[Itinerary Page][Top] [Email Restaurant Doctor]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 19 - getting to Todi
I don't know if getting there is half the fun or not, but after the way my year has gone so far, getting in a plane has sort of lost its newness for me! Still, the Air France flight from Boston to Paris was remarkably easy. Eat a good meal, get some sleep, eat a good breakfast, done! After that, it got interesting.
Our connecting flight from Paris to Rome was scheduled to leave at 7:15am, 45 minutes after we arrived in Paris -- tight but workable, I was told. It started off great -- someone at the end of the ramp with a sign directing us to a shuttle bus that would take us to the proper terminal and someone on the bus checking off our names on the passenger manifest. Looking good! Then we hit a mob at passport control. Slow lines, everybody running late. We were getting close to flight time but we already had the boarding passes, no checked luggage and it was still looking do-able. We got to the gate five minutes before the flight was supposed to leave . . . and were told that they had closed it out 30 minutes before! Makes me wonder what someone was thinking when they booked us for that connection. (Also makes me wonder why I didn't notice how close the connection was sooner!)
After another half hour in another line, we got seats to Rome on an 11am flight. (I just love long lay-overs, particularly after not having any real bed-type sleep for 30 hours!) We met Kenn and Elizabeth Gray at the Rome airport, leaped into our rental car and got out of Dodge! About two hours later we were in the hills of Umbria, outside the ancient town of Todi. What a remarkable decompression!
The villa we rented is called Il Furioso. It has five bedrooms, four baths . . . and two couples in residence! The rental agency describes it as "A characterful family house, with wide views across marvelously layered hills crowned by castles and villages, just 8 km north of fairy-tale Todi. Owned by an Italian Marchesa, this is a happily complicated, multi-layered house which means that even the largest group will never feel cramped. There's a well bred, slightly faded elegance about the place: the kitchen is well equipped, the sofas comfy and well used. Set in 8 acres of land bordering the river Tiber, you'll find a host of birds and wild flowers on your walks while the terraces and pool round off Il Furioso to provide a winning combination of peaceful retreat with ready access for exploring the many delights of Central Italy."
You can check out this joint below.
[Itinerary Page][Top] [Email Restaurant Doctor]
© 2001 Restaurant Doctor