[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 7 - Brisighella > San Giovanni del Pantano
It seems like no matter what adventure lies ahead on these trips, we always have a hard time breaking away from the adventure of the moment. So it is today. Il Palazzo has been a wonderful place to hang out and I wish we could stay for another couple of days. But we have places to go and people to meet.
The final task before we hit the road was to head down to Hector's winery operation for a couple of bottles of his excellent organic Sangiovese. He produces about 10,000 liters of wine a year, both red and white, and his little winery is remarkably well-equipped. I am amazed at how much these wonderful people accomplish with what seems like minimal staff.
The project for today is to drive to Lake Trasimeno and hook up with the two couples from the neighborhood who will be sharing the house with us for the next week. Don and Sharon Krump flew into Pisa yesterday and are picking up Rick and Joanne Chester in Florence this morning. Then the plan is for all of us to connect for lunch in Passignano sul Trasimeno, a lovely little town at the top of the lake.
Much to the delight of all, we connected without a problem ... and from our opening lunch, it is apparent that this is going to be a very fun week! We are fortunate to live on a street with some truly wonderful people and while the common wisdom is not to take an extended trip with people you ever expect to speak to again(!), these folks feel more like family.
We laughed our way through lunch in Passignano, then headed off to stock up at a local supermarket before heading to the house. We stayed at Gudiolo (the house) when we were here two years ago and just fell in love with the place, so returning was like coming home. The house is a 15th century stone farmhouse set on the side of a hill in northern Umbria, a short way from Perugia. I posted some photos on the following page to give you an idea.
For dinner we headed off to Corciano, a local walled hill town, to a favorite restuarant from the last trip. After dinner we wandered the ancient streets where every turn brought another postcard picture. On the way home -- the first time I have driven my rental Alfa Romeo after dark -- we discovered that I have a headlight out. There is nothing we can do about that tomorrow (Sunday), so it looks like a project for the start of the week.
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