All went to plan, but still rubbish.
Bologna airport looking it’s best. There were queues for everything, the plane was packed, and the message from the Uber driver was that he had a flat tyre and would be half an hour! But we made it fine, and at least we hadn’t booked with Thomas Cook.
And the weather forecast showed a decline.
But a lovely sunrise (sort of) over Portonovo.
We are close to Ancona which the guide books say steer clear of – so we didn’t. I would say that on balance the guides are right. Decent enough cathedral
But if you turn around you can see what I mean.
Anyway, we were taken with Porto Recanati yesterday, so revisited for lunch.
Note the vino – it is a holiday!
Quick walk down to our beach – it’s a 500 feet straight down (and back up again) climb.
And back again to Porto Recanati in the evening. Loved the sky.
And the town was heaving, with police directing traffic and crowds. We thought it was a festival but it seems it was simply the Sunday evening promenade with everyone out. All gone by 8.30.
And, by the way, the food over the whole 2 weeks has been stupendously good. Dinners tend to be pasta followed by meat – we learned to order only one main and share it. The pasta (tortelloni and tagliatelle) and the sauces (ragu/bolognese and tomato especially ) have been stunning. And the very creamy ice-creams.
But firstly a monastery and grounds that seemed to us to be the closest Italy has to the National Trust. Decent old building, and then grounds, cafes, playgrounds etc.
Then to the beach – Porto Recanati. Seemed quiet even on a sunny Saturday but it was lovely.
Had a nice time, as you can see.
And finally to the beach where we’re staying. Incredibly steep path to get there, so almost inaccessible.
And in the end, dinner was rather too fishy for our liking.
and spirits lifted.
A bit of a change of outlook, though. You can see we’re on the coast, and so the plan was to have a few relaxing days on the beach. But we hadn’t anticipated the difficulties – firstly the inaccessibility of some of them due to the vertiginous clambering to get to them. Secondly the commerciality and privatisation of some which make them less tempting. Oh, and Eileen’s knee doesn’t especially like walking on shingle.
But Plan B is easy – many many Italian medieval hilltop towns provide a wonderful diversion.
Jesi:
Staffolo
And finally those little unexpected things that make a holiday memorable.
The bad : took ages to get back home after Staffolo. A wrong turning on to a motorway, followed by roadworks meaning we couldn’t get back on again after coming off at the next junction. And the very simple task of finding a supermarket was beyond Google for some inexplicable reason – to the extent that it was wholly unaware of a massive Carrefour a few miles away and tried to send us somewhere much further away. Oh the first world trials!
But quickly followed by the good. Had spotted this sign on the morning walk.
So we had booked the Agriturismo for this evening.
Sunset on the way there:
View from the terrace – Mont Conero and just below half way down and to the right of the trees is our apartment.
Shame it was a bit chilly to eat on the terrace, but you can’t have everything. Anyway, there’s no menu – it’s a sort of tasting menu with choices in the pasta and meat dishes which they reel off very quickly in Italian so we chose as best we could. Olive oil and wine both home grown:
One of the best meals ever, and we had no idea what the bill would be. We got to guessing what it might be, and also what we would pay if it were up to us. So the surprise when it was about half of what we were expecting, and less than many other evenings on this holiday. And Eileen’s technical, expert verdict on the wine? Very nice!
It was absolutely idyllic and couldn’t last. 7.00 this morning:
And there had been thunder and lightning during the night, so all pretty soggy. And we’re moving on. It turned out to be one of those days that just didn’t really work out. We had a couple of suggestions of places to stop en route, but they were pretty non-descript. And just before lunchtime the heavens opened and we were under a torrential downpour – indeed we had to follow a diversion at one point because a car had become stuck in a flash flood. So all a bit eventful.
Last stop Mont Contero National Park – here’s a pointer.
Quite tired when we arrived, so didn’t really get the essence of where we are. Although this helped:
But ended up, purely by chance, with dinner at the extremely good Osteria del Poggio.
And finally – we were expecting a guest appearance on the blog by Jo and 5 of her friends who are having a few days in Seville.
But to quote – “too drunk and too busy to write a blog”. Cheers!
Or really just doing very little, and thoroughly enjoying the surroundings.
Early morning – look carefully just below the centre and you can see where we’re staying. They have quite a long driveway.
Urbino:
Some 15th Century frescoes:
And the rest is pretty much as before. Lazing by the pool ( and occasionally in it), couple of beers/wine watching the sun go down, dinner on the balcony, watching the stars come out. It’s really really tough …….
Well almost. You may have gathered that we love it here – idyllic place to stay, and the local town, Urbino, is terrific.
So we didn’t go far, and the photos don’t add a huge amount from previous days, but we love it.
Morning.
Our very local village – Pieve di Cagna:
Into Urbino for a spot of culture and a bit of shopping :
Back for a run, a swim, and a gaze from the garden.
Dinner on the balcony – cheers!
And the thought for today. Absolutely no birds. None at all. Not a single one of any sort. We know the Italians shoot them, but surely not out of existence!
Beautiful mountains, blue skies. So many photos of the views.
Early morning:
Breakfast on the terrace:
A bit of gentle exercise:
Hauled ourselves out for lunch and a couple of non-descript towns – this one is Sassocorvaro:
We haven’t yet “done ” Urbino, but ventured in for dinner. Spectacular.
And no great thoughts about anything today – just chillin!
We’ve been here for 6 days, have seen an awful lot, and now it’s time to move on.
But first a final view from where we’ve been staying.
Christina the owner has been brilliant and made us feel wonderfully welcome.
But moving on, we stopped at a small hilltop town – San Leo.
And that’s pretty much how it still looks.
Gorgeous car!
Then on to the next place just outside Urbino – here’s a map if your Italian geography is a bit below par.
A beautiful place to stay – more pics later.
Quick trip into Urbino for dinner – again, more pics later.
And a final thought about tech – I’ve already banged on about the satnav and the bank card. Add to that wifi and data roaming – allowed us to hurtle down an Italian autostrada (a very dull one, I might add) listening to Desert Island Discs. You need to be of a certain vintage to really appreciate that sort of progress!
After the cultural exertions this week, we had planned to stay local and do a bit of mooching around in small towns. And being a Saturday in September, the festivals were all around.
We must admit this is turning out to be one of the best holidays:
– coffee and food are of a consistently very high standard – and this evening was the best so far
– towns/cities are absolutely delightful
– weather is terrific so far – blue skies and consistently in the high 20s
– great scenery and a lovely pool where we’re staying
– the Monzo card is brilliant. Came off the autostrada this evening and a massive queue at the cash booth. But used the card to pay the princely sum of €0.90 which was immediately converted into 80p. Yeah – rubbish exchange rate, but that’s just the rubbish from Brexit!
So here we go. Local town (Castel san Pietro Terme) had a honey festival:
Not sure where these fitted in, but they looked pretty:
Imola is a few kms down the road – stopped for a coke (me) and a Prosecco (guess!):
Back for a rest and a swim. Then Medicina – nowhere near the tourist trail but their annual medieval festival today so looked in:
And finally the best dinner so far. The restaurant in Imola is part of the slow food movement that started around here, and was sooooooooo good!
Moving on tomorrow.
