A morning trip to Perugia and an afternoon at Castaglione del Lago

6/10/2008
We were told there was a launderette in San Feliciano but we could not find it, and after embarrassing myself at the chemist, when I went in to ask where the launderette was.... did the usual pantomime and got directed to the supermarket. So we gave up, set the GPS and headed to Perugia where our guide book gave directions to one.
Madam GPS led us up the garden path once again, or I should say... narrow one way streets... and we were not sure if they were one way and we were going the right way. We drove into a pedestrian precinct, and crawled gingerly through the middle apologising to everyone who gave us very strange looks as we edged our way through not trying to knock anyone. All the while Madam GPS saying "You have reached your destination..." then as we kept going "turn around when possible". We finally made it out of there without getting booked and parked a good distance from the launderette but preferred the walk to anymore hair raising experiences. Settled back in the launderette to stabilise the nerves and watch the clothes girate around.. quite relaxing actually. We met an Aussie girl there who had just been to a wedding in Tuscany which sounded lovely. She was full of interesting anecdotes of her travel experiences and we told her where we had been - so it turned out a very pleasant morning. Nice to have clean clothes again!!
On the way back we found a Eurospar and a Lidl (Aldi) store so we bought some more food and returned to the villa to unload the car.
Later that day we drove to Castaglione del Lago another walled village. Lots of delicatessens where the stall holders stand at the front door offering a platter with samples of their goods to try. It has quite an atmosphere this old town and very pleasant to walk around - lots of interesting shops a jumble of narrow streets and intertwining houses.
We went to the Della Corgna (ducal palace) and viewed the frescos which was worth the visit. We walked the walls of the Lion fortress which has some lovely views of the lake.
We returned to our villa and sat on our balcony while enjoying a wine and the cheese and ham we had bought at one of the delicattessens and watched the sunset with a couple of our neighbours cats.