A bit of sightseeing around Viterbo

This morning we enjoyed the usual continental fare provided for breakfast..... I am getting so fed up with it now...... if you had asked me how excited I was to be having my breakfast in a hotel every morning.... no cooking.... no clearing up and no bloody washing up.... I would have told you that I was beside myself with excitement.... reality however bears no resemblance to the notion of doing nothing, especially when breakfast every morning is the same..... I am still craving poached eggs like you wouldn’t believe!!!! Any ways, we did our best to enjoy our breakfast and then jumped into the Corsa, ( necessary, as we are truly in the middle of nowhere!!) programmed Sally and set off for Capo Di Monte.Now, if you are over fifty or a china fanatic, you will recognise this name as being the brand name which describes a type of ceramic which..... ( and this is only my opinion) is extremely decorative and ornate, making it pretty hideous in my eyes.... however it was and continues to be popular and probably collected so who am I to judge!!!! So we pitched up in Capo, which on the internet looked very pretty, ...... Oh how wrong that was..... well maybe in the summer when it’s crowded with holiday makers, but today not so.

The town is set on the side of an enormous lake, that bit, and the accompanying views were lovely, but the whole place had an air of emptiness, probably because like the rest of the country winter was approaching and the visitors had gone so there wasn’t much point in making an effort any more!!!!! Consequently nothing, apart from a couple of cafes, was open. In particular the public toilets!!!! Not sure why they thought that people’s bladders stop working in the off season!!! Either way we were both busting for a wee and the gentle lapping of the water on the shore of the lake wasn’t helping..... Dear Richard, being anatomically built for weeing anywhere, found a spot with some cover and was happy as Larry...... I had to hold on.... and on occasion walk a little oddly..... until we found a cafe with facilities that I was able to cope with. ( There have been times when I simply couldn’t bring myself to go in, let alone relieve myself in some of the toilets we have come across!!

Feeling so much better, we decided to knock Capo on the head and try to find somewhere which had a bit more going on. We drove round the coast to another lakeside town called Marta....this place had a Main Street which would have been more interesting had we not arrived just as all the shops closed for lunch!!!

We found a cafe in a little square and settled down for a drink and a sandwich......

......said sandwiches were arrayed in a glass fronted cabinet inside the cafe, making a choice was complicated by the fact that the fillings weren’t displayed and so it was pot luck as far as deciding which was to our taste. Added to that, you only got one triangle, meaning one round of bread which seemed a bit bizarre.......anyway we made our choice and waited in the shade ..... at which point the local drunk pitched up to provide entertainment. There was a lot of shouting and arm waving accompanied by some swearing( I imagined?? , there normally is in my experience). All the time this was going on the local police were tracking his progress, well they were creeping along beside him in their patrol car.... finally they stopped and”had a word” and he sloped off round the corner...... only to reappear as soon as the police drove off , with a reprise of his cabaret act, this time with singing as well!!!!

The police ..... clearly familiar with the routine and so also waiting just round the corner...... returned and sent him gently on his way once again.....

and then the sandwiches arrived........imagine if you will a filling made up of egg, prawns, lettuce and frankfurter, mixed liberally with mayonnaise and possibly a few other ingredients which we were unable to recognise ..... cordon bleu it was not..... more like yesterday’s left overs mixed with mayo and chucked between two slices of bread.... oh and don’t forget cut into triangles with one triangle being a portion!!!!! Actually I was quite glad of this last bit as I’m not sure I could have gone a double helping !!!!!

By this stage we had had enough so we made our way back to our hotel.

Dinner was prepared and eaten in our room.....washed down with a lovely rose wine ..... and then I decided to

make use of the jacuzzi bath.

I’m not sure if the pictures show quite how big it is, but filling it took about half an hour and as it was filling I wasn’t happy with the amount of bubbles so was quite liberal with the bath gel......I also discovered that there were coloured spot lights over head which changed colour and so popped those on

and finally...... when the water reached the height of the jets( and I was just about to give up and have a shower!!!) climbed in and prepared to lie back and relax....... to this end I turned on the jacuzzi element of the bath...... all was well ..... I laid back and commenced relaxation ...... then I noticed that the bubbles seemed to be rising at an alarming rate...... I gave it a minute for things to settle down but they got worse....... it was like a scene from a Carry on film, the bubbles were literally creeping over the sides....... I called Dear Richard who was no help at all due to the fact that he was laughing so much......I was also crying with laughter ....... eventually , the only thing for it was to let the water out and give the relaxation a miss...... I did feel a bit cheated, especially as the coloured lights were still turning green, red and blue overhead....

After all that I needed a drink , which I enjoyed while Dear Richard watched football on TV.......he hasn’t been able to watch any for ages and there seems to be an awful lot on at the moment because whatever satellite system they have here gets it......we just have to put up with Italian commentary..... well he does ..... I don’t watch it..... particularly when we are on the third match that day!!!!!

Finally , I drifted off to sleep , and dreamt that night that bubbles were taking over the world and I could save it , if only I could find and pull out the plug!!!