Day 09 - Wednesday 2nd September

I woke soon after 6:30am to the sound of gunfire. This time, there were no dogs barking and the shooting continued for hours. It seemed to be coming from various directions all around the villa. Sometimes it seemed to be fairly close.

Graham had gone for a walk down the hill to Ossaia and back before breakfast. He didn't see who was doing the shooting and he lived to tell the tale. We had lots of ideas as to why there was shooting but later in the day we found out that today was the first day of the official bird shooting season.

Suzy and I had to leave the villa today to drive to Sulmona which is in the Abruzzo area south-east of Rome. We had decided to go to a town called Montepulciano which is about 40 minutes from the villa on the way south. The others decided to come with us. We left the villa about 10:15am and found parking spots in Montepulciano (outside the walled town) by 11:15am.

This is a delightful town that is well worth visiting. Inside the walled city, there are narrow streets lined with ancient stone buildings. The girls enjoyed the shops and I enjoyed taking lots of photos as we made our way up the hill.

At the top of the hill, there was a large square with a beautiful cathedral and the town hall. We climbed the stairs to the parapet of the town hall to get a panoramic view of the city and the countryside below.

We said goodbye to the others in the plaza and headed back down the hill to our car. We left Montepulciano at about 1:15pm and drove through the country roads to the A1 autostrada. We stopped for lunch at about 2:15pm at a roadside service centre (AutoGrill) and then continued on the A1 south past Rome where we turned off onto the A25 towards Pescara.

We reached the town of Sulmona just after 5pm. The TomTom started guiding us through the narrow streets of the town. After a while, it seemed that she had lost the plot because her instructions kept changing and she was telling us to go down impossibly narrow streets that would be more suitable for a bicycle. She took us around and around, into the walled city and out again. It was like some sort of cruel game.

Eventually we found a street that was wide enough to stop in without holding up the traffic behind us. I went in to an information office to ask directions only to find that the hotel was only about 50m away down another narrow lane.

As you might expect, this narrow lane was one-way the other way and so I signalled for Suzy to back into the lane into an empty parking spot that I was guarding. By the end of this entire process, Suzy was even more stressed out than me.

We unloaded the car and found an entrance for the hotel only to find out that the man at the desk didn't speak English and didn't have a clue what we were talking about. Luckily he rang his daughter who speaks English (and has been to Australia as a tourist).

She said that satnavs can't cope with the narrow streets and other people have had the same problem as us. She sorted us out, answered all our questions and took us up to our room. This was a huge relief. She wouldn't accept a tip and so I asked her if I could give her a big hug.

The other good news was that the parcel containing the emergency replacement MasterCard was waiting for us at the reception desk.  I rang MasterCard in the US to check that I can use it straight away and to thank them for looking after us.

The hotel has cable internet connection included in the price of the room. It was great to have a fast reliable internet access. I was able to upload the blogs for the last few days that I couldn't upload in Tuscany. The hotel is modern and classy inside. It is very close to the centre of town. It is quite a find once you manage to find it.

At about 7:15pm, we left the hotel to stroll through the town and to find the restaurant that the hotel had recommended. We were amazed how busy the town was at that hour with pedestrians. We didn't stay long at the restaurant because Suzy was exhausted after the drive.