Pitigliano and neighbouring towns

On the way here we stopped off at Todi  (instantly called Todi in the Holey)...another beautiful town high on a hill.

I am in awe of Italian parking skills!

once again far too many photo opps and steps/climbing

Pitigliano

This town became  a refuge for the Jewish community as they fled from Christian persecution in  Rome and Florence during  the 16th century until they were forcibly moved by the Nazis. 

Our  apartment is on the same vicolo(lane way) as the Synagogue and not far from the historic Jewish bakery and the Jewish museum..and as a sad reflection on our times..the Carabinieri are on guard outside our apartment every day.

As with many of the local towns, it is a hill top town built on top of and carved into  the Tufo (rock) and is of Etruscan origin.

The kitchen work bench in our apartment

our apartment vicolo entrance

streetscape

the water is drinkable

3 baths for???.animals/humans/what??

We also visited local towns Sovana and Sorano..although I'm struggling to recall which is which!  suffice it to say one was authentic looking  whereas the other was so beautified and touristy it resembled a cute Cotswold village...It was full of arty type shops making Etruscan style things.....mind you that opinion could well have been because we were so hot and jaded.....

Etruscan archway-the slots were for a drawbridge mechanism

natural indentations in the Tufo rock..enlarged by Etruscans..

Perugia...Orvieto

 Perugia is  a very hilly city...my legs got really tired..if not from cycling, then from being a tourist with visits to Assisi and Orvieto .

 I think the most outstanding feature of the area for Alex and I as cyclists has been the very bad road surface with long wide cracks and large deep  holes to fall in to and with huge lumps of tree root raised bitumen at the edge of the road, occasionally extending well into the centre.,,made downhills  more than somewhat a bit exciting!

Assisi and to me this ..looks a bit non Christian in such a Christian city

Orvieto..so many photo opps

a luxury ??"motorbike", with  4 wheels

loads of interesting benches along the way..naturally I could only take pix of the empty ones!

recycling

yet another bench

16th century well..248 steps down and ditto up

I think I'm a bit over history and ruins etc!  Just as well we have only 6 more days of mixing being a tourist and training.  Today we move to Pitigliano..a hill top town in Tuscany know for it's Jewish community in pre WW2 days.

Travelling northwest-ish.a bit..to Perugia,Umbria

A transition from Velletri to Perugia was only a 2.5 hr journey so we were able to cruise along with no stress and even stop to stock up at the supermarket before arriving at our new address at 12 noon on the dot. 

Our house here is an airbnb one about 3 km outside of the city...3 bedrooms and internet access.  Sadly no aircon and the declared TV was false advertising.  We turned on the TV in order to watch TdF (as always) but were confronted with  no signal at all.  A quick email to the owner and we discovered that there was no antenna as they were protecting their children from live TV!

Luckily I have an HDMI cable with me😉 (along with every other cable known to man) so we were able to live stream from Rai3 in Italian.  Searching for something in English I found a free 7 day trial for a streaming service and we are now on Eurosport, in English, which live streams from the start of the race.

Perugia is  one hilly city..on arriving we decided to try and find the visitor's centre to buy some local maps....needless to say we didn't find it and in trying to escape the city I ended up driving down a 23% badly cobbled twisting and off camber slope that was incredibly scarey....shudder. As always pix don't do slopes the justice they deserve so you'll just have to take my word for it!

start of the descent..looked ok really..good surface....

/

however from the car it looked and was a lot worse than this indicates..

There was a jazz festival in town..so I'm assuming these guys were a part of it:

very happy chaps just posing...

steps, slopes everywhere

.

then it was off to Assisi or as our GPS pronounces it R.C.C.

the Basilica of St Francis

ditto

we wondered if these tour guides were real monks..

and if so we assumed that tour guiding was probably a penance!! 

not drinkable

Velletri and Rome

Our home here at Velletri is enormous and somewhat formal.  Set in a 2 acre semi formal garden it has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,  a conservatory, lounge room, TV room, sitting room, dining room, study/library and of course a kitchen.  There is an elderly  gardener who works 4hrs a day and security patrols at night. Permanent residents are only caged hens, caged cats and 2 dogs...we feel very uncomfortable about the cats and dogs....no caring human company for them.

There are 2 downsides..no internet and only 1 remote for the security gate and  with only 1 entrance to the property this  causes logistical issues for us when out training.

In the area are

1. lago Nemi which is a water filled old volcano where Emperor Caligula used to play with boats.  Clumsy early attempts to raise 2 of these boats from the bottom of the lago (and they were enormous)  plus a fire in 1944 in the warehouse that eventually housed them means that very little original things are still around..but there is a museum of replicas and things that survived despite everything.
2. Castel Gandolfo..location of the Pope's summer palace and the first ever post box.  This Pope doesn't use the Palace and so sadly there were no Swiss Guards but also no hordes of tourists and thankfully no difficulty finding a parking spot.

the first letter box in the world

Pope's summer residence

bicycles outside all the cafes and restaurants seemed to be the theme there

Also in some suburb or other (found while lost!)

and very close to where I stayed last time I was here..the genuine article..a Roman Road as tramped by the Roman legions..the Appian Way....from Rome to Brindisi

So..today we were at Rome..a city I've visited twice before but since Alex has never been a 3rd visit was a somewhat reluctant no brainer.  We went part way in a hop on hop off bus but realised it wasn't going where we wanted and where it went when I was here 7 years ago, so  we also did alot of walking.  Different also was the  large presence of armed soldiers at many of the popular old sites..didn't see them at the Trevi Fountain or the Spanish Steps...actually I could barely see the fountain it was so crowded!  I thought I'd read somewhere that people were'n't now allowed to sit on the Spanish steps...they were..but not on the central part.

I think I need a rest from people doing selfies and actually people in general!!!  well tourists  at least.

We are, of course , NOT tourists!!!😑😊

No usual  Rome pix from me,
instead:

not quite sure what it is actually!

2 seater

4 wheeled 1 seater..no rego plate....!

So many motorised sand shoes in town!

and finally..a typical Rome tree scape

Apparently one of the Emperors...probably not Nero or Caligula..order the trees along the roads  to be pruned to create this design so as to provide shade for the soldiers.  for anyone interested the podcast  "The History of Rome" by Mike Duncan is brilliant.

Matera to Velletri via Alberobello

The plan was to go to Alberobello on Sunday to see the Trulli style houses, but general fatigue overtook us and so we declared it  a lay day instead.  So finally we stirred ourselves and went for a walk to a nearby quarry that had been turned into a sculpture park.

There was an honesty box at the entrance but the wasps flying into and out of the box made me opt for dishonesty!

So  plan b was to go to Alberobello on the way to Valletri..it would add a couple of hours, but....the style of building is confined to a very localised area around Alberobello and is due to a tax on houses...this is/was a style that could be knocked down with ease becoming just a pile of stones.  Thwarting the tax man is a universal sport!

rural type..a place for tools and equipment

genuine house with lady just leaving it

close up on brick work

tourist road

so then it was off up north..to cloudy, humid and later on very very wet weather.  Our house is  more than just a bit higher up the cost level than is my usual...I must have made a mistake!!  4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and the following ....study, conservatory, TV room, proper dining room, lounge room...all set in 2 acres of walled garden with a security gate and security guard!!!!!...I've not yet dared to check how much I paid!

Sicily to Matera

So we farewelled Sicily just before the heatwave weekend struck!

my boarding school was closely linked with the Bronte sisters, so this photo had to be included.

Secured hut on Etna..the bus stop!

Etna from above Randazzo...taken at the conclusion of my hill efforts training day

there were 2 places in Messina where we could board a ferry and we opted for the closest one, although we'd probably arrive 30 mins early.  Signage for this dock was spectacularly poor/missing..the sort of signage for people who already know where to go! After circling x 3 we finally got there only to mistakenly go through the trucks' ticket office..ie I had to get out the car  and pretty well do  the high jump to give the man our ticket.  We then circled around again, nearly boarded the wrong ferry and  finally turned out to be the only car amongst 12 trucks, 6 of which were tankers..we felt dwarfed.

Arriving in Matera we followed the directions on the web site via my smart phone and arrived at totally the wrong place! I phoned the owner to say we'd arrived, thinking we had and finally  20 minutes later he turned up...the delay was because  he couldn't reply to me as my phone number is a UK one.  Actually had he known it he could have but  he needed to  chop off the +country number bit. I have a sneaking suspicion that we are not the first to go to the wrong place as he knew where to find us!

outside/verandah sitting area

a well stocked kitchen/dining/sitting room

Anyhow the house is perfect..AC, free wifi, 2 bedrooms, TV for TdF watching and the kitchen was stacked with loads of food, drinks and welcome gifts. So...along with it's location, this house joins Ulle's in Cortina and Isabella's in Feltre as being THE most welcoming of all we've been to, ticking ALL of the boxes below.

Points are given for:
1. correctness of advertising..ie 2 bedrooms being 2 bedrooms, flat screen TV, AC, free (and generous bandwidth) WiFi
2. location...not too remote
3. etcs in the kitchen...condiments are the bare essentials we expect..who travels around with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar FFS? but other stuff is nice too..eg some fruit, bottles of water/juice/milk etc etc
4. and finally no dramas about having our bikes inside

I've learned to closely note the pix on the website..especially what is NOT shown. also what is promised..ie if alot is made of the provision of a hairdryer then what is not  provided!!  however as is evident from our Torre del Greco experience, I'm still learning!

One of the places we rented expected us to bring our own TV!!! truly..I kid you not.

Matera:  http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/basilicata/matera.html

cave houses carved into the rock and lived in by the poorest right up until  the 1950s..now a tourist attraction and some are expensive BnBs.

Our photos don't do it justice..not only due to our crap photography skills but also due to the glare of the  sun on pale coloured rock at close to midday:

one of the bigger renovated houses

looking down at the various levels - unrenovated houses

chimneys in the foreground of houses on the lower level

churches abound and this huge sasso/rock  houses one of them

doorway in the foreground to one of the cave  houses

caves on the far side of the Gravina  ravine

there's a foot bridge down there somewhere!

even a panoramic shot can't get it all in