Just a really lovely lazy day. The weather was very overcast this morning and was threatening more rain and thunder and so I opted to stay here at the hotel, and just enjoy another day of peace and quiet. My option was a 22km cycle ride to the lake, but it is Sunday and lots of things are closed on a Sunday, so rather than cycle to a place that was closed, I decided to play ladies and sit and enjoy these luxurious surroundings.
I did feel for much of the time as though I was invisible. I was sitting in the “summer house” - very posh (it has some fancy Italian name which I can't think of right now) and several people came in, both guests and staff and no-one acknowledged me. I thought to myself – what happened to me after breakfast this morning – how come no-one can see me. And then the answer came to me in the form of a text from Rodney. He warned me to keep a low profile today as the All Blacks beat Italia last night. Aha – so that's it. So I took his advice and remained invisible – that is until the good looking waiter from last night came in to clear away one of the staffs coffee cups and he offered me a drink. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh coffee. So I ordered coffee Americano – it's the best way to get a good long cup of coffee – the little espresso ones are nice, but too short. So he brings me a lovely jug full – 1 ½ cupfuls. Oh this is heaven. And the coffee was good – actually so was the cappuccino I had at breakfast time. In fact, I would go as far as to say these were the two best coffees I have had since leaving NZ. Because of course the English don't make good coffee and I must admit that most of the coffee here has only been really just okay. We are really spoilt in NZ – well perhaps we have adapted coffee to suit kiwi tastes, but I reckon you can't beat a good flat white. Strong coffee, that nice thick silky milky foam on top. Here most of the cappuccino frothy bits have been just bubbly. But this morning – good rich strong coffee with nice silky smooth foam on top. And the long black – very smooth, strong but not bitter and served in the most delicate of bone china cups.
I connected to the internet and checked out my emails, checked the train timetables from Montepulciano to Milan, and posted my news and some more photos to the blog page and then went through the last few days of photos labelling them on the computer. Not doing too bad, I've taken 445 photos on this memory card and there must be quite a few on the little card as well. I promise not to bore you all to tears with them all when I get home.
And today's anxious moment - well a funny one really - I was sitting quietly in the summer room, typing up an email, when I heard this very soft scratching noise behine me. Now anybody who knows me well will know how terrified I am of creepy crawly things and in particular of mice.And some of you will know that I will jump and squeal at the sight or sound of anything that looks remotely like a mouse (don't I Wayne?) So, I sat rigidly still and carefully looked over my left shoulder to see a lizard sitting on the back of the sofa looking at me. That's okay I thought, they are much more scared of me than I am of them, so I kept as still as I could while reaching carefully for my camera, but these little creatures must have an accute sense of hearing, or sight or both and he detected my slight movement and darted down between the cushions, and all I could hear was the rustling as he wriggled through and down onto the floor. Now I must admit to lifting my feet up off the ground here, because although not frightened of him, I certainly didn't want to let out one of my squeals if he just happened to scramble over my feet in his bid to get out the door and back into the garden where he belonged.
But another photo opportunity of these little critters gone in a flash. I sit quietly in the garden waiting for another chance to get a picture up close, but as I say they detect the slightest movement and they are gone in a flash. Even if I do manage to have the camera ready when they appear by the time I have pushed the button they have disappeared already and I get a lovely picture of a blank wall or cobblestone. Ah, thank goodness for digital cameras and you can delete the dud photos and not have to get them developed like in the “old days”
Oh dear, how did we ever survive in the “old days?” I was reading some comments in the Fodors Travel Blog this morning about teenagers travelling around now, and how their parents are in touch with them by email and cell phone almost constantly and worrying about them and their dodgy accommodation etc, and the comments back from more seasoned travellers and those like myself who travelled in the 70's and were out of communication in dodgy places like Pakistan and Iran for days and weeks on end. Oh my how things have changed. I wonder if for the better or not?
And another Oh dear – the lovely suntan I acquired in my days in the Veneto is all flaking off and fading. Now instead of being a lovely healthy looking brown I now just look a dirty brownish colour. Hope I get some more real sun before I leave the area. I at least want to come home looking healthy and tanned!!
Breakfast this morning was a real posh affair – this huge long table full of food to help yourself to. There were individual packages of cereal – Kellogs muesli or corn flakes – peaches or prunes, pottles of yoghurt or a big bowl of homemade plain yoghurt. There was a huge dish of sliced fruits – oranges, peaches, kiwifruit, as well as blueberries, blackberries and melon.
Then there was the traditional slices of ham, cheese, proscuitto and salami, and on another table there were whole cheeses and salamis to cut for yourself. There was a huge big basket of bread to go with this, and back on the other long table there were croissants, both plain and sweet (all dusted with icing sugar) and dainty little sandwiches and tiny dainty little filled rolls. And there were those packaged crispy little pieces of bread which I have not tried as yet, and there were fruit flans and cakes – too many to even try listing here. What a spread. Such a choice for breakfast, and I still can't get used to eating cake for at that time of day.. And as I have already talked about, the cappuccino which was fabulous.
Now, at 4.30 in the afternoon the effects of my breakfast have warn off, and as I have only had the coffee mid-morning (and a few plums I pinched off the tree) I am going to be well and truly ready for dinner tonight. .
The promised rain and thunder didn't arrive, just a few specks of rain when I was out walking in the garden. And so tomorrow – my final ride back to Montepulciano. I know have the rest of the afternoon to decide where to from there. Alan will drive me the following morning to catch the train to wherever I am wanting to go. The original plan was to go to Pisa and La Spezia, but then when I got those photos of my dad in Milan, then that place became an obvious choice. But, and there's always a but, when in Vicenza I got a brochure for a place I would really love to visit, further north in a place called Asiago, and so now I am trying to work out how to fit all of that into four days and be in Geneva by Friday afternoon. Whichever way I go, I have lots of train changes. Nothing is in a straight line from Montepulciano (or at least the closest station which is Chiusi). So, I will go back onto the internet and check out Asiago and see if I can work out exactly how far from Milano it is and how to get from Asiago to Genevra. It is so exciting to have so many choices.
Catch you all later.
Ciao.

p.s. I have just had dinner - another amazing meal topped off tonight with dessert which i asked for tonight. And i ordered crepes suzette. Wow - what a dessert. And tonight I got offered coffee!!!! Strange country. Most nights I don't get offered coffee. Still I must remember, the definition of a lousy tourist - the person who goes to a foreign country and expects everything to be the same as home.

Ciao again.