Monday 23 June 2014

Long Sunday walk

Well folks on a glorious Sunday morning we had to tear ourselves away from Sylvia, her family, and their farmhouse accommodation. Describing this as a farmhouse B and B would do it a great disservice. This is a complex organisation that has a beautiful swimming pool open to paying members, a log cabin at the pool for snack food, horse riding, vast acres of olive trees and their own label olive oil, cherry orchards, goat herd and their own goats cheese and of course a fabulous rural restaurant. Last night we had a stunning meal which even included their own produced honey. Everything was local produce and Italian food at its best. This morning their son, David, drove us back to the village and we started another stage of our walk. Today's walk was special as this was the first time we had no hills to climb. We walked along country roads towards Nerola where the Orsini Castle overlooks the countryside perched high on a rocky outcrop. No I didn't go up to see it but admired it from a distance that was on flat ground. It was a warm but enjoyable walk through the olive tree filled countryside until we reached Montelibretti with its famous 10th Century Palazzo Barberini and impressive defence walls with their lookout towers. On leaving Montelibretti, where we had a quick lunch, the olive trees disappeared and we then walked through vast orchards. Even though, on paper this was our longest distance, because it was flat, it was our best days walking. The scenery had really changed because it was all so organised and cultivated but never the less it was marvellous to finally see Monterotondo in the distance. Even though we arrived late in the afternoon our spirits were high when we finally booked into our small hotel that our previous nights hosts had recommended and had then phoned through a booking. Tomorrow we reach the outskirts of of Rome and will unbelievably have nearly finished. By the way these blogs were all written each night using the old fashion pen and paper,since there was very limited network , and now since we are near Rome  and I am getting a signal at long last I am typing them out and sending.

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