Castiglione d'Orcia

Before we make any decisions, I decided to spend a few hours in CdO to check out the amenities. 

I took inventory of all the shops, restaurants and services and came up with the following list:

Two restaurants

pizzeria/bar

bakery

pharmacy

Tobacco/lottery/newspapers

Two small grocery shops

Coop supermarket

Two banks

Two churches

Post office

Barber

Hairdresser

Shoes

Women's clothing

Antiques

Auto repair

I had lunch at Osteria il Retrovino, one of the restaurants, which was quite good. The other, Trattoria il Cassero, Joe and I ate there a few years ago and really enjoyed the jovial owner/waiter. I walked through the Coop to check it out, then made a loop through the bakery because Joe insists that anyplace worth living in MUST have a cookie shop. I think he'll be quite pleased with this one.

Every half hour or so I went back to the house to see what path the sun was taking across the garden. I determined that the sun comes over the top of the Rocca ( oh, did I mention that the house backs up to the old fortress?) about 12:30 at this time of year, which means that it will arrive earlier in the summer. Looks like we'll have sun from late morning to late afternoon, which is great news.

So, I've done my scouting, filed my reports, and now . . .