Day 8: Montelpuciano

Buon Voyage gorgeous Orvieto.  Its been fun and I hope to get back here one day.  Bella Nonna put on another great spread for breakfast, but sadly it was overshadowed by sickness.  Sandra has terrible blisters up both arms and this morning it had moved to her chest.  She has also been fighting the flu that Chontelle and Catherine have had since they arrived.  Talk about dropping like flies.  Sandra has been really unwell actually and as the day progressed she got worse.  She ended up in emergency at hospital and was given a cortisone injection and they bandaged both her arms.  She looks like she's been in a war.  Poor thing, she was just too sick to travel and at one stage they stopped on the side of the road so she could lie down as she just couldn't stand being in the car anymore.  The heat has been unbearable, and there is no refuge anywhere. To make matters worse, our Agriturismo has no air conditioning, so things weren't any better when they arrived at our farm stay.  I can't believe it.  This is our one stay together apart from Florence and the girls are sick.  Boo hoo.  Anyway, back to our day, we caught the tram down the mountain from Orvieto to collect our car which took an hour and a half to hire in the heat.  When they finally brought it to us, it was filthy and I mean filthy, so we noted it on the contract before signing.  The assistant was furious, threw her hands in the air and muttered a few profanities.  She ripped up the contract, yelled at her co-worker and at me when I said it was disgusting, and stormed back inside to get another contract for us to start again.  Great, more time standing in the sun.  Rick told me to bite my tongue, they gave it a quick clean and we were off with Rick driving.  Driving on the wrong side of the road has been hysterical and scary.  I've gone from fits of laughter to making the sign of the cross very quickly.  Rick is doing particularly well but intersections are still tricky.  I had my first experience of the Autostrata today and it was a little hair raising in a Ford Focus. I was thankful to see the exit sign to Toscana.  We couldn't check in to our hotel until 4pm so we decided to make a stop in Montalcino along the way.   We followed the navman until we made a wrong turn a few minutes before the town.  I said to Rick to keep going as another village was straight ahead and looked interesting, which I thought must be Montelpuciano.   So I started reading from the Lonely Planet Guide to the kids about Montelpuciano.  For some reason, the streets didn't match and I couldn't find the restaurants they recommended, but hey it looked medieval just as the book said.  So we stopped for lunch, and enjoyed a beautiful spinach and ricotta filled ravioli with a truffle cream sauce, pizza for the kids and a greek salad.  It was great apart from the persistent bees that kept swarming our table, so much so that the kids ended up standing up to eat and we eventually decided to eat on the run and get the hell out of there.  We went for a walk up and down the streets of this charming town but again the heat was too much to bare.  So we headed for the Agriturismo (and of course got lost along the way).  As we drove out of the town, I saw a sign saying Montelpuciano 7km.  Clearly we had not been in Montepulciano as I had thought.  Our farm stay is gorgeous, very authentic and "la rooostica" and on any other occasion we would be pretty chuffed with ourselves.  But there is no air conditioning and its 38 degrees and the rooms are stifling hot.  Plus the girls are near comatosed. Some cold Sydney weather would be good about now.  Anyway, those that could, cooled off by the pool with a beer and a swim, and then a cheese platter and bottle of pinot grigio.  The kids were happy and the temperature cooled down.  I whipped up a home cooked meal for everyone with Tony as my 2IC.  Crumbed chicken, mashed potato and vegies for the kids, along with a raddichio and rocquet salad for us, and tomatoes and fiore di latte.  Heaven.  Rick said it was the best meal he's had since he arrived.  No wonder I love him so much.  We said outside in the lovely garden with the cool breeze.  The kids ran around and it was paradiso in Tuscany, minus Chontelle, Sandra and Catherine.