outskirts of Assisi. We found the emergency room and fortunately there was only one other person there. Pushed the buzzer and a few moments later a man dressed in EMT clothing (screaming day-glo orange pants with silver glow-in-the-dark stips around the legs...) appeared and took us in. We were able, through hand gestures and a word or two, to describe what was wrong. Fortunately, I had remembered to bring my passport, and he checked me in. Didn’t have long to wait until an Italian doctor appeared. She apologized for not speaking English, and we apologized for not speaking Italian – but it’s amazing what you can do with hand gestures! She took my temperature (done under the arm; a first!), looked at my throat, ears, felt my neck; all the usual things. Her diagnosis was a virus with severe sore throat and laryngitis, and she prescribed breathing treatments. To get started, I was taken into a hospital room and set up on oxygen, with a mask that contained some sort of chemicals – never did find out what! This took about half-an-hour. My own personal favorite moment came when one of the nurses looked in on me and decided that the EMT (another one; female this time, who R suggested could give him CPR any day...) hadn’t fixed me up properly, and she readjusted the mask and upped the pressure going into the mask – she walked out, and the pressure was so high that it blew the cable off the hose! R came to the rescue and lowered the pressure – only to have the mask blow out this time ... such fun! After this, back to the emergency room for my instructions and release. The doctor prescribed more breathing treatments – about 4 per day, for the next 3 days – and indicated that we were to go to the farmacia in town and rent one of the oxygen cylinders ... and then we had to pay! They were very perplexed by my medical card, and we said it would be fine for us to pay (figuring they took credit cards). Found the payment office (take a number, please!) and the gal checking us out did all these calculations and presented us with the bill – 25 Euros – for everything, including the mask! Whew! Was thinking that you can’t even get into a US emergency room for at least a $50 co-pay, and then you have to pay for service! Unreal! Headed back to the agriturismo, and had the conversation about going home. Very difficult to make a decision, but between my back and now my throat, we decided that going home, if at all possible, would be the best possible thing to do. So, R got on the phone and worked his usual magic. Had to call the U.S. to get United reservations (we didn’t have a local number), and after considerable time, they were able to re-route us from London/LAX to Rome/DC/LAX on Saturday, June 5, for a very reasonable price; very much of a relief, but then we had to get moving. Drove down to Santa Maria degli Angeli where R had found an internet café (because the response time via telephone modem – if we could get out at all, and if the telephone lines were working...was so slow!). I’d never been in an internet café before, so quite an experience for me – especially considering the young American sitting in the next cubicle who was incredibly profane! We managed to cancel what reservations we could, as well as book a hotel near the Fiumicino airport in Rome for the following night. Back to the apartment and I spent the rest of the day in bed...If I don’t mention meals, it’s because 1) I couldn’t swallow, and 2) I can’t remember, so whatever we had wasn’t too memorable! Sorry!

Friday, June 1 – Packed up and were on the road by about 8. I had noticed that I felt better when we were out of the agriturismo, so wondered if possibly I was having an allergic reaction to olive trees, of which I am severely allergic; wondering if it was catching up with me after these weeks in the countryside. Took the non-autostrada route but good motorway route down to Rome; beautiful drive and lovely countryside; just wish I would have felt better! We did run into an amazing traffic jam as we were navigating the ring route outside of Rome! Major reconstruction project; at one point, they were narrowing 5 lanes down into 1, and then merging another 3 lanes into it after that! UNREAL! Am sure there are probably still people from that afternoon caught in that mess! Followed the signs to Fiumicino, the town as opposed to the airport. Found it – it’s on the estuary between Rome and the Med. Not a picturesque sort of town, and R had to go into a farmacia to get directions to our place. And what a place it was! Hotel and apartments – and we got an apartment! Just lovely! Large living room with fully-equipped kitchen (and wi-fi AND a TV with Eurosport in ENGLISH!!!!), nice sized bedroom with patio off the back; nice bathroom! All for 137 Euros per night! We drove over to Ostia Antica (the original port of Rome) and had lunch – again, pizza, with the thinnest crust – it cooked in 4 minutes in the wood-fired oven! Delicious, even with my throat! Had planned on going through Ostia again, but figured I was too tired and cranky and really needing rest, so returned to the hotel instead for a nap...with stop at the farmacia for a throat spray – foul tasting, but very effective! Hotel had a nice restaurant for dinner...but they put a glass of complimentary Prosecco in front of me, and one sip, and it went to Robert – burned SO badly; couldn’t drink it! Had to chew my meat to the point of liquidity in order to get it down ... and R keeps telling me that I can’t talk about my throat to anybody (couldn’t talk much anyway, as no voice...) as look what happened to that guy who traveled with highly contagious TB, and now he’s under armed guard!!

Saturday, June 2 - Well, another airport! Signs were so bad from our hotel, that we actually circumnavigated the entire Rome airport before we found a way in! Checked the car in, and headed to the United desk for check-in. As we were early (7:30 a.m. for an 11:15 a.m. flight), no lines anywhere to speak of; thankfully! VERY (and I mean EXTREMELY) fortunate to get an aisle seat near the front of the plane, so plenty of room to move around in. 10 hours from Rome to Dulles; not a very good movie selection, but my throat seemed to be improving (thanks to the throat spray), and thanks to the two paracetamol-with-codeine pills I had taken before boarding, my back did pretty well! Landed at Dulles where we cleared customs and immigration, and re-checked our bags for LA. Didn’t have too much time to loiter before our next plane – smaller, 3 seats across; one aisle. We were fortunate again not to have anyone sitting in the middle seat between us, but seats were smaller with less room in front, and it was a very painful 5 hours getting into LAX. Picked up car and luggage and headed to Art and Anne Vaughan’s – SO glad to see them!! Anne had made dinner for us, which was filled with all sorts of good things like roast chicken and artichoke soup (for my throat!). It was late, though, and before going to bed, we decided that rather than get on another airplane on Sunday, we’d drive back in the rental car!! MUCH BETTER! Had a leisurely drive home on Sunday; less than 8 hours, and arrived home about 4 p.m. in a much more relaxed frame of mind! (Airplane travel is really jarring!) So, back home – SO sorry to miss our friend Phil’s 50th birthday party in Tuscany, but we’ll celebrate when he returns home, instead! Otherwise, throat clearing up nicely, thanks, (finally) and heading to my new chiropractor this morning for the second time in three days; back still not doing well; seems to be a problem where my hip meets my spine ...

So, on that note, I’d like to thank everybody for joining us on our latest adventure! We really appreciated hearing from you – via email or comments, and hope that we can continue our blog adventures in the near future!!

Signing off now for this trip, with love,
m & r

Wrote this but hadn't posted it! Duh...

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

Ah Assisi....

Ciao! And Happy Memorial Day, if you’re reading this in the U.S. – and are you sure you have enough food to get through the day, as we know what happens with a holiday in France, don’t we??

Well let’s see now, when last I wrote, I believe we were attempting to recover from the COOP adventure on Saturday night?! Whew! Not sure we have, as of yet! At any rate, a quiet evening (thankfully!) after we got back with all of our groceries and settled in to our apartment. Sunday morning dawned, and we were able to meet our hostess, Rebecca – an ex-pat from Chicago who fell in love and married Stephano, an Italian farmer. They now have two little boys, and he farms and she runs the Agriturismo – when she’s not making soap, wine, olive oil, etc. She was able to provide us with a special connector for the phone, though, that enables us to hook up the computer – YEA! It’s really S-L-O-W – slower even that the last place, but at least it’s a lifeline to the rest of the world! The other thing that they have here is SAT+ TV – which is truly ODD. (I’m just upset because I was able to get Eurosport 1 and 2 yesterday, and then last night, poof! - gone! Now I can’t get them at all! Very upsetting!) But this TV has something like access to 500 channels – from ALL over the world! And, while we can only get some of them, I have now seen TV from Iran, Sudan, Lebanon, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria – and those are only some of the countries! The Romanian channel looked like it was Lawrence Welk – with a hat ... truly a hoot, but as I say, if I can’t get Eurosport, we will entirely miss the French Open, which I am indeed going to miss!!

At any rate, moving back to yesterday. I wanted 1) 10,000 steps, and 2) not too much car time to rest my back (sounds odd, but walking has never bothered it!) So, we decided to drive the 5 km or so back into Assisi and stroll there. We had been to Assisi two or three times before, seeing the churches, so really had no need to do that (and supposedly here, if you’re in shorts, it’s No-Go into the churches, although our shorts are longer than some of these young people’s skirts! – and as it was definitely warm, (in the 80's) we were definitely in shorts!) So, decided to forego the churches in favor of strolling. Parked the car in the Piazza Mattiotti parking garage, which is at the top of the town (good for walking in, NOT for walking out...Much of central Italy has built over their Roman origins, (which is our favorite part) so we went looking for the remains of the Roman amphitheatre. Only thing left is the wall – but it is a lovely wall, and now part of a restaurant and hotel. Then strolled into town. As I say, we’ve seen Assisi before, but always coming up from the churches. As R says, the eastern end, where we were, was incredibly beautiful! Lovely ancient stone buildings, incredibly well-kept, with lots and lots of colorful flowers everywhere! (See pictures...if we can get them to upload!) R wanted to go into the museum, which wasn’t much, but is actually part of the old Roman town, excavated, way below street level. Very damp and musty smelling, but again, fascinating to walk on the street that Romans walked on! From there we decided to get lunch, and found a little place on a side street (by this time, the tourists had arrived en masse – or is it “en busse” and things were getting crowded!) R had a very odd Insalate Cesar (Cesar salad) with cucumber and eggs and something that looked like a cross between our bacon and Italian pancetta, but he enjoyed it. I had the bresaola (is there a rut here?) but this time it was served rolled up and stuffed with what had been described as gorgonzola cheese (but wasn’t) on toasted croutons. The cheese was very mild, so unless it was a very young gorgonzola, that wasn’t the cheese – but it was terrific, and made for a perfect size lunch ... that and the gelato I had afterward – and why is it that I always manage to get chocolate somewhere about my person when eating gelato? Is this enough, we ask ourselves, to change flavors to something a little easier to get out of clothes?? Hmmmm....Back to the apartment about 4 so that R could make pasta sauce! As he said, making pasta sauce in Italy is a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle...but it was GREAT, and the apartment had such wonderful smells! Spaghetti bolognaise (sp?) (which, since our adventure in Bologna I’m not allowed to use anymore) has always been my favorite comfort food – and while I didn’t really need any comfort food at the moment, it was a GREAT change from our standard cooking menu (without a microwave or an oven, things really are limited to what you can do on top of the stove – and as this particular stove has burners that don’t really regulate the flow of gas, it’s difficult to do things like simmer...) At any rate, really enjoyed our plates of pasta, and have enough (of course) for left overs ... for the next several weeks!! A storm moved in late afternoon, and we had a lovely gentle rain – as well as some thunder and lightning; just beautiful! Quiet night, and now we’re up and getting ready to face the week! Today we’re going to do a drive to Bevagna (where we stayed with Mom several years ago) and Spello, which apparently has the best Roman ruins in the area! So – more later!!!

Much love, and happy holiday to everyone who is having one!!
m

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

The visit continues...

Ciao!

We are combining two days together – Wednesday and Thursday, as Wednesday was a fairly light day, and today, a day off! So! Yesterday! Headed out after breakfast for the Frasassi caves. Had planned on touring them, until it occurred to us that we had forgotten jackets or sweaters – and at a constant of 60 degrees or less, figured that wouldn’t be a good thing! So, instead, we wandered some beautiful small roads, and ended up having lunch at a wonderful town called Mondavoli (figured anything with “Mondavi” in it had to be good...) and it was Great! Lovely little town center, with great walls (and great view) all around; just my kind of place! Had a great lunch of salads – caprese (mozzarella and tomatoes) for R, and (what else!) bresaola with parmesan and argula for me, and various crostini (little toasts with interesting things on top, such as mushrooms, zucchini, pancetta...) to share; gelato for me for dessert! Then headed back to the flat for a quick nap. Decided, in view of the large lunch, to just munch for dinner – a great picnic! Cheeses, salami, prosciutto with wine! Who needs anything else? Besides, we had to be ready for the UEFA Champions League game from Athens; AC Milan vs. Liverpool; VERY important! Problem was, I am SURE that I saw that the game was advertised to be on at 7 p.m. – but when we turned on the TV, it wasn’t there! Turns out, it didn’t start until 9:15 p.m.!! [Note from Robert: Margaret spent the entire time between 7:00 and 9:15 surfing up and down the channels. And I mean surfing – not stopping on any channel for more than a minute.] I had all but given up hope of seeing anything by that time! And of course, it didn’t end until almost 11, and AC Milan WON, 2-1! R didn’t think it was a very exciting game, but I didn’t care what kind of game it was, just as long as AC won! And they did!!

This morning, we decided we deserved a day off, and that being lazy on a warm, sunny Italian day in the countryside wouldn’t be a bad thing! So, that’s what we’ve done! Lots of reading and very little else! (How boring! Nothing to blog about!) But I’m sure there will be more tomorrow, so I’ll sign off until then!!

Much love,
m

Editor's Note: I threw my lower back out last Saturday, and have been gimping around ever since ... finally got medical attention in Florence yesterday (4 1/2 hours there, 5 hours back...) so a great story to tell -- but also saw a chiropractor in Florence, and am ON THE MEND!! So, will catch you up in the next edition!! Ciao from La Marche, and onward to Umbria!!
Love,
m

Italian commentaries continued...

Ciao!

Could these Marche roads get any smaller, we ask ourselves? YES, is definitely the answer! Try San Leo!! After another great Italian-style breakfast of scrambled eggs, tomatoes, salami & cheese (may do this at home...) we headed to the club house to post our blog ... took awhile, as we wanted to include pictures, and I also had to make an extra trip back and forth, as R forgot the list of Earthlink numbers that he uses for local connections...at any rate, FINALLY found the tennis scores from Sunday – and YES, Roger beat Rafa on clay at long last! (Found out that he won yesterday, but didn’t want to take the time to get a score, so it bothered me all day...) To make a comment on Italian TV – which is all we can get here at the Agriturismo – some of the commercials are hilarious, even without understanding Italian, but the programming primarily consists of 1) talking heads (in Italian, of course); 2) cartoons (and “Tom and Jerry” ARE funny...) and 3) game shows, which we do not understand! The Italian sports report yesterday morning gave the following: Calcio (soccer; seria A & B); YEA JUVE!; motocross (because an Italian was competing); America’s cup (again, because Luna Rossa is competing); and formula 1 racing – that’s all Ferrari...and that was IT! So...tomorrow night, however, I think we may be getting the soccer UEFA Champions League game from Athens on TWO stations – could it be because Liverpool is playing AC Milan?? Okay, enough of Italian culture for the moment; back to the road to San Leo.

San Leo is reputedly the “best” castle fortification in Italy. By that, I’m assuming Alcatraz on a mountain top – and there it was!! Truly unreal; very amazing. And there is a VERY narrow road looking like it was built right out of the hillside, to get to the town; about a lane and a half wide, very winding. Lovely little town – drove through it (took pictures of the vista, which includes the Republic of San Marino) and then parked the car to start the walk straight UP to the castle – but R spotted a small road that looked like UP it went – so we took it, and YEA – talk about saving steps! R measured the altitude gain on GPS, and it was 2,000 feet from town to top ... or rather front door; greater, if you went to the top of the castle. (I know we want lots of steps, but this was WAY over the top, even for me!) Got up there just as they were re-opening after lunch ... and the two employees who worked there must have fussed for 10 minutes of more as a small group gathered with the HUGE key to the castle! Key itself must have weighed 3-4 pounds, and was about 10 inches long – but they could not open the door! Finally, another employee came up who got it open – to a round of applause, of course! To be honest, I found San Leo incredibly depressing. The stone is lovely, but what went on there ... I don’t do torture at all well, you see, and certainly don’t need any visual aids, thank you very much...On top of that, I REALLY cracked the top of my head on a low doorway ... as R says, I spend so much time looking DOWN to make sure I won’t break or sprain an ankle, it really took me by surprise! Sat on the ground for a few minutes trying to collect myself; decided I’d rather not collect myself there, thank you very much, and we headed back down the hill. I would have liked to stop for gelato, but figured getting home would be the best thing all around...so today is a non-Gelato day! (What do they say ... a day without gelato is like a day without sunshine? Or something like that?!)...obviously one of the basic food groups!

Got home around 4:30 and found that even with it being really HOT outside, our incredibly thick house walls kept the inside nice and cool! Sat outside in the yard for a bit before preparing salads of tomatoes and cheese for starters. Then R made chicken in a white wine/cream and mushroom sauce; green beans for veg. It was GREAT! (Figure that the fruits, veggies and meats probably don’t have nearly the chemicals that they do in the U.S., which may account for the taste differences!) There is something SO wonderful about sitting outside on a chair with a good book, and having your husband call out “dinner’s ready!” Now am I spoiled, or what? It was my turn to do dishes, however...[Note from Robert: And it seems I use a LOT of dishes when I cook!]

So that’s about it for today, friends! Tomorrow we were thinking of the cave at Frassatti, but may just take a day off to enjoy our Le Marche house and the beautiful sunshine!

Love to all!
m