"Caino" a Relais Chateau

So I'm back on the blog again after 4 fabulous and very spoiled nights and the blissful days sitting on our sun-beds ... book in hand ... Ooh and with butler service by the beach ... with the sounds of the waves and the warmth of the sun hmmm...

So now it's time to hit the road and "reality" and head further north.
This time arriving 100 km above Roma and about 100 km from the west coast, on the food region boarders of Lazio, Umbra and Tuscany.

We used the ring road to escape the Roma city traffic, didn't think that it would be such a good idea to drive into the city with the likes of this black stretch limo!!!
Although I must say I'm getting the hang of this left hand driving and actually really enjoying the roads and the driving and for me that's saying something.

We had one more night of being spoiled "super" spoiled, this time with great Michelin star food at "Caino" a Relais Chateau in an ancient hill top town of Montemerano.

The chef is one of the few female Michelin in Italy and with only 18 covers Sandy was real keen to get a table. It's not as high brow in the accommodation as some of the others we did last year, but a great food experience and Sandy got to meet with the chef pre food service and with a translator discussed both their passions for slow food the food industry.

The hill top town of Montemerano is one of several towns that we have enjoyed driving through and around in this beautiful section of Italy. They are all perched so high above the rest of the landscape and appear to be floating on top of the mountains.

Our room at Caino is one of only three and was on the top floor of a medieval building with molto granda medieval steps ( evil steps as I'm now calling them )
Oh and as well being an ancient hill top town, parking is not close to the accommodation so we had to pack a over night bag, leaving the car in a parking area and hoping it will still be the in the morning and walk up the hill to the restaurant and accommodation. So I have well and truly done my stair-master 2000 training for today.
But what an amazing village to stay in, so few people live here, only about 400.
It's not a big tourist spot so by night we walked around under the moon light in and out of the loads of little allies.

It's like Venice but WAY smaller in the respect that you can't get lost. What I mean is in Venice unless you take a boat you will still be on the island. In the hill top villages and long as you stay on the allies and don't fall off the hill you won't get lost and you just keep going round and round like you are in a fish bowl.