11/18 – Tiber River park

We’ve chosen to take the car out today for a day of exploration, then park it back by the wall and leave it there until we go to the airport on Sunday. Our choice today is to go hike around the Tiber River park which covers 18,000 acres along 31 miles of the river. There is precious little information on the park though. We’ve found a bunch of websites with sketchy generalized info, some explanation of hikes, but nothing detailed or with clear entry and exit points. So, we’re just going – we’ll figure it out when we are wherever “there” ends up being in the park.

It’s a gorgeous day to be hitting the road, and we make haste to get out, take the car out of the grassy courtyard (even in the Panda it takes some maneuvering to make it out of the entrance – particularly with the stone walls surrounding us) and head out onto the road for the hour drive to the park. We are heading to the northern section, above the river and the lake, sort of towards Todi, which will be our 2^nd stop. The location on the maps shows the middle of virtually nowhere – but we’ve got to trust it because, well, we have nothing else to go on.

The road we are on, while never a superhighway, narrows after a while and begins its twists and turns through hilly farmland and empty fields surrounded by forests. We skirt the park for a bit, then find the turn that will lead us down to Titignano, which appears to be in the middle of the park. The Titignano road is a narrow dirt track that leads us directly into the forest. You want to talk about Deliverance or the Blair Witch Project or just about any scary movie you can think of in deserted woods, without a sole around? This is it. Certifiably creepy.

Carefully continuing down the road, we find Titignano, and where the maps tell us to continue on into the park, we find an even small dirt track leading down behind the little teeny cobblestoned town and out into who knows what. There are signs that we think tell us we can enter or drive there, which stymies us at first. There appears to be a huge parking area – all grassy and looking disused – with several cars parked next to the building, but that is it. A long narrow lane, lined on both sides with a rock knee wall leads into Titignano proper – which seriously is just a couple of buildings and a church all perched up on this hillside overlooking the valley and the lake below. This isn’t the way to go.

Finally, we just park the car in the faux lot and get out and walk. If we’re not allowed, somebody will tell us. God only knows where we are, or what part of the park this is, or even where the little dirt lane leads, but really, who cares? The scenery is gorgeous. The day is perfect for wandering – ok a little chilly and a lot windy – but decent enough. We are very content walking downhill on the tree lined lane, looking back at great shots of Titignano, and ahead at the vineyard, the old house with outbuilding badly in need of repairs (we’re buying it and moving here – think we can get a deal?) and the lake out in the distance below us.

We wander, exploring the closed up house, marveling at the fact that people actually do drive on this lane as 2 little pickup trucks come by us (where are they going?) and just thoroughly enjoying the scenery.