early morning gunshot

Sunday 19th September I was woken abruptly this morning by gunshot, causing me to leap from my bed. The shot sounded really close, and for a few moments I was quite disorientated, and had to think where I was. I looked across at Angie still sound asleep in her bed, probably exhausted from being kept awake in the night by my snoring. I walked across to the window and quietly pulled open the heavy shutters, outside the early morning sun shone hazily through a thick violet mist which had enveloped the old monastery and the surrounding countryside, it appeared quite eerie. Our bedroom window directly overlooked the parking area outside the walls of the hotel, and there were several trucks and cars with hunters unloading their dogs and guns.  I stood quietly for a couple of minutes watching them, a few more trucks and cars crept through the mist their tires crunching on the gravel driveway, they parked and unloaded more guns and dogs, then one of the hunters looked up and caught sight of me standing there in the window, he gave me a lovely smile and waved, "buongiorno Signora" he called.  "Buongiorno" I called back, then suddenly he started speaking rapid Italian, and I had absolutely no clue what he was saying, although I'm sure it was nice because he was still smiling.  I shrugged and with a smile said "English, spiacente, non parlo Italiano"(one of the few Italian phrases I had learnt, meaning, sorry I don't speak Italian).  The hunter shrugged, smiled and turned back to follow his dogs. "Who are you talking to?" Angie said rousing herself from her sleep.  "The hunters" I replied.  I watched  as they slung the guns casually over their shoulders and followed the dogs that were all running excitedly off towards the forest and disappearing like ghosts into the morning mist... We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel before packing and checking out.  In hindsight I should have called this blog "packing and unpacking", its all I seem to have done for the past four years, and this vacation is no different, but its how I organized it, and so far the plan has worked brilliantly. We drove away from the hotel, back down the steep, narrow road and suddenly came through the mist as if out of a cloud.  Looking back, the top of the hill was completely engulfed in white cloud. We had enjoyed a lovely stay at Badia di Pomaio, and a truly wonderful meal in their fabulous restaurant.  I would stay here again quite happily.