2008 ITALIAN ODYSSEY - Heading South - Zia Cathy

Friday October 3, 2008 – Sansepolcro - Bagno de Romanagno

The park in Bagno de Romanagno

It was overcast this morning and threatening rain. Our original plan was to take it easy today and perhaps nip cross to Anghiari for a second look. We decided against that on the grounds that this second visit on a cold and windy day with the possibility of rain would mar the very pleasant memory of that first one.So we headed off to Bagno de Romanagno about 40 km North of here. Unbelievably there was a market there! How Rab sniffs them out I don’t know – must be a form of psychic direction finding. It wasn’t a great market and there was not much of interest in braving the cold wind and occasional shower, so we did not linger long there.

We went up there on the motorway and returned along a scenic route over the mountains which was a mistake. I was tired from yesterday and there was quite a lot of traffic, including some big trucks which makes for a very tiring drive. I was glad to get back ‘home’ to a lunch of porchetta and an easy afternoon.

Tonight being Friday, all the specials on the  dinner menu were fish and I had a very tasty Risotto Marinara stuffed full of shrimps and other fishy bits. Rab had a repeat of the pasta dish with truffles she had enjoyed a night or two ago. The dinners here have all been excellent – good food and good service. Breakfast has been adequate, but not a patch on del Torre in Castelfranco.

Saturday October 4, 2008 – Zia Cathy

Sunday October 5, 2008 – Zia Cathy

We left Sansepolcro this morning in showers and mist, but loaded with happy memories. It has been such a pleasant stay. The manager/owner of the hotel came out to the car as we were packing it to say good-bye and good travelling, which we thought was a very nice touch. It was a lovely stay at his establishment and everything, bar the breakfasts, was first class.

Our first planned stop, as we headed South to our final destination on the Amalfi Coast, was Gubbio, but it was still very misty and when we got there it didn’t look very inviting, so we drove on. One little puzzle that arose as we drove through the countryside was why the ploughed fields were all steaming. I could understand this phenomenon occurring if they had all just been ploughed, but that was not the case.

The route we had chosen took us through Valfabbrica which Simon Capp had mocked mercilessly in his book. (This is a reference to an amusing book Italy? It seemed like a good idea at the time  which Rab and I had both read and enjoyed and which we used as an informal guide book to Sansepolcro and this region.) it was actually a nice looking little village, although not a patch on Sansepolcro.

 

Orvieto

Next stop was Orvieto which looked terrific as we approached – a genuine hill town. We went up and up through the town looking for a parking place with no luck. Our path took us through some pretty narrow arches and alleys, but they held no fear for me now – well, not as much as they had. There was a large car park at the foot of the hill, so we thought we’d pull in there, take some photographs of the views and contemplate walking part of the way up the very steep steps, realising we’d probably not make it all the way.

 

Then we spotted the escalator. What a wonderful idea that was. In five or six stages inside the hill – the Italians must be expert tunnellers! – it transported us effortlessly right to the top – and we stepped out in the main square right next to the cathedral. It was almost lunchtime closing time when we got there, but we had time to get a lovely souvenir – a sun and moon plaque – and for Rab to get yet another pair of shoes – gold ‘runners’ this time.

After an excellent pizza each in a pizzeria, where we got chatting to another Australian couple, we made our way back to the car – we had to walk most of the way down, but that was no problem – and then we headed off for Zia Cathy’s Bed and Breakfast near Rome.

Zia Cathy

Rab had seen this estate on a TV show in Australia. It is a beautiful property, the owners being an Australian woman and her husband. Unfortunately while the house is stunning it is also impractical and “quaint”  i.e. things don’t always work very well.

We were the only guests and our room, furnished with antiques, looked splendid. It was really cold over the weekend – down to about 3°C or 4°C (37°F/39°F) – and there was snow on the nearby mountains. In these circumstances, the lack of heating in the room, the stone floors and the lukewarm water in the shower – delivered after a wait of about 15 minutes, but which then failed while Rab was in mid-shower –  did not quite balance the “quaintness”. And all this while paying top dollar added up to one of our less good decisions.

We were even more shocked when we found that breakfast consisted of a tub of yoghourt, some fourth grade fruit, said to have been grown on the premises and a small selection of sweet cakes – three rock buns, two slices of apple pie and four jam tarts. Served with a milky warm latte. Not good.

The proprietor, Cathy, is quite a character and she and Rab hit it off, talking the hind leg off a donkey. Although yesterday (Sunday) was meant to be a rest day for me before the long drive to Praiano, Rab got it into her head to go to the shopping centre on the outskirts of Rome which had been praised to the nines by Cathy. I was not in favour of going anywhere near Rome and all the traffic we were bound to get into but……we duly set off armed with Cathy’s vague directions. They reminded me a lot of the map provided by Riki Gougeon on how to get out of Toronto, which  led us so badly astray that it took us over an hour in the end.

I expressed my severe doubts about the usefulness of the directions, which were full of such vague instructions as ‘…take the right fork, you can’t go wrong..’ etc and sure enough, we got well and truly lost, landing up going the wrong way around the ring road in some very heavy traffic. Thank goodness for good old TomTom who guided us out of the mess quite safely.

We decided to head for Lake Bracciano for lunch since it was on the way home. We had driven past it on the way from Rome to Sienna and it was very pretty. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the town as there was some kind of festival going on – including, so it seemed a marathon and a cross country race. But we found a parking spot on the side of the lake and had a stroll and an excellent meal in one of the restaurants and all in all enjoyed ourselves.

Back at Zia Cathy, we asked about the possibility of some heating and were given another room which had a reverse cycle air conditioner that warmed the high ceilinged room after a fashion.