DAY 108

Thursday 27 October 2011

It was another easy day, with an outing to Tavernelli and Citta Della Pieve with Lisa (sans Nicole). It was a drizzly day and Nicole was happy to stay in a toasty bed.

Lisa went to visit a Piegaro local, Maria Pia, in the hospital while Dian and Charles tooled around the town, got groceries for themselves and Colleen, FINALLY exchanged the left over Croatian money using our new Italian bank, then picked up Dian's shoes at the shoemaker. Upon being resoled, they were as good as new!

We invited Colleen and Lisa over that evening for a simple yet hearty lentil soup, with a special ice cream dessert garnished with fresh mint leaves from outside our window. The lentils there were smaller than we were used to, but are a local staple. Nicole recounted her slow yet splendid day of reading, playing music, and enjoying the good life.

DAY 107

Wednesday 26 October 2011

The Queen and King

The 26th anniversary celebration started early, really early, with Dian waking at 3:30 AM in need of ice and sympathy which Charles gladly provided. Plumping up strategically-engineered piles of pillows for her injured ankle, he decided to stay up for a while in case she awoke and needed something. He had given her the king-size bed all to herself, for comfort's sake. He continued the fruitless search for any way to see Rome short of asking the Pope for a spare bedroom, and decided to see how Dian's ankle was when she awoke before committing to anything. He called his buddy Joel back in Santa Monica, through the computer, and they had a nice 4 AM conversation (7 PM Pacific time, previous day).

When Dian awoke we decided Rome, the Eternal City, would have to wait just a little longer. We wanted her injured ankle to be strong enough for hiking around Florence the following Thursday (we already had our tix for the Uffizi online, 80 bucks worth). Charles hiked to the grocery store (30 meters from our front door), and as we were enjoying breakfast Nicole presented her secret project she had been working on in her room, and D & C were blown away: it was a watercolor portrait of the 26-year couple, using a sneaky photo she had taken of them the day before in their new anniversary clothes, and it was really, really good. Like any good portraitist, of course, she lightly dealt with wrinkles and gray and thinning hair and made them look handsome and 20 years younger.

As they toddled of to dinner at a highly recommended local restaurant, they were a tiny bit jealous of Nicole and hoped their meal could match hers: she was invited to Lisa's for hamburgers (fresh ground by the famous local butcher), french fries and beer-batter onion rings. Yes, there is an American cuisine, and that one sounded yummy to everyone. But the dinner at Di Ilio's was memorable, starting with a glass of prosecco (sparkling wine), a huge antipasti selection for two, then our excellent choices of pasta with funghi (mushrooms) and with tartufi (truffles) with a local red wine, finished dramatically with dessert, a surprise plate for each of us of a small slice of all three cakes being offered. Di Ilio's is a funky, charming place that used to be a stage coach stop a century and a half ago, and had odd decor touches like old antique typewriters and a collection of stylish old cigarette lighters. Our maitre d' was a classy Italiano with a 'do that wouldn't have been out of place in Vegas in the '60s. You can have your baccarat with the stars at Monte Carlo or skiing the alps -- this is our kind of fun, and we felt blessed every day to experience it. Happy Anniversary and here's to 26 more!

DAY 106

Tuesday 25 October 2011

One doesn't take umbrage in Umbria no matter how bad it gets. Therefore when Dian slipped and sprained her ankle she immediately made R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression and elevation.) This is not to say that she didn't let a few expletives fly as she went down, with Colleen's recent BAD ankle injury running through her head. Charles thought of that too, as he watched her, right in front of him. The ankle brace Lisa loaned her was helpful as was Charles and Nicole's keeping ice and pillows at the ready. Thankfully the ankle didn't seem broken, so we decided to give it a rest and reconsider our planned foray to Rome that Thursday (accommodations were seemingly non existant anyway).

After a nap, Dian used the last of David's sun dried tomato sauce (from Ikaria) and some fresh tomatoes Charles had bought at the local grocery store for spaghetti dinner. Nicole delivered a hand painted thank you rock to shop keeper Christiana and helped Lisa sort linens in the villa apartment. When Lisa came by later that evening, she helped Charles check the web and call places for staying two nights in Rome -- sitting side by side with laptops blazing, they were determined to find a solution that didn't involve king's ransoms, flea-bitten dives or places so far from Rome they spoke French. Even the convents and monasteries were either full or charging like they were offering Heaven along with a clean cot. Giving up, we all had a rousing game of Boggle and the last of the spaghetti.

Colleen loaned Dian some earrings made by our dear friend Pam, to wear to the 26th wedding                                                                                      anniversary dinner out the next night. She was understandably concerned about Dian's well being but we assured her that with some R and R all would be fine. (Colleen's ankle injury happened in Assisi and our family was heading there when Dian fell. Was Saint Francis trying to tell us something?)

DAY 105

Monday 24 October 2011

 Nicole stayed home while Dian, Charles, Colleen and Lisa went to Tavernelli for the day. Charles was on a mission to open a bank account with the oldest bank in Europe, Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena, founded in 1472. We figured it would be a pretty reliable place to put our money. It would have been impossible to set up without Colleen's help with translating and advice, and we have her to thank for that.

While Charles and Colleen were at the bank, Dian and Lisa spent their time at a massive open air market. They came upon a vendor who was more than pleased to sell them his baby artichokes, and after he had finally convinced them to buy, he checked in the back and with a mortified expression said, "Oh, I'm sooooorry! I have no more! Oh, I'm so sooooorry!" He then proceeded to chase after the last person he sold to, but to no avail. Dian and Lisa bought a few different things, and he even threw in some celery tops and parsley for free.

Among other finds of the day, Dian bought a vintage Saks sweater vest for Nicole, a vintage dress for herself, and a classy shirt for Charles. The four had a light lunch (mostly consisting of gelato for us), but treated the gang to whatever they wanted.

The last stop was to take Dian's brown shoes to be repaired, which they had refused to do in Greece. The shoemaker took them right away, and we went home for the remainder of the day which was a quiet evening.

DAY 104

Sunday 23 October 2011


Mass and overdue laundry on a Sunday, the perfect Italian-American blend. (Though in male-dominated Italy, you don't often see the men doing the laundromat dance. Charles got a few stares from strollers-by that turned into smiles and waves.)

Charles took charge, knowing that machines with instructions in an unknown language are fraught with peril no matter how innocuous they appear, and it was a good thing because he was about to scream when it appeared his € 7 investment was irretrievably lost, but then frantic but savvy button-punching saved the day/the load and it was a happy and clean ending. (Though drying was still incomplete after another € 7 dropped in, and the giant load had to be hauled back to the patio for drying rack finishing. Total investment, one load of laundry: € 14 = $19. Ouch the budget.)

"Our" church in Piegaro

Tending the load meant missing mass, and when he heard the report he was sorry he did. Apparently one of the altar boys, around nine, was a totally entertaining distraction. It seemed he could barely remember where he was and what he was about, much to the consternation of his fellow acolytes, and the amusement of the congregation. He would shuffle his feet, stretch, lounge, pick his nose, put things in the wrong place, ring bells at the wrong times. But kindly Fr. Don seemed benevolent in his guidance of his little loose canon, and perhaps that was the most powerful sermon of the day. It was a mass to remember.

We chilled out for the rest of the day -- we were getting good at that, and loving it -- till our nighttime rendezvous at Lisa's cute apartment for a four-course Italian dinner with sing-along, joined by our new Italian-Aussie friend Lucia, a part-time resident of Piegaro, like Lisa. Good food, good wines, good music, good night.

(Left to right) Dian, Lisa, Lucia, Nicole

DAY 103

Saturday 22 October 2011


"Goodbye Summer!" Colleen called out as we put away the patio furniture and Charles helped the pool man, Luciano cover the pool. Many hands made light work so by noon we were in the car and on our way to the flea market in the neighboring town of Tavernelle. Alas, the arrival of the winter tourist season had caused the flea market to end, and so we drove on to Panecale. The architect who restored Tom and Colleen's glass factory and made it into the stunning villa we were occupying, and other sweet  suites, had graciously offered his childhood home to them during the renovation. Having left behind a couple of items, we entered and were overwhelmed with the feeling that this abode had been "frozen in time." As we exited we could see the shimmering water of Lake Trasimeno below.

Can't Stop Me Colleen, Charles, Nicole, Dian, in Umbrian hill country

We had a wonderful lunch of wild boar, mushroom crepes, shrimps and clams in chick pea soup, and a trio of bruschettes all around that was sensational, all prepared and served by Colleen's friend, Max. He looked a bit like a whirling dervish but then after a half liter of good wine things do seem to whirl.

We popped into the local church which was from approximately 1525 (Roman numerals on a plaque) and when we entered we were in total darkness. Lisa put € .10 in a slot and all at once the hand of God or whatever caused the whole place to light up, all at once, for a short time. It was quite a dramatic effect and we had to do it once more, this time with our cameras ready. Lisa called it our "10 cent miracle."

Fruit-laden altar

Upon our return to L'Antiqua Vetreria in Piegaro we helped to clear out the rooms of bathroom and kitchen things that the guests had left. This job was actually quite fun and made us feel like we were dividing up the spoils -- which we were. Nicole even got two pairs of brand new Sketchers out of Colleen and Lisa's generous sharing of the booty. We had a quick nap in preparation for the evening concert at 8 PM.


When Lisa came knocking, we were all spiffed up for the FREE dinner and concert across the street at the glass factory. We were very  interested to see what the Perugia Blues Foundation would serve up, and they didn't disappoint. We were served wine by a tuxedo clad waiter as we entered and then had olive tapenade bruschetta and gnocchi in truffle sauce followed by tiramisu. Then we headed down to the underground level of the museum, a three-story arch-vaulted brick room where chairs had been set up for the capacity crowd (mostly non-Italian visitors) and listened to a brother/sister act called Black Sheep Duo. They performed songs from the American songbook beautifully, with the brother on white Fender Stratocaster and the sister on vocals.

Performance in a nearly-1000-yr-old glass factory

Afterwords, Lisa helped us plan our itinerary for trips to Rome, Florence and Venice over a cup of coffee and when she left we called Dian's family on Google Voice to share the day's adventures. When the expression, "It's an embarrassment of riches" flew from Dian's mouth, she amended it to say, "It's riches." 

DAY 102

Friday 21 October 2011

One sweater to rule them all

It was an easy day, picking up some groceries for Colleen and ourselves. Nicole and Dian practiced a bit for their night of singing at Juni's four-star restaurant.


Lisa generously took Nicole and Dian to her house to pick out some flashy "performance clothes", which helped spice up the two a great deal. She even let Nicole keep the dress she had picked out, though she gave back the necklace given to Lisa by Desmond Tutu and the fabulous jacket Nicole is now on a quest to find one similar to.

The sweater Nicole borrowed, next to a great painting Lisa did of her kids and her

We all ate a splendid dinner at Juni's that evening, filled with fantastic seafood to warm up any singer's throat to their finest. We were joined by Lucia, Colleen and Lisa's fellow ex-pat from Australia. We found out later, to our surprise and delight, that we had been comped!

Nicole and Dian got up to sing a few songs, but were soon joined vivaciously by a table of Dutch tourists. It was all in good fun, and they shockingly knew just about every song the duo played! They even took to suggesting some later on. A slight negative to the rowdy crowd was that Dian and Nicole strained their voices a little too much in order to be heard, resulting in sore throats the next day, but all is fair in wine and busking.
As a farewell gift Dian gave Juni a Vava LaVoom CD, which she seemed very grateful for.


Great food, great company, great music-making, great day.

Dian, Lisa, a local kid and Nicole

DAY 101

Thursday 20 October 2011

Our fairly early start out toward Orvieto, an ancient hill town less than an hour straight south of Piegaro recommended by both Colleen and Rick Steves ('nuff said!), meant grabbing breakfast on the way, which meant a stop at the bakery. (We have pretty much left traditional heavy American breakfasts behind in favor of the light European ones.) But of course we had to grab coffees and fresh mint-from-our-patio tea first.

Often it was difficult or impossible to park in those ancient towns but we charged on in and after following the traffic nearly back out of town without finding a parking space, Charles declared, "What's wrong with this?" and pulled over tight against a wall, careful not to block any doors, windows or driveways. Despite some trepidation, it followed our rule: if it fits and cars can get by you, and there are no obvious signs saying No Parking, go for it. It worked: no towey, no tickey.

Orvieto was delightful, more upscale than we figured, with way too many tempting shops.

But looking was free, and fun, and we ran into the marketplace in the square just as they were tearing down, time enough to check everything out and sample and buy cheese and dried fruit, even got a lagnappe (unexpected gift) from the fruit guy and a posed photo from the cheese/meat guy.

We ducked into a couple of bookstores as some rain fell, still searching for that elusive English-language copy of Mark Twain's (Charles' and Nicole's cousin through Charles' mom - a Clemens) The Innocents Abroad, but no luck. Then we found a gem: a small side street shop called "Il Mago di Oz", which was what the jolly proprietor, Guiseppe Rosella, called himself. We were drawn in by the large Betty Boop cutout outside, but inside was amazing and a bit beyond description. Packed floor to ceiling with cartoon figures, toys, old-timey everything, collectibles, and hundreds of music-playing devices you couldn't imagine existed. Guiseppe spoke little English, used much dramatic hand language, and his brochure seemed intentionally vague -- but he delighted in winding things up and pressing buttons and showing us how they played, some with more than 100 tunes programmed in, most synced to movable figures. The shop was lined with photographs of famous patrons. We think he made all these himself, or at least had them made, and he customized it to your life story. We left feeling we had truly

met the wizard behind the curtain.

Orvieto duomo

Finally we made our way to the duomo, the major church with an amazing facade rife with intricate architectural touches. We peeked in but skipped the entrance fee (later finding out from Colleen that we missed a remarkable work in a side chapel, oh well), also opting to skip the caves tour. Ya gotta make choices, and we tried to balance cultural opportunities with budget responsibilities. We saw the amazing 12th century salt mine in Poland and planned to hit the catacombs in Rome; our cave budget was temporarily spoken for.

Feeling a bit hungry and happy with our Orvieto excursion, we headed for the van and decided to try for Civita del Bagnoregio, a very small mountain peak town about which our travel guru, Rick Steves waxed poetic. The weather was a question mark. It looked threatening. After a 20-minute drive we pulled into a Steves-designated lookout point and couldn't see Civita, or anything. The only way to get to the town was over a very long, very steep footbridge. Did we want to chance that in that kind of weather?

The only way to get to Civita del Bagnoregio

Adventure won over reason and we were magnificently rewarded: the light misting rain and heavy fog made the not-that-long, not-that-steep footbridge traverse a wonder of mysterious atmosphere. When we reached the top Charles declared, "I don't even care about the town, that walk over the bridge was worth the trip." But Civita, dating back to really ancient pre-Roman Etruscan time, was a delight of really old-looking doors and arches and walkways, remarkable in a land where everything was old.

We love Rick Steves!

We bumped into an American couple outside the church and took a photo for them, and found out they were from our part of SoCal. Then we later found them in a little "bar" (bars here serve sandwiches, coffees, etc.) and were all amazed at what we had in common: they live in Idyllwild, we are often there staying in our getaway trailer, Wes's high school played Samohi in sports, he's a retired fireman like Dian's dad, Debbie has family in San Pedro (Dian's third generation), and more and more. We offered to drive them back to Orvieto rather than have to rush to meet their bus, and not only had a nice chat but the special experience of plunging into a herd of sheep on the road, including darling little babies and that special rear view of a herd of wagging tails, flopping ears and swinging butts of wool. With no other cars on the road, and no sheepherder in sight, we just crept along and got lots of photos. Finally a guy in a black Nissan pickup came around our left, honking and yelling, and we realized he was the shepherd, and he headed them off the side of the road back to their home pasture. OK, we're sentimental softies, but we all loved stuff like that, that you can't get at home.

Back at our Piegaro home, we delighted in hot soup and a game of scrabble on our homemade board.

Day 100 !

Wednesday 19 October 2011

"La dolce far niento" means a sweet day for doing nothing. That's what we had and it was delicious. Since it was a celebration of our 100th day on this adventure, we were thinking of driving to some hill town but as the day wore on and Dian reported a big bump on her forehead from banging into the rock wall behind the bed the night before, the Happy Trails Gang decided to stay home. We had fun reading books about Umbria, Rome and Florence and Dian and Nicole took some pieces of glass and an antique beer top Dian had found to the museum and the curator said she would be interested in them for the museum collection!

An extra photo from the glassblowing demonstration

Throughout the day a bean soup with peperoni was bubbling on the stove and we sat down to big steaming bowls of it with fresh bread and cheese.

Bean soup on Nicole's homemade placemat

After dinner we went up the street to the gelateria but alas the tubs were put away for the winter so we had to settle for Nutella, a pre-packaged sundae and a beer as our 100th day celebration treat!!!

Coming home after a hard day's shard hunt

DAY 99

Tuesday 18 October 2011

The morning was slow, but it wasn't long before Lisa knocked on our door telling us it was time to leave for Castello Monte Vibiano, Colleen's dear friend Count Lorenzo's winery. The winery is unique in that it is carbon neutral, and takes great care not only to keep a minimal carbon footprint, but also to retain the quality of wine it has had for so long. You can read more about Castello Monte Vibiano's vision on their website by clicking here.

Colleen got a call on our way there from the DSL deliveryman saying he had our package from Sebastian containing our table for the van! Because packages coming to Piegaro must be picked up by the recipient, instead of having it delivered straight to their doorstep, we made a slight detour to pick the table up in the parking lot of a mall.

For a while we were the only ones at Castello Monte Vibiano that day, so while Colleen and Lisa relaxed on the patio, we got a private tour of the winery. This was followed by a free wine tasting. Colleen told us it is Lorenzo's philosophy that all his wine tastings and tours should be free, because wine is subjective, and he would not want someone to walk away unhappy because they personally did not have a good experience. He's right, too, no one can argue with something free! Our wine taste consisted of all the best wines they have produced each year, an incredible selection of cheeses, and also a sample of their fresh olive oil also made in the vineyard. The olive oil was exquisite to say the least, and even a little bitter because of its freshness. The olive oil is sold only in groups of small capsules, because olive oil should never be left opened for a long time if it is to be used in its finest condition. Of course we were hooked, and bought a bottle of their 2006 MonVi, and a pack of their extra virgin olive oil.

It was in electric golf carts that we drove to the site of the vineyard, away from any roads, located past the ancient olive grove where they make their oil. We got to see Colleen and Tom's "vine" which they bought and now get a percentage of profit from, and looked, though without any luck, for Robert De Niro's vine.

We left the vineyard and went to Lake Trasimeno for a lakeside dinner. Unfortunately we arrived after the sun had set, but we still enjoyed the flavors of a local-eatery. Lisa lamented that the restaurant did not still have a vending machine where one could buy underwear.

Home to our castle where warm beds awaited us.

DAY 98

Monday 17 October 2011

Rising late we had scrambled eggs for breakfast (thank you, good kitchen and refrigerator), then dashed out to get supplies before the shops closed for afternoon "siesta" time or that night's dinner at "our place" with Colleen and Lisa. The custom-cut pork chops came from the nearby butcher, who, Colleen later told us, was so respected people came from as far away as Rome to buy from him. After an expensive trip to the PO (postcards home cost $2.15 each!) Dian went out on the hillside to prospect for "ancient artifacts" (castoff glass shards).

 

Dinner was a smash, with the pork chops covered with rosemary (picked just outside our door), cous cous and a corn and fresh red and yellow peppers combo. Dessert was a special treat, vanilla ice cream with a chocolate sauce made from one of the See's candy bars Dian's parents had sent from San Pedro. We all ate on decorated place mats Nicole created out of plain paper that afternoon. As Colleen and Lisa arrived Nicole and Dian brought smiles with their duet of the new song, "Food and Love."

Lisa had to leave a bit early for her Italian pronunciation class, but the rest of us shared a special wine Colleen brought and talked on about our lives, getting to know each other a bit better. The wine was from Castello Monte Vibiano, a nearby winery we had originally passed on for a tour, until Colleen filled us in on some background, and we were hooked. Run by friends of hers who were for centuries the ruling family of the area, in operation since . . . well, let's just say if Jesus had changed water into this wine, it would've already been a quarter of a millenium old!