Buona Sera!
I ended up on the sofa (we were watching TV) since I fell asleep and when I woke up to go to bed Susan was pretty much sprawled on both sides. I didn’t want to wake her so back to the sofa I went and it wasn’t bad. I figured I had better get used to it since today was going to be a doozy.
The morning routine didn’t change and we headed out to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace, Mentorella or better known as the Ment, where we “meant” to go. It was a little cloudy and traffic was a bear. We headed up the mountain and Susan moans and groans were pretty bad. I was laughing almost the whole way as she would lean into the turns one way and her lips would go the other. Soon she was laughing but still leaning pretty hard.
The ride was stunning as we came in a different way and as long as you didn’t look down. There are lots of photos as there were 3 days ago. When we got back to the little town we were at before we still had 10 miles to go, up and down and up and down. We were stopped a couple of times by horses and cows in the road and we hardly saw a car on the whole journey.
The turn into the shrine area is rather dramatic and scary as hell. Right before the last turn into the shrine there was a sign saying don’t enter, so we parked in the rest area right there and walked the last 1/2 mile to the shrine. I should have known better, when we got there there was a big parking lot and lots of room since we were the only pilgrims there. The lot also served as the heli-pad and we were glad we drove.
