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.

On to Arezzo

After our wonderfully decadent lunch, we headed back to the car stopping along the way in the little shops to admire all the wonderful fruits and vegetables, cheese's, meats, breads and pastas all produced locally.  The food here is so good, I would have enjoyed filling a basket with all the goodies to take home with me, but I settled for a small bag of blue striped farfalle.  In the little piazza a local man was sitting on the church steps with his Jackdaw, which was hopping around his shoulders and up and down his arms, as tame as could be.  We stopped to take some photographs before moving on.

Back in the car we headed out of Montepulciano on the 454 to Laviano where we joined a wonderfully scenic road to Cortona.  Both Angie and I were keen to see the hill town of Cortona as its the home of Francis Mayes, the author of "Under the Tuscan Sun" among other books.  Her descriptions of the town and surrounding areas made it sound truly delightful, it was just another place not to be missed.
Once again we didn't have time to venture inside the city walls, we drove around for a while but with the afternoon light beginning to fade we forgot the side roads and quickly joined the S71, fast route to Arezzo.
This was definitely the largest town we had encountered so far, quite industrial, and much flatter than any of our previous towns.

The directions I had to our hotel were horrible, and needless to say we got terribly lost; even using lulu we couldn't locate it.  In desperation, after driving around in circles for about an hour, we pulled into a gas station to ask for directions, not an easy task bearing in mind neither of us spoke any Italian, but Angie is never deterred by such unimportant issues as language.  At the gas station several people came over very keen to help, not a word of English was spoken between them, but with my trusty map, hand signals and much patience Angie managed to get a rough idea of the location of the hotel.

I still don't know how we found it, and I honestly don't think I could find it again if I returned, but find it we did, eventually, up a long and very narrow, winding road, through the woods, three miles from the historic center of Arezzo.
Our four star hotel "Badia di Pomaio",  in the La Badia area, turned out to be a beautifully restored, ancient 17th century monastery.  The hotel has seventeen rooms, two fabulous restaurants, a pool and gorgeous grounds, not to mention the breathtaking panoramic view of Arezzo.

Our room was quite lovely, it had heavily beamed ceilings, two comfortable twin beds, a large marble bathroom, a writing desk in a nook off the bedroom, and a small sitting-room.  The huge windows overlooked the countryside and mountains in the distance.

I took a shower while Angie headed out to explore the hotel and grounds.
That night we dined in the hotel's main restaurant, and once again the food and wine was really spectacular.
Today was definitely my favorite day of our trip so far, each day I don't think it can get any better, and each day I'm surprised.  Italy truly is a country to fall in love with...


For more information or details on this hotel go to:   www.badiadipomaio.net  and click on "translate this page" to choose English,
or:   www.hotelbadiadipomioarezzo.it