June 22

The calendar says that summer has arrived and this part of Italy has noticed. We are having cloudless skies and the temperatures are rising to the mid-70's. The shorts are back out.

We thought we might be able to get a British breakfast at the  downstairs restaurant (we had seen a sign earlier). But we were too late.

There is a cute house on a hill above the town that Linda wanted to take a picture. She convinced me we could find it by walking through town. Of course, most of the way was uphill, but we set out for about an hour. As we discovered later in the car, we got close but no cigar.

Good views of the town below us.


































Garages built into the sides of the hills and houses with grass on their roofs.





On our way back to the resort we knew we were in trouble. It was after 12:00 and most of the shops and restaurants were closed. We found a snack shop and I ordered what I thought was a vegetable sandwich to share. Not even close. It was a ham sandwich, containing a couple of pieces of ham - that's it. But, it was good enough to energize us.

In the car we found the house along our main road (SS42) and then decided to explore some more. We left the town on a different road and headed up towards Pezzo and then to what turned out to be a national park and a place at the end called Case di Viso. Along the way we found some cows who wanted their pictures taken.

And another with her baby.


























It turned out to be an old village that may be available as rentals. 

Some of the houses were being restored. In the States, we may have referred to something like this as colonial.










We walked down one road and back up the next. That was it.


















A small bar/cafe just in case you needed a ham sandwich and a beer.














And, of course, a chapel and some odd things like two beavers making out and Bill trying to horn in.

And a tribute memorial to all from the area who had died fighting. We don't know when or where. It looks like the eagle is flying just above but its really attached to the stones.

On our way down, we wandered through a couple of towns with some very narrow streets. This is when you pull in your side mirrors so you don't lose them.

Later in the early evening we drive out to a cutesy looking restaurant that we had passed earlier. It looked nice but the owner told us we were too early for dinner. It was 5:30 and dinner would not be served until 7:00. I love Italy, but this eating on-schedule is annoying. Many, not all, shops and restaurants close during the middle of the day. Even grocery stores. As an American, this is very different for us who expect everything to be open all the time and to cater to us. I guess its called spoiled.

So, we ended up in town at a snack bar and ordered a hamburger each with an order of fries and beer and wine. The meat looked like mystery meat. We wondered if it was horse. But, the sandwich had lettuce, tomato, onion, and ketchup on it so you couldn't really tell what the taste was. 




This was obviously a bar for the locals. As we ate, we watched workers come in for a snack and a beer. No tourists.

After finishing that, we drove over a few streets and for some silly reason we stopped at a Gelateria and each ordered a crepe with Nutella. Linda added caramel to hers.

As you can see, one is enormous. I had one the same size. We knew we were in trouble, but we both finished our pieces. Afterwards, we felt horrible. Just too much food. Stuffed, stuffed, stuffed. Sugar, sugar, sugar. Linda was up until 1:00 with stomach aches. Why do we do these things?