Day 9: Montombraro

Although it was another day of train travel, this was a day of rest and relaxation for most of us. Pat was taking us to see his house in progress in the countryside of Montombraro. (This is where Bob Dole received his life threatening injury in World War II and where the Italians held back the Nazis.) Unlike the other days where we took trains that were meant for farther travel, today we took a local train. The outside had certainly been "funk-ified" with some local color.

Robby and Griffin enjoying the scenery out the train window

From the train, we grabbed a bus that would take us the rest of the way. While we were waiting, Maggie had a chance meeting with one of the locals. Of course, she doesn't speak Italian and he didn't speak English. She was a little weirded out until I came and sat down, and even happier when the bus came.
One of the scenes we came upon in our travels was this beautiful field of sunflowers. I've never seen anything like it. It just didn't seem like the flowers that people grow one or two of in their gardens could be so beautiful. When we returned to Bologna that night, I saw one of the street artists painting just such a field. I wish I had found out how much he wanted for that painting, but this picture (taken by Kevan) captures the feeling.

On this day, there was a group roofing the house. I wish I had pictures from inside the house, but I only took the exterior and views from the inside. (Kevan took some; see Terri and Kevan's blog on the sidebar.)

Some of the flowers on the walk up to Pat's property

The exterior

The view from the back of the house which is all windows

The side view from Pat's bedroom

After we toured and "ooh-ed and aah-ed" the work in progress, we walked down to the park so the kids could have a little R&R.

When Pat finished up his business with the flooring guy, we walked over to the little resort that is their neighborhood pool. Complete with restaurant, pool table, ping pong table, and water slides, we spent the rest of the day playing in the water. Unfortunately, we all paid for it at the end of the day with sunburn. Ellie spent most of her time on the water slide (when it wasn't closed for a really long lunch) and Griffin surprised all of us by putting his face in the water over and over and over again. It's a huge accomplishment for this little one, enough for me to say that he might finally be ready for swimming lessons if he's not afraid to get his face wet.

After swimming, we made our way back to the bus and to the train to take us back to Bologna. Not surprising to anyone was the reaction of Robby and Griffin.

Friday (Day 10) would be an off day for almost everyone as the Griesemer group would be coming back from Venice and some of us would be going to the Ducati factory for a tour.