A week near Rome, in Casale Sonnino

Last week, Cris visited here in Bergen. This week, it's my turn to visit her at one of her favorite places near Rome, Casale Sonnino. I get to meet her cousin Patsy, her son Ray, and his girlfriend Nina. I also get to meet George Treves, the owner, and his dogs, Dylan Dog, Ticky and Tocky. They helped me not miss my Timmi so much.

I took a 360 degree video of the inside of the Casale that night and uploaded it to YouTube. (Be sure to click on my links to the videos I uploaded!)

There's Dylan Dog, guarding Casale Sonnino

Looking over the property

One of the gathering places, with volumes of art

Breakfast was laid out every morning

View from the breakfast room

Manuela and Tizianna made us comfortable

Italian towns often crown small mountains

Cris and Patsy in Frascati

Patsy in front of St. Peter's

Cafe in Castel Sant 'Angelo

I LOVE trebuchets! 

View from Castel Sant 'Angelo

 

Castel Sant 'Angelo from the bridge of angels

The first day, Patsy and I took the train in to Rome. We started in St. Peter's, since I thought that THIS time, I'd go inside. But the line was 3 hours long! So, we ended up at Castel Sant 'Angelo. It's much easier to get into, and they had an app to serve as your guided tour. We walked up and around and around the circles looking at history unfold, until we got to a cafe, where we sat overlooking St. Peter's dome.
We kept on up and up until the windy but magnificent top, right under Archangel Michael with his sword. What a panorama!

Wednesday, we all went on a Food Tour - my kind of tour! What an adventure getting there, though. We took the 9 am train into the center of town, but then couldn't find the tickets for the metro to the starting point. We went outside the station. The line for taxis was almost as long as the one at St. Peter's! Buses wouldn't get us there in time for the 10 am start. We began walking, and found a taxi in front of a hotel. He got us there only 10 minutes late! Our guide was out looking for us, but had not yet given up. Whew!

Our guide was Clelia of gourmetalyfoodtours. We began in a farmers' market, wound through the old Jewish quarter, crossed to the tiny island in Rome, and explored the Trastevere area in southwest Rome.
Food Tour!

Crossing the bridge in Trastevere involved street music and folks selling toys. It seemed prototypical Italian to me.

Thursday, Cris, Patsy and I took a road trip. We oohed and aahed at the Tivoli gardens at Villa d'Este. So many fountains!

We drove on to Orvieto, to the Duomo di Orvieto, with a fabulous facade.

Dinner was at Ristoria dei Montaldeschi, where I got the Polenta I had been craving, with wild boar sauce. Yay! Otherwise, it was pasta and fish, twice a day, all week - heavenly.

The Friday highlight was the Old Frascati Wine Tour, during which we not only learned about mineral wines from the area, but also had a pizza-making lesson. I have a certificate in ""Pizzaiolo". By the time we ate our pizzas, we were all tipsy and laughing at everything. My hands were covered in flour, or I'd have taken pictures. I can't wait to try this pizza recipe at home!

Saturday, the 1st of June, was another road trip day. Cris has done a wonderful job of driving us all over - in a stick shift, no less. We drove to Sperlongo, on the Mediterranean, for lunch at an outdoor restaurant that was nearly a garden.

Up the hill to the town and a distant view out to Ischia and Ponzo Islands. Cris bought straw hats for us women, and didn't we look great walking together on the beach! There was talk of Charlie's Angels.

On the road home was a sign for Sonnino - the same name as our Casale! We had to visit it. The twisty, narrow road led up to a town founded in the 11th or 12th century. We happened on a festival of school kids. Little girls were getting ready to dance, when WHAM! the downpour started. The festival ended. While we were meandering around Sonnino, an old gentleman popped out of his door and started asking us questions in Italian. A couple of us spoke enough Italian that we ended up being offered some baked treats. How sweet!

Home to change into dry clothes and then out to a restaurant that George recommended. We felt like locals. We needed to use Google Translate's camera function to figure out the menus! Home again, to a goodbye dessert and bubbly from George.

We worked on the jigsaw puzzle some more, but those 1000 pieces whupped our asses, I'm afraid, even though all 5 of us "puzzled" over it all week.