After a day chilling out at the house (more another time) to get over the days of driving, a small journey is called for to the nearest place of any size which has supplies – Bagnoregio. This is an ordinary, busy place which hides a nugget at the far end. Tatty houses & simple shops line the main road and up from here stretches a cobbled street along a ridge with narrow streets branching off on either side. These play host to the houses intermixed with simple churches & piazzas and to the local population of all ages who hang about chatting in the shade as all Italians seem to do – the men together at the bar, the older ladies on benches in the piazzas, people hanging out of windows watching the world go by and families pushing prams & children riding around on bikes linking it all together.

“Well I’m going this way”

And then the nugget – the tiny village of Civita do Bagnoregio high above the surrounding canyons on a pillar of soft rocks that are being eroded away. The only way to reach the precariously balanced houses is by a 20 minute walk along a viaduct. More on this another day.