Verona
SLOVENIA
4
Venice
1
CROATIA
The second leg
Florence
2
Corsica
Tuscany to Umbria
5 Adriatic Perugia
Sea
I QUICKLY ROME LEARNED
not to confuse Tuscany with Umbria. I don’t really understand the essential differences, but it was best not to disagree with our very agreeable hosts. I collected Toby from Perugia airport; he was the only Naples person there. We zigzagged up a hill north of Assisi to visit the Agriturismo Alla Madonna del Piatto. Letizia and Ruurd rescued it from ruin decades ago and are rewarded daily by gentle views down the valley and up to the back of Assisi, whose Basilica is almost all you see. The house is heated entirely by wood burned in a super-high-tech boiler. The rooms are lovely in an elegantly rustic way, and the house is heavy with dignified age. This was a fine welcome for Toby. We lunched in Assisi and wandered around, spellbound by the scale and dignity of it all. A shame that we had no Palermo time for Perugia too; the lovely city, home to Perugino, which endlessly fought with itself and everyone and unleashed the Flagellants upon the world. Montone was our home for the night, another Sicily perfectly formed village on a hill. There we met Nicole and Zoe, tired from the Rimini Travel Fair, and dined in style with Giancarlo, the owner. He owns La Locanda del Capitano hotel, and it vibrates with his energy. A Pugliese before he is Umbrian, larger than life and devoted to cooking great food, Giancarlo tookMALTA us by storm. Toby describes our dinner opposite; it was ravishing. We were entertained to drinks and a ravishing fruit tart by Andreas, in his gorgeous house just below
6
Sardinia
Tyrrhenian Sea
ari
nean Sea
Montone. Twenty Members came along to meet us, to discuss their lives and to advise us. Gosh – the Italians talk! I am used to chairing meetings in England, but was Bari thrown by the startling ‘energy’ that Italians have when engaged in group conversation. Toby rose to the occasion and ploughed through the thicket of conflicting ideas and comments. It was great fun – and hard to tear Lecce ourselves away.
As we left to make our way to Verona, we were warned of thunderstorms and blocked roads back in Umbria.
A jewel in the crown
Todi, long-beloved by visitors and with a near-perfect mediaeval piazza, could be seen from our next home – the Tenuta di Canonica. Tenuta means ‘estate’, so the building is but the jewel in a larger crown. The base of one wall is Roman, and the once-upon-a-time stone watch-tower has been restored to perfection. Daniele and Maria, banker and designer, have filled the house with period pieces and books, rugs and pictures of rare good taste. Yet it still feels like home, even to us who are not quite used to such elegance. There we came together with eight of our 12 Italian inspectors, a most engaging bunch of women. One, Ellen, was a stand-up comedienne in a former life. Another, Lois, runs archeological tours in Tuscany. Young Caroline has married Luca and settled among his family in distant Basilicata where she has become a local power-house of initiative. They are all devoted to Italy, and love meeting so many interesting people. Their sheer variety gives us the eclecticism of our places for which we are known.
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Beautiful blue
“We zigzagged up a hill north of Assisi to visit the Agriturismo Alla Madonna del Piatto”
Sawday’s Magazine | sawdays.co.uk
24/03/2014 8:44 pm