Pretty Pioraco with Photos

 Saturday 10th May 2025

Our first full day in Sefro started with breakfast.  Well actually not for me as there was nothing gluten bloody free.  This was very disappointing as last time the breakfast had many options for normals and gluten frees. I ordered coffee only.

But then Maria Rita appeared. She is the owner and was so wonderful to us last time (she of the honeymoon suite!)  She quickly said of course there was  gluten free bread and biscuits. I has some with home made jam, hers.  So nice. 

Maria Rita clarified why they kept asking me about wanting the apartments in the tower with the lift.   She could not believe that I would prefer the rooms in the actual hotel as these were much older than the tower rooms. I had thought the motel rooms, including the honeymoon suite were better than the tower rooms.  She offered us a swap if we preferred. However after she promised to fix the shower that did not work properly, we thought we would stay. The honey moon suite is quite large and generally OK. Not so sure about John and Christina. They will decide for themselves.  They had gone to Umbria, to Fontignano to visit Christina's uncle Franco.

After breakfast, we drove to Castelraimondo to shop for the grandkids and pick up a few necessities for us.  We could see signs and pink balloons for the Giro D'Italia  which has a leg going through this area, through Sefro, Pioraco and ending up in Castelraimondo.      

castelraimondo

nice fountain

signs for the giro

After a nice walk, we drove back to Pioraco and did a walk along their river. This is one of my favourite places. It is surrounded by beautiful cliffs and mountains as well as a very pretty river and foreshore. And old churches and ruins. A very old place.

nice fountain in Pioraco

river

very ancient church

pretty river

nice bridge

old monastery

Then back to Sefro for lunch except that the deli we had planned to go to was shut. No where else was opened so back to Pioraco to forage for (gluten free) food.  Most bars and restaurants were shut except for a couple with very little food and NO gluten bloody free food.  In the end I had a sandwich without the bread and a magnum ice cream.

After a rest, Paul and I visited my cousin, LallaMaria and her son Alessandro. He has recently taken a redundancy and is looking at a career in music. If not, then back to computers. Lalla has been unwell lately and has not left the house this winter but hopefully will once the weather warms up a bit.  She was very happy to see us and loved the wedding photos of Ben and Izzy.  She still had a baby photo of Ben that Dad had sent her 33 years ago. Very cute.

Back to the Faustina for dinner  and quite a crowd for a Saturday night. There was even an additional waiter who just comes to town for weekends.  He spoke perfect English as he had owned a bar in London, and was married to an Australian lady. He had sold his bar and moved back to look after his mother. Such a nice man.

The good chef was on and we ordered gf pasta for me in a great mushroom and truffle sauce with extra truffle. The normals got an amazing looking ravioli with the same sauce.

the ravioli

my gf spaghetti

That was the first course. For our second course, we had grilled lamb chops with the best roast potatoes ever and a great green salad. All very good. 

the grilled lamb

John and Christina shared a really good tiramisu but I could not eat another thing, not even the GF panna cotta that looked great.

And that was the end of another day in Sefro. Tomorrow we have pranzo (lunch)  with Gianfranco and Patrizia, who is the sister of the cook at the hotel. Another great cook.

PS the earing still has me in its clasp, so to speak.