So our new friend did not disappoint at lunch the following day. We headed down there at the duly appointed time and, with only four other guests in attendance, were treated to a food and wine tasting extravaganza. Of course Don’s first thoughts were “how much is this going to cost!?!”. That was before I kicked him under the table. Who cares!?! There are times when you will be rewarded by just going with the flow, and this is one of those times.
I already forget how much it was – not that much.
Back at our hotel there is this wonderful vintage picture of a grape harvest parade.
All there was left to do was wait for our much anticipated dinner at our favourite restaurant in the world, Ristoro di Lamole. We have been there at least six times (twice on one trip) and it never disappoints. One of the owners, Phillipo, who has always served us, took one look at me and said “oh. My. God!”. Grabbed my hand and when he saw Don his also and commented that Don’s moustache hadn’t changed!
Yep – we’re back! And we’ll have our usual starters: pear and pecorino ravioli in brown butter, pacchieri with mushrooms and truffles.
The sun set during our meal was spectacular.
As we neared the end of the meal, Fillipo reminded us to save a little room for the. . . And he pointed at me to finish the sentence . . . LIMONCELLO!!
We did not have a repeat performance of the year that we pretty much finished the whole bottle of complementary limoncello, but we enjoyed a glass each before rolling down the hill to our hotel, only about five minutes drive away.
This morning we headed for Assisi. Travel days are not always our best days and for some reason Google Maps thought we should take the scenic route over the hills and onto Don’s new favourite, narrow winding gravel roads.
Jumping forward 2.5 hours, we caught sight of our destination: Assisi
So close, we could almost taste it.
Back on speaking terms, we wound our way up through the town, following Google’s instructions faithfully. Until it said we were there and there didn’t seem to be a there there.
“We passed it”. “What do we do now?” “Find a place to park and I will walk back to see where it is.” “I can’t move – the line of cars in front of me is backing up!” “Well then back up!” I shout as a tiny car threatens to back right into us, followed by three giant busses.
So Don does a U-turn on the spot and pulls in, as much as is possible, to let everyone else go by while we figure out where we are going. The little car zooms by, but the bus driver starts to honk. Not just any honk, but the king of all honks.
Don moves forward a little bit, but he is not going anywhere without his navigator and I am out of the car by this time and about twenty feet behind him and the bus. He moves an inch forward,
But not good enough for the bus driver, who wants him to keep going – HONK! HONK HONK!
By this time, I have seen the driveway to our hotel, so am hurrying up and level with the bus and can see that he could just go around – no one is coming the other way – but he doesn’t want to do that. And just at that moment an Italian angel comes out of nowhere, pounds on his door to make the bus driver open it, and gives him holy hell for making so much noise and telling him to just go around for God’s sake – Mamma Mia!!
I joined in in English, yelling – Yeah! Just go around for God’s sake as I passed by him and managed to get parallel with Don to show him the driveway to our hotel, which was right there. Unfortunately by the time I got to him, he was just a few inches too far to make the sharp turn, so we waited ever so patiently for the nasty bus driver to just go around, before making the turn to our own little sanctuary.
Don’s quote of the day: I’m not getting in that car again until we have to leave!
So that’s our little drama for today. The room though – is totally worth it. Check out this view.
We didn’t want to leave. But we were hungry so headed out to find somewhere nearby for a quick bite.
Now we’re back here enjoying our view, a bit of white wine, and just waiting for dinner so we can go to a place someone said had the “best lasagne anywhere”. I sure hope so!
