We pack, we get Eggs Benedict, we get our car with ease and leave town, aiming for the medieval, unbombed town of Hall.

But we have to get gas so we stop and David tries his card at the pump, which works not, so he goes into the station and asks the two clerks how to get gas. They know he’s not speaking their language and converse a bit with each other until one waves his hand toward the pump outside and waves his hand.

“Pump. Pay.”

Couldn’t be simpler.

It takes some time to find Hall’s parking and to find the beginning of Rick Steves walk, but we enjoy St. Nicholas Parish with its wall of relics in a side chapel and beautiful pink, frescoed ceiling.

Outside the church, a small chapel for mourning the dead has somewhat gloomy frescoes of the Last Judgement and

As we walk through the charming streets there are beautiful doors.

We get back into the car, have to pay twice to get out of the parking lot, and finish our fairly easy and uneventful drive to the Good “Ole Grones Hotel in Ortesei.

We’re initially given a room on the third floor, but its balcony is not as open and airy as the room we had last year, so the staff show us other rooms and we get one on the first floor, right above the patio with three tables. All good.

Dani is still the bartender and still makes a great Hugo and a nice Negroni, so we chill and order a 15-year-old Barolo for dinner and sleep the sleep of the satisfied and relatively innocent.