Our friends Rod and Merry from our world cruise blessed us with their presence last week. They just finished a segment of this years world cruise and decided to stop by for a short holiday.
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| SHORT holiday (get it?) |
Thankfully, the worst of my illness was gone and all I had left was a barking cough. This left time to enjoy with our friends.
Merry and I went on quite a few trips to see the local used markets. In one I even bought some furniture that was delivered and installed on a Sunday no less. The proprietor threw in a necklace, a teaspoon, a cheese board and some old Italian recipe cards that we had also hunted down. A very nice place that I am sure to return to. We carried on with this running around to used markets almost every day they were here. Merry loves thrifting and if I'm honest, I do too. There are a few things I want yet for the castle, and I think it better if they are period pieces. At the end of the day we visited the town over on the next mountain top and had a wonderful time.
George and Rod assembled puzzles and did a bunch of stuff with the 3d printers. Rod also solved a very tiny puzzle. Since he's a watch repairman, he even had a loop to use!
On Saturday we had a friend of a friend show up and they took us to La Scarzurola. A very strange place is all I have to say. But after reading about it, it became more interesting. I would recommend that you go with an english guide. The Italian one went a bit wack-a-doodle and started talking about excrement and the dark web at one point. Not at all what we expected.
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| Babylon |
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| He couldn't help himself |
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| Yes, that little imp is me. |
When we returned to the castle, we had a nice game of Italian rails before Rod and Merry came back from their adventures.
That night we had dinner at Masolino and the highlight for us all I think was the dessert sampler platter that we ordered. Ok. Not a sampler, but rather one of each. We all took a bite and passed the plate. Yummy! The next day we had a late lunch and they took their leave.
While they were here, Rod and Merry took a rid around lake Trasimeno. Merry wanted to go to Civita di Bagnoregio so the next day, I kidnapped her and we went for a ride. This city is truly amazing, and I really enjoy taking people there. The bridge though is hard for me to cross. Merry very kindly put a hand on my arm and reassured me all the way. While there, we had a look in one of the local churches and admired the beautiful rose plantings.
But first, we had to stop at Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo. I'll admit it, I only knew of this place through a photo of Berrocal taken many years back. Talk about a weird one! I can't wait to go back and take George with me. I'm sure he will love the sculptures.
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| Cerberus let me through |
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| Inside the Sacra Boca |
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| A vision of Hannibal's elephants |
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| The crooked house |
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| The Rape of the Sabine |
Merry and Rod came for a relaxing vacation, but I'm afraid I ran them ragged while they were here. We love them dearly and are looking forward to our trip to England to visit with them next year. For Rod and Merry's views on their trip and some really great photos, have a look here.
Two days after they left we had yet another visitor. Matt came for a few days on his whirlwind tour of Europe. I took him on the grand tour of the WPC which took around 4 hours. After which we headed to Masolino for dinner. They very nicely gave us a tour of the cave after our meal.
Matt spent some time with George doing some 3d printing and made a few simple puzzles. Matt had previously asked us for some dovetails that we made, but George couldn't find the files. In the end we found one that was close and printed that.
The next day Matt and I headed to Castiglione del Lago to climb the tower and see the sites.
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| Heading into the tunnel |
No pizzas at lunch time so we stopped by a local market and picked one up. It was ok. Not great, but not bad. Next time Matt. Hopefully we will have a car that will hold us all. That night we opted for Gallo and of course I made him eat the egg dish. He also enjoyed it. Oh, and did I forget that we had a "dessert sampler"? After the night at Masolino, I wanted to do it again. I ordered one of each and boy was that good!
The final morning Matt was with us, we took a walk around the town and I showed him our lovely area. He too enjoyed the peace and I'm sure he will be back.
This post is terribly late because of all of the visitors and then the work that is going on in the museum. After Matt left, we had to do a rush job to get the prints put into the elevator shaft before the elevator was installed.
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| Antonio installs a print |
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| The elevators have arrived from Spain |
And sometime in all of this, the Pro Loco had a historic event in Panicale and used the dungeon for part of it.
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| Don't we look like we are being entertained |
And then... On to Germany for a bike trip with OJ (Oskar and José).
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