The day we left San Gimignano the skies opened and it poured, poured, poured and I thought to myself “so it does rain in Italy!”  I haven’t wanted to mention the weather in this blog because I didn’t want to jinx it but now that the rain has come I guess it’s all right to do so.    We have had amazing weather which has allowed us to do so much outdoors without a thought to “what’s the weather for tomorrow?”   The temperature thus far has ranged most days from low teens  to low 20’s which is fabulous for all the walking, sightseeing, shopping, cappucino/wine outside in the cafes and of course you never had to worry about having that fabulous gelato dripping all over you.  I never really packed for such warm weather which is why if you see me in the pictures it’s usually the same t-shirt which has been washed frequently.   Anyway as we were leaving San G and headed towards Civita and Orvieto it was torrential rain which made for a slower drive for us, not so much for those crazy drivers who passed and then almost got washed into us because of all the water on the road.   Also it was on this drive that our lack of Italian along with the heavy rain threw us off course and Clarence(the GPS)and Clara(ipad google maps) were not of much assistance.    This day, however, was different for them both because we basically came to a dead end.  We just couldn’t figure it out even though Jim, while driving, had the map of Italy on his lap, Marilyn had her large print map on her lap and I had both the GPS and the ipad google maps on mine.  After floundering around for about 45 minutes in the heavy rain we finally back tracked to a garage, filled up the car with gas which it hardly needed and bought a couple of bags of chips before asking for help.   Once it was explained that the bridge was closed, except to local traffic, it all became very obvious why 10-15kms down the highway the whole thing was shut down……….not sure why as it all looked great.  So off we went on our not-so-merry wet way  into the hills heading towards Civita which unfortunately we decided not to visit in the end.  The reason for this was because of the heavy rain and the walking that was necessary to see and enjoy Civita.   So change of plans brought us to our hotel in Orvieta, which we booked on-line that morning, for an early check-in.  Yup, rooms are ready so we bring in our bags which of course are all wet because of the rain and Jim and I head up to our room which was not nearly as grand as it was on the internet but it was clean and would do fine and  we were just thrilled to be off the roads.   A few minutes later Marilyn comes to the door and says “come look at this” ie. her room.  Birdcrap everywhere and the window wouldn’t close!   It was obvious that a flock of birds had quite the party as the droppmings were frequent, but not on our heads!   We couldn’t believe it and off she goes to the wonderful young clerk on the desk and he, too, was equally as shocked, apologized and offered her three other rooms so she could pick her choice.   Once she got settled we went into Orvieto which was an absolutely beautiful town but I have no pictures as it was raining a little at first, then a lot, and then torrential.   We had a good visit to St. Patrick’s well, hundreds of steps down/then hundreds back up, then a bite to eat and by the time we got back to our hotel we spent the next hour warming up and getting rid of the chills. Early start tomorrow as we’re heading to Rome!!!!!