Our journey through Italy brought us into a different landscape again. Gone were the arid brown plains, interspersed with the peach and fruit orchards, we were now passing olive groves and prickly pears, as we are up the miles these gave way to vineyards and then on to pass empty fields of harvested crops and then once more into the rolling hills and up onto the sweeping corners of the mountains. Along the route towering above the roads were mountain side villages looking as if they have been carved out of the mountains themselves.
We stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe which turned out to be the go to place for Sunday drivers as it was a restaurant/cafe/bar/local farm shop, nearly all the customers left with boxes or bags of fresh cheeses or dried ham and sausages!
We arrived at our hotel only to find that they had been trying to contact me since Friday to say that they didn't have a room for us. The hotel was a respite for children with mental impairments and was full. To be truthful, Colin was glad we weren't staying as he didn't like the look of it any way! However that left us with the problem of trying to source an alternative room. We set off to find one hotel which we found on the internet but after several wrong turns and redirections we gave up and followed a sign out of town and came across a lovely hotel in the back of beyond which had a room for two nights with half board.
As we were checking in a Belgian couple were just on their way out, the receptionist asked them
If they would translate the evening meal menu into English which they kindly did. Colin then asked if there was a launderette in the village where we could get our jackets and trousers washed. The receptionist said if we took them back to him he would get them washed and returned within 24 hours so that's what we did; however my jacket hasn't been returned so we will have to hope that it turns up in the morning as we are moving onto Florence for two nights tomorrow!
Talking with the Belgian couple after our evening meal they told us that it hadn't rained in Rome for 4 months and the temperatures had reached 46 degrees and remained in the high 30's and low 40's for most of the summer.
We were also talking about a road sign I had seen which was an orange triangle with a picture of a bear on it and the words in English 'speed kills bears please drive slowly' we were told that this area had had brown bears re introduced along with wolves, in the hope of them breeding successfully and keeping the wild boar population under control. They went onto say that in Rome, where they lived, it was very common for them to have wild boar in their gardens!
As we finished breakfast on Tuesday the receptionist indicated that my jacket had arrived-yeah!
Colin and I were surprised to see that even in this hotel we were given plastic cups for the juice, not what you would expect from a good hotel.