[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 17 - the Road to Umbria
Today was more of a travel day than anything else. We rolled out of Imola at ten and headed south through the hills to our new digs in Umbria. The drive was easy and two hours later, we had found the villa (actually a restored "casa colonica" or medieval farmhouse.) I am still not sure about the "colonica" part of that as it sounds a bit clinical, but I don't write the language, I just report it! The house is built of stone, of course, and perches on a hillside about 700 meters away from the tiny village of San Giovanni del Pantano (SGP) which has all of 130 inhabitants ... and no restaurants!
Since we weren't expected until 5pm, we went exploring in the direction of Lake Trasimeno. We poked into a few small towns and found nothing of particular interest, so pressed on to the little town of San Feliciano on the shores of the lake where we found a table under the trees in a little restaurant. Their wine list was surprisingly good and the prices very reasonable. This was our first day without pizza -- a difficult withdrawal.
The next order of business was to pick up a stock of goodies for the house. Shopping is always an adventure, particularly when you can't read any of the signs or packages, but we managed to fill all the empty space in the car with beer, wine, bread, cheese, paper towels, coffee and the basic essentials of survival. A short jaunt back to SGP
The villa we have rented for the week is called Gudiolo and dates from the 14th century when it was probably a watch tower guarding a valley that was a main passage between the cities of Umbertide and Perugia, in an area the Etruscans once ruled. In fact, there were important findings of Etruscan bronze figures from around 600 BC made in the hill just across the valley. The house was restored in 1989. The main building has four bedrooms and three full baths on three levels. There are another three bedrooms and a bath in the tower. The ceilings are heavily timbered (to support the stone floors), there are funky little winding stairways between the floors. The upper bedroom suite has a huge fireplace and a sitting room. This is the third house we have rented from Summers Leases in the UK. All have been great but this is the best so far.
We are sharing the house with Mike and Jeannie Dunn, soon-to-be-neighbors in Gig Harbor and their daughter-in-law Wendy Sorensen. They arrived (in a Jaguar, no less!) shortly after we go to the house. After a bit of nesting, we retired to the covered terrace overlooking the valley for wine, cheese, Italian ham and other munchies. For most, this turned out to be dinner.
Marv and I were still a little hungry, so we set off about 9pm to find a local restaurant. It appears that Sunday evening is not the best time to find a dining spot. We ended up in the town of Umbertide about 20 km away (12 miles) where we found a restaurant that was jumping. However, it turned out to be a private party and they turned us away. After driving around in the dark for awhile and missing several turns, we finally found our way back to the villa, well-traveled but still hungry. Ah well, as they say in Italia, there's always domani.
Gudiolo -- our villa in Umbria
© 2003 Restaurant Doctor