Italy part 2: Lago de Trasimeno

Red shutters and flower pots at the villa.

My last post about Italy ended on our drive from Rome to the villa on Lake Trasimeno. Traveling from point A to B is impossible, unless you understand the Italian sign system. Roads don't appear to have names, but at every fork or split, there is a sign post with 5-25 arrows listing a village's name and which direction to continue. So you have to know what town on the sign is going your direction. It took us a little bit to learn the towns and system (17 people and 6 times after getting lost). But on our first drive to the villa, we only got lost once. I remember driving up the gravel road and being amazed at the beauty of the property and the size and age of the building. And I could hardly believe I was actually going to stay for 6 days at a villa in Italy.

View of the north side of the villa. My room is on the second floor, to the right of the tree.

The villa was built with stones that are 2,000 years old! And here is another interesting fact: Hannibal defeated two Roman legions on this lake in 217 BC. Obviously, that was before the villa stood overlooking the lake. Even so, it was originally built as a fort for medieval knights. They stabled their hourses on the first floor, lived on the second, and posted lookouts on the tower. Pretty cool!

View of the pool from the second floor of the villa. You can barely see the lake above the treeline.

And now it is all about luxury! Look at that pool! Don't you just want to dive in? And there was a great covered porch to the left with all sorts of sofas and tables to hang out at if you weren't swimming.

We dined at this table every evening that we stayed in. I want a deck like this in my future home!

This is the main dining table to the left of the pool. Our first night, a local chef came and made us a true italian dinner - complete with hand-baked bread and oil, anti-pasta, pasta, meat, salad, and gelato! It was delicious! During the whole trip, I could never get enough bread and gelato.

The local chef, Julia and Florin prepare us dinner for our first evening.

And here is the chef (to the left) cooking away with help from the housekeeper, Julia, and her husband the groundsman - Florin. I loved the old brick stove and oven along with all the bronze pots and pans hanging on the walls.

Julia and Florin are very kind and friendly. They recently emmigrated from Romania, because they new they could have a more stable lifestyle in Italy. They've both learned to speak fluent Italian and are working on there English. Eventually, they'd like to come to the US. I've never seen people work so hard - they were constantly cleaning the villa, tending the lawn and gardens, etc.. I felt guilty when she would come to make my room everyday - it seemed different from a hotel where you don't know who is making your bed and emptying your trash. I wish them the best, they deserve it! Even if they hadn't introduced us to the best little pasticceria (bakery) with nutella stuffed croussants.

One of the many sitting rooms in the villa.

This is one of four sitting rooms - it was the second largest and my personal favorite. To the right are big doors leading outside to the pool and lawn. There were knick knacks all over the shelves and tables, along with family photos. The villa is own by a man in the Italian parlament. His wife inherited the place and he had it remodeled back in the 60s/70s. The time is pretty obvious by the dated, yet still comfy, furniture and color schemes- especially in the bedrooms. My room had some lovely brown, orange and yellow wall paper.

The sitting room outside my bedroom on the second floor. The villa used to be divided into four apartments, this was the living room for one of them.

I shared a room with my uncle Marshall's neice, Taylor. She was great - I had a lot of fun talking and hanging out with her. We stayed down the hall to the left of the sofas. This was my second favorite sitting room. It was upstairs and very private. I could picture myself taking tea here if I did the whole "tea time" thing.

Scott and I at the "wishing well" on his one-day visit before returning to his study-abroad group.

The first day way arrived, Scott drove down from Florence to spend the night and next day with us. I was glad to share a little bit of my time at the villa with him. We had fun hiking around in the surrounding hills and orchards. The next day we explored all the old medieval villages around where we stayed and took a bunch of pictures. Then he returned to his group in Florence and left for Venice the next day. So sad :( - but we met up again in Paris after my stay at the villa.

Okay, that is it for this portion. To be continued...