A day’s rest had removed most of the aches of yesterday, so we were ready to walk again.
At breakfast we ran into possibly the chatelaine of the villa. She was an elderly lady (I’ve got to stop saying things like that – she may be younger than me) wearing a baggy sweater and jeans and who was hanging around yesterday. She was in a small room with a fire off the lobby and would pop out once in a while when anything interesting happened. However this morning she was taking care of breakfast, and she said she had made the beautiful cakes THAT morning. Later she revealed that she had done the painting in our room “in the winter”. An amazing lady.
When we went to sign out, our VISAs were declined. Now THAT is worrying when you are travelling.
Anyway, off on the walk. The first bit was fairly level, through fields of fava beans just coming into bloom. As we got to the slopes, plantings changed to grapes heavily underplanted with fava beans and peas (nitrogen fixing?). The ground was damp clay that stuck to our shoes anywhere that was bare of grass. It would have been hell a couple days earlier after a rain. Thunderstorms were predicted for this afternoon.
One of the sights slong the way are the frescos at the Convento Francescano S. Fortunato by a couple famous artists that didn’t make my famous list. They are well preserved and well done.
The day went well, the hills were not too large and we arrived at Montefalco by 11. It is, of course, on the top of a hill – the Monte part. Lovely little hill town, great central piazza, narrow streets, the whole surrounded by a curtain wall. Many of the churches are built right into the fabric of the town.
As a result of the hot climb up, a beer was needed to cool down. The beer came with a large plate of potato crisps, and cups of peanuts and pickled onions. Pleased to find Spanish tapas exist here. Unfortunately, I broke the little plastic spoon that was to be used to extract the peanuts from the cups.
Wandering around the town we were able to find several fabric stores! Wow! The churches were all closed however. After lunch we retired again to the beer place on the piazza for a glass of the local wine to wait for our taxi. Montefalco is only half of our day’s journey, you see. The second half is said to go through farmer’s fields that may have recently been plowed. After our earlier experience with mud, that seemed more than necessary, in view of the predicted thunderstorms.
The local wine, Sagrantino, whose grapes we have been walking through is said (by Conde Naste) to be the latest in ‘in’ Italian wines. Will it ever replace Asti Spumante? Actually, the better resturants give you a complimentary (small) glass of Prosecco before the meal. Now that is civilized.
This time the tapas included not only the plate of chips, but cups of peanuts, olives, peppers, and finally a plate of ham cracker sandwiches. Did we pay too much for the wine? I was pleased to note that the peanut cup spoon alone was now metal. My reputation there is established.
Anyhow, we took a taxi the last 10 km and saved our feet. That put us in Bevanga, located not on a hill, or at least not a big one. It has all the other characteristics of a hill town though. We found two of the dozen churches open, both were starkly romanesque. The style definately does not have the windows of the gothic. Gloomy about covers it, but impressive when your eyes get accustomed to it.
That left us searching for supper at 6 PM. You have got to be kidding. Nothing was even thinking about opening. So back to the hotel to deal with VISA. I was able to use my tablet and the Google Hangouts app to telephone the Royal in Toronto (free). It appears that Vic and the desk clerk had put three identical charges on her card for the telephone card top up, and the Royal’s computer flagged it. They were able to unflag it immediately.
By then it was 8 and some resturants should open. Our hotel is in a dark alley opening off a dark alley, and there is a resturant at the end of said alley so we went there. Oscar’s Trattoria has a vacant patio, and 4 tables inside. Probably doesn’t get a lot of walk by trade anyway. Oscar himself is a big bearded guy, probably enjoys his food. Vic wanted a salad, but that was not on offer. We had the nearest thing, asparagus and ricotta cheese raviolini, with sliced artichokes (and olive oil) on it. It was really fine, with some wild herbs in the cheese. For dessert we shared the house special, a milk pudding with fennel and olive oil. It was also excellent and really different. A good meal, but Oscar is not cheap.
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