Sunday 9th was a rest day - we didn't venture out but caught up with household chores - washing clothes, floors etc. followed by a siesta in the afternoon.

A tropeo came through again at about 3 pm (seems to be a daily occurrence in Summer) which lasted well into the night. It did cool everything down beautifully. I cooked pasta with zucchini and bacon in a creamy sauce, with a tomato and cucumber salad. Delicious!

Monday 10th was spent in leisurely fashion, we went for a drive up and down another mountain to surrounding villages, all as quaint and old as Montano. We drove through Laurito, and Rofrano (where all the women have moustaches - that's a Montano joke) and ended up at a village called Torre Orsai where we were stopped by road closure due to it being a saint's day so after a 3 or 5 point turn we headed back via Alfano. Once again we drove through very winding roads with forest each side, the forest is very green and lush and so different to our grey green bush at home.
We stopped at Vito's store and bought paninis for lunch - bread roll with prosciutto and cheese - 1.5 euro each. I bought a litre of vino bianco and another of vino rosso and a 750 ml bottle of Limoncello - total cost 14 euros. Good wine, so cheap here.

We enjoyed our normal siesta in the afternoon and then made pizza for dinner. Very tasty too. We had a visit from John Franco and Zio Ugo - Zio brought us a plate of grilled eggplant and tomato he had cooked.

Tuesday - today - 11th is my birthday. It has started with a massive storm coming up from the valley - quite spectacular to watch. We are going down to Policastro for lunch to a special restaurant called Ristorante L'Uoro. I am looking forward to it very much.