April 7, 2017. On to Italian housesitting assignment

LOCATION:  Hilltop villa outside of Casoli, Italy in the Abruzzo region

WEATHER:  Sunny.  Highs in 60s

 

We overslept!  George's alarm did not go off.  My internal body clock woke us up at 6:00, so we missed the early train I had hoped for.  (George swears he didn't do it on purpose!)

 

We rushed to the local train station, only to wait 30 minutes for the 7:00 train.  Other trains were delayed, but ours reached Milano Centrale on time, and we ran to catch our 7:35 train to Pescara.  Whew!  We made it!!  

The train is quite nice.  We had a table seating arrangement for 4, with just the 2 of us.  The route started in north central Italy.  As soon as we got out of the metro area, we started seeing farmland, mostly wheat.  Then, the landscape turned into small villages with fruit trees, vegetable plots and LOTS of grapes.  The trip was 5 hours, about 300 miles.  We stopped in 8 cities. The ones I recognized are Parma (Parmesan cheese), Modena (balsamic vinegar) and Bologna (sauce Bolognaise).  Then, the route turned southeast and we started to follow the coast.  

The Adriatic Sea is very pretty.  The coast was chock-a-block with holiday homes and RV parks with tiny tiny campers parked like sardines in them.  Now it is pretty quiet and empty, although we have heard that in the summer time, the beaches are packed.

We arrived in Pescara, the largest city in this area at about 1:00.  

We had a bit of a fiasco in Pescara.  We picked up our rental car, then tried to find wifi to load directions onto our phone.  We walked around the town.  The tourist office was closed.  We finally found a coffee shop with wifi, so I ordered a coffee while we tried to load the map.  The wifi wasn't strong enough, so we finally gave up.  We just used the directions the homeowner had given us.  It was horrible getting out of Pescara.  We finally found the "autostrada" and drove about 15 miles.  The homeowner said to turn at the bottom of the village of Casoli.  This is what it looks like from below.....

 

Then, the directions were something like....."go 1.2 km until you see a shop called Capruzzi, and turn left, then go 1.1 km until you see a house with blue shutters and turn left", etc.  We drove up and up into the mountains.  Miraculously, we found it.  

 

It is a mountain-top villa with views to die for.  The Apennines Mountains are practically in our backyard.  The homeowners have their own house and we are going to be staying in one of the apartments they rent out.  This area, called Abruzzo, is Italy's "green belt".  It is the least populated region and so far has escaped much commercialism.  They have guests from all over the world staying here....in winter to ski and in summer to relax, hike, eat and drink...

 This photo is from their website of the view.  

 

 

This is from our bedroom window.

 

And the view from the swimming pool area.

The homeowners had stocked our kitchen with fresh veg, cheese, lots of wine, fresh Italian bread, and even baked us a chicken dinner so we would not have to go out this evening.  Wow!  

 

The homeowners will be here until Sunday so we have plenty of time to get oriented.  Included in the orientation list is the name of the next door neighbor who owns a boutique winery.  They gave us a bottle of their wine.  At $7/bottle, this is considered a very expensive wine!  The other neighbor makes olive oil.  The oil on the kitchen table is from our homeowners' trees.  They take the olives in the fall to the neighbor who presses them into oil.  Wow! We will be here for about 17 days.  There are lots of villages to explore and the national park is nearby.  I'm sure we will have a lot of adventures!