A trip to Subiaco!

After breakfast at our B&B, a skype call to P&A and a little play with the dogs, we headed off to visit Cervera di Roma (recommended by our landlord) and Subiaco - both about 50km from Tivoli.  And today, for the first time, Jane misbehaved and got us into all sorts of trouble - hopelessly lost several times!

After leaving the motorway and travelling back and forth for kilometre after kilometre, heading for a village for which there are almost no signs, I finally resorted to the old-fashioned  method of stopping and asking for directions.  Today, the little knowledge I have of the Italian language was absolutely invaluable - and I made some lovely new friends along the way.

Finally, we managed to get onto the road leading up to the exquisite little hillside town of Cervera di Roma - founded by the Benedictine monks in the 8th or 9th century, and which since the late 17 hundreds, has been a town for artists, writers and composers.  Cars cannot get into the village at all, so we had to park and walk - up and up and up flights of stone stairs.  We finally reached the little town piazza just after 12 and the only open door belonged to the Bar/Cafe.  So in we went, to the tiny little room with 2 small tables and 6 chairs, introduced ourselves and soon became best friends with the 4 people present - an elderly man (whose grand-daughter? came to take him home for lunch about 5 minutes after we'd arrived), a middle-aged woman who left at one stage and returned with a tourist booklet for us, the young guy who served us (we both had coffee and una pasta - the cheapest we've had since arriving) and a young woman.  It was such a lovely experience - and not one word of english spoken.

We went back out into the piazza with the older woman who told us that there is an artists' path that leads up through the village to the artists' summer retreat, the church and the remains of the fort at the top of the hill.  So off we went again - and the path is decorated with paintings, poems and sculptures, goes through tunnels and up and around tiny little paths, with the most beautiful little houses and gardens - and all completely silent.  In all the time we were in the town we saw the 4 people in the bar, 1 man going into a house and 3 workmen who were installing  floodlights up at the fort but who had stopped for lunch when we arrived.

Then back down through the village again, to the piazza where the bar was closed for lunch, and drove to Subiaco, about 12km away. Subiaco was the site of St Benedict's original monastery and is now quite a large, spread-out town.  At one stage there were 12 monasteries there, but only 2 are left, both about 6km out of town.

The old town of Subiaco is set on a hilltop, and once again we set off walking, this time in the hope of finding a nice restaurant for lunch.  We passed the remains of an old monastery on the way and there are other remains at the top of the hill, but not a restaurant in site.  So back in the car to drive to one of the remaining monasteries which was beautiful and huge - and their restaurant looks great but was closed.  By the time we arrived back at the "new" part of Subi, it was well after 3pm and we just headed to a supermarket and bought some nice produce from a delightful man at the deli to take home.

We arrived back home at about 4:30, Brian made some salad and platters of our standard buffalo mozzarella, ripe red tomatoes and basil, prosciutto crudo, salami, olives and some great bread (probably the best we've had in Italy this time), and we were joined by our landlord Gianluca and his wife Barbara who is a tour guide.  Gianluca made a lovely fire in the living / dining room over which he grilled 3 different types of Italian sausage and some pancetta and the four of us sat around the dining table drinking wine, grazing on all of the fabulous food, discussing all sorts of issues (covering even the 3 taboo topics) and had lots of fun.  

We all headed off to bed just after midnight to the sound of deafening thunder and heavy rain pounding on the roof, and just as we were jumping into bed, all the power went off.  What a lovely way to end our holiday - such a gorgeous night.  Shame about Subiaco really, but not long now until we're back in its namesake - and we can hardly wait.