Sitting in a beautiful bay on the Island of Pasman in hot sunshine, quiet as most of the boats here last night have left, seems an excellent time to update the clarkesailing blog.

From Biograd on Tuesday 18^th. July we made our way north to Istria again via a couple of islands where we anchored or took up moorings.  After a long days motoring we were back to Marina Veruda which is becoming somewhat of a second home and where we have now decided to leave the boat for the winter, out of the water, as we did last year.  We were off for a two week holiday from the boat in Tuscany and Umbria.

The trip did not start auspiciously. Our car, a rather large Skoda, arrived promptly at the marina and we set off to drive to Bologna in northern Italy in high spirits.  This satisfaction was somewhat dashed by the queue of cars at the Slovenia border.  It took us two and a half hours in the heat of the day to crawl 5 kilometres to the checkpoint where the passport examination was cursory and took about thirty seconds.  Our satnav took us through tiny roads in Slovenia in order to avoid paying fifteen Euros for the road toll.  Once on to the fast autostrada in Trieste we were beset with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Arriving in Bologna we found our hotel was in the old town and down the narrowest streets which completely confused the satnav and us.  In desperation we parked the car and Julie walked to the hotel.  Even getting the car into the tiny garage was a mission.  So a journey that should have taken four hours took more than nine and we were well over it. Thankfully, the hotel was charming.

 

After a brief walk around Bologna we embarked on the two and a half hour drive to Siena.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had trouble in the past trying to find a park in Siena and Julie thought it would be possible to drop our bags at our “hotel” before leaving the car in its parking spot one and a half kilometres away but of course it was within the city walls so our satnav took us on impossibly tiny roads and the only way to find it was to ditch the car and walk.  Once we had done this we found ourselves in a quaint B & B, Casatorre dei Leoni Dimora Storica, in a converted palazzo run by two sisters-in-law, obviously doing it for fun rather than profit.

 

We met our friend Deborah Humble in the main square where the Palio takes place and had an excellent meal in a basement restaurant off the tourist trail.

 

 

 

 

 

After a morning provisioning in Siena we three left for Villa della Geggiano about five miles north east where we were staying for two nights.  This is a huge house, the summer residence of the Roman Bianchi Bandinelli family since 1547, however, the current Count made it his home in 1991. The family found it impossible to keep the villa unless they could make it a “going concern”. His father, a Communist, had given most of the families land and villas to their workmen after World War 11, so now they have to rent the land back from them for their farming!.

 

 

It is in remarkably good condition having survived a number of renovations and even an earthquake in 1811.  The 18^th. century frescoes, painted for the wedding of his ancestor in 1724, still survive as the house is so thickly built that in summer it is cool and in winter not too cold, as the Count informed us, it is however, noticeable that the Countess now lives in Rome. For anyone who is in or visiting London they have a restaurant of the same name in Chiswick which we have booked in September.

 

After negotiating the usual tiny, dusty tracks of Tuscany we were led by the owner to our accommodation, a newly built stone cottage on the side of a hill within the grounds which has all the modern appurtenances and is extremely comfortable.  Here we were joined by Bruce Caldwell who found it far more easily than we did in his taxi from Bologna.

A thunderstorm in the afternoon threatened the Linari Concert but by evening the skies cleared and the chamber concert given by the Nash Ensemble, based at Wigmore Hall, could be held on the garden stage at the villa.  The audience of about 100 sat on the lawn with their backs to the house.  It could hardly have been a more perfect venue to listen to Mozart, Schubert and Dvorak under a full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Geggiano we drove into northern Umbria where we stayed for nine days in Citta della Pieve, one of the multitude of walled hilltop towns so common in Tuscany and Umbria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here, together with Debbie and Bruce, we attended the Incontri di Siena chamber music festival, driving to five different locations in houses, castles and churches to hear a variety of ensembles from two pianos, string quartets, a solo mezzosoprano and the highlight, the Mendelssohn Octet played in a castle courtyard. That week all of southern Europe experienced severe temperatures, we sympathized with the performers in 40 degree heat.

 

 

 

The only downside was that our accommodation was nearly an hour away from most of the venues which meant too much driving on narrow, winding roads at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a rest day we drove to Panicale, another charming walled hilltop town overlooking Lake Trasimeno. This town has been smartened up and hosts some lovely little apartments with spectacular views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, also while trying to find the exact spot of Hannibal’s victory over the Romans at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, the car backed into a tree badly scratching the plastic bumper and denting a light.  Interestingly we had just read in the Daily Telegraph about hire car firms ripping off people who had accidents so we were prepared for an argument with the hire company, however, they were very reasonable and what they charged us for the damage seemed fair enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our return drive, with a night’s stop in the charming hilltop town of Asolo in northern Italy was quite smooth and we only had a five minute wait at the border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we had been away the excellent team at Veruda had treated the decks for us with the special nano preparation we use so that Exotica now looks in perfect condition for another voyage into the islands of the Adriatic.