An unexpected turn–making lemonade
Strangely enough, I am writing this from the beautiful sitting room at Genius Loci, jus outside of Bevagna. Not on our itinerary!! So here’s how we got here–
We left Ascoli, Saturday morning and drove to Norcia, making a pilgrimage to the Ansuini Norceria, to but tartufo salami.
Here I am with all the boars.
After a nice stroll we got back into the car and drove on to Viterbo. We at lunch in the Trattoria Porta Romana which was wonderful. I had tortelli with porcini–Ken, a long thick pasta (lumbracelli?) amatriciana, and we shard a fantastic sliced pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes.
Here’s where we start going “off course”. First of all, it starts to rain–no big deal, really. We are off to locate the VRBO house we are to rent for the week. With great difficulty, finally we find the piazza where we can park, knock on the door of the neighbor to get the key and she takes us to the house. The minute we enter I am freaking with general bad vibes. OK it was far from luxurious but the price was right. I am thinking it will be fine, BUT the smell! The place reeks of mildew. She takes us downstairs to the bedroom and we can’t even breath in there! After about 10 minutes we decide to call the owner, in Ireland, and tell her we just cannot stay. She agrees that there is a problem, probably made worse by all the rain. She will refund our money and we will check into a hotel.
Here the nightmare continues. We check into the Baletti Palace Hotel–4 stars. It is a total dump. Ken keeps saying he feels like we are in Russia. The carpet is from 1945 and the room is not clean. The wallpaper is pealing from the walls and again we are haunted by the olfactory menace–it smells awful. But it is already clost to 7:0 so we stay. I had the phone number of D’Mae, fellow STer, so we called her and met at a winebar. She was a wonderful distraction–an instant friend–fun and entertaining.
Meanwhil I am panicing about where to go. Me with NO itinerary–OMG!! So, I call Michael at Genius Loci, dropping Palma’s name and he has room for us.
So, we are back on track. I can see why Palma nd Brad chose this place for their Palmabella tour 2009.
The views are really spectacular. The shower is great–Bevagna is lovely. We had a great day here yesterday, happy to be enjoying the “lemonade”.
This morning we are off to Perugia. the internet gods willing, I will blog from there.
Oh Jan, that is a nightmare! I am so happy you were able to find a nice room.
Jan, you are an expert lemonade maker! Glad it all worked out. You are an inspiration. We will need the whole story on rental reviews…the good the bad and the ugly. Happy travels.
That’s quite the glass of lemonade! So sorry for your experience (twice), but isn’t it great to have friends who have friends . . .?
Welcome to Umbria Jan! Sorry about the weather, but I’m betting MIchael and Mary are making you feel right at home! Give us a shout if you get bored!!
Lemonade, indeed! I follow Mary’s blog from Genius Loci and her place looks really beatiful. I also have high hopes for Bevagna, when I get to visit this fall. But what an apartment horror story!
That’s a great photo, BTW. I think I’ll have to put Norcia on my list of towns to visit, I love the look of all those boars!
Thank goodness this all worked out! It is really great that the owner of the apartment is going to refund your money. Have a great time enjoying that view.
Wow! I’m glad this worked out and that Michael was able to put you up at Genius Loci; it looks like a beautiful place and of course, I would trust Palma and Brad’s rec. Good too that the owner offered to refund your apartment money.