01/02/18 – 02/02/18
With apologies in advance to bloggers Paul and Michele of Our Leap of Faith. Yet again we appear to be stalking you. Great minds and all that…
Oh no…another apology…we didn’t take any photos. This is the problem with bad weather, we just don’t think about taking photos and then nothing for the blog. I just hope you like reading.
We were heading for our date with the Six Nations, so it was time to leave Tuscany and make our way towards Rome.
As we drove along the rough potholed roads and over the bump-de-bump-de-bump of bridge sections we wondered if maybe we should have taken the toll roads. But if you take toll roads you miss stuff. Sometimes you miss the bad bits and sometimes the good bits so it’s a bit of a coin toss. It wasn’t a nice day, grey and rainy, but still there were views out of the windows as we skirted the Lago di Bolsena, one of a few lakes in the area that fill ancient volcanic caldera and drove through the town of Montefiasconi.
Our stop on the way to Rome was just outside Montefiasconi. This sosta was a bit of luxury, a free stop over with electricity for every pitch, we could turn the oil filled radiator on and bake the damp from our bones. The reason it was free…it was provided by the local winery who hoped that you might pop into their shop to pick up some wine or other products, this is the type of win-win that we like (ok, Paul would prefer if it was cider). Yes the wine was a little pricier than we had seen it elsewhere, but who minds paying a few cents extra when you get a free stopover.
There is a particular wine that is famous in the area; ‘Est! Est! Est!’ is a modern sounding label but has a long history originating with a twelfth century prelate who was sent to scout the route to Rome for a German bishop. His instruction was to write Est! on the doors of the inns with good wine, you can guess how many times he wrote this on the door of the inn in Montefiasconi. It’s white wine, which isn’t my favourite – I like drinks that are served a room temperature like Red Wine and Bitter and Gin and Tonic (oh no – I broke my own rule there) – but a couple of bottles didn’t hurt and it was perfectly acceptable if not mind blowing.
After our night in the drizzle in Montefiasconi the weather wasn’t looking any better, so no sight seeing today. Onto Rome it was. More travelling on lumpy roads awaited us, a brief stop for LPG before driving through Viterbo where all roads really did lead to Rome. I wish I’d take a photo, every junction in our direction were signposted to Rome in multiple direction. After Viterbo we skirted round two more of the volcanic lakes before entering the suburbs of Rome from the North.
We were staying at Flaminio Village and it was a thankfully painless journey to the campsite. We had a quick and friendly check-in, tried to squeeze into our designated pitch with no success, and then picked our own pitch from the many free ones. We had chosen this campsite from the reviews of the toilet block, so number one on the list of things to do was a long hot shower…lovely. The toilet block was heated, large and had abundant hot water with proper taps rather than that pesky button pushing. The showers each had a roomy changing area and there was a whole ‘vanity’ area in the ladies with free hair dryers, although the mirrors were placed for very short people and I could only see from my nose down. Yes, the toilet block was now starting to show a few imperfections, but it has to the best I’ve seen since leaving the UK. I wasn’t sure about the piped classical music though, fine when it was soothing but occasionally it was quite martial and made me feel I ought to be washing in double time. At €19 a night this was a great value campsite…but don’t forget the tourist tax! Another €4 per night and not included in the ACSI rate.
As the weather was so rubbish we decided to stay in the campsite that afternoon and do some chores, so my hair got dyed and lots of washing got done. I do love sleeping between freshly laundered linen.