Month: September 2009

For today’s road-trip, we are going to explore Monte Terminillo!

Terminillo is a location somewhere in central Italy where it is a popular destination during the winter for skiing. Looking through a couple of pictures through google, it looks like a winter wonderland. There isn’t any snow during the summer but the temperature there is still cool and refreshing regardless. It’s a good getaway from the warm and stuffy Rome summer.

It’s a long drive to reach there, approximately two hours. Regardless, it wasn’t dreary at all for me and instead, I was very excited since I’ve never really been to the mountains before.

As we approached Via Salaria, a road connecting to Terminillo, it was already starting to look quite charming with the farm areas and wooden huts.

And as we started to enter the mountainous area, I saw a number of cool looking signs. There were also yellow and black poles at the side of the roads, indicating how deep the snow was, during the winter.

Check out the cow sign, poor thing got shot

But it was when I finally got deeper in and saw that we were rather high above, was when I started to really get excited.

Coupled with the beautiful day that we were having, the view was gorgeous. And for the next half an hour or so, I was just content to look out of the window and admire the picturesque scene before me.

There was even a curious scene of a group of people suntanning on the grass of the mountains.

I even spotted out a sort of mausoleum. Cart says that this was a typical graveyard area for people in small towns. What was interesting to me was that, because of the stacked formation, it looked quite like a condominium.

After the long drive we were feeling rather lethargic and peckish. So we stopped by a little town called Albaneto and entered a little tavern called La Tana Del Lupo.

Only 94 inhabitants?

It was an interesting place, this tavern of wolves. The wooden build made it look charming. And apparently, it was a popular place to go according to the signed pictures on the wall. It was even the place for the Italian Harley Davidson group to be at, judging by the number of bikers that I saw having lunch there and through the plaque that I saw as we passed by.

And everywhere I saw, there were quite large groups of people around having their meal. And I got to see why later.

I was stunned when our food arrived. The food portions was huge! The appetizers alone was three kinds and I was stuffed even before reaching the main course. When my gnocchi arrived, I nearly fainted.

Needless to say, I hardly touched my gnocchi and felt bad about the food wastage. Next time, I’ll try to remember to always carry a Tupperware with me.

To walk away the stuffed feeling, we then stopped by a little town called Leonessa.

It’s a really pretty town. Because cars are not able to enter inside the premises. Visitors have to leave their cars outside the walls and explore the area by foot.

The first thing that came to my mind was how charming the area looked like. There were cobblestones footpath and with people going by, looking very relaxed and friendly in their little shops.

I quite like the design of the doors in Leonessa – it looked very historical.

We passed by about 3 different types of churches, each one rather decadent inside. I was a little worried about being rude and taking pictures inside since there were people praying, but do I regret at not taking the picture of the gorgeous ceiling and fresco of some of the churches.

It was a very idyllic area all around. And everywhere I go, there were postcard worthy scenes – like this building with the mountains in the background. I think that people living here are very lucky to wake up to see such a lovely view every morning.

As we left the town of Leonessa, at the corner of the entrance, Cart and I noticed a little stall selling potatoes. We bought a sack anyway and found out later that the potatoes are bright yellow inside. So far, we’ve made a couple of dishes with them and needless to say, they were pretty scrumptious.

Finally we went back on our road trip and drove to the highest part that the road could take us. It wasn’t the peak, however. I suppose that visitors would need to take the cable, should they want to go any higher.

We parked our car and went for a short hike. As we were probably the only ones there, it felt peaceful and quiet. Standing there, I could see from miles and miles away.

It was almost sunset, and the mountain was bathed in golden light. From the distance you could see the soft hazy formation of the other mountains nearby. And it was so cool, literally! The temperature here is roughly a fresh 20 degrees Celsius.

With the wind caressing my face, I was just marvelling and feeling very blessed that I had the opportunity to see this.

It was such a spectacular day for me seeing all the gorgeous natural beauty. Even the stone formation here fascinated me so.

Cart is amused by my antics and thinks that there are even nicer looking mountains. But for me, I think its such a pretty place anyway.

And check out our curious friend.

Why, its super squirrel! Squirrel crasher doesn’t have a thing on him!