Pesica Romana

From the springs we made our way to our accommodation for the night and while I was aware it wasn't actually in a town, but a agriturismo (like a farm stay), I did not realise how isolated it actually was. We were in the middle of nowhere which wouldn't have been an issue except that the host notified me that day to say they would be away and there would be no one on site.

Finding the place was difficult as we pulled over to the only building on the road we were meant to be on and asked an older Italian lady if she knew where the place was. Even though she didn't speak English, she would have understood the name of the place as it was in Italian but she gestured that she had no idea where it was. That would have been fine, except the building we were after was actually attached to hers!!! We just had to turn left at her property and our accommodation was right there. Needless to say it was very frustrating.

The other frustration was the fact that even though this place wasn't close to town, I booked it knowing there was an onsite restaurant, which surprise, surprise, was also closed due to the hosts being away. They left vouchers for us to have breakfast in the nearest town but that was not going to work for our travel plans. We weren't overly impressed as the booking site had showed such promise.

The other problem we had was finding somewhere to buy food for dinner. After our afternoon sight-seeing we ventured into a small town to find a cafe or something and discovered parts of Italy that aren't well known, the non-tourist locations. The one cafe in town had no food on offer, a display box full of flies and a room full of old Italian men, smoking. Not appealing and we did not feel comfortable. However we did manage to find a very small supermarket (although it wasn't super in size or range), and we even managed to buy some meats, cheese and crackers to take back to our room for dinner. What I do love is how people can communicate without speaking each other's language. It always makes me smile how Brad just starts speaking English louder, thinking they might understand it at a higher volume. We did well and our dinner was delicious.

So, Corte Degli Struzzi, we were very disappointed by our stay here – so much promise, so little delivered. Thankfully it was just a pitstop for the night so we could visit the nearby Il Giardino dei Tarocchi.Read more