Last night, unexpectedly, there was a knock at our door. Roberto, who is Cinzia boyfriend stopped over to ask us if we wanted some fresh eggs. There were chickens on the farm, but we didn’t actually hear or see them at all. There used to be more chickens but a fox has been eating a few. We were delighted to have them and made scrambled eggs with fresh pecorino cheese, a little bit of brie and some pan seared Italian prosciutto. Other than mom’s naked hamburger we really haven’t eaten American food since we’ve been here. Here are a few pictures of the place we stayed. It was off the beaten path, we didn’t see any neighbors. They had an interesting selection of trees from olive, pomegranate, limes and lemons.

Today we checked out of our lovely little country cottage and traveled to Rome via Orvieto. We had a late check out we knew we couldn’t check into the Rome apartment until 3pm. So we were planning on visiting Orvieto, a hill town in Umbria. Our GPS took us on a major highway called the A1 also known as the italia autostrada. I think we picked it up around Perugia. We didn’t realize until our GPS told us to bear left that we were going to be on a toll road which means we had to pick up a ticket knowing that we’d have to read signs in Italian to figure out how to pay for it when we got off. The maximum speed was 130 kpm which converts to about 80 mph. In some ways that’s not too bad. I drive that all the time on 95S heading to DC. But on roads, you don’t know that are switching back-and-forth, it feels a little fast. Let’s just say, many cars were passing me. My comfort zone was between 100 and 120 kph. At one point we stopped at a rest stop so we could grab something to drink, fill up the gas tank and just relax and breathe for a little bit. All this driving can be a little stressful.

Orvieto is a little over 90 minutes from Siena. We identify two places we wanted to stop – a Lidl supermarket to pick up some drinks and snacks and La Badia di Orvieto, an Abby that was converted into a hotel. A couple of the websites said we could take photos at the location even if we weren’t staying there or eating in the restaurant. Sounded good to me.

Orvieto is one of the most striking, memorable, and enjoyable hill towns in central Italy. Less than 90 minutes from Rome, Orvieto sits majestically high above the valley floor atop a big chunk of tufo volcanic stone, overlooking cypress-dotted Umbrian plains. Because we checked out late, we decided not to walk through Orvietto, but instead drive around it from a lower vantage point and take some photos because it’s striking sitting on top of this volcanic stone.

Mom found the Lidl a little stressful because no one spoke English, she knew where nothing was, the items she wanted were in the last aisle. She ended up buying soda and chips. You could pick up a cart on the outside, but even that was a little confusing. There was no indication of how much it costs to pick up the cart. So she decided she would go in there cartless. She found a plastic wheeling cart inside, but you weren’t allowed to take it outside. And of course they didn’t have bags for you. Which is more and more normal in the US. When she got in the car, she looked like she was done. In someways I was happy to share the stress of the trip with her.

There are many roundabouts in these small towns, instead of stoplights. Our GPS typically is good about saying which turn we need to make the first the second or the third. Mom doesn’t think we’ve mastered them, but I think we’re doing pretty well with them. So after the Lidl we headed towards La Badia di Orvieto. There were some great locations to stop and take photos because you could see Orvieto in the background. The photo below is what I saw online but when we pulled up to it, there were chains blocking the road and we cannot see this beautiful little Abby. Disappointing.

As an amateur photographer, mom and I look at things differently. My point of view is if you see something beautiful, take a photo of it because you don’t know when you will see it again. Mom‘s perspective was, “so we drove all this way to get a couple of photos.” My answer to that was yes.

So back on the A1 to Rome. We still had another 90 minutes to drive and we told Stefano the owner of our Airbnb that we would be arriving around 5pm. Now we anticipated arriving between 3:30 and 4:00. We messaged him our change in plans and unfortunately, since he was working, we were unable to meet up with him. We texted and he gave us instructions on how to get in the place and where not to park. I was so proud of myself when I found a spot right across from the apartment until I learned it was a bus stop. Didn’t look like a bus stop. Then a person left across the street and I thought great. I’ll jump in that spot. Which is fine until I sent Stefano a photo and he told me we couldn’t block the gate. So we unpacked the car while blocking the gate and decided we move the car once everything was in the apartment. There was some space between me and the car behind me so I got to it as close as I possibly could which means Mom couldn’t get out of the car because I was so close to the wall. but we made it work. Stefano calls this Roman parking. This is what you do to make it work.

Our plan was to do a hop on hop off bus ride this afternoon, but we got here later than we anticipated and the bus stops running at seven and round-trip is about 90 minutes. So we didn’t have enough time. We’re gonna try and do it tomorrow after our tour at the Vatican.

Signing off in Rome for our Roman holiday.