August 2010 - Italy

Back to our local cafe for our last meal in Rome, Dad had already picked up the car, already turned down a one way street and already struggled to get the car into reverse… twice, but I don’t think he had stalled it yet. Ah, the joys of a manual.

The trip to a little township in Umbria called Torgiano was far less eventful than we had feared. Besides Dad’s private hiccups on the collection of the car, the only problems that we encountered were:

  • The street out of Rome that we wanted to take was (for a section) a one way street, sending us into a bit of a sidetrack right at the edge of my map (convenient no?).

  • The other problem was at the toll booths, it wasn’t spitting out tickets so the car in front reversed on the car behind, reversed on the car behind, reversed on us (obviously not colliding, but it was a ripple effect) to get out of that lane only to get into a new lane and have that stop working at the same time as the original lane started again.

But thanks to Tom Tom and some good sign spotting we found our way to our next Hotel with only a small amount of driving angst and drama.

Torgiano is a tiny town sitting on a small hill in Umbria and by small I mean I think there is only one Gelato shop. Shops open until 1230 and they don’t reopen till between 330 and 430, closing at 730. Mum and I walked around the little bit of town before heading to the pool. It’s still hot out at 430, the shade rolls in around 6 so there is plenty of time to wish an afternoon away with some reading and a swim. The view from the pool isn’t bad at all, but I didn’t take a camera with me so you will just have to take my word for it.

The Hotel used to be a 17th century manor, the entrance from the carpark leads you through a number of stone arched corridors. The room is huge, living room downstairs, loft for the bedroom upstairs (so there is space between the parents and me right now… (which is nice). The bathrooms are beige marble, very modern and well designed. I was surprised, but happy for the rain shower =)

Dinner was served in the Hotel’s fine dining restaurant. The first full blown meat dinner dish I have had since arriving in Italy. Veal Medallions…. Beautiful, couldn’t make it to dessert but thankfully they bought out a taster… chocolate mousse. Now who was I to turn that away?

Got back to the room and realised I had left my bikini wrapped in a towel, which would have been fine if Housekeeping hadn't completed turndown for the evening. Towel gone and no bikini in sight... CRAP! I called reception and after breaking it down he said the housekeeper had gone for the night and he’ll leave a note for the morning. Mum and Dad return to the room and I want to go down to reception and ask if I can sort through the linen (there are 90 rooms in the Hotel, definitely not full, so I didn’t think there would be much). The night manager was helpful, calling the housekeeper and asking where she would have left it. It was still on the trolley and it didn’t take long to locate the missing bikini. And then I could sleep.