Hotel Posta Norcia

... today. That has to be my favorite saint. Very busy here even though end of season. No wireless interent. We have one more day and we start home. I think we are ready to get home. It has been beautiful here and I have learned so much, but all good things must come to an end. See you all next week I hope.

... which we generally need for food and shelter!) how much help can we really give people? We don't speak the language, and certainly don't know the area! But it just so happened that this girl was looking for the hostel, the one place we did know! She had been walking around searching for hours, and was on the phone (the source of the light) with a woman at the hostel who was trying to direct her. She was almost in tears, and kept telling us how "terrified" she was, and how it ...

... more of a motel than a hotel but we liked it.

Dinner was alfresco at the hotel and we had more success with wine discovering a lovely Italian cabernet sauvignon which we continued to enjoy after dinner. We all gathered for drinks under the moonlight out the front of our hotel after dinner and it turned into quite a late night. We really enjoyed ourselves though, getting to know people better and having some good laughs.

... lunch we stumbled on a look-out and found a little Italian family having lunch there as well. We scouted a grassy spot under some trees and laid out our quilt and had lunch. We drank our chilled white wine while eating our pecorino cheese, prosciutto, fresh bread and juicy peaches. I took pictures, Marty read until we both dozed off, while hearing the happy sounds of the Italian family under the bright blue sky and ...

... restaurant to have dinner late, by our standard and arrive a half an hour too early. We had an antipasto as Mike suggested but didn't stop there, we ordered pasta. I had the potato gnocchi with truffles and mascarpone. Marty had the pasta with spicy red sauce. Stuffed with doggy bags in hand, we staggered back down the hill in the cool night air.

... a friend of Mike and Jill’s, drives us to their house near Campello sul Clitunno. We get the full on Italian driving experience and happily arrive in one piece. After a shower and a snack of Mike’s freshly made antipasto of fresh mozzarella, garden tomatoes and homemade pesto, we felt a thousand times better.

Then to dinner with their friends of ex-pats, artist and poets at the local tattoria for more ...

the francescan monks must have been part mountain goat.this palce is unbelievably hilly.also it poured with rain and thundered and we got drenched.we slept in an 1800 year old nunnery in single beds of course
we went to the church of saint claira and saw her tomb

We are excited to visit the Basilicas of two famous saints, for which both have cities named after them in the Bay Area. San Francisco was named after St. Francis by the Franciscan monks and Santa Clara was named after St Clare. Both St Francis and St Clare were born into wealthy and powerful families and both turn their backs to ...

... get any wider, and what with roadworks, was quite slow to Ascoli Piceno. Beautiful scenery however, and Arquata del Tronto high on the left and Acquasanta Terme (where the legions used to rest after the mountain crossing), make the journey interesting. The sky on this side of the mountains was clearing and it was becoming quite warm, and by the time we reached Ascole Piceno (ass-colly pish-ino), we had our first clear sky. We followed the signs to "centro". We had a map of the town ...

... book, even though it was midday, and we were going to return at 1.00 pm. As she explained, there only appeared to be a dozen tables outside in the street, and it could get busy. We wandered the streets for an hour, checking out the Piazza. Interesting church that had been built on top of the first floor of a Roman building-probably a temple. On the opposite side is a rather austere castle. Not realy into turrets etc, just a big blockhouse. The dozens of alimentari all have boars ...