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

Sicily

Our house/apartment near Catania is a two bedroomed, air conditioned, free internet, smart TV dream place and with a washing machine too!.  A perfect place apart from the  initial poor reception of Rai 3, the channel that has the Tour de France on and a rather strange smell in the kitchen! however until the TV was fixed  we watched the tour on live streaming  and ignored the smell😉.

The ferry over  was smooth sailing in all ways..no need to book, one every 30 minutes, for us it was just a 10 minute wait on arrival, and not overly expensive.  We managed to get within coo-ee of the house before having to ring for guidance and then after being shown around went out to the nearest supermarket to load up for a week of healthy eating.

We had no special plan for the week apart from Etna..first riding and then later driving and going up as far as we could (definitely NOT the 5 hour walk though!).  Oh..and avoiding Taormina!!

So map studying took place and the next day, up bright and early, we set off.  close to 1 hour later and 500m higher we finally got to the base of the climb, by which time I was already somewhat tired and told Alex, I'd not make the top.  He was to go up and find me on his way down, which is exactly what happened.

 The next day we drove up to the highest point we could, took the funicular, then a bus and finally a walk around a crater.  This particular crater is 20 years old,with 20 metres of volcanic debris; the steam emitting from it in places makes for a great  hand warmer!  The most recent activity (2017) was of a lesser amount and that debris is already cold right through.

by the time we got to the far ridge we were in a bit of a white out

the volcano equivalent of graffiti or leaving a padlock

different colour=different minerals

seen from the road...on the way up/down

Etna seen from  the north side north:

bit of snow still there and locals use the stone for walls,houses..everything

the following day we went to Castelmola..sadly Etna was under clouds so we didn't get the reported "eye popping" views.  Castelmola is above Taormina..the latter being a tourist trap++ great for visiting in either the early hours of the day or, as I did years ago, in early May