Middle-aged flash packers

We have spent the past few days with some members of our walking group in the Mercantour National Park in Southern France about an 11/2 hour’s drive from Nice. It’s a beautiful park with great hiking . The area was devastated by a storm back in 2020 and work still continues on the roads and defences in the area, limiting the trails available to us. However, it was very enjoyable and it was good to hook up with friends to walk, drink and eat.

This morning we packed up and set off on the next part of our road trip to Le Marche in Italy.

I’m very much looking forward to no alarms and some r&r. I was also hoping to eat a bit less as the food has been very good but very filling. Unfortunately that was blown out of the water as we stocked up on lunch stuff at the local boulangerie (think pastries with tasty fillings) only to find that the hotel had made us both a packed lunch full of pizza and similar belly busting delights.

Our journey to Santa Maria was uneventful but punctuated by many, many tunnels and loony Italians driving up our exhaust pipe. We were therefore very glad to arrive at our accommodation for the night and be welcomed by our host with a glass of Italian champagne. And that is not an affected way of describing Prosecco, it’s extremely high end and made by the same process, although the French will be pulling their hair out and screaming obscenities at an Italian describing their wine as champagne.

The agriturismo Bosco Longhino is a very posh winery. Danila gave us a quick tour around the premises and showed us how they produced the wine. Everything was very modern and efficient but the family have been producing wine for four generations so they know their stuff.

Things got even better when Danila showed us to our room which was the honeymoon suite. Honestly, this holiday goes from one extreme to another – last night I was sleeping in a spartan priory, tonight I’m a blushing bride basking in luxury. Alas, this was not to be. Danila had made a mistake ( she must have put her glasses on) and we were swiftly moved to the room next door. Similar, she said. Not really – half the size with a child’s bed in it and a cot in the cupboard. Things move quickly round here, one minute I’m a nun and now I’ve got two kids. I’m exhausted.

Still, I managed to summon the energy for a potter (I felt guilty leaving the children behind but I was desperate for some me time) and very nice it was too, apart from the terrifying dogs that growl and bark at you as you walk past every house. I guess those vineyards need protecting. This is what everyone does here – make wine. But it does make for an eye-pleasing landscape.

Sadly they don’t do much else. Having decided to eat our lunch leftovers for dinner, we eschewed the joys of the underwhelming trattoria up the road and after half an hour of digesting our food and then staring at the wall, we decided to go on the same walk again. It was nicer this time as the sun was fully out but I’m quite relieved we’re moving on tomorrow.