Niccone in Umbria

 [05-11 June 1994]

From northern Italy Susie and I drove south to Umbertide in the province of Umbria. As I recall, we were to make our way to the Hotel Caponi and phone our contact to get directions to the farmhouse we had rented for a week. 

(We used Tuscan Enterprises in Castellina in Chianti -- and while they are still in business, this particular house is no longer on their rental list.)

After several fairly ludicrous attempts to use the Italian phone system (which required using a card to call but one had to first break off the corner of the card before inserting. . . well, you can see where this is going) the hotel manager kindly helped me dial the number.  Before long we were zipping out of town and made our way to the tiny hamlet of Niccone where we soon found our house. 

Our landlady welcomed us, showed us around and after a short chat was off for Rome where she planned to spend the week while we enjoyed her home. 

Located on a ridge in the middle of open country overlooking the Niccone Valley, close to Lake Trasimeno and Cortona, we enjoyed the cozy feel of the space and sitting outside sipping wine and just taking in the experience of being in Italy. Although the day was very hot, once inside, the walls shut out the heat and seemed to work at keeping the inside nice and cool. 

That night, our first night in Umbria, we were both momentarily struck with a feeling of terror at what we were doing: we were reading in bed and looked at each other saying "What have we gotten ourselves into? We don't know the language, we don't know anyone, we don't know how to reach anyone if we were in dire straits!"

But that feeling had no sooner come over us than it passed just as quickly. We had crossed a threshold and found the way to travel that made sense to us: independent and flexible - we didn't know it at the time but we had become les flâneurs!