As planned we had a slow start to the day, We woke about 8am, had a latish breakfast and went to Apiro, a town about 10 km away. There we managed to get a variety of fruit from the market, get to a bank ATM, and get fuel on the way back at the nearest town, Cupramontana.. We also saw what we thought was the bicycle museum but may be something else as it was not where we had been told it would be.

Apart for the market and a few 'bars' there was basically nothing open . We had been told this would be the case on a Sunday so we weren’t surprised. What did surprise us was the random shops that were open. The market in Apiro was mainly fruit and clothes – the supermarket was closed but a toy shop was open. The centre of Cupramontana was deserted except for people going to church, but a florist shop was open on a side street.

Cupramontana’s centre is clearly old but it stands on the site of a 5th century BC Roman temple!! It was destroyed in the 6th century (AD this time) and rebuilt so parts are over 1000 years old.

We had a fruit lunch, did some washing and updated the blog. Then we watched some of the Grand Prix with Jane and Ian before John had a snooze while I did some research. We had been loaned a book and map of the area so I was looking for possible day trips. Then I sat by the pool with a book before John woke and we went for a drive.

I had found that there was an interesting town nearby that also had a geocache . What better. The town is called Serra San Quirico and it is on a hill with the wall and houses on top. The cache site described it as a ‘stone city gracefully laid down along a rocky slope, like a ship with the prow pointed at Esino Valley’. A bit flowery but it is in fact true.

The town was damaged in the 1997 earthquake and restoration is still in progress.

We went first to the Church of Santa Lucia, which dates from the 13th century. I was about to go in when I realised that someone had a big camera on a tripod and was doing what looked like special filming. We backed out but one of the women came out and ushered us back in. There were two women in the church – one seemed very keen for us to return and the other less so. I suddenly realised I was in a singlet top and pointed to my shoulders but it was signaled that I was OK. We managed to have a ‘conversation’ consisting mainly of body language.

We were already admiring the lovely paintings and ornate ceiling which I later found dated to 1694 . I was then ushered in further and made to turn around – to see a most elaborate organ. Jane’s book later told me it dates to the 18th century. John signed the visitor book and by first mentioning Australia we managed to establish that 1) we were from New Zealand, 2) it was a very long way away, 3) we were staying in Cupramontana for 7 days and 4) we had been in the Dolomites.

The woman who had appointed herself our guide had some sort of argument with the other woman. We think the gentleman taking the fancy photos didn’t want us there or we weren’t meant to take photos or something. We were about to quietly leave but were ushered on firmly. Our guide then took us to a side altar where we think she said the dental relic in the statute dated to the 1200’s. We were then taken outside so we could see the deep well and also the large bell that had fallen and cracked in the earthquake. The empty bell tower towered (strange that – JB..) above us.

We left with lots of bellismo’s, gratis’s, ciao’s and arrvederchi’s – and the other woman was also very friendly so we will never know if there was an issue or not . But it is amazing to see such an elaborate church in such a small place.

We then went to the highest part of the town to the cache site which was near an old tower, part of a 14th century fortress. I take the credit here for trusting my instinct more than the GPS. We now have a geocoin to show Jane and Ian and to take with us on our travels. They had been reading some of the blogs and a google search had told them a bit about our geocaching hobby.



We then returned to our apartment and cooked some of the pasta Nico had given us. It was very tasty too, and most welcome given that we could not find any shops or restaurants open.

Special note for Jennifer: This area has cats galore - cats in markets, cats in castles, cats in church-yards - cat, cats and more cats. Jane and Ian have 4 cats named after formula one racing drivers e.g, Lewis (Hamilton). I have added some cat photo’s just for you.