After my relaxing day surrounded by bumble bees and bird song I am ready to join the family in our adventures today. No rain predicted just a nice mild , sunny day. We have been keeping track of our expenses with a fun App that gives you feedback on how your daily spending has been going against your set budget and today we have an epiphany that our food spending could have been greatly aided had we just gone with a gelato for all meal options. We start analyzing how nutritional this would have been for us and yes this would have been a good option. In our experience all food categories would have been covered: protein intake with the hazelnut, pistachio and almond flavours, vitamins with the many fruit options, strawberry, raspberry, mango, orange etc and calcium needs with the cream and vanilla flavours. Well that will have to be the challenge for next trip!
We set into the surrounding rolling hills and country side, our first destination Le Fonti del Clitunno. A lovely wooded spot with natural springs coming from the ground feeding a small set of lakes. It’s so green and fresh with leafy trees around making for a very peaceful setting. The highlight is the swan family with two signets.
Swans mate for life and these parents are very protective and caring pulling up tasty morsels from the floor of the lake and guarding against humans who want to get too close ( not us).
Tanya reinforces the toileting rules for André’s benefit and she clearly means it! We leave the beautiful little park and head to Trevi which we spotted coming to Spoleto, strategically placed on a rolling hill.
As we take the back road we come across a huge field of poppies, these making a really nice foreground for the town. André takes all kinds of permutations of the shot.
We have pulled off the road in someone’s cherry orchard and the owner happens to pull up in a row next to us to check on the state of the ripening. I make a friendly wave and international contact with him and all is good as he waves back. You just need to be a little careful while sort of trespassing in Europe 🙂 The cherries are already red and large and are pretty close to being ready for picking.
Its been a while since our last nature stop but Tanya is adamant that this is a no go zone again. We load up in the car and head for the cutest town called Spello.
It is called the cittè of arte and Fiori (flowers) and we soon find that this is a perfect description of the place. Of course today it is all enhanced by the blue sky and sunshine. The houses here have a very different character with small red bricks and stone making up the walls. Lots of flower boxes adorn the windows and it looks very smart and clean.
It is getting close to lunch time, it’s a weekend and there are lots of Italian tourists enjoying the weather and really only a sprinkling of international tourists. We narrow down our restaurant choice and brave the outdoor courtyard, I say that because sitting outside carries a high risk of smoke exposure. Most Italians smoke profusely and smoking is allowed in the courtyards. Today it remains all clear from smoke and we giggle about the big cutlery decoration on the tree next to us, getting ready for the meal.
When André joins us, they both goof off with their forks.
To complete our toileting adventures today, Tanya makes sure not to lock the door, I warn her about the light going out mid wee turning the room pitch black ( especially when wearing sunglasses which I was ) and she heads to the room. I did forget to mention the sign…
There is a brief moment of hesitation when she tries to decide, which cheek of her “bottom” she should use while flushing, but all good in the end. We have a light lunch of bruschetta and a nice lentil soup so we definitely feel there is room for an artisanal gelato, yummy!
There is a really nice, arty atmosphere in this little town, from a bronze sculpture of the tree of life to little individual accents people have made on their houses.
Its hard not to keep taking photos of these beautiful, spring splashes of colour. Tanya and André track all the way to the top of the village while I am content to check out a few galleries around the restaurant.
Once we are reunited we head back to the car, sniffing the roses literally as we go.
The plan is for a dinner in tonight and we stock up with some bread for the pecorino cheeses and wine, main course will be a baked local fish with thin potatoes on top and stuffed tomatoes and lightly sautéed zucchini with a garlic antipasti.
That seems to hit the spot, we finish off with chocolate and hazelnut tartufo gelato, why not!
