A great night’s sleep after all the busy days, long travel and hiking. Woke up and headed to breakfast in the garden:
And the view from my table:
I take a leisurely morning, using a computer near my room to catch up on business matters, upload pictures, and bring the blog up to date. By then, it is noon, and I prepare to go into town to wander around in daylight. I walk out by the pool, and with the sun out and warm, and the incredible view, I am tempted to just lie about.
But, that is not in my nature, especially when I can do that a lot more often than Ican walk through a medieval Italian city! So I walk down the road, around the corner, over the two bridges and across the boulevard to catch the bus to town. A view along the way:
Unfortunately, I discover my camera batter has died, so no pictures today. Head to town and it’s almost two, so I head immediately to a great restaurant I read about, but can’t find it. That’s okay, I then set out up a long set of steps up to a church and option number 2. As I get closer, I can hear music playing and I see a crowd of people pushing to get into a large park. Music festival? No, a soccer game! I peer through the fence and can see a small stadium, mostly empty, and people singing. Not my thing, really, so I head down the street looking for the pizza restaurant. Don’t find the name I have, but there are two pizzerias and I head into the crowded and lively one.
I order a tomato sauce-based one with fresh porcinis, sausage and onions and sit back with great anticipation. I am sitting under a large canopy which spreads out from the stone wall of the building that houses the pizzeria. As I gaze to my right, over a short wall, I have the most spectacular view. I hope to get back by to snap a picture, but it is permanently imbedded in my mind. A horizon of old stone houses with red-tiled roofs, of varying heights and gradations of beige, ochre and dusty brown. All have forest green wooden-slatted window shades, and some have the laundry hanging out to dry on lines outside upper level windows. Here and there a church steeple or bell tower pop out of the line up, and further back, a byzantine church cupola and a few turrets tower over the rest. Aaah, I wish I could do it justice!
Pizza’s here – hot, with the cheese almost liquid, frosting a 10 inch, irregularly shaped crust, slightly charred around the edges. Big hunks of mushrooms and chinks of sausage decorate the pie. I approach cautiously, not wanting to lose my tastebuds through scorching, but the temperature isn’t too bad. Mmmmmm….a light, mild flavor and I resist the urge to ask for hot peppers so I can really enjoy the flavor. A few heavenly bites, and the rest is only scrumptious. As is my way, I slide the toppings from one half of the pizza to the other (don’t want and can’t eat all that crust) and munch away. Eat a little around the outside edge of the whole pie to enjoy the crunch of the crust (who me?). Okay, enough of that.
I leave feeling content, but definitely not that heavy, doughy feeling after eating pizza at home. You know what that means: I have room for gelato! Don’t have to go too far for that. Chocolate and hazelnut, methinks. Nibble away at that as I walk up cobblestone alleyways and explore a part of town away from the much more touristy center. I see several folks pressing their faces up to a metal fence, and I realize they are watching the soccer game. I walk over and check out the action, and enjoy the singing of the crowd. Then onward.
I pull out my trusty map and wander through the main streets, by the bus station, along other tourists and probably some locals. Pretty much everything is closed. I find the restaurant I was considering for dinner, but it was closed, so I decide to come back Monday night. Seems I’ve done everything I wanted to do, so I head back to the bus stop. I don’t really want to make the long trip back into town for dinner, so I stop in the pasticceria and buy a whipped cream filled cream puff (Stacey and mom!) and wait for the bus. Back home, I relax, watch an old movie and indulge in my pastry dinner. Light and pretty good, but not worth writing home about. Sorry Stacey and mom! Not as good as I remember. Do some internet research on where I may go tomorrow for a day trip, then lights out.