Morning Walk to Rocca Maggiore
Got up and going at around seven and decided to hike up to Rocca Maggiore before Christine got up. It was much easier to get to and find than I thought it would be. There was a stairway shortcut that had 164 stairs. I counted because Sonja told me ther were 76 stairs to get up to La Fortezza. The views were stunning and i even some some gorgeous papaveri.
Go figure. Hundreds of pieces of chewing gum placed on the wire of a fence.
Tiny shower. Not as difficult as Rome, but close.
We spoke at breakfast with a man and his wife who live in Tahoe City. She did property management and he is the pastor of the Lutheran church in Tahoe City! It was a great blessing. We were even able to have a brief prayer together as they headed out.
The final breakfast
Goodbye to Sonja. Safe journey.
We checked out and had to haul all our stuff back to where the car was parked at the top of the hill. At 58 Euro per night this was definitely the bargain of the trip. I was not thinking we were ging to need to return to Assisi, but now I am not so sure. We had an amaing time filled with unexpected surprises. Thank you Lord!
Heading up and out from La Fortezza.
On the road to Montalcino with a stop in Deruta.
I thought it would be fun to try and get to Deruta. It looked close on the map and easy to get to. But never forget that it may not be that easy. I did an amazingly bad job of navigating primarily because many of the signs point to unfamiliar destinations and there is never a marking whether the road is heading north or south or east or west. Se we actually got on two wrong roads going in the wrong direction before we got back on the right path.
It's amazing how easy it was once we found which way we need to go, toward Terni. WE drove up toward the city centro and got a great parking spot and walked up into the town. Since it was Sunday much was closed and it was also after 12 so I think even more shops were closed. It still was fun looking aroun. But it made it easier not to buy much.
We restrained ourselves and only bought a few gifts since we had already treated ourselves to a big treat.
Heading out of town
From Deruta to Montalcino I thought it should be fairly easy to get to Montalcino which it was but we did have a few dicey moments along the way.
We got back on the main road heading through Perusia and it's tunnels. In the middle of one there was a huge car pile up. Pretty scary really. Soon we saw Trasimeno. We thought about stopping at our previous hotel and have lunch with the great chef there, but we decided to push on. I thought it would be quite easy to get to Montalcino so I did not do a lot of pre planning on Via Michelin. We got onto the A1 and then the panic started started about how to get off of the A1. We stopped at an Autogrill and had a piece of Spizzco pizza and . Without question it was the worst lunch, no meal, of the entire trip. We pushed on and discovered that the next exit off the A1 would work perfectly on the way to Montipuciano and Montalcino
Lost in Montalcino. Well…Just for a Few Moments. I Did Know What I Was Doing!
I had a memory of where Il Giglio was as Gary had showed us last time we were her in 2007 but I did not take into account what it would be like to DRIVE to it. I new it was near the Fortezza and we headed that way but somehow missed it and wound up at the far end of town that in no way looked familiar. We drove down and found the hospital and almost got stuck driving down a dirt road outside the walls.
We got out of there and I finally realized where we were and how far away we were from where we needed to be. Christine pulled over and we regroup. Or at least it was her way not to kill me.
WE finally did get to the Fortezza and she parked and waited while I went now the hill from what I rememberd to find the hotel. I walked right to it and got a map the guide us how to drive to the hotel the proper way. We could never have done it without the map.
We got chcked in and this was the view from our room.
We decided to have dinner at the hote at 7:30. This is the power table but we did not get it.
We did have a great table and the dinner was stellar
Souffle 'di fromaggi e capocollo. A cheese souffle of some sort with a delicious assortment of pear, apple, raisins, cheese on endive.
Zucchine e fiori di zucca ripiena. Zucchini flowers stuffed and a ripening zuchinni stuffed.
Cannelloni de caprino al ragu' di piccione. A cannelloni filled with great stuff.
Risotto al brunello. Risotto cooked in Brunello.
Tortino al cioccolato fondente. A version of a chocolate lava cake. It was fabulous
professionals do make things look easy until one tries doing it themselves....but even with your challenges, the fact that you made it to each location with just a few bumps indicates you are nearing pro status on those crazy Italian roads. Especially driving to Il Giglio. I remember having to stop, get out as I blocked traffic and then try to go in reverse a few hundred yards since I had made my way onto a pedestrian only street. Nicely done. Your time with Massimo, and his video greeting to us were precious. Bless you guys.
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