Day 10: from Siena to Perugia

Just like the previous two mornings, the alarm went off at 7:15, because I had told Pierre we would take breakfast at 8:30.  He slept in this morning, but like the previous mornings, his mother Therese had cooked up a storm for us.  Breakfast today included the usual omelet with some garden greens and homegrown tomatoes, crepes (because she's French), yogurt, breakfast bruschetta with sausage and cheese, and tiramisu, which may have been a leftover from the dinner last night (we ate dinner at a restaurant in Siena the previous evening).

Saying goodbye to each other was a bit emotional, with all of us having a tear, she was that sweet, a French woman who had aged gracefully in Italy, to perhaps her mid-60s, now widowed and living on an Italian farm that might be fading away, along with the family history.  We hugged, she kissed us on each cheek, and she said things in French.  She speaks no English, only Italian and French, so I used my iPad to translate our appreciation for having us in her home, with her hospitality and her fantastic cooking.  She felt like a European mother or grandmother to me.

We headed east, stopping at a village on Lake Trasimeno for espresso, bathroom, leg stretching, and a FaceTime chat with my sister in PA.  Continued on to Perugia where the castle we have booked is beyond our expectations.  Of course, we got slightly lost, but the iPad with the local cellular data sim saved my bacon once again.  We also have a Garmin GPS unit that I loaded with 
Italy maps before leaving the US, but the GPS has not been helpful, and the iPad has been almost spot on.  I'm using it almost constantly, draining the battery each day, and so far in 10 days, have used only 780 MB, and my card is good for 5 GB in 30 days, I think, for a cost of 35 euro, about $47.  The GPS unit displays Italy map data, but usually shows us as being off course.  Perhaps the satelites here are not as accurate.

BTW, Jamie and Leesa, we found the perfect location for your next lake home.

Now checked into the hotel - yep, staying in a CASTLE!

You know it's a swanky place when the bath tissue carries the brand:

But then I quickly hillbillied the place up by washing a few things in the bidet:

And stretching the travel clothesline through the bathroom to hang my few laundry items on:

We wandered the castle grounds and took many photos.  Here's a few:

After exploring the grounds of the hotel/Castle, I convinced Jenae that we should get back into the boxy diesel standard transmission car and come into town for wine and recon.  Traffic was tricky, I got lost, but finally found parking, we walked up steep hills, and now we are in the university district, drinking white wine (white wine is the main wine in Umbria, compared to Tuscany, where the local wine is red) and eating complementary snacks at a bar right next to the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, which we'll visit tomorrow.  It's raining outside, we're sitting next to an open window with a lightly cool and damp breeze, but it all feels great, especially knowing the drought that awaits our return to Texas in a few days.

Everywhere are hills.  For example, to get to the part of town in which we now sit, we took many steep flights of stairs up from our parking spot, then to get to this bar from the street, we walked down a steep alley, and now we sit at an open window, looking down into a 3 story courtyard.

Me, writing some notes for the evening's blog entry:

Complimentary snacks served with our wine, to make us stay longer:

As we walked, storm clouds started forming, and here you can see the falling rain in the center of the photo:

To close, I want to relate this story: the young woman who works as a waitress at the bar asked where we are from, and I answered, "Texas, in the United States".  With a big smile, she explained that she is from Kosovo, and she and many other people are grateful to the US for our intervention in the Serbian conflicts during the mid and late 1990s.  That conversation, along with the hugs, smiles, and tears from Therese at the B&B, made for memorable personal connections.