Dowd adventures in Bologna: Umbria, Monte Santa Maria Tiberina

lunedì 31 agosto 2015

Umbria, Monte Santa Maria Tiberina

So we set off to Umbria near the small town of Monte Santa Maria Tiberina (MSMT), about 12 km from Citta Di Castello. We left Bologna on the 4th July, at 38 degrees with Caterina in the back to help us out while we stayed and to help the boys with their homework for summer. I put the town and address into the navigator and off we went, 20 minutes out l realized it was taking us down the coast road, and l had been warned about the traffic, so l decided to turn around and go via Florence, as we turned around the air conditioning seemed to stop, so we tried a few things like turning knobs and tapping the outlets!!. Then l presumed maybe it had run out of liquid coolant, so as we drove along the freeway with the windows down looking for a service station on a Saturday who had a coolant machine. We finally found one, but along the way l had heard a bumping sound, and that concerned me, and the mechanic was also concerned, we waited 30 minutes while he pumped coolant in, but then when we started we heard the thumping again, so he warned us to be careful and gave it a spray of WD45, which did nothing but made him feel better for charging me 30 euros.
So we continued along, with the warm air rushing in and the continous thumping noise and many water breaks and praying. In short we arrived at the property 7 hours later on a 2.5 hour trip . To add to our issues the address we were given and put in the navigator sent us to the top of (MSMT) and l had to back down as the road is very narrow, we then contacted the girl who was letting us in, and she did not know the town, though it is 5 km away, and when we told her could she meet us at the post office she could not, so finally after many attempts we got her to send us her coordinates on whats up, and that led us to her or near. The track to the property was a very rough dirt and rock track that was on a steep incline. And so with the car in near collapse and laden down with luggage and 5 people l revved up the hill and prayed the thumping would not lead to a bang. We arrived at 8.30 at night, the place was lovely.
That night thankfully they had left some pasta and sauce so we made a quick pasta and some bread, and all collapsed into bed, there was no hot water ( dont ask) and so a swim in the pool was best.
We got the caretaker over at 11.30 as the power kept going out, sadly we did not really know about the hot water, it was simply switched off from the power outage, but we had no idea where the switch was, they had 4 electric boxes.
We woke to a beautiful view, and lovely silence, the place was delightful, we had a 14 bed villa and there was 5 of us at the moment, as the Fennessey family had to cancel coming due to work commitments. So in the next 2 weeks we had variuos friends come and stay for a few days.
First week was resonably quiet with Caterina and the boys playing in the pool, we brought a badminton net and played that many times along with water polo, l bought some plastic small soccer goals that made perfect waterpolo goals. We went through about 12 bottles of prosecco the first week, and visited Citta di Castello, after first finding a mechanic who could fix the broken compressor in the car, then that evening as l looked on the internet l found that Honda did a huge recall on compressors as they often broke, so we ended up taking the car from Citta DiCastello mechanic to Perugia Honda dealer. But when we arrived and booked it in he said the warranty had expired 6 months earlier, so 700 euros later we got it fixed. Caterina was a wonderful help as her Italian on these matters was so good, and she and l drived around from mechanics and hire car places, we could not have survived without her.
Our first guests where Antonio and his son Matteo on the thursday to saturday. Second guests where Dino and his wife Christine and his son Eduardo, and they stayed till Sunday. Third guests where Francesca, Dario and Dodo who arrived on the Sunday to Wed. And forth was Stefan who arrived on Monday till Thursday. And finally Emma and her son Sebastian who came on Thursday till when we left on Saturday. So it was a real hotel, with changing of sheets, moving of rooms, but it all worked our perfectly, with no one staying longer than they should. The food kept coming and in the end we drank about 3 dozen bottles of prosecco. We did most cooking and food up in a hut near the pool that had a cook top and fridge, with many trips back top the kitchen in the basement floor of the villa. But we got good at keeping sets of plates and foods up stairs in the hut, and with the outdoor area next to the pool for dining it was perfect.
The villa had 4 levels base floor was the kitchen and laundry, ground was 2 bedrooms with living area, 1st floor 2 bedrooms and living area, and third the same. Jayne and l slept in a building next to the villa with a bedroom living area, giving us a bit of piece as people came and went, leaving Caterina and the boys in the ground floor bedrooms, though the boys preferred sleeeping in Caterinas bed, and who could blame them.
The garden and lawns were terrific lots of room, well maintained, along with the huge pool 12x5 metres, along with the window into the pool from the gym area below. Obviously our guests were warned about the drive and all had some iossue with it, but got up. It was the one failure in the property, and it made you hesitant to leave the place. But we did do a trip to Citta Di Castello as few times, one to see Alberto Burri museum with Francesca, Dario, Stefan, and the kids, another evening we went there for dinner, and another day Jayne and l went to the museum there which is well worth the trip , and of course trips to the supermarket.
We did a day trip to Perugia and visited the museums and they are terrific, Perugia is the capital of Umbria and is a lovely looking town with a grerat piazza and fountain.
We left on saturday the 18th with Emma and Seb and drove via Urbano, the capital of Marche region and went to the main museum there, again well worth it, we have been there before and it is a very impressive town, finally arriving back in Bologna still in a heat wave.