Peter got lost coming back to the airbnb because the car navigation was in Italian and the map he had conveniently had the streets where he needed to go blocked off with an add for the buses!
But he finally made it and we were off, very carefully! Well, we were off after a slight bumper crunch on an unusually high curb! Fortunately, this number has seen some action in the past so fingers crossed, it goes undiscovered!
We were pretty over Rome, so stopping to see our dear friends Chris and Lauren in their beautiful countryside villa outside of Rome for a lunch was the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of Rome! We, of course, couldn't find them with our 133 Euro navigation rental, but they came to our rescue and led us to their retreat. Chris' mom and dad, Ken & Joanne, were diving in to the Italiano hospitality culture and prepared a beautiful lunch we ate al fresco amongst their vineyard. Chris made some beautiful aperitifs of Campari, soda, & champagne (Mia, I thought of you!). We needed every second of this beautiful stop! Opal even got to play and frolic in the grass and got covered with Italiano dirt! After our lunch, our wine, and our good time, we were off to Umbria! Thank you Lauren, Chris, Georgia, Ken & Joanne! We love you guys!!!!
Waiting for Chris & Lauren because we were lost!
Our aperitifs from Chris! Don't we look so pleasantly surprised!
Our gracious hosts sending us off with good cheer from their villa! Ciao bellas!
It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive North to Umbria. Opal was exhausted from our good time at Chris & Lauren's so she slept the whole way! Of course our expensive navigation was unable to locate where we were going, it actually couldn't even put the address in. So we were off on an adventure with fingers crossed that we would make it to our Agriturismo in Umbria! Sara slept a bit (probably the day wine), and Peter watched castles and small, quaint towns roll by. Somehow, we managed to find our Agriturismo Val Di Bocci!!! We took a windy dirt road for a while and landed upon a gorgeous, old farmhouse with donkeys, chickens, goats, & rabbits amongst the rolling hills of Umbria! It was perfect. But pretty funny, because once we got out of the car, got settled in to the room, we kind of just looked at each other like now what?! We had been going so much every day that this abrupt stop along the way felt a bit weird! We were also concerned that we didn't have any food until they cooked our dinner at 8!! But we did buy a bottle of wine and we settled right down. Opal was a big fan of the chickens, donkeys, and goats!
The little playground...Opal may take up horseback riding!
The beautiful agriturismo Val Di Boccio
Walking to go meet the animals...
the donkeys! they were SO sweet! One of these is super old and a bit sick, that's why these 3 weren't with the other ones. They have 40 donkeys here!!!!
Don't worry, the donkeys had a TON of open green space to go in, they just loved coming in the barn!
We really started to adjust to farm life pretty quickly.
Dinner came sooner than we thought. Somehow, time goes by fast in these Umbrian hills! We all got showered and went down into the dining area. There was only 1 other group here, 5 guys who seemed to be on a motorbike tour. They were from Venice. The dining room was all stone and so pretty, they even had a little high chair for Opal Moon! It's a husband and wife duo who do everything here. Lucia was the cook and the food was incredible!!! The first night, there is homemade bread, of course, and we had truffle lasagna, followed by a chicken riguelette with a side of farm grown spinach or kale (not sure but they were amazing) and for dessert, a homemade panna cotta! Followed by after dinner shots of chocolate liquor and spiced wine! It was amazing!
Before dinner.
Ummm, this is gonna be good!
The menu for each night was on this board.
And afterwards, we all crashed!! We slept with all the windows and shutters wide open. The sounds at night here are wonderful. Just silent except for the occasional donkey bray and some crickets! We all slept really good. Especially Opal Moon, who was very slow to wake the next morning!
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