Medieval mania

 Tuesday 13th May 2025

Today the four of us (me and Paul, John and Christina) are having a huge day. We are 'doing' the medieval towns of Rasiglia and Spoleto.

But first, a quick note about the Hotel Faustina or Faulty Towers in English.  It is really old and I don't think they have people staying regularly, particularly not so early in the season. So they are not really ready for guests.  They would have much preferred us to be in the tower suites, up the lift. This is where Paul and I stayed last time but from memory it did not seem much of an improvement.  Anyway, we now have a shower  that pretty much works and the hot water problem has also been fixed so all good in the honeymoon suite!

Another interesting feature of the hotel is the lounge area which seems to be used exclusively by the grandchildren of the owner. They watch TV here and there is no where for guests/customers to have a drink before dinner or just drink.  There has also been a guy staying with a huge dog. Maybe not as big as Wally but very large. While I was sitting having dinner, I turned and came face to face with the dog.  Odd whilst eating.

However the food has been great for dinner as the wonderful Maria Rita knows how to cater for the me, being gluten free.  Breakfast is a bit hit and miss as everyday is a bit different. Still we now have scrambled eggs instead of hard boiled, ham and cheese and some days have been offered toast, and some days there has been fruit.  I have gluten free biscuit toast things to have with her home made jam and everyone else has a choice of croissants and crostata and cake.  No cake for me.  Coffee of course from the busy Massimo is always good.

Back to business and on to our medieval town trip.

Rasiglia is a beautiful tourist town with lovely waterfalls and ancient ruins.  Not far from us but not easy to get to as we found on our trip there. We were all in the Grandland with Paul driving and me navigating.  This combo has not always been a success.

This time we discovered the lost town of Leggiano on one of our detours off the main (right) road. It was very nice and worth one visit, only.

Using google maps was fun with pronunciations of Italian towns completely destroyed. One of our favourites was Casenove which google called Case Nove instead of Casenove. Der.

Rasiglia photos

us thinking about Case Nove

waterfall (cascada)

water water

everywhere

old ruins

Last time we were there in mid summer and it was packed. Not today which was nice and quick.  

So off to Spoleto.

this is the travelator or moving footpath.

green is for escalators and yellow is for travelators.

We had been to Spoleto before and walked up to the top, which is a long steep climb. When we looked for a way back down, we discovered escalators going up and down. Not happy.  So this time I was hoping to find the escalators to go up.  Instead I went to the wrong car park and found travelators instead. These were slow and laborious and you still needed to walk. There are miles and miles of these.

But lots of pretty things once you made it to the top.

We even had time for lunch

my gf beer, no gf food, just beer

Paul thought a hamburger in Italy would be a good idea. It was not. 

My tuna salad which was pretty good

so many stairs

this was to explain where we were  but NOT helpful

look, a cat

Stairs that I could not do. Christina going up to the duomo at the very top

It was all a confusing mix of travelators, lifts going up or down one story and then the escalators.   However after doing all three at various times, we then had to do it in exactly the same order in reverse to find our way home. It was not easy but between the four of us we found the car.   And our way home.  Such joy!

Tonight was the big reunion and dinner with Carmine and Tiziana who were travelling form Rome to work from home in Sefro. They were arriving tonight and we were going out for dinner with them.  How things change, venue, time and participants. Eventually it was the four of us, Carmine and Tiziana, Gianfranco and Patrizia and their youngest son Samuelo all having dinner at the Faustina. Maria Rita is Patrizia's sister so was hopefully used to having 9 people having dinner at about 9.30 pm.

We were asked whether we wanted fish or meat and then they left us for ages. Suddenly so much food came out and in the excitement, i forgot to take photos. Shame as it was all beautiful.

Of course there was bread, prosciutto, cheese, then garlic and chilli mushrooms, then wrap things and then crostini/bruschetta with truffle sauce. I scraped off the truffles from one so I could eat it.  But then of course, my gf bread came out smothered in truffles. Heaven !  I felt bad for doubting the wonderful Maria Rita.

And there were slices of ricotta cheese with honey and pistachios and so good.

And eventually the main courses. A whole fish for the fish people and a tray of roasted chicken and pork and lamb for the meat eaters. I took  a photo of half a fish as I could not eat a whole one.

And wine flowed freely of course. 

and some more photos

Only one person, John, could do dessert. He had tiramisu of course. Sorry no photo but it looked yum.

(There was much discussion either tonight or last night about the dangerous animals of Australia as opposed to the dangerous animals of Italy.  We have sharks, spiders and snakes. They have wolves and bears in the woods. In fact, there are lots of wolves all around Sefro. I think Italy won that competition. 

And the previous night, Gianfranco found a scorpion on his balcony, little but deadly, I think.)

Anyway back to last night.  It was about 11.30 when we left the table and went up to our rooms so conveniently in the hotel. We could hear the others continuing to talk and laugh and argue and have a good time for another hour outside the hotel. Such a close and loving family.

But we were stuffed and needed a rest. Tomorrow in fact will be a rest day for us.