Keeping cool in the mountains

 Saturday 

10 August 

Day 41

55 to go

We were awake at 8am, it had been a hot and sweaty night and the local bar was entertaining the young ones until 2 in the morning, so sleep had been difficult. 

We enjoyed our breakfast and then packed up the things we needed for our day and headed out with Francesco. We stopped in the centre of Forli to catch up with Chiara, who was manning their market stall. We organised to have dinner tomorrow night at their home.

We returned to the car and began our day out in the mountains. We drove through the town of Predappio, where Mussolini was born and then followed the twisty, turny roads until we reached the little stone town of Premilcuore. 

Francesco found somewhere to park and then we began our tour of the area. Everything was covered in yellow flags, streamers, tyres and bicycles. We soon discovered that a stage of the Tour de France was held here. 

We made our way through the town square, admired the river from above that was running along the edge and then checked out the market stalls that lined a road. There was plenty of things on offer from food to clothing to kitchen ware. 

We decided to grab lunch and take it away from the centre. Francesco lead us to a park area covered in tents and we found a bench to eat our lunch, square pockets of flat bread filled with potato or spinach and cheese. They should have been served warm, but we had them cold. 

After we finished our meal, we walked along the river edge finding many people swimming in an area that had been dammed. It looked very inviting, but we didn’t have our bathers. 

We returned to the car, Paul opting to sit in the back so that he could rest. I took up the front seat and had a wonderful view of the green valley, as we made our way back to Forli for 2.15pm. We went straight to our room to rest for the afternoon, trying to stay cool, as it was another warm day.

At 5pm we stirred and then joined  Francesco. We watched a cheesy Mexican western, before getting ourselves ready to go out. 

Francesco drove us to the supermarket for breakfast supplies and then we dropped in to see Andrea at his workplace, Casa La Corte, a bar and restaurant attached to a service station. We ordered drinks and then sat and chatted. As Andrea was working, it was difficult for him to join us, but he stole some moments where he could. We stayed until 8pm and then returned home for dinner. We watched some of the Olympic events, before saying good night at 9.30pm.