The day was cool and sunny, and, once again, we were on the move. Bleary-eyed, we had breakfast and there was a little time for a few images of the medieval streets of Trevi, as we begin our last day’s journey. Our home for the last night was in an area of Rome known as Ostia, a beach area near the airport for easy transfer in the morning.
Our morning activity was visiting a Renaissance garden with a twist. In the town of Bomarzo, we visited the Park of the Monsters. Begun in 1552, the garden features a series of bizarre and grotesque stone statues meant to shock. It’s also known as the Sacred Grove.
“It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini, who built the park after the death of his wife to cope with his grief. During the 19th and 20th centuries the garden became overgrown and neglected until Salvador Dalí made a short movie about the park and completed a painting based on it. The Bettini family implemented a restoration program, which lasted until the 1970s. Today the garden, which remains private property, is a major tourist attraction. ” – Wikipedia.
We stopped to walk among these statues with the aid of a park map. It was a fascinating stop and much enjoyed by the group.
Our next stop was for lunch at a restaurant in a quaint picturesque village. As we were eating, the restaurant became crowded with senior citizens. We later discovered that it was Grandparents’ Day. We joined in the merriment and celebrated the end of the tour at our last lunch by enjoying all the delicious food and the company of our traveling companions.
Our last stop, mid-afternoon, was to our hotel on the seashore of Ostia. We had a room with a view! It was here that I turned on the TV and heard about the shootings in Las Vegas. Ann was off to walk by the seashore. I enjoyed the view from our terrace.
After printing off my boarding passes and completing the last steps for my flight home, we met for a nice twenty minute walk along the lido for our farewell dinner. It was a gorgeous evening. Since we were at a seaside restaurant, we had seafood for dinner – a calamari salad, and pasta, of course, with crème brûlée for dessert. Alice told us that the reason that we were the only people at the restaurant was because they opened especially for us they’re usually closed on Mondays. We were treated royally by the staff.
We strolled back after dinner and said our goodbyes to our lovely group of fourteen travelers. I was to be the first one up, at 3:30 AM, with airport pickup at 4:15. The faithful Alice, our fantastic trip leader, was up to make sure I was off to the airport in my own private car! I wrote you from the airport, so it appears the cycle is finished, and the trip is over.
I hope you enjoyed your trip to Bologna, Parma, and the back roads of Tuscany and Umbria. It was a wonderful experience for me. I even had a few kickass experiences along the way, Carrera and the truffle hunt with proseco and scrambled truffled eggs on the top of the mountain among them. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to my traveling companion Ann for putting up with me for almost a month.
I don’t have any other big trips planned but I’ll be flying to Las Vegas soon for a few days to meet my sister and brother-in-law, who are flying there today, and I will be spending part of the holidays with them in Hawaii. Will I report on it? You betcha.
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Take care and happy and safe travels!
As I think back on the beautiful days spent so recently in the countryside of Tuscany and Chianti, I was constantly reminded of my early days growing up in Vallejo, so reminiscent of the Napa – Sonoma area. I grew up fifteen minutes away from Napa and it’s always been my go-to place for short trips with visiting friends. As I come home and watch the fire coverage on TV, with wildfires still raging and uncontained in the Napa – Sonoma area, an hour’s drive from my home, my heart goes out to those family and friends who have been evacuated and are in danger of losing their homes. Mother Nature can be deadly and our lives are precious and precarious. I awoke to the smell of smoke Sunday night from the fires and the Bay Area is still at all time highs of smoke pollution. As I write, there is still no containment.
It’s a crazy world. Take care of each other.