Sunday, June 21, 2009

La casa sul lago Trasimeno






















Happy Summer Solstice!
And happy Father's Day to all Fathers reading.
yesterday, we passed through the Magione train station thrice.
One nice feature of a 15-day Eurail pass such as the one we have is that you can travel on as many trains in one day as you wish, and only one calendar day will be charged to your account. Reading the train schedules of Trenitalia (which happen to be very well conceived), it wouldn't be obvious to anyone that the train does not stop at Torricella on Saturdays. Making the connection from the Livorno-Firenze line to the Firenze-Foligno line was a snap, but the train to Foligno flew right through the Torricella station without a pause. So, we disembarked at Peugia, and took the next train back towards Firenze to try again. Unfortunately, the conducter advised that this train was not scheduled to stop in Torricella. He suggested to disembark at Magione which he waerned was rather hilly, or alternatively, Passignano sur Trasimeno which was a bit further, but offered a flatter route to Torricella which is right on the lake. When we arried at Magione, my GPS indicated that we were 2.7km away from Torricella, so we decided to go to Passignano sul Trasimeno to see how far that was away. 5.5km. It didn't take more than about 1 second to realize that 2.7km on a hilly road would be prefereable to 5.5km on the flat when we factored the weight of our backpacks into the equation. So, we disembarked in Passignano and enjoyed a beer and caught up on our e-mails while awaiting the next train to Foligno. It was ironic that we should have had to hike 2.7 km when one of my criteria for choosing this particular hostel was that it is 100 meters away from the Torricella train station, but the walk was not excessively hilly and the vistas of myriad olive orchards along the way were beautiful and serene. Torricella is an ancient fishing village nestled in the heart of the national park of Lake Trasimeno between Tuscany and Umbria. The hostel, La Casa sul Lago, is unbelievable...great manager, Giangiacomo, who is a native son to Torricella and who loves his job and the surrounding countryside. He invited us for a free pasta supper which he prepared himself and offered us wine which his grandfather produces. A great electic mix of music wafts through the air within the common area, and peace reigns elsewhere. Today, we'll take advantage of the free bicycles and take a partial circumventive tour of the lake and possihbly one of the islands if the ferries are running today. Rank this hostel high on your chart of places to visit, and if you are ever booking a room here, be sure to specifically ask for the penthouse suite aceross the road...I've never seen anything like this in any hostel anywehere else...an enormous bedroom with a big bed with mosquito net, shuttered windows and flatscreen plasma tv screen with a dvd player, and an ante-room with couch and table around a fireplace, and finally, a private bathroom with large shower, all impeccably clean and neat.

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