Country Roads, Take me home.......

 Thursday 8th May 2025

The bad news is that Paul did not get the vote.

The good news is that today we made our way from Rome to mum's original village, Lettopalena and then Chieti where she was during and after the war.

But first we had to get out of Rome.  Simple.

We were collecting our two cars from Rome's Termini railway station. Paul and me in one and John and Christina in the other. A taxi to the station was easy and we found the desk and even the cars surprisingly easily.

And then it all turned to you know what. When Paul went to do the paper work for the car, he was required to show his passport, at which point he remembered that we had left the passports in the safe at the Donna Camilla Sevilla hotel.  Disaster and yes, the second time we had left our passports in a hotel.  Last time in Florence, I took the blame but this time it was both of us. In fact, I am not expected to remember things so...

So we were about to take our car on an already stressful trip through Rome to get to Abruzzo but now had to somehow retrieve our passports from the hotel, at least 35 minutes away in traffic.  Paul wondered whether he could taxi to and from the hotel but that would take too long and we had to take the car out.  After some 'discussion', we decided the only way was to drive the car back to the hotel, pick up our passports and then drive out of Rome.  Something Paul was very loathe to do but I couldn't drive and navigate at the same time, so Paul had to do the drive. 

After a slow and painful start, he was OK and we made it back to the hotel and then out of Rome eventually. We must have gone past the Colosseum 5 times on the Circus Maximus and god knows where else we went. Paul did a great job of driving through awful traffic, honking horns and no discernible lanes or street names. I could have got great photos if I wasn't concentrating on navigating and staying alive.

the car

I did get one shot of the Coloseum.

snow on the mountain tops in the distance

The autostrada was very fast and Paul soon got into the swing but it took 2.5 hours and by then we needed to stop. John and Christina had gone on ahead to Lettopalena but advised there was nothing open and  no one around so decided Palena was a better option for a lunch/amenities stop. Somehow we manged to find them and a bar that was open and could feed us.  We had arosticini, which is a skewer of mutton I think but very nice and of course, coffee.  We even had a chat to someone in the bar, one of the card players whose table we had taken.  He said that his cousin was in Newcastle in Australia and turns out was a Palmieri who lived around the corner from mum. Small world.

lunching

And then we decided we had to go back to Lettopalena.  Still no one around but we found a lovely bridge and the old city.  We even found the plaque that our mechanic had told Paul about and asked him to find. Done!

us at the ruins of lettopalena.

So time for Chieti which was not that easy but Paul  followed John and we eventually found our B&B, the Via con Vento, (Gone with the Wind). It was in a beautiful spot with amazing views over the city and countryside. 

our front porch

We did the walk in the city on the Corso and found a great Italian restaurant for dinner. (ha ha)  They even had a gluten free menu. 

Corso

 the restaurant

my gf scallopini

gf really nice chips

gf bread, not good

gf tiramisu, nice

In all the excitement, I have forgotten to mention the earing issue. You might remember I bought earrings from the hostage shop in Istanbul as a ransom for our escape.  Well, just like the salesperson, one of the earrings is impossible to remove. I have been wearing it for 3 days as I cannot undo the catch. I almost feel kidnapped by the bloody earing!!  And Christina could not get it off either so not just me. It is stuck.  I refuse to put the other one on in case I then cannot remove it so I have one earring on.  Right on trend maybe but no.

And that is the end of another day, back to the B&B and a beautiful view.

Lucca, our host has promised us breakfast in the morning so looking forward to that and the trip to Sefro.