San Luca – May 6, 2018

Last night Vic inventoried her aches and pains, and her level of commitment, and decided to “go with the luggage”  today.  I felt that I could still walk so thought I might do the day’s 10 mile  walk alone.  This morning my knee was acting up again (an old painting injury from Toronto), not enough to stop me walking in itself, but I had also come up with a significant charlie horse in my calf that made it painful to walk.  Further, it was forecast  to rain in the afternoon, and I didn’t relish walking through fields in the rain, or being lost on a seldom used bush trail. In short, I swallowed my ego and also went with Vic and the luggage.

Hand painted design on the walls of our room in Villa Zuccari, done by the lady who owns the Villa, in the winter.

So, twenty minutes later, dry and not tired we were in San Luca, another tiny town with a rather posh hotel that had not really opened for the day yet. It is another villa that has been in the Zuccari family since the 1500s.  They own most of the surroung area. Vic spent an hour with the desk clerk getting some more money put on her telephone.  The only Italian website without an  English version is the one the telephone company uses for the SIM card for travellers.  I’ll bet the Canadian phone companies use the same trick.

View of the garden from our patio.

Our room is lovely, with hand painted floral designs on the walls.  We have a terrace that looks out onto the rose garden and the swimming pool.  The rose garden is apparently of note with 980 Meilland roses.  The owner collects antique soup tureens (everybody needs a hobby)  – the walls and hallways  are lined with racks of them.  http://www.lezuppiere.it  for the full story.  The walls are also covered with small mirrors in a variety of frames – the thrift shop collection, I’d guess.

Lunch on the patio. Not exactly warm here yet.

We had an antipasto tray delivered for lunch, and lived like tourists rather than itinerants.  We went out for a five minute tour of the town in mid afternoon.

Incidentally, the predicted rain did not happen.

This is the only eatery in the town so we again have half board. Here we were given a special menu and not allowed to make free with the a la carte version that other (paying guests) got.