Although we stayed in the heart of Postiano, today we over slept, with the shutters, windows and more shutters it seemed about 6am when really the clock showed 8.30am. Fortunately the bus to Colli de Fontanelle wasn’t leaving until 10am, so plenty of time to have a delicious buffet breakfast and get organized for our walk inland to La Tore, near Sant Agata. We had read about “the crush of the buses “ and thought it referred to the amount of people on the buses, the later the day got, but NO, No, no.no – the CRUSH of the buses referred to the number of buses coming up and down the mountain – yesterday we had the bus twice doing a three point turn to get around a corner and today we had buses inching past barely making it through – I think everyone on the bus was breathing in, trying to take up less room….of course all this is on the side of a cliff. Then the crush seemed to pass and our driver, having the right of way going up hill, tooting the whole to warn those around the corner that we were “coming through”! I was very glad to get off the bus at Colli De Fontanelle – we were the only ones alighting….so set off on our own.
The walk had magnificent views of the coast, and the headed inland. At one point while having a drink spot a helicopter flew over what seemed to be the same altitude, so we had a birds eye view. At times it was like tramping in NZ, same flowers, brush and weeds, lots of little lizards, and then we came across the skin of a snake….well, a few skins of a few snakes – not so like NZ after all, and of course the heat is a constant reminder of where we are!
Concentration was needed the whole way so we didn’t miss the signs. Some of the written instructions included – “then head inland down steps in a terrace wall immediately after a hen house, the navigation become a little tricky here” . (No shit Sherlock!!) or “Head towards a lone house with a red roof” (They ALL have red roofs!) OR “At the bend take the left fork past a yellow house, to some old stone gate posts with a rusty letter box, walk through past the outbuildings, under vines, past the chicken runs”! So you see it is a constant lesson in cooperation and comprehension to get from point A to point B each day without a divorce!
We stopped for our lunch in Torca under the shade of lovely big trees, up here off the beaten track there are very few tourists and lots of locals sitting under the shade, passing the time, listening to their radios and possibly wondering what these crazy visitors were doing wandering around in the heat of the day! We chatted to a local senor who spoke reasonable English –way better than our Italian, and he was very informative and interested in where we had been and were going. He gave us some local insight to how tough things are and guaranteed us that if we travelled to Scilly, they would welcome us with open arms….we told him, maybe next trip!
A short walk after lunch and we were in Sant Agata and found a bar, under the shade cloth, had drinks and played cards and watched the locals come and go. A short walk found our accommodation which is a local organic farm with amazing accommodation, very spacious separate pension out among the vineyard: we are told dinner is at 8pm alfresco….fantastico!
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