Back into town we go, walking at a leisurely pace so we aren’t at the restaurant door at 12:30 on the dot. Matters not – we’re still the first one’s there with our pick of tables, so we plop down, take in our surroundings…
..and make our orders. It’s our last day, so Cinghiale is the order of the day! We get Cinghiale “snacks” for an appetizer – fantastic, shaved so thin they are see through…
Then pici delle Paradiso for me (pasta with artichokes and pancetta – carb hell and I’m ready for it!)…
And scallopine lemone for Ed.
Yummo!
Fully sated, we wander back out into the empty town, past picturesque overlooks,
heading to the Orsini Palace museum. We figure we have plenty of time on the parking meter, so what the heck. Unfortunately, the museum closing during the exact same time the parking is free – so they won’t open again until 2pm. We could probably wait, but, why? We satisfy ourselves with pictures of the exterior of the palace – and the awesome sun dial on the wall - and move on.
Our afternoon plans are to visit Sovana and Sorano, two medieval hill towns close to Pitigliano. But before those towns, there is a park just outside or Pitigliano – Parco Orsini, otherwise known as the Strangler’s Park because one of the Orsini Counts strangled his wife there. I’d read about it and thought it would be a great little walk, so on our way out of the town, toward Sorano, we turned at the faded sign that said Parco Orsini. Which turned out to be a cow path straight up a hill – to which Ed exclaimed “seriously?” I said, yes, seriously! But, really? This does not seem right. We end up in this little, teeny, weeny turn around, at then end of a steep uphill path where I have to get out of the car to direct Ed on reversing out. Argh!
So, this was a bust. But what a bummer bust! This park looks so awesome. Oh well. Maybe next time? On we head to Sorano, down little curvy roads and through forests. We come upon the town and follow TIM into a little parking area (we had just picked a random address for the town), but it doesn’t seem all that interesting, so we decide to ditch the whole expedition and head on back to Orvieto. But on the way down the hill, there are these incredible vistas of the town. Awesome! At least we can stop and take pictures!
The drive home is beautiful, through rolling hills and thick forests, that open up onto broad empty farmland – already turned for the winter. TIM takes us through lots of lovely little narrow lanes, doubling as roadways! It’s great when we are alone on the roads, but a little harrowing when big huge trucks come roaring around corners at you – or the darn municipal buses do the same. A couple of close calls and we’re ready for the autostrada. LOL. But, overall, it’s a beautiful drive – and we are rewarded at the end with fantastic long views of Orvieto.
Even as we get closer to the town the views are stunning (just ignore the buildings, signs and street lamps)…
We finally make it back to our little garage underneath our apartment – even going a different way to avoid the squeezing by Francesca’s car – and lo and behold – there are 2 cars already parked in the garage! What? Crap. Well, you know what? We’re just parking behind them and leaving the car there. The heck with that. If they need to move – too bad. We text Francesca and she says it is ok – so whatever. In a way, better for us because it will be easier to throw our suitcase and packs in the car tomorrow and head out to Civitavecchia. Whatever works!
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