April 11 -- breakfast at Castello della Panaretta

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Look how our bedroom's wall is wider at the bottom than up higher.....

I estimated this wall at 2' thick.  Looking at this, I'm thinking that was an underestimate.....

I thought I had taken pics of our bathroom, but apparently not.  Too bad -- it was floor to ceiling painted tiles.......



The morning sky, over our terrace.

Love the chair shadows.

This is the same set of buildings we've seen several times, on the other side of the street.  A bit different in every light.....

Walking toward the main buildings of the agritourismo for breakfast.  This house is across the street from our building.  I never saw (or heard) anyone there.

The sign tells our location, tells the speed limit, and forbids blowing your horn as you enter the curve ahead.

(Comune is described by Wikipedia as an Italian "administrative division."  Wikipedia goes on to note it is not to be confused with commune.)



Looking back at that same top-of-the-next-hill set of building, with more mise en scene.

Grass against the wall.

That's the agritourismo, at the top of the hill, to the left of the road.

Dandelions, calendula, clover, and ... purple stuff.

Poppy!

Someone Italian (I can't remember who) told me it was WAY to early for poppies; that I couldn't possibly have seen one.

I didn't argue -- I know there are different kinds of poppy, and who knows what Italians may call this.  But it's one of the plants I call poppy, for sure.............

This is a big complex.  I wonder if it's an agritourismo, or a hotel, or a rich-people house, or what.

The mailbox at our agritourismo.

Breakfast.  Homemade jam in my yogurt, and I had it on bread, too.  Mmmmm.

Looking across the table, and out the window......

A collection of blue&white plates.  There was also a collection of dried bouquets, hanging from the rafters.  Something interesting no matter which way you looked......

That same big complex from another angle.  You can see there's a town not too far away.  At least -- not too far as the crow flies!

This shot is from the same perspective as the previous, just not zoomed.

Lichens.

We were not introduced to any of the critters here.  This one did not seem to care to make our acquaintance, so we did not presume to approach.

Our building is the tallest one of the bunch on the right.

The post at the end of each row of vines had a number.  That makes it possible to keep track of what has happened to which row on which day.

We saw people ploughing between the rows of grapevines on multiple occasions.  They were being verrrrrry careful to not hurt the vines on either side of the plow, going very slowly, and watching exactly where the plow was, in relation to the vines..



Yellow circles -- on the rock, and above.....

I don't know what this is.

My daughter, with her sharp young eyes, spotted several lizards zipping out of sight as we walked along the road.  I sometimes caught a flash of motion, but wouldn't have been sure what they were, without her telling me.

When we got back to our patio, we saw one that held still long enough for me to catch its pic.  We don't have any lizards in Michigan.  (Too cold here.)  This one is probably about 8" long.

One last look at the Tuscan sky from our patio, and then we're off to our next destination.

In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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