Arriving in Montone



Piazza Fortebraccio (the bell tower
works, on the 1/4 hr, 8am - 8pm)



We climbed into bed and snuggled under the covers; I looked over at Deb and she had one of those gorgeous smiles she flashes ... settle, settle ... this is NOT going to be a post about such things as you were thinking! She was feeling so good about being here, and that is what this post is about :-) ...

Well, we made it! And here is the view from Il Balcone on our first morning.

Yesterday was an interesting exit from Rome, and not unlike my Gilligan sail to Brisbane a few years ago, we did arrive eventually :-). While all the plans and map examinations and advice is that Montone is about 2.5/3 hrs north east of Rome, our journey through the Italian countryside saw the 6 hours of Saturday afternoon pass. Unfortunately, the long and winding road even managed to make Kylie and Belinda car sick passengers courtesy of the back seats. However, we found our quite luxurious Apartamenti Arrientani no worries and after dropping the bags and a quick check of the apartments we had a wonderful dinner at Antica Osteria - the pasta, ravioli & gnocci was very yummy - before retiring for a really good nights sleep!



Appartamenti Arientini

 Antica Osteria also has a bar, outdoor cafe and the most delightful deli downstairs. While waiting for dinner I was wandering around the deli and the host came down to prepare a cheese platter for another dining party and offered me a sample of two of the cheeses - they were so delicious; so dopo (I am getting really good with Italian ;-) - that means after ... clearly my fluency is improving rapidly!) our main meal we had the cheese platter with bread, honey and jam and it was every bit as good as the sample. I suspect we will return!

A little more about the interesting exit from Rome ...

As in the earlier post, I was very keen to pick up the car and get back to the Hotel and away; my hope that Saturday traffic would be less congested than during the week was fulfilled, so that was a relief of the highest order. The pick-up was not more than five minutes in a taxi ... good start! I handed over my license and straightaway my heart sank as I realised my credit card was on the bedside table from the previous evening and in my anxious state to get the car, left in too much haste! Shite! I called Deb and she found the card and had to get a cab to bring it over. So ... paperwork taken care of, no further dramas on that front, but as we were checking the car for damage and having features explained, the lady who had picked her car up while I was waiting came over in an (Italian) agitated state and remonstrated with the attendant. He explained that the person with the key to the chain that locked the front gate had not arrived ... so people were unable to get our with their newly hired cars, and others outside could not drop theirs off ... so Italian (it seems ... the Fijians have nothing on Italians for keeping to time!). After another 30 minutes, the person arrived and took the chain off and was given an absolute dressing down by the aforesaid woman - I remarked to Deb, who was also getting agitated and hungry by now, "just be patient; he might decide to put the chain back on as a reaction to the abuse" and almost on cue ... well, he did not put the chain back on, but the the automatic gate started to close again as the woman began to drive through the gate! Someone hit a button and it opened again, then as soon a she was through and it was our turn, it started to shut again ... ... you get the idea ... ... if this was how difficult it was to get out of the rental car yard, what hope Rome!! I did not have the camera with me :-).

And to cap all that off I (just) missed the turn to the Hotel and so ended up back on the freeway and we had a brief adventure to find our way across the freeway and back again. It was so good to sit down and relax over a late breakfast - very grateful that checkout was not until noon!

Orvieto

And so, I am very glad to report that comparatively, the remainder of the trip to Montone, long as it turned out to be, was far less dramatic. I did not realise how much adrenalin I was operating on until we reached a cafe/toilet stop with a spectacular view of the hilltop town of Orvieto, and even more so when we finally arrived and I no longer needed to concentrate. We managed to stay on the correct side of the road without drama, and avoid going the wrong way on round-a-bouts, and Deb (yes, its TRUE) did a terrific job navigating. This was especially noteworthy, because our map was not the most detailed, and we deliberately decided to avoid the very major roads.

So, as this post started, we made it!

Feeling very relaxed already, so it may be quite difficult to leave at the end of 2 weeks.

Oh, and there is a P.S. - we had an email from Helena when we arrived explaining she had misread their departure time and they missed their flight to Rome yesterday. So they might be a day later arriving here but will be leaving for Rome today ... Helena reckons Steve has a lot of brownie points accumulated! Hopefully they will still get to see a bit of Rome. So you see, "getting here" took on even more significance.