Southern Italy, impressive thus far.

When we arrived at Villa Vea yesterday afternoon, Andrew gave us a map and some brochures of the area. So this morning, we consulted the map to decide where to spend some time today and decided on Certosa di Padula, an ancient monastery about an hour from our Agriturismo. We started the day with a lovely breakfast prepared by Angela, including a cake she had just taken out of the oven. Breakfast in Italy is usually a coffee and pastry, but at the Agriturismo's, they go to some effort to prepare a lovely breakfast, and it was. We indulged in cheese, prosciutto and fresh tomatoes from the farm, yoghurt, pastry and fresh juice and coffee. We met some fellow guests, including Al from Arizona, USA, who loved a chat.

After our lovely breakfast, we consulted Tom-Tom and planned our route to the monastery.
We deliberately chose Villa Vea for accommodation for this area because away from all the big towns and up in the hills. The downside of that is the very windy undulating roads you have to travel to reach surrounding towns. The journey was only about an hour to our destination, but the roads made it seem longer. We also came across a cow who decided she needed to wander out in front of our car to cross the road. Luckily you can only do about 40KMh here so it was not an issue in stopping to let her pass. The hills are dotted with cows, goats and horses.  We arrived, found the car park and took the short walk to the monastery. The monastery itself is the largest in Italy, is around 450 years old and is a World Heritage site. It was a very impressive place, with many beautiful frescos, chapels and original tiles. In this case, purchasing the audio guide was an excellent idea as it gave us some insight into the daily life on the monks and others who occupied this building many years ago. It was peaceful and tranquil and a very relaxing way to spend a few hours. The photos will hopefully help to showcase the beauty of this place.

 

 

After exploring, we stopped at the bar just outside the entrance for something light for lunch. One of my favourite things about Italy is that no matter where you go, there will always be a bar or cafe - at sacred sites, convents, basilicas, on the top of mountains, it just makes me smile. A bar does more than alcohol like in Australia, you can get all things, it is a cross between a cafe, a corner store and a tobacconist. So we enjoyed a panini and cold drink, met the Monastery dog who we named Sally and moved on back to the carpark, not before purchasing a magnet, of course, the collection is building. We came across the man who seemed to be running the carpark who yelled out to us on the way back to the car. With his few words of English and our few words of Italian, we realised he wanted to sell us something. He had a basket full of homemade sausage, bottled olive oil and what looked like sliced zucchini in vinegar. How could we say no? The sausage was shrink-wrapped and well, we haven't opened it yet. But, we'll let you know what it's like when we do!

We started our journey back to Villa Vea on a different road, but this one more bumpy and windy. The views, however, were spectacular and we stopped to take a few snaps before continuing on. We arrived back to our accommodation a little weary. We've taken it easy this afternoon, spending some time by the pool (no I didn't get in, but maybe tomorrow, just the feet got wet), enjoying a vino or two (or three) and letting our hosts know that we'd be dining in their restaurant again this evening. We ate at Agriturismo Villa Vea night and Angela's food was delightful, so we've decided to eat in again. Also, there is only one other restaurant in town!

Oh, I thought you might like to meet the pets of our host. Here are three of the four...Jack, sunbaking by the pool, little brown dog and a big friendly black dog. We're not sure of their names and there is another one around somewhere along with a couple of kittens, two white ponies and a handful of chickens!