By the time we had put away the binoculars it had already gone 11am, and we'd had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing morning at the perfect pace for a Sunday.
We decided to head out for an hour to see if we could find the large convent (Convento Colleviti) on the edge of Pescia. It's hard to miss, perched up on a hill, when you approach the town by car, but as yet we've not seen it up close and personal and we'd read that there are some excellent panoramic views from up there. So armed with a map, we drove through town, took a couple of wrong turns until we found the signposted road to the convent. The road was very straight, very steep and very narrow (single car width), so we were glad when we arrived without having to pass another car in the opposite direction.
It's certainly an impressive building from what we saw of it, and from the glimpse we took, the views are lovely, but we didn't get out of the car. There were a couple of old men picking olives at the entrance to car park at the front of the convent who watched us arrive with some curiosity, and the (empty) car park was in such close proximity to the convent itself that we didn't feel we should have been parking there. All in all, it was a bit odd. Not helped by the fact that our driving up the narrow road had set off a couple of very noisy dogs who continued to bark their little heads off even after we'd passed, all making us feel a little as if we weren't supposed to be there. So, after turning the car around, we decided to head along the road towards Lucca.
On numerous occasions, we had noticed a turning right off this road that is signposted with more than its fair share of brown tourist signs and had always meant to take a look at some point - so today, we did.
Almost immediately after turning off the main road we were confronted by a lovely villa proudly standing alongside the road basking in the midday sun facing due south. On the opposite side of the road was a picture-perfect field of vines, with a view looking back towards Pescia and our valley. These views alone were worth the exploratory trip!
We continued along the lanes, winding our way past vast more vineyards whose grapes had by now been picked and were probably right at that moment being squashed under the feet of an Italian farmer. (I joke, of course, I'm sure vineyards of that size have long since moved on to more speedy and industrial methods, but that seems to paint a less romantic picture in my head.)
We stopped in the village of Gragnano and admired the rather healthy looking olives on the trees there - they didn't seem to have been afflicted by the olive flies that have caused some serious devastation to many of the crops in Tuscany this year (ours included - not that ours was ever going to amount to anything!).
We rounded a bend to see some rather grand gates leading to Villa Fanini. We stopped to take a peek, but couldn't get any closer than the gates which afforded a tantalising view of the enormous villa at the end of the driveway. Villa Fanini now appears to be a very exclusive venue for weddings, parties, meetings and the like.
We drove aimlessly around the flat, quiet roads in the area between Pescia and Lucca for a while, and it soon had me itching to come back to these roads on my bike - it's beautiful cycling country around here, that's for sure.
By the time we got home, it was nearly 2pm. Our second meal of the day was once again on the patio - the sun was at its hottest for the day, but it was just comfortable enough to sit in its full glare today and there was a lovely gentle breeze to accompany it.
After lunch, we decided to do a few little jobs around the house. I went to assemble the new portable gas heater for the apartment and test it, while Helen weeded the herb gardens. At one point, Helen shouted to me - I was indoors and ran out, all my senses alert trying to work out what was happening in case something was wrong. It took me a few seconds to grasp what she was saying - she was indicating that a car/motorbike on the road below was driving past with a loud speaker blaring: the first of many clearing the road for the cycle race happening this afternoon. We'd realised there was a cycle race in the area yesterday, when we saw lots of temporary road signs being put up for 'Gran Premio Ezio del Rosso'. We'd Googled it once we got home, but the website we ended up on was vague at best about the route - however, we were were pretty certain that it would be coming past our house at some point.
We grabbed the camera and ran along the drive to find a few people already parked at our gates, having obviously been driving up the road and made to stop by the race officials. Soon enough, the police and team cars soon came tearing down the hill, followed by dozens of cyclists. It made for a great 5 minutes of excitement, and once it was all over, we bounced back along the drive feeling very pleased that we'd got to see this without even having to leave the house (as such).
The rest of the afternoon saw Helen doing lots more weeding and mowing the lawn, and me trying to figure out how all of the somewhat inadequate outside security lighting was wired so that I could re-jig things a little and fit a nice new A+ rated LED security light in place of a costly halogen one with a view to replacing all the halogen lights with LED units should this one perform suitably.
We finished the day with a beer and nuts on the patio before yet again retiring indoors to blog, shower and cook dinner. Altogether a very satisfying Sunday!
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