But wait, there's more

I have had cause to ponder today, ponder lots.  One does ponder a lot when one spends such a lot of time lost in the woods, or in the mountains, or in the cities, or on the highways, or in the towns, or in the thoroughfares, or in the train stations, or in the piazzas, or ... anywhere.

For today's lost period I pondered on all things Italian and my earlier blog this week about how I had come to realise that history has shown Italians were once a clever bunch of people inventing thermometers, ice cream cones, espresso, pizzas, fiats and other Italian things. 

After posting that blog I realised that not only had I missed out the fact that the Italians were the great inventors of opera (thank you Katherine) but they had a history of having some great explorers, like Columbus, Marco Polo, Caboto, and others whose names I cannot recall.


So why, I pondered, can today's twenty-first century Italian not write up a simple set of directional instructions to hand to a couple of wily, and not totally unintelligent, Kiwis to enable them to walk from Point A in one town, to Point B in another town?


Today was Day 3 of the 8 days of walking to be done.  So far the Italians:


1) dropped us off in the wrong medieval town
2) didn't know their left from their right
3) didn't know how to write down telephone numbers accurately
4) didn't know their down hill from their up hill
5) didn't know their left from their right
6) didn't know the difference between an abandoned ruin to a brand, sparkling new mansion
7) didn't know that the average human being can not distinguish a horse paddock from a cow paddock when there is neither a horse or a cow in either paddock.
8) didn't know their left from their right
9) didn't know the difference between a farm stable and an enormous granary
10) 10 didn't know the difference between a.m. and p.m.
11) didn't know their left from their right


Oh, I can hear those smart alecks among you saying that we are clearly a hopeless couple of old klutz Kiwi women who are clearly incapable of reading maps and navigating in their own country, let alone one on the other side of the world.


Well, this recent Italian picture proves our point.

We were to walk from Tuscany to Umbria via a mountain range and down to a big and beautiful lake.  Our scheduled walk was only 13 kilometres and due to the amount of mountain climbing we were scheduled to do over the 13 kilometres it was estimated it would stil only take us less than 3 hours - and in those hours would be a number of stops to take in the views, eat our sandwiches and have the odd comfort stop.

We set off at 9.30 a.m.  Good looking, tall, dark, swarthy, charming, Colgate smiling Michael drove us to the drop off point.   Five hours and 17 kilometres later we arrived at Point B to meet Michael.  One look at us and he had that "uh, uh" look.


After walking over the mountain range and down among towns and villages in the average head of 27 degrees Delwyn has blisters. Upon blisters. 


She's fast asleep, snoring at this present moment.  She's earned those zzzz's.  She's the one with the recent knee replacement and having done very little hiking for the past year - I am supposed to be eternally fit.  With a bung knee. 


It was a testing day.  Not only because of the heat, nor because of the terrain or the distance, but because of the constant battle to keep our wits about us and continue to head in the right direction - despite having gone left when the instructions told us to go left, then 2 kilometres down the road realising we should have gone right.  No wondered she's snoring. As I will be very soon.


It is funny.  Now.  After two pints of beer each.  Red wine. A couple of enormous pizzas and a cool evening breeze. 





Everything is rosy in the Umbrian countryside.  Especially our cheeks.


And tomorrow is another day.  To be rosy.