We’re Off!
Heading into the Toronto Airport
After planning, training, and prepping for about a year, we were finally ready go! Minimizing time in airports was a priority so we chose to take a direct flight from Toronto to Rome, giving us a 4.5 hour drive from Cleveland before we took off. We left early in the day, around 8:30am on Friday giving us enough time for a couple stops to stretch before we reached Toronto. The Toronto Airport was very chaotic and we were busy from the moment we got there, despite arriving 3+ hours early. We made it through security, which is always a bit of a jumble with a wheelchair, and arrived in our gate with just a short time before boarding. Thankfully, airlines typically board us first when we have the wheelchair and crutches making it a little bit easier to get on, I’m not sure how I would’ve made it to the back of the plane otherwise.
The flight took off at 5pm EST. Knowing that we would land in Rome at 7:30am CET (which was 1:30am our time) we knew we needed to try and get some sleep. It is really difficult for me to remain still for long periods of time, it’s usually when I get in the most pain, but I was thankful to have my Body Band with me. It’s sort of like a Thundershirt for dogs, lol, but it can be really helpful and takes some of the pressure off of my muscles to hold my ligaments in place.
We made it through the flight and landed in Rome around 7am, made it through the rental car process and headed out on the road. Since we were all pretty disoriented after the flight, we decided to pull off at the port near the airport for some early morning pizza and to get ready for the drive.
Stopping at a port near Rome for some pizza before we head out
From there, we headed east, (and a little north) of Rome for a 2 hour drive up into the mountains. Our first stop, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, is located in the province of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region. The city exists within the Gran Sasso National Park and is overlooked by the Corno Grande (Great Horn), the highest point in the Apennine Mountains.
The drive was lush, green, and mountainous with winding but very well maintained roads. I’m glad I wasn’t driving or I might’ve driven right off a cliff trying to take in the magnificent views. Finally, we arrived at Convento di San Colombo in Santo Stefano around 11am, just a short 27 hours after we began our journey.
Approaching Santo Stefano di Sessanio
Convento di San Colombo
We chose to stay at a beautiful old convent turned small hotel just outside of the city. The convent was gorgeous, there were incredible gardens and grounds, very nice accommodations, and an incredible breakfast spread included with your stay. Everyone who worked there was incredibly kind and helpful.
It is important to note, I’m not sure if there are wheelchair accessible rooms at the Convent. There weren’t many, but we did encounter a stairs in a couple places that were unavoidable. The main gardens do require you to go down one flight of stairs, although they have plants on the initial level as well. Something we learned very quickly is that stairs are unavoidable in Santo Stefano.
Convento di San Colombo
We arrived before our rooms were ready, so we spent some time out resting in the garden. It is lovely, very large, and was broken up into sections. About half of it was medicinal plants, the other had magical plants and other categories. At the end they were starting a pollinator garden. I wasn’t feeling strong enough this time, but if I go back I want to go on the trails they have past the gardens. The mountains were so beautiful I just wanted to go out and wander.
The gardens at the Convento di San Colombo
There was yellow spattering across the mountains that I was trying to see and it turned out to be a Broom plant. I also wonder if any of them were Rue, since the convent had large bushes of them all inbloom at that time and it has a similar look to it. It’s sweet to know that my Rue here at home blooms at the same time.
Greeting my friend Rue
We booked the garden shed, a free-standing building just outside of the convent with two bedrooms, and two bathrooms, just enough for the 5 of us. We had two balconies with breathtaking views of the Apennine mountains, overlooking the nearby city of Barisciano. The rest of the convent was beautiful, they had a courtyard, tea room, and breakfast room set up with a large breakfast spread made on-site each day.
View out our balcony
I can’t say enough about how beautiful and restful this stay was. I spent as much time as I could in the garden, which was so healing. They even had a big hammock swing the kids and I spent a lot of time on just resting and looking at the view.
On the hammock in the upper garden
Photos:
Standing by an old well in the courtyard
Hallway in the main building
The entrance to our little “garden shed”
Sleepy after our long drive