ITALY - PART DEUX

O.K., now where was I? Oh yeah, we'd just gotten to Rieti (pronounced Ree-ay-tee). I was sort of backed into the decision to go there. Susan really wanted to spend some time in a small town, in a villa preferably rather than a hotel, in other words, someplace different - very different.

Our friend Nick Beaudin's cousin just happened to own a place in scenic Rieti province, Italy. You're probably seeing where this is going by now, but just in case you're not - we rented the villa for 5 days in early June, and with one minor exception, it was fantastic! The exception was the fact that the place was at the bottom of the hill, which under normal circumstances would be a good thing for an old guy like me, with bad knees. Sadly, one enters the village of Paterno at the top of the hill! I calculated that had there been stairs, instead of steep paths, there would have been 155 of them.

The view at the left is that from our patio (or is it veranda?). It was one of the most pleasant parts of a fairly long trip, but this wasn't even the best view from this spot. Of to the left, about 10 kilometers away was a national forest with the letters D V X formed at the top of the mountain. The initials are actually a representation of the name DUCE - for Benito Mussolini!

With Paterno as our base of operations, and a small red rental car as our chariot, we took on the highways of Rieti and Tuscany, and more importantly the drivers of those provinces. Despite what Susan thinks, I'm a pretty good driver, and I'm much more cautious when driving in Europe than I am in the U.S. - an actual defensive driver! Who'd have thunk it?

Defensive driving in Italy involves having right side tires over the white line at the shoulder (for British readers, switch sides). The proper defensive move is to get as far on to the shoulder as you can, slow to a crawl and pray!