October 6th

A lovely morning about 17C with a promise to rise to 21C by mid-day. Today is another day trip as we are heading to Civita di Bagnoregio, about an hour southwest of Todi. Nice casual drive with no drama and easy parking. This is another hilltop village but with an interesting twist as it is accessed via a pedestrian bridge. The Porta Santa Maria gateway was built by the Etruscans ( The Etruscan civilization was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states between the 8th and 3rd century BC.)

The Romanesque San Donato Church which sits in the main square by contrast was founded in the 7th century AD.

After exploring some of the nooks and crannies in this quaint village we headed to a nearby town looking for a lunch spot but most everything was closed or uninteresting. As a last-ditch effort, we stopped at a local shop and bought of all things a shrimp salad sandwich, a ham sandwich on soft white bread, and 2 “sweeties” for the princely sum of 6euros. These we ate with great satisfaction in the parking lot of a nearby church which had this for a view:

 A really pleasant day which we topped off with a nice dinner chez nous as we grabbed some takeout from Dige’s Pizza: a super busy joint where they bake the pizza in oblong shapes roughly 2 feet long and 1 foot wide, then cut pieces to order (with scissors). Cost is by weight and choice: margherita, olives with cold cuts, cheese with slices of potato and topped with basil leaves (quite tasty), cheese with ground sausage, mushrooms, and basil leaves (my favorite)…just writing about gets my taste buds going!

 

October 7th

A foggy morning today but with a bonus > a view of the Convento Montesanto from our bedroom window…

… and then we are off to Montefalco about a 45-minute drive to visit the winery owned by our host’s uncle, Cantina Colle Ciocco. We are met there by Eliseo Spacchetti one of the co-owners who gives an overview of this small family-run business. Interestingly they export small quantities to other European countries as well as North America, including Toronto. The winery dates back to 1935 but Eliseo said that some of the vines go back much further when it was owned by someone else…

We then got to taste the 3 reds and 2 whites, a rose as well as the Montefalco Sagrantino-passito a sweet wine. We have never been fans of sweet wine but this is a whole different level of taste and absolutely delicious. All this tasting was at 11:00, thank goodness it was accompanied by a cheese and charcuterie plate and some toasted bread with coarse salt and extra virgin oil (fiore) not drizzled but poured over it…yummy!

They also have olive groves with many of their trees more than 100 years old…

Production is onsite and they produce the Fiore, Fruttato, and Gentile oils, Eliseo explained the differences in taste >>> we couldn’t resist the Fiore and bought a bottle. It so happened that the olive “picking” had just started (early because of the hot summer) and we rounded off our visit by visiting the olive grove:

A nice experience after which we made our way to Montefalco (another hilltop village) and wandered around a bit to wear off the lassitude brought on by the wine (yes you are supposed to spit it out but some of the wines were too tasty to do that and the servings were generous haha!! Then it was time to head back to Todi.

To celebrate a great day we had dinner out at Vineria san Fortunato where the waiter insisted (in a nice way) on pairing our dishes with local wines …I loved mine, but Annie not so much. A nice evening as we strolled home via the Piazza del Popolo…