Italy - June 2025

If you have read the adventures home page which you probably have you’ll know Sam HATES travelling. Saturday the 14th of June was no exception. A 2 hour drive to Heathrow followed by a hot and stuffy 3 hour flight to Rome in the middle of summer surrounded by oblivious tourists meant the Holiday did not get off to the best start. This was followed by the strangest car rental experience. After waiting (read sweating) in the line for a while we were happily told we were getting an upgrade from our pre-ordered Fiat 500 to a Ford Fiesta. Upon arriving at our fancy upgrade it was clear this one had been through the wars with major hail damage and plenty bumps and scratches. Having had to cough up R2000 in South Africa for a small scratch that was not me (I never checked the car…. eeejit), we carefully documented all of it just for the Avis guy to tell us in his best English that Avis Italy does not care and to just get going.

In fairness the car went beautifully and after an hour or so we arrived at our hotel for the night. Carefully picked for its black volcanic sand beach and being roughly in the direction we were headed we unpacked and immediately put Sam to work (see video below). After an hour or so of stone picking we decided we were now properly hungry and with it being around 7pm we would head to dinner. This was the first indication that we were in the Mediterranean for the first time as the restaurant was not even open when we arrived however the waiter happily seated us and brought a delicious bottle of pink wine. To complete the turnaround on Sam’s day we had arguably the best Tiramisu of the trip. Unfortunately by this time the pink wine had done its job and we forgot to take photos.

Sam shopping for rocks

Sunday was the day we were checking into our Airbnb with all the friends in preparation for the big wedding on Tuesday evening and we had around a 2.5 hour drive. As a kid we had travelled to Italy and I remember going to Civita di Bagnoregio, specifically I remember there being lots of cats and after forcing Sam to travel the day before I thought it would be great to go somewhere cool with lots of cats as a stop on the way. Only, it was not cool, 34 degrees not cool, and as a result there were not lots of cats, in fact i was rather relieved when we found one scruffy cat for Sam to pet. Oh, did I mention Civita is on the top of a hill that the only way to get to is an exposed walk a few kms from the car park. Needless to say we earned our delicious Gelato.

With it being a Sunday we decided to stop and shop at a large Lidl in Orvieto as we were worried there would be nothing open much closer and we were completely correct about that. We were the first to arrive at the gorgeous Airbnb, it was an old farmhouse that had been converted into accommodation, importantly each of the rooms had aircon and more importantly it had a splash pool. Liam and Lucy (who had driven all the way from the UK) and Jake and Beth (who had not driven all the way from the UK) arrived a little later and we celebrated with some insanely delicious and ridiculously cheap local wine and picky bits.

At the crack of dawn, which was more like 7am on the Monday Sam and I got up for a 6km run as we were training for a half marathon into the local town of Montisi. Even at this ungodly hour it was pushing the late twenty degrees. This meant that the rest of the day was filled with eating, swimming and reading. In the evening however, we were invited to a meet and greet in the nearby town of Pienza. It was a lovely evening meeting all of Dan and Imogen’s family and friends and eating some of the best food of the entire trip.

““The food highlight of the trip had to be the amazing gnocchi with burrata served at the welcome drinks”

Tuesday was wedding day, it started with heading back into Pienza to fetch Jake’s car and having a very Italian breakfast of Croissants outside a church. Jake and Beth picked up some food for lunch and we headed back to prepare for the big wedding as the bus would be collecting us at 3:30 sharp as we were the furthest guests staying around an hour away.

The wedding was spectacular with no expense spared, a stunning venue, wonderful service, amazing food and an incredible five piece band. The readings and speeches had everyone in tears of laughter and to top it all off they organised the most beautiful sunset. That’s not to say it was all calm as the evening bar and dancefloor closed 66% of the 1 hour bus ride home crew landed up in the pool. The result was a cold, drunk taxi home at 3 in the morning when Beth would have been far more happy with a kebab.

Wednesday was unsurprisingly a much slower start Jake and Beth had not even emerged when we headed back to the venue for a pizza pool party. There was a pizza truck pulled up making the pizza fresh out the oven and was the perfect hangover cure. As it was the last night in the Airbnb and by the time we were home Jake and Beth were up they decided to take us out for dinner in the town of San Giovanni d’Asso. The food was again phenomenal and the evening topped off with a delicious tiramisu and limoncello.

Thursday was pack-up-and-leave day with most making their way back to the UK. Fortunately, Sam and I had two more nights in Assisi planned. After saying our goodbyes we bumbled on down the road stopping at a local olive oil manufacturer before heading into the university town of Perugia for lunch, gelato and a browse as we could only check into our bnb in Assisi at 3pm. After check-in we checked out the pool before heading to a recommended restaurant in the heart of Assisi for dinner. Now remember we walked in 34 degree heat to find cats and could not find them… well we found them… Assisi is full of them and Sam was loving it saying hello to each and every one of them.

Needless to say we slept quite well that night. Friday was our last full day of holiday so naturally it started with a 5km run. We had a lovely breakfast at the Airbnb, and chilled for most of the day before late afternoon heading into Assisi for lunch and a proper walk around in the light. I also really wanted to go to the Basilica and Sam was keen to find some gifts before heading home the next day.

Saturday was home day with a comfortable drive back to the airport and one last meal including pink bubbles and tiramisu. Surprisingly this meant that the flight home was far more enjoyable. What was way less enjoyable was our usual treat on the way home from London is Reading McDonalds but after the week of eating we had just had it was decidedly average.