A Weekend to Relax and Recover and Prepare for What's Next

02/18, Saturday
9:00am came too soon after two days of Rome walking. Housework today. Sandy washed two loads of clothes, I swept the floor and washed dishes having made the bed with fresh linen last night. We get fresh linen and towels weekly and have use of a washing machine right next door.

At 12noon, we walked into Sanfatucchio to the alimentary (grocery, not the ailment store) to pick up a few items for tonight's dinner of Drunken Spaghetti. We hope to take a bus from here to some other hill towns, so we reviewed the bus schedule posted in town. It looks encouraging, but limited. The trattoria in town is closed on Saturday, but we happened on a ristorante pizzeria on the highway running on the edge of town where we split a spaghetti of fresh fruitti del mare. Delizoso e poco costoso! (Delicious and not expensive.) Another nice new find.

It's a good 1-1/2 miles walk home. The weather has improved, temp in the 50s, snow almost melted. At home, we start researching other hill towns to visit in the next 3 weeks. Orvieto, Cortona (Under the Tuscan Sun) and Assisi
are on our preliminary list. Using the iPad, we listened to "No, No, Don't Tell Me!" and WDCB (jazz radio from Glen Ellyn College of DuPage).

Now we're preparing Drunken Spaghetti and listening to "Prarie Home Companion" using the TuneIn Radio app. How great the Internet is and our IPad and Jam Box.

Mom called Sue on Skype, catching her in the car with Maddie coming back from Zach's last hockey game of the season. We tried to reach Molly and Matt, but missed them.

02/19, Sunday
We hoped to catch a bus into C. del Lago today, but they don't seem to run on Sunday. Anyway, we got in some fresh air and exercise, walking into town and back. the trattoria is aperto (open) for Sunday lunch, but they require reservations. We did have a big lunch at the same trattoria as yesterday, further down the hill...gnocchi and ravioli...can it be any more Italian than that? Oh, some local white wine, too.

We worked a long time planning our next two days on Ippy. Using Rick Steves' book, we will train to Orvieto and bus to Civitá del Bagnoregio. Both are less than an hour away (half way to Rome) and have quite a good history.

Tonight's entertainment is the first part of "Mildred Pierce", a series with Kate Winslow, that I watched on the plane from SG. It's about a family during the depression in Glendale, CA. You might like it, too. Ain't the Internet super?