Dear Geeks, Boffins and Archeologists,
Having been responsible for leaving the adaptor at our last stay, the agristourismo in Tuscany, neither my mobile, the electric toothbrush charger, nor Siobhan's camera battery were able to be charged. I was not popular!! Now in this part of the world, had we been in need of a bold piece of ceramic, a fine piece of linen, an olive oil or an icon of St Francis, we would have been in business! An adaptor for Australian appliances - not so much !!
So we were in fear of being off the air for a few days until Rome and this was made worse by Dad's imminent surgery ( at least we thought the surgery was imminent). Again our lovely hosts, going that bit above and beyond referred us to a store at the next town where we were able to get different cable thingies for the camera and a blackberry adaptor for me to recharge which was a great relief- a stellar fella called Jacobo helped us out so much. It was an extraordinary relief.
From there we headed to Orvietto and this was brilliant. You park at the bottom, you cath the finniculare ( the cable car) to the top and then bus across the town.
You get off and at this high point of a hill in the middle of nowhere you are looking at the most extraordinary facade of the most beautiful bascillica. It is a combination of gothic architecture, mosaic and sculpture that is incredible. The inside is pretty fancy too!! Orvietto is a beautiful town with lots to see not least is the etruscan tombs and this great system of underground caves, excavated and now demonstrates the level of sophistication of the Etruscans, a chronological peer of the ancient Romans, living in central Italy but wiped out by the all conquering Romans! We had some tiresome British children and their even more tiresome negligent parents on our underground tour that made it hard work for our softly spoken tour guide and I can say with all honesty, I wasn't the only one who was tempted by the idea of throwing said children or said parents down the ancient Etruscan well to establish it's true depth!!
We headed home for our last dinner. A puff pastry case filled with pear and peccorino, a zucchini and cucumber soup for me, some vile mushroom thing for Siobhan, followed by a lightly breaded cutlet topped with fresh tomatoes and basil and a pannacotta for dessert. What can I say other than this place is so difficult to leave.......
But leave we must as we drive to the Rome airport tomorrow to leave the hire car and get to our Rome apartment - sounds straight forward enough !!
We are totally besotted by Umbria.
Kelly & Siobhan xxx
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