Ponyadi in Alviano

The day after we had come home from Sperlonga it was time to drive to Alviano in Umbria where Sofia had a 4-day pony show jumping event called Ponyadi where there were ponies from all over Italy. Sofia stayed in an apartment at the riding stables, which was very good, so she could take care of the ponies together with the other riders. Me and Carlotta booked a bit late and didn't find anything at a reasonable prize closer than 20 km from the stables. Well, it was ok anyway and the place was nice. It was a farm house called Il Casanova, where they had a swimming pool and it was also possible to have dinner there. We had dinner there twice when we were too tired to go somewhere after having spent all day at the competitions. The food was delicious. The first evening we got pasta with truffles, which is typical in this area. Very good. They had a fixed menu for all the guests with bruschette and pieces of pizza to start with, then pasta and a meat course with salad. The dessert was always tiramisu. In the morning we were served a very simple breakfast - bread and jam and a piece of sponge cake.

 

The day we arrived it was so warm that we went straight to the swimming pool. It was in the middle of the countryside with a beautiful view. We were the only guests using it, so it was very relaxing. The other days the weather changed and got much cooler and rainier, so we didn't go to the swimming pool anymore.

On Friday Sofia didn't have any competitions. I needed to get shoes for Carlotta as it was raining so much and we didn't have suitable shoes for her. I asked the farm owner where to find a shoe shop and he explained me the way to a village nearby. We found a pair of sneakers that were on sale at just 5 euros, not bad!

In the afternoon we went to Bomarzo where I wanted to see the monster park. Sofia wasn't interested, so I went there with Carlotta. As we got there and had payed the entrance fee it started raining so much that you got soaked even with the umbrella. We waited inside and fortunately it stopped after a while so we could visit the park. It was really nice to see. There were big stone sculptures and statues of monsters and mythical creatures here and there and Carlotta loved it. The most famous sculpture is the giant screaming mouth, the "Hell mask". You can go inside the mouth and it echoes when you speak there. Inside the mouth there's a picnic table. There's also a leaning house inside the park and you can go inside it. The park was built in the 16th century when prince Orsini commissioned it for his wife. This is something I have wanted to see for a long time and it really was worth the visit.

Sofia's riding competition started very well and she was third after the first day. Unfortunately she fell off at the last competition, but in the end she was 13th out of 47 pony riders from different parts of Italy. She and Topaz were chosen to represent the Lazio team together with 6 other equipages.