Get Lost!

 Yesterday Dr. C. and I set out to find La Foce, the estate of Marchesa Iris Origio.  A writer and historian, married to an Italian. I have been fascinated by her life in Tuscany at La Foce especially her diary written during World War II.  Iris is gone, but her daughters run La Foce and the gardens designed byCecil Pinsent are world famous.

Our GPS loaded with European maps decided halfway there,  not to work, and so we ended up heading to Montepulciano hoping to see signs for La Foce.  Unfortunately, our GPS, whom we have dubbed "Nigel" (since he has a British accent) kept saying, "recalculating" the entire trip. 

 Although that might seem like a frustration, we are finding that getting lost isn't the worst thing that can happen here.  The scenery is beautiful, we followed several trucks containing grapes going to the crush.  In the end,  we took a ride in the country, came across La Strada del Vino Toscana (the Wine road of Tuscany) and ended up at the foot of the hill in Montepulciano.

Montepulciano

Our way home was around Lago di Trasimeno, then on to Perugia and home to Spello.

Even though we didn't find our destination, we spent a few hours on back roads exploring, and that really is what a vacation should be, not a forced march!