Wednesdays !); but it looks out onto the wonderful Sabina part of the Lazio regione, and La Torretta really does face onto the Sabine mountains -- you can even see the tip of Monte Terminillo from the sundeck. Sabina is as yet 'undiscovered', and it's a truly beautiful part of Italy. It's individual for having all the green fields that places like Toscana and Umbria have, but for putting a lot more dwellings in between them than does either of those two regioni. It's a bit like a Perth Suburb of the '40s, with lots more green between the dwellings, and the dwellings are much prettier ...

Wednesday 20th March
Travelling:
Casperia - Roccantica - Poggio Mirteto - Abbazia di Farfa - Rieti - Cottanello - Casperia ..........
We had considered going to Roccantica to dine, so went to check it out; and it's very pretty, and the ristorante looked just fine, but in the end we dined somewhere else. They were putting up some kind of tent in the main piazza -- wonderful stuff !; there were at least 20 blokes smoking cigarettes and discussing it passionately, with not one of them actually doing anything. If it was
their smoke-o, it was A Very Long One; we were there for well over half an hour.  ;-)

Got hopelessly lost in Poggio Mirteto. Well, not so much *in* it as trying to find our way out (yeah, again). Ended up on a road totally different from the intended one, and found ourselves down at the Stazione Poggio Mirteto -- much stranger than you would think, because the station is a very long way from the town. We always remember the places we've been lost in/around; the memory sticks like glue, I think because we're usually pretty good about navigating. And it's hard to forget Poggio Mirteto in Sabina, as every second road-sign points to it -- dunno why.

We dutifully visited the Abbazia di Farfa, mostly because it houses a lot of bits of Roman things (and *they* are very interesting). But we could only agree with the cleaning lady who was sweeping the corridors and bewailing to anyone who'd listen the fact that the restuari had removed the building's charm; it did look very ... brought-up-to-date.

Flirted around Rieti and took a beautiful,