After breakfast we said good-bye to Jane, Jim and Joan. We headed up to the room to pack for a while, although we were in pretty good shape by getting organized yesterday. Fiske took the suitcases down and loaded the car, and then we went into the office to say arrividerci to Ivana, Valeria....and Mia was there as well. Out in the garden, we also had a chance to say ciao to Danili and Fabbio. They reminded us to not go to Portofino the same way Joan and Sarah did!
We got a more detailed description from Joan at breakfast. The rescue was truly a dramatic event. She was still shaken from the drama they endured, particulary the helicopter airlift. We did our best to reassure her, but it was clear she was still upset. Sarah did not even make it down for breakfast.
One thing we wanted to record was the general sense of the painting we did over the last three weeks. This is not meant to get too specific, as our work has about exploration and getting a better feel for the medium. We posted all of our watercolors on the wall of the studio.....mixing and matching. It is funny how we tend to work in similar styles. In any case, the following pictures are of the studio portion of our apartment.
Having taken of all of our departure errands and good-byes, we jumped in the car and headed out......to the north and west of Genova. The route around the City was hugely complicated as a result of last year's bridge collapse, which occurred on the autostrada disabling a major highway passage through the city. We had to go through a whole series of diversions and detours to get to the west of Genova along the coast. Once there, the driving was great and the weather was sunny and warm.
The drive up into the hills (mountains) was on a divided highway, but we have never seen so many tunnels and crazy, winding roads. We had made a plan to stop in a hilltown called Mondovi about 2 hours out of Genova. It turned out to be a wonderful, small town with a very nice central piazza at the top of the hill. We parked the car and found a nice little ristorante/pizzeria on the edge of the piazza. We opted for a pizza and some wine.......very nice, peaceful lunch. The town was very quiet at midday and we wandered around a bit after lunch enjoying a gelato!
The driving from here to Sinio (near Alba) proved to be a different kind of driving experience. The roads got smaller and the curves bigger! It was, however, quite beautiful as we got deeper into the wine country. We have also come to realize that our GPS tends to take us the shortest geographic route without respect to the size or condition of the road!
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| amazing little chapel in the middle of the vineyards |
After another 45 minutes of driving we were getting deep into the vineyards, and the roads were not capable of two cars passing each other! It was extraordinarily beautiful. After a handful of 'gasping' confrontations with cars and tractors, we arrived at Sinio........the only problem being that we came in the back side of the town and climbed up the wrong side.....on a street that was not meant for car traffic. We almost didn't make it with the car under full acceleration in first gear.......quite stressful. In any case, Fiske got out of the car and asked a young boy where the Castello di Sinio Hotel was. We were only a block away after all this!
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| Castello di Sinio |
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| Inner courtyard and reception desk |
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| amazing walk to our room through jasmine trellises |
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| pool just below our bedroom window |
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| entry stair to our room |
The hotel turned out to literally be in a castle on the top of the hill, with the original structure on the site being built in the 12th century. To make things even stranger, the woman who owns the hotel (Denise) was born in Lucca, but grew up in the Bay Area........and certainly sounded more like an American than an Italian! She was wonderful to chat with.
We got a truly unique room, which was converted from a small family chapel in the castle. We have a 'madonna and child' painting over our bed! We also crashed on the bed, and napped for over an hour. After our rest, we went out and sat by the small pool next to our room. The grounds are enchanting and convey the sense of a real escape to "elsewhere."
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| bedroom area |
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| sitting room |
We were able to check in a little past 3:00, so had a few hours to laze around........and headed down to the pool. We had it all to ourselves.......very relaxing!
Dinner was also a memorable experience. We had a reservation at 8:00 and were led up to the second floor, which was actually the original 'castle kitchen.' The views were wonderful and we were the only ones in the room! A few minutes later we were joined by another couple, but it turns out that the hotel, which only has 9 rooms, is quiet this week before being totally full for the next few weeks.
The menu and the food were a wonderful surprise. We had heard that the ristorante was well-known, but what we encountered was as sophisticted as any place we have been on this trip. It also turns out that the proprieter, Denise, is also the head chef. We won't go through all the details, but the preparation and presentation was incredible. We ordered a bottle of Barolo, which was treated with 'hard to describe' respect........maybe a bit showy, but they used three separate glasses to aerate, smell and taste the wine before serving it!
The meal was great and our waiter was fun to have around. Denise actually came up from the kitchen to take our order. After a 2 1/2 hour indulgence, we made it back to the room. It was a good thing we did not have to drive on these crazy roads!
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| view from our dining table at 9:45 at night! |
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