Today begins our first trip in about 6 months. We’ve been sticking close to home this summer, and have enjoyed our mountain exploits, but now it is time for us to start moving again. It’s getting close to winter after all. So today, we pack up our bags, take Lyft to the Asheville airport, begin our journey to Rome, and ultimately Orvieto. All goes according to plan – Lyft is perfect (and we get a great comparison between Uber and Lyft from our driver – FYI – Lyft wins), flight to ATL is delayed, but not by much, and we’ve got plenty of time. The ATL airport is a zoo – what’s new? We manage to snag a couple of seats at the piano bar and hang out for a couple of drinks before heading to the scrum at our gate. It’s Delta, so even though we have Zone 1 – the entire rest of the plane can board first. We end up just merging in line with the Priority plus, credit card, anyone who has ever flown Delta more than 3 times, people that doesn’t have a zone listed, passengers who smiled at someone once…basically the bulk of the plane…and get right on board. They aren’t checking. So, we nab our overhead space (which is truly all we care about) and settle in for a surprisingly smooth flight. the only real problem is that while the seats are great – two only right behind the wing – we just happen to be at the exact middle cut off point for service. We are served last, so it takes forever, but thank god they still have the chicken! They do keep the wine and beer flowing (and BIG glasses of wine), so we aren’t complaining too much. And the sunset if magnificent, that keeps us occupied for a bit!
But, truly, we just want to sleep, and eventually, we do. No movies (which aren’t too interesting anyway) for us. We try to catch as many zzz’s as we can, and eventual wake up to the beautiful mountain/alps scenery
then wait forever for breakfast. The Flight Attendants were watching the flight tracking which showed us arriving at 10:30, but we actually were on schedule for 10:00 – so they were way behind! We got our freezing cold cheddar roll with cheese, yogurt & honey (ick) and apple butter (a totally bizarre combo), but then no beverages. What? No coffee? No way! The row in front of us was actually the cut off because they were so late, we were in final before the cart came by. I flagged down the adorable little flight attendant for our section and begged for coffee, which she brought to us – but only us! What a fiasco! Ed though, had his caffeine, and all was good. We touched down early and headed out through passport control, customs and into our rental car without delay.
And off we go to Orvieto. We pretty much know the way, but Ed has bought this awesome GPS app for the Galaxy phone that works offline and amazing. So we use the app – which we are calling Tim – to get us around the Raccorda and onto the E35/A1 up to Orvieto. Beautiful – no snags, whatsoever! We stop at a rest area for a pit stop and soda – which works out well, because there is a wreck on the highway that is backing up traffic for kilometers. And the diversion? Through this particular rest area. Perfetto. Nice break – because even though we slept – we are still sort of punky. This brief respite peps us up, and we make our way to Orvieto without issues. Because we’ve been here before, we pretty much know the way. But once into the town, we have to navigate the teeny tiny little cobblestone lanes that make up the old town. We are staying in a different area this trip and the roads are challenging enough, that I’ve printed out a detailed map and highlighted the way we had to go, just so we wouldn’t get lost and stuck in some dead end alleyway! Everything is one lane at best, and around hard turns surrounded by totally sturdy brick and tuffa buildings. Yikes! Ed masters the road/lanes beautifully, and gets us to the apartment without incident.
We text our host – Francesca – and then also buzz the door to her private home. Mama answers in half Italian half English that we need to wait 5 minutes. Non cha problema! Francesca arrives and shows us to the apartment. She gives us the tour and keeps asking us if it is ok. We assure her it is – even though it looks nothing like what we booked through Flipkey. As it turns out, we’ve been upgraded from the 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom 2 bath place which is monstrous. Francesco tells us the upstairs (2 bedrooms) is closed – since we only need this one floor – but really? If we want to go up there – we can – I mean what's to stop us? But all we need is on the main floor – and even though this place isn’t as equipped as what we booked (no oven, no washer, not as much furniture) it’s still fine for us. And there’s a killer balcony overlooking this beautiful garden areas that is the Michelangeli compound (they are big artisans here in Orvieto with a store and carvings all over the place) – so we aren’t complaining.
After settling in a bit, we get our bearings back by walking to the supermarket and stocking up on supplies for the short week. Tarallini! Oh, one of my favorite horribly carb-a-holic things to eat in this region of Italy. I adore those little circles of wheat dough baked hard and crunchy. Sigh. When in Orvieto, though…. We also pick up the requisite salami and proscuitto for later snacking, as well as our favorite adult beverages. We haul our load back to the apartment and hang out the rest of the afternoon, trying to fight our jet lag. I nap a teeny bit, then we decide to take a walk to stretch our legs, taking pictures as we go of the great little lanes and cobblestone streets that we’ve actually now driven on and one of the Michelangeli carvings…
…and end up at the Blue Bar. Of course. Where else would we go? Only to Anthony and his Blue Bar. He is still there, still the friendly happy go lucky guy we remembered. He may or may not remember us, but we’ll never know! He greets us like long lost friends and we spend an hour listening to his stories, and his guitar playing and singing. He’s just started singing and is enjoying it very much – and he’s quite good at it, too. We meet his friend from Austin who just moved here, and various an assorted others, and finally pry out way out of our chairs to go home to shower and head to dinner.
Tonight we have decided to go to Malandrino, right across from the Blue Bar. This is one of 3 restaurants all in a row only a moments walk from our apartment. We arrive and, even though we don’t have reservations on a Saturday night, are seated at a lovely table in the back. This place is a combination restaurant and jazz bar, the decor is great with all sorts of interesting art hung about the place. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it has a great atmosphere.
We are treated to an amuse bouche of fried potato and what appears to be red coleslaw on top. Outstanding!
Then another starter of marinated baby tomatoes with spices and salt – the waiter spears a tomato, rolls it in the salt and spices, calls it a bloody mary tomato and hands it to me. Excellent!
We “amuse” ourselves with the tomatoes, then get down to sharing a mixed antipasti (wonderful and huge!), eggplant parmigiano for me (the prettiest presentation I’ve ever seen – and just as incredible to eat as it is to look at) and of course Chianghale stew for Ed (which he deems perfect).
We finish off our beer and wine, and head back down the dark streets to our apartment happily full and tired from a very long 36 hours of travel and acclimatization.
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