I’m writing this wearing a huge wool cardigan and looking at the grey sky through the kitchen window. We arrived back home yesterday afternoon… under the rain… and whilst for a split second the fresh air was welcome after the torrid heat of Italy, the novelty factor soon wore off.
We were all kind of miserable.
As an antidote to coming down to earth with a soggy bump I’ll tell you about the gorgeous last afternoon we spent with my parents. After mum’s legendary spaghetti Carbonara (she is an expert… don’t even dare mentioning peas, mushrooms or cream to her, you won’t survive the lecture), we hopped in the car and drove over the region’s border into Umbria to the beautiful medieval town of Bevagna, deep in wine country.
Built on the site of an Etruscan settlement in 80/90BC it then became a Roman village called Mevagna but not much is left of this period. It is now a beautiful medieval town worth meandering about.
Of course there are plenty of churches too!
In piazza Silvestri two face each other:
don’t ask what Mr M was doing there a part from blocking the light… sigh…
The view over the old walls is very pretty too.
But you know what… walking around in 90F heat makes you very thirsty and the obvious thing to do when in wine country… is wine tasting, right?
We headed out of the town to one of the many vineyards: Tenuta Castelbuono, intrigued by the main building designed by the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro.
It’s called the ‘Carapace’, which is the name of the turtle shell in Italian, you can see why:
We very merrily tasted delicious wines (Ziggurat and Carapace) were my favourites and learnt all about grapes and ageing process… don’t remember much… too much wine you see…
And then home…
A perfect end to a lovely holiday.
while you're ahead... 
How gorgeous 🙂
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