Possnmark

Pilgrimage to Orvieto to see the cathedral. Incredible but a bit too colorful for Mark's taste. North to castiglione del Lago, an old fortress town on a peninsular jutting out into lake trasameno. Walked around the palazzo and adjoining fortress walls. Around the top of the lake toward Perugia and found our next farmhouse at Casale Della Staffa, an old farm building for housing the stock and coaches on the ground level and the farm worker families above. Again a fantastic two storey suite in the bell tower. Sitting room on first level and bedroom and en suite above. Entire wall facing the bed was made up of four windows that gave us a panoramic view of the Umbrian landscape as we woke up each morning. Beautiful breakfast each morning in enormous salon with antique furnitre ... read more

Visited tiny theatre (Teatro Concordia) in montecastello Di Vibio and went on to Todi. Back to Anna's feast for dinner.... read more

Beautiful gardens at Villa Lante in nearby town of ???? And espresso in the village square with the local townsfolk. Back roads north again and saw subsiding hilltop town Civitta from a totallt differentdirection as we passed through Lubriana. Latzio landscape was quite stark with steep escarpments, landslides, eroded valleys. Almost desert like landscapes in some places. Wound through narrow roads down to the Tiber River and crossed into Umbria. The landscape changed almost immediately into lush, prosperous looking farming land. Found our farmhouse Casale de Corone without too much trouble and settled in. Incredible farmhouse suite with bedroom, bathroom, huge sitting room with open fire, games (chess, cards etc) room, lobby etc all to ourselves. Anna, our very exuberant Italian hostess made us feel welcome and cooked ?????... read more

Visited Montefiascone with Ascanio (Adelaida's broken vertebrae still too painful for car trips). Hilltop town with grand duomo overlooking lake brescalo. Lots of cats wandering around the cobbled streets and a funky art exhibition in an old monastery on the top of the hill. Lunch in a little ristorante - the first of many fantastic local eateries. North to Civitta, a mediaevel hilltop town subsiding. Dinner withAdelaidea'as andAscanio in their 1,000 year old house in Roccalvecce.... read more

Early morning arrival after drug induced sleep on the plane. Smooth car pickup and exit from Rome heading north on the old Roman consular road the Via Cassia. Stopped at mediaevel village called Sutri long enough for an espresso and a parking ticket and went on Viterbo. Lovely old city with very smart shops. Met Adelaida and Ascanio and filled them back to the family village at Roccalvecce about thirty kms away on a hilltop. Lovely evening in the village square with the locals eatiboa pasta with wild boar sauce, drinking local wine (hmmm), listening to accordion player and watching the locals dance in the square.... read more

Five hour transit in HK. Massage and chill in the lounge before a midnight departure for Rome.... read more