Chris and Johns excellent adventure in Italy

Yes, it was an open top triumph spitfire! without much in the way of powerful headlights as John found out as soon as he drove it as we got lost getting out of Rome airport in the dark and were soon in the middle of nowhere! The place we were staying was only 4km from the airport but signs in Italy are, well, lets say just don't hold your breath. Anyway, we got there and it had a fabulous terrace with views looking across the whole of Rome - a fantastic place to sit and drink a bottle of wine (which we needed after getting lost several times). And in the morning, much refreshed, we set out in the sunshine, with the wind in our hair.

First stop was spoleto, with an aqueduct that is medieval rather than roman! it was here that we started the 'ice cream' rule: by mid afternoon there had to have been an ice cream stop!! it was here that we also first discovered just how narrow and steep the streets could be! here is John just extracting the car from the parking garage (rather him than me!! he had 3 italians 'helpfully' shouting mutually contradictory directions at him as he tried to manoever out of a space which was almost exactly the same size as the car). 

I got a go at driving, first along a fairly straight road. John had told me quite a few times that you had to do engine braking but still my first few goes I was somewhat startled by the 'softness' of the brakes!!! Nevertheless, we got to Gubbio without incident, where they have a novel way to get up to the top of the hill. They *say* its a funicular. The guide book describes it as a cross between a ski lift and an funfair ride in open top birdcages! This is the view you get from those cages - you can see the person in front holding on rather grimly! and I get brownie points here for letting go for long enough to take the picture!

Then john did a quite amazing drive through the mountains!! hairpin bends everywhere - and at one point the surface of the road degenerated into gravel! but that was just a little local problem with subsidence... anyway, we got to Arezzo but there was nowhere we really fancied staying so went on to Cortona. Wow!! what an amazing place. near vertical streets (not so good when we accidentally took a wrong turn), beautiful medieval hilltop town. our hotel room looked down across the plain

The car had a rather tricky ignition lock, and we'd parked it on a bit of a hill (there are no flat bits in Cortona) so starting was interesting (remember the brakes are 'soft' so putting your foot on the clutch means rolling backwards!). but we were soon on our way again. To Siena via the most beautiful roads. It is AMAZING - and we stayed in a medieval tower. But the picture comes from climbing a proper tower which gave us a view over the city

I'd wanted to see the little hill towns - the most famous one being San Gimignano. And yes, it is very beautiful, though perhaps more at a distance than actually there. Its *very* touristy. so even though there were not *that* many people there, its all a bit pretty and scraped, unlike all the other places that didn't mind uneven cobbles and occasional dilapidated buildings. so we escaped to Volterra to recover! and then looked at the map and decided to head towards the coast, towards Massa Marittime, and find an agrituriso (farmhouse B&B). only on our way there, in the middle of nowhere after pulling into a layby to change drivers, the inevitable happened! inevitable when driving 35 year old cars anyway. it wouldn;t start. and we really were in the middle of nowhere. so we called the car people and they said 'where??' and then they suggested bump starting it. so we pushed it up a bit of an incline, then john got in, and I pushed it down while he let out the clutch!!! Success!!!! the car started, so we headed for town! and once there it determindly wouldn;t start again. but at least we were in a town so had food and a hotel to wait for the tow truck and a replacement car. but the guy then realised that his winch was broken so we ended up pushing it up the ramp with the help of a friendly passing motorcyclist....

so the next day we had a 'normal' boring car. one which didn't have everyones heads turning as we drove into town... sigh. but it did have brakes! And we went to the old Etruscan towns Sovana and Pitigliano. There is an amazing tomb, and strange hidden megalithic walkways called via cave. Yes, they really are this tall and narrow!

and our last night was in Orvieto where we had dinner in a restaurant which was built into a series of caves!! and so back to rome (which was easy to get too as all road do indeed lead there!) and home....