Stayed last night in Rome with my dear friend Nadia Cuffaro. We did the MSc in Agricultural Economics at Reading University together 44 years ago . . . . Set off and was making good time until I missed my exit on the highway - and went in several squiggles trying to regain my route before giving up and creating a new one. A long ride - with a lot of climbing. Exuberant wild-flowers and grasses in the roadside verges. On an unpaved stretch, I had to swerve to avoid running over a silver-green snake - maybe 1½ yards long and an inch thick - as it snaked across the track. Arrived at the B&B pretty spent at about 19.30. But showered & changed - and stepped slowly up the steep mile or so of curving narrow road to the medieval city centre of Orvieto. Walls thick & imposing enough to deter the fiercest foe. Narrow paved lanes lined with high houses then - nearer the centre - with shops (most now shut), cafés, bars & restaurant. Dusk was falling as I reached the Cathedral with its astonishing tall mosaiced facade. The doors firmly shut - but the exterior one worth the climb. My now habitual supper of pizza & beer, then the easier walk down the slope - fireflies flickering in the roadside hedgerows.