This morning was more like a vacation than traveling. We lounged around the place, reading, writing and relaxing. Last night’s late night and the joy of solitude had us feeling lazy. Assisi was two hours away, Orvieto was one hour ten minutes away and both on our to see list. But, we just couldn’t summon the energy to make the 5 hour or 3 hour round trip. Instead, about 1:00 pm, we headed out the door, determined to drive to a couple of hill towns and see the countryside.
Jeff was on his way to see Joel in the hospital in Mannheim, Germany. He was scheduled to arrive about 12:30 pm, but we had not heard from him yet. We got one short message early in the morning, an answer to my question as to the quality of the wifi that was supposed to be available on the bus . . . broken. This accounts for why we have not heard from him.
We began driving up the valley, the same route we have been taking for the wedding, then turned of and head down the valley of the Orcia river. After about 25 minutes, we decided we had gone too far and should have made a turn. We were trying to follow a Rick Steves driving tour backwards, and missed the turn. At our turn around I did not have cell reception, so we retraced our route until we reached a likely intersection. Here I stopped, discovered I had cell service and used Google Maps to discover our route. Now we were on the right path. We stopped at a chic Tuscan Restaurant, then followed a gravel road to carry us to the town of Monticchiello. We were a bit low on gas, the light was coming on. From here, we made the short 10 Km drive to Pienza and found a gas station. We walked through the town, buying a gift or two for friends, then headed back to our place in Bagni San Filippo. It was now about 4:30 pm.
Sally cooked a delicious dinner of green salad with spinach ravioli, then we put on our swim suits and head down over the hill to the hot springs. A few nights ago with Andy, Jeff, Brian, Tabitha and Emily we had found a pool that was warm, but not hot. Since then, we had explored the pools and found some hotter ones. These are the ones we headed for. We found one that was about the same temperature as the hot tub back home, maybe a degree or two hotter. We alternated between it and the pool in the warm river flowing by. Super hot, then cooling. A couple of cycles and we were ready to stagger back up the hill to our home.
We had to be out early in the morning for our drive to Rome, so we spent a few minutes tidying up the place, sorting out our remaining food and packing. We had to drive the two and one half hours to Rome, and be there by 10:30 am to turn in the rental car, but since I had scraped the passengers door against a rock and scratched the paint, we hoped to get there a little early to work out the details with the rental company “Europcar”.
We have heard no news on Joel today, other than he is still in the hospital. His surgery was cancelled yesterday due to lack of circulation in his big toe, which is not good. Jeff says he is doing good, but tired of not seeing well and being in that room. Amen to that.
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