You must also be lucky, not only well-minded

The agriturismo that we selected for this part of our journey was a bit of a roll of the dice. There wasn't a lot online about even the town where it was located, and no trip advisor reviews to guide us. We were venturing off the beaten path a bit, hoping to reap the rewards of stumbling on an undiscovered place in Tuscany. We certainly did. Please forgive the very long-winded, picture-free nature of this post; we promise to keep them few and far between, but this one seemed worth telling in full. Pictures to follow.

After our slightly harrowing introduction to the Italian country roads (which Nicholas is now deftly conquering with true panache), we wound our way up the mountain to Borgo Rapale, our home away from home for the next three nights.

Rapale, it turns out, is a walled town at the top of a "hill" (mountain?) with 17 full-time residents. The top of the mountain serves as the border between Arezzo and Siena, meaning the two provinces were constantly battling for control of the town, and it was repeatedly being knocked down (*by its own residents) and rebuilt on top, in true Italian fashion. Beneath are Etruscan ruins, not too surprising, but the ruins that exist today are still upwards of 400 years old, many of them much older.

Our hosts, Fortunato and Gisella, are a darling Italian couple who welcome you the minute you arrive. Fortunato was born in this house, and gave us a tour (I sadly did not get many good pictures...we were trying to be polite!). The history of the place is fascinating so thought we'd share.

The house has been in his family since 1520. He showed us his family tree, and it looks pretty legit. One generation had 15 kids - giving the Duggars a run for their money. One of his earliest ancestors was a sculptor, was Michelangelo's contemporary and carved Michelangelo's tomb at Santa Croce in Firenze.

He showed us a picture of Gisella, who met the Pope when she was appointed his host for his visit to her church. Rather than greeting him with the traditional formal greeting, she completely forgot what she was to say, and instead simply said, "Good morning father, it's nice to meet you," which caused everyone to fall silent in shock. Being the politician he is, he turned it into a joke, laughing and saying, "You make me feel young. I haven't been greeted that way since I was a young pastor."

They have been making wine in the cellar for ages, and the casks were originally made out of solid wood (now they are reinforced on the outside with steel). Before they had corks, they used to keep wine fresh by putting a little olive oil on top. The problem, he said, is that the mice come in and dip their tails in and have their mouse friends drink the oil off their tails. As he said "The mouse is not a problem - but the olive oil is gone and the wine goes bad!" He showed us the little clay cups that they put over the jugs of wine to keep the mice out.

As we walked back up the cellar, I told Fortunato he is so lucky his ancestors chose to settle on this beautiful spot, which is so perfectly located and now rich with history.

He said, "You must also be lucky, not only well-minded. Come, I show you."

We walked up to the main stairwell and had us stand on the landing.

"You see, where this part (above) is older and this part (where we are standing) looks new?"

"Si!"

"The Americans, they were headquartered here in the last war (WWII), when they were trying to find and destroy a German cannon, and they determined this is the safest place to be." We are behind a very thick wall, in a walled city, and this indeed would be the safest place to be.

"The Germans, they kept moving the cannon! It took the air corps 13 days to finally find the cannon. At one point, the Germans had a very lucky direct hit, and the bomb went right through the stairs of this house. 9 American soldiers were killed."

"So you see, you must also be lucky, not only well-minded."