Today we did one of my favorite things – unloading. We spent 1.5 hours in the post office packing up 2 boxes, listing all the contents, doing all the forms, to send home all the things we no longer needed after the hiking. The guy in the post office – the only one – was so nice, patient and knew enough English that we got through it. We’ll see what gets home. And by the time we were, done there was a gathering of about 10 people behind us, all sitting on the benches, chatting, laughing, knowing who was which number in the line. Then they waved and smiled as we left, bless those hapless Americans…
We had a few more hours before Sharon, Cathy, and Leaf came from Rome to pick us up (!) so we went back to the hotel and repeated our wonderful morning of quiet by the pool.
Then, here they came – so fun meeting friends in Italy! We loaded our things into the car, then walked into town to have lunch at the same place, this time with Cathy interpreting when it got a bit confusing. Then we drove out of Tuscany into Umbria. It continues to be beautiful, it feels a little less groomed, more fields that are a bit less cultivated, and maybe a bit drier – but not this week! Rain expected every day so we’ll just work around it.
We got to our tower – hah! Really, it’s absolutely crazy, but this is our VRBO rental for the week. We couldn’t believe it even though we’d obviously seen the photos on line. It’s so beautiful. We walked around the property with Katia, the wonderful person who manages the property for Emma Villas. The grounds were immacately kept, roses, a pool (way too cold) and we just enjoyed looking at the outside. Then inside – 8 bedrooms – 4 of which are in the tower stacked on top of each other. And it’s so quiet! Outside and inside, the walls are thick and the doors are inches wide of solid wood. Very cool. Sharon said downright spooky when in it alone when the rest of us walked to Panicale, a few kilometers away.
The sitting room where we spend time when not eating and the view from the balcony that we don’t go on – too cold, but pretty out the window!
The dining room and living room where we don’t go – too cold and odd smell, cleaning? But fun to see on the first walk through:
Where we spend most of our time:
Panicale is another medieval town, tiny, wonderful. I want to go back, sit in the plaza with a decaf (descafeinada) and watch the town. When we walked through the town, around 6, there were about 2 people out and we were walking, not dawdling (I like dawdling), so didn’t stick around to see if more would come out. We think people live here, but this has been a pretty common pattern in a fair number of towns. So well kept, clean, cared for gardens and no people. But then we drove through the next morning around 10:30 and there were a ton of cars. Clearly a rhythm of living that we haven’t figured out. Saw the sunset from the plaza in Panicale:
And sunset on our walk back – first one I’ve seen since arriving here, beautiful:
Roadside shrine:
And back to the drive up to the house, oh, sorry, tower:
We got back to the tower and we all layered in all the thin clothes we had and huddled in the kitchen for a wonderful dinner of salad and ad hoc of cheeses and hams (I’ll have eaten a full pig by the time I leave, sigh) and crackers. We finally figured out it was possible to turn on the radiator the next morning – so at least the kitchen is a bit warm. Towers and castles are cold. Katia had told us that if we wanted to turn on the heat, it could be between 200-500 euros for the week. Whatever we turned was a small system and only does a few key areas, kitchen and sitting room.
Here’s the history of “our” torre, Torre d’Orlando, courtesy of the owners: The tower is all that remains of the ancient castle of old Paciano, which was one of the most important in the area of Lake Trasimeno as it is situated on the old road which takes you from Perugia via Panicale to Chiusi. It is first mentioned in 917 (well, no wonder it’s hard to heat). In 1312, there was a new ruler of the area. Then, in the early 1400’s, Bartolomeo I di Felcino Armani, the husband of Sismonba di Cola Bartolini used her dowry of 800 gold florins to purchase the property.
In 1434, the Tower was under the Papal rule of Eugenio IV who gave the responsibility of rebuilding the castle to Tanrrebi I Bourbon and from then on it was passed down through the generations to today.
Amazing. Cold, but amazing. Rick said it’s wonderful, but probably won’t use ideas from here as we plan for our house…
Reb's Walks! 