Friday 29th Oct......a beautiful drive up and over Mount Subasio

It's a beautiful morning again and a perfect day to drive up and over Mount Subasio.

View on way up of the valley below Assisi

We are not sure and couldn't find out what this sculpture is all about. At first we thought it was an old tree stump but not so, it's bronze.

We are up on the top plateau now. The views from here are awesome.

From down in Assisi Mt Subasio looks all trees but when you get up here there are rolling hills and large grassland areas. 

Michael thought this would be a good place for a golf course.

It's bracing up here but so beautiful.

The owner of the villa where we are staying was surprised there is snow already on the far mountain range.

We are told that in the summer the Italians flock here with their picnics and sun loungers but today we have, apart from one or two mushroom pickers, the mountain to ourselves.

The grassland is common land. Many horses and cattle graze here for the summer.

Assisi from the top of Mt Subasio, amazing.

Another bronze statue, shame we couldn't find out what they represent.

The road which actually wasn't that bad.

The village of Collepino, we stopped here on Sunday for a coffee and we revisited today to stop for a beer but sadly the bar/restaurant was closed. Being good boy scouts we did have our packed lunch with us !
We have been invited to the apartment of our fellow olive pickers this evening for a pasta supper. We shall all be careful of the red wine intake as they fly back to UK tomorrow and we want to make an early start for our 6 hour drive

OK, IMPORTANT INFORMATION........we move on tomorrow to the Gargano Peninsular to Monte Sant' Angelo where we will be staying for a week. They do not have any internet connection at the apartment so the blog (I know big tears!!) will be off line BUT I will do an update when we get to Lecce. We have identified wifi hotspots in the town and hope to sit and have a glass of wine and catch up on emails at some stage during the week.
Have a great weekend everyone.
xxx

Thursday 28th Oct......A last visit into Assisi

We have come down in to Assisi again today to have a good walk about and make sure we have seen everything before we move on.

Each corner you turn or alley/narrow street has something to offer.

This and next 3 pics are across the valley from the Basilica, it's really clear today so a brilliant view.

We have walked for almost 3 hours so feel we earned a sit in the Piazza S. Chiara (a different one than before) with a glass of wine and a touch of people watching !

View from Piazza S Chiara.

We have had a good re visit to Assisi, we have now walked just about every square foot and have visited some areas more than once. We do feel Assisi gets a bit overlooked on the Italian city front, we found it be far more impressive than Siena.

Wednesday 27th October......day 2 of the olive harvest and Happy Birthday Daniel

A beautiful sunny morning and we are back in the olive grove for another picking day.

We all got quite paranoid about making sure that every last olive was plucked from the tree.

View back towards our villa.

The picking is finished we have once again had a really nice Italian lunch and now it's time to go to the mill to get the olives pressed. As we have a station wagon we volunteer to transport the precious load.

View from mill, in a pretty village south of Assisi.

The fruits of our labour have been weighed and are now ready to be pressed. The big stainless urn belongs to Gay, the villa owner and will be filled with the pressed virgin olive oil which she will collect from the mill tomorrow. The mills only operate at this time of year and opened just this week. This mill used the traditional system for pressing but sadly for us since last season  has "upgraded" to a mechanised system.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our two days helping with the olive harvest, it is not something we had planned but it's another of life's experiences. It was a shame that we didn't get to see the traditional pressing but there we are.

Tuesday 26th October....helping with the olive harvest

After yesterdays heavy rain this morning bright with just a few clouds so all go for olive picking.

This is a new experience for us, we are given our traditional olive gathering bags made by Gay, the owner. Large estates are now all mechanised but small olive groves are still picked by hand.

Our fellow "pickers" are another English couple who have come over to Italy just for the olive harvest. They have been to Casa Rosa on several occasions but this is also a first for them. Gay and her daughter Ella are the other pickers.

We worked hard but had a lovely lunch cooked by Ella and washed down with a couple of glasses of wine. By the end of the day the wind had got up and it was really quite cold but we have had a great day. Feeling very tired this evening but a good tired. Quick salad and  a glass or two of wine, the end of a good day. And hey there's more trees out there for tomorrow.............

Monday 25th Oct...it's raining so some history and useless info !!

We had heavy rain overnight, and still raining this morning, which was a shame as we were going to help with the olive harvest today (a new venture for us) the olives need to be gathered when they are dry so the  hope is for dry tomorrow ..........

The property here at Casa Rosa was built in 1958.
When the owner first arrived here approx 30 years ago she lived with her family in the apartment above ours which was the main house with our apartment being the stables.  There are two other buildings one was the pig sty which is now another apartment (so we're one up on them then !!) and then the old hay barn is now the owners home.
It was all built with local stone which is quite porous so can get damp which is why they close down in November. Well we are on a mountain. 
It's a very remote spot with the nearest neighbour approx half a mile away.
Reading the visitors book folk come back many times for the peace and beautiful views especially as they have a really nice swimming pool so one could really relax and unwind here.
I keep forgetting to say that when you turn off the small winding road into the drive of Casa Rosa it's a launch over the top into the drive and hope for the best !! So far so good !

Chestnuts are in the shops so it must be Christmas.............................

The song for today is "I Love A Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbitt which is very apt as I have my line dance classes on a Monday when home in UK and this dance is one of my favourites.

Sunday 24th Oct....we head for the hills or in this case Mount Subasio

Chef/chief naviagtor did some research on Google Earth to check out the roads up into our local mountain as the map we have is not that detailed, however it turns out we didn't need to go off the beaten track as much as we had anticipated. In places the road was very narrow, switchback and rough but on the whole very good. We have been on a lot worse in the past.

Beautiful autumn colours starting to form and fabulous views. Brrrrrr it is needless to say quite chilly up here on the exposed side .

The small village of Armenzano.

Coffee stop at the village of Collepino and the prettiest village/town that we have seen since arriving in Italy and really friendly locals and the coffee only cost us a euro !!! We have rather got used to the tourist areas prices !!

This pic and two above are Collepino.

On down the other side of the  mountain and again with fantastic views but a bit like parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway the trees have grown and have obscured the view for photo taking. This stop, Spello, which is a much bigger town. It's Sunday and the locals are out in force for their long Sunday family lunch which as we said before sounds a good idea to us, but we find a parking space and have a good look around. 
This pic is a ceiling fresco taken from the courtyard of the building in the pic below.

We have had a really lovely relaxed day "poodling" around mountain villages.