Last week I spent Valentine's weekend away and the plan was to spend it in Tuscany with my dad. The reason being he had to meet with his solicitor at the villa. While we arrived without too much ado, there was a massive tailback on the Grande Raccordo Annullare, the ringroad surrounding Rome. This meant we were late getting on up the motorway. As we left Rome and headed out into Lazio there was a small flurry of snow which we didn't give much credit to. However as we sped down the autostrada, we noticed warnings on the overheads 'Neve - Fabbro' and 'Neve - Chiusi'. Though, when we drove on past each of these towns there wasn't a drop of snow at all. Our luck wasn't to hold though. As we came off the motorway at the Valdichiana exit, snow was piled up high on the sides of the road and there was slush everywhere. The closer to the house we got the heavier the snow fell. We then got to the point where we would go no further without chains on the wheels. We were on a hill 5 kilometers from the house. Luckily we hitched a lift from two hippies in a busted old Citroen 2CV. I wish I had taken a photo of them, but I only took a photo of the sight we saw at the top of the hill. While the Carabinieri were helping the hippies' boss (they were couriers) I stood in the snow, getting steadily colder.
Thankfully Rocco, the Maresciallo of the local Carabinieri and his Lieutenant, Danilo were very proficient in fitting the tyre chains to the courier's wheels. He then escorted me and my dad back down to our car in his 4x4 to help us get chains on our rental car. By this stage it was getting dark and more difficult to fit the chains. My feet were also tuning blue. To cover the 5 kilometers to the car was agonisingly slow because of the treacherous conditions.
The car was where we left it and we set about fitting the chains, unfortunately the ones we brought were a little too small for the wheels meaning we had to be extra careful heading back to the village. Despite the care taken, the front left chain snapped but we managed to trundle on. By the time we began to head on to the house it was getting very dark and Rocco advised us not to go down the dirt track to the house. We unfortunately didn't heed his warning.
The car got stuck and we had to walk the rest of the way to the house, which had no electricity or heating and which took 40 minutes to get each of these running, so we foraged in the forest at the back to get wood for a fire. Which was glorious. Dad and I cracked open a bottle of wine, fried up the sausages, bacon and soda bread we brought and watched The Office. Dad fell asleep by the fire, but I made it to bed.
By the time I got to sleep I had been on the go for about 19 hours straight, traveling. I was no wonder then that I slept in. In the intervening time, Dad had tried moving the car to no avail and had phoned the car hire to tell them what had happened. The solicitor was also told not to bother coming to Tuscany. We then decided because we couldn't go anywhere just to head to Chiusi to get the train to Rome. So we got a lift from Rocco, to whom we owe a massive debt of gratitude.
So I trundled along to the car in my wellies and we headed off to Chiusi where there was precisely zero snow.
Our stay in rome rocked and to be honest there isn't much to say about it. We went to many's an Irish bar and talked to many's an English rugby fan. Some nice, some drunk. Rome was Rome, gorgeous and temperate and full of history. I feel like I'm home when I'm there.
We nommed in the Quirino and in Pepe's. Only took photos of the food in the Quirino. Which will make a lot of sense to anyone who has dined in Pepe's.
Yummy Tortellini and Tiramisu was yummy. My final photos come from the Bar Il Tempio and the Irish bar - the Fiddler's Elbow. Glad to see the toilets were Dublin. Made a Belfast boy very happy to piss there.
PS. This was me on the morning we left. I think the gin and tonics, prosecci, guinnesses and beers were beginning to show.
Posted from
Trequanda, Italy
Sinalunga, Italy
Roma, Italy
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