On this morning we we offered a tour of ‘Romitorio’ – which belongs to the family we are staying with and was first built as an Etruscan tomb. In the Middle Ages (1300’s) it was used as a hermitage site and in World War II it was used for a hiding place and protection of the partisans.
As they explained it, Carlo bought this property adjacent to his family farm and ‘discovered’ it as he was clearing away the brush from the hillside. Say what? I guess Italy has more of these historic sites than the country can pay to maintain, so if you buy property and there is something like this there, it is up to you to maintain and care for the costs as Carlo and Isabella have done for this site.
Carlo has cleared it all out and started to do the work of preservation. When he found the site it had been last used by farmers as a pig pen and chicken coop so you can imagine the filth he has had to clear away to make it a place to come visit.
Since the time he has cleared it out, now the government sends archeologists to come study the site to understand what happened here and the significance of the tomb paintings, art, and frescos.
When we first saw it all of our jaws dropped and Tony (of Tony and Maddie – cute honeymoon couple on this trip – more on that later) said what we were all thinking, ‘Wait, Carlo just FOUND this?’ Again, the legend of Carlo continued to build.
It reminded me of the set of Land of the Lost and it was hard to wrap your mind around how old everything was that you were looking at – a very fascinating tour.
After the tour it was mid-day and so hot! We decided to have lunch with Maddie and Tony (the honeymooners I referred to earlier). They live near Iona University in New York and he is originally from Philadelphia and she is from Virginia and were married on July 1. It is so great when you come on a trip like this and are able to meet fellow travelers and connect and laugh with them. They both have tremendous senses of humor and we find all of the same things funny.
Dana nailed it when she said at lunch, you remind me of Seth Meyers. Ding, ding, ding! That was it, Tony looked and talked a lot like Seth Meyers with a similar sense of humor and Maddie is equally as engaging. Oh how they had us laughing. The four of us together had a fun lunch in Pienza followed by touring the town a bit while licking gelatos. After the gelatos were gone we decided it was too hot to walk around anymore and we all headed back to the villa for naps.
Dana and I laugh that nap time is a big event now. We gleefully anticipate the opportunity to go back and get into our ‘napping’ outfits, take out our contacts, close our eyes and rest in the coolness of our room.