Driving Day (in the Fog) to Umbria

We said goodby to Venice this morning – taking the Alilaguna Orange line from our Guglie stop, with foghorns, back to the airport. It was an easy walk to the car rental area where we picked up our citroen diesel seven passenger vehicle (didn’t have to worry about our bags fitting I guess). Just have to worry about the sides hitting buildings as we maneuver through some of the little city streets we plan to visit.

Before though, here are a couple interesting photos and videos of the Biennale we couldn’t post before….

The Australian pavillion was one of the most interesting pieces of architecture at the exhibit.

Biennial Light Art

Amazing Light art between pavillions.

Canal Ride

A farewell ride through Venice.

We hopped into our diesel beast to start the next adventure. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the way to get it into reverse. After about five minutes of inching forward dangerously toward the car parked in front we figured it out. Of course I backed out of the space almost into an approaching vehicle, and going the wrong way. A quick, illegal turn into the exit got us moving toward the major highways toward Bologna, Florence and our final destination. Thank goodness for Josh and his wonderful sense of direction and map skills. Linda and Marsha are (good) too….

The first two hours of the trip were in pretty dense fog, fortunately along a very flat, not spectacular way. As we reached the mountains nearing Florence the sky cleared beautifully as the A1 started winding up, down and around. Trucks are well-behaved, but take up a lot of room in narrower lanes than we are used to. Some white knuckling around curves. We stopped for lunch at one of the roadside rest stops and were pleasantly surprised at the nice, clean space and options for filling-up.

Almost four hours later we got off the highway following the Sada Sat’s directions toward Selci-Lama. After Lama, since it was still light, we decided to try their directions to the Borgo instead of calling and waiting for them to lead us up. This became very, very, shall I say, interesting.

We knew we would have to continue up a rocky dirt “road”, but it was four bumpy kilometers up and up and around. Some people in the car were very nervous. The car was very large with low ground clearance. The sound of stones hitting the undercarriage and stones scrapping the bottom was a bit disconcerting. First gear of the manual transmission was a must at most upgrades. When we were about 250 meters from the house there was a very steep incline. The directions advised to stop before. Put the car in first gear and gun it up to a more level space above. I did, but the car slowed to a stop and a stall half way up. I let it drift back. Unfortunately I didn’t see a small ditch behind and the back right wheel went in just enough to prevent us from moving forward again. We called the Sada Sats who came down to help. We unloaded the car of people and luggage. I was able to move out of that position with a bit of pushing by the passengers. Than backed up, put it in first and hit the gas (diesel), rocking and banging up the dusty path, just making it to the (more) level. Their four wheel drive vehicle brought up the other passengers and bags. We’ve decided to part near a church and walk up the rest of the way…when we use our car. Here’s a look at the last leg up the hill. You can hear Marsha’s commentary….

Last leg to the Yoga Borgo

We made it. Here’s a first look at our “home” for the coming days….