It had to happen....

Well, it is a couple of weeks since my last entry, but there have been some developments, least of all that there was no internet at my last abode, and this was not all that wasn't there....

Where to start? Our little 1 litre Cinquecento did not want to climb the hill taking us to the property near Urbino... After some cajoling from Alan, it eventually went up in first gear (with us praying nobody was coming down), since the road (?) was single lane and rather precarious.

Got there and were taken to our new home by the resident owner. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry... Neither did I know whether to describe it as a studio, cave or grotto... Look at the pics in facebook.

The compact kitchen, meant a 2 ring eletric cooker stuck on top of two wooden shelves held by a couple of metal rods and no sink.... Well, there wasn't much water going either, so I suppose, a sink wouldn't have made much difference.

Then we were shown the internal bathroom. So dark, it was difficult to find the light switch to put the lights on. The wash hand basin, "hand built" by the owner was like an inside out flower, built in concrete with mirror insets....

We had had no lunch on our way in because we couldn't find a place to eat and by the time we found some, we were almost at the place and no longer hungry, so had breakfast cereal for dinner.

Decided to have a shower and... no water. When we told the landlady, she filled the water tank, but then, water was hot for Alan and cold for me ( I actually hate cold showers) ... So, an early bed was called for. This was actually quite comfortable and we slept well.

Next day, after a good night's sleep we were ready to face the world, and, no water again. Basically the 2 weeks there went more or less like that all the time.
There was a communal kitchen with an Aga and water available just over the yard across from us, but it did feel like we were camping, rather than enjoying a self catering holiday. Ah, the 2 ring cooker also went on the blink on the second day, but she did sort that out immediately. Maybe we are just too posh (ha,ha). There was a rather middle class English couple there with 2 kids, that had been there for a month and seem to be enjoying their stay. We did not have much chance to chat but, if they stayed the month, they must have thought it was ok. Their property was separate from ours and maybe they did not have the same issues. Worth mentioning that this was the most expensive of our properties in Italy and we had paid upfront so did not want to walk out.

Having said all that, we did have a good time there, went for a few days out that were nice, the landscape in the Marche area is much nicer than Emilia Romagna and the weather was excellent. The landlady was very pleasant too and I even had a mosaic class, which is her hobby/speciality. The place is covered in mosaics..

Last, but not least, I was bitten to death by mosquitoes and am still carrying the marks. I couldn't sit out, because they wouldn't leave me alone and, I found a scorpion in the washing bowl the first morning, apart from the many spiders that circulated round the living room...

On the positive side, she had 3 cats and 3 dogs which took to us and sat outside our door all day. One of the cats was really cute and came for breakfast and afternoon snack every day; the views from the property were very nice and the experience confirmed to us that we really do not like camping, do not like roughing it and do not want to live in the countryside, so a worthwhile experience after all.

Glad to say that we are now in the centre of Spoleto, a small town, pretty, with lots of restaurants and in a lovely apartment too, so, feeling rather spoiled.