Mouthwatering Buffets at Titignano Castle | Travel Diaries 2
After waking up at the crack of dawn, we hustled a taxi from the main town in Orvieto and took off along the long winding roads to get to the Titignano Castle on top of the hill. The road was long and would’ve lulled left and right if it wasn’t for the jerking swerves of the driver. As we held on for dear life, we were hugged tighter and tighter by the lush greenery and occasionally caught specks of the farmlands down below.
We arrived at the castle without really knowing what to expect, but wow. To say that it was beautiful is an understatement. With it sitting on top of a hill, we had the most incredible view of the farms below and not so far in the distance, Lake Corbara glistened in the morning light.
Never mind the scenery, the castle itself is also worth drooling over. The old buildings felt rich with history and made the whole castle feel like it was from another dimension.
Photograph from Castello di Titignano
What were we doing at a random castle in Italy?
I mean let’s be honest here. Do you really need a reason to go to a gorgeous castle in Tuscany? The charm is reason enough. For real though, we were there for a SAND event. If you don’t know what SAND is, it stands for Science & Nonduality and I wish I could explain it better but I still don’t really know what it is. Honestly, we even went to the event and left a bit confused about what was going on.
Basically it was a three-day stay at the Titignano Castle with a bunch of talks and yoga sessions spread out over the three days. The talks were mostly about spiritual topics with some science in there as well. I was there with my partner in crime, long-time friend, and all-round goddess, Lungi. Shout out to her for making that trip so amazing. But let me just preface this by saying that neither of us is really spiritual at all.
So we were super excited to be at the castle and keen to learn more about stuff that we wouldn’t usually be exposed to. But also if I’m honest, it was difficult to take some of the stuff seriously. I really did try to give it a chance and go to a few talks but when something just isn’t for you, there’s no point forcing it. I’m not proud of it but I was definitely that person trying to muffle my chuckles in the back row…
So then what did we do for three days at the Titignano Castle?
Let’s kick this off by first disclosing that we spent the money we were supposed to spend on bedding to buy wine instead. My pillow was a jacket and my blanket was my towel. You know, just to set the tone right. But basically, we did what anyone trying to avoid a talk about “The Feminine Roar” would do. We swam in the pool, went for walks, stuffed our faces with insanely delicious food and slept in our teepees.
Did you even go to Italy if you don’t rave about the food? Sorry to be a complete stereotype but the food just…uuuggghhh…gimme a sec…need to wipe away the drool. Just picture massive tables overflowing with freshly made, authentic Italian food cooked with produce sourced from the surrounding farms. Like how does it get any better than that? HOW!?
It’s safe to say that I ate way too much food and I regret absolutely none of it. Those days basically consisted of me waking up for breakfast, stuffing my face, lying by the pool for a few hours. Then I’d stuff my face again for lunch, go pass out in a food coma for a few hours in my teepee. Wake up late afternoon for a yoga session, inhale two plates of food for dinner, sit outside and watch the sunset and then join whatever evening activities were happening. They were mostly open mic nights or drumming circles.
Let’s talk about these open mic nights…
You know when you are already struggling to take things seriously and then you mix some alcohol with that…? Not to mention the fact that you can basically communicate telepathically with your friend and you just know what they’re thinking.
Recipe. For .Disaster.
I know it’s terrible to laugh at people when they’re expressing stuff that’s really special to them but sometimes your self-control just fails you and suddenly you can’t breathe because you’re trying so hard to muffle your laughs. To anyone who got up on that stage to sing a special song or recite a poem, I sincerely apologise for my indecent behaviour and I genuinely hope that no one saw me laughing in the background. But I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
For some reason, I couldn’t get the scene of the slam poetry from 22 Jump Street out of my head. You know…Julia rob hurts…YELLING…waving my hands a lot…specific point of view on things…Cyn thee AH…It was like that but these people were being serious…
Drum circle! Yes! Finally something I was genuinely keen to join in on. I had played the drums in high school so banging on a drum was definitely my kind of fun. And then they gave me a cowbell instead…Which was probably karma for me laughing at them.
All jokes aside
Besides for all the laughter, our time at the Titignano Castle was genuinely amazing. We met some incredible people, I actually did learn new stuff about spirituality that I wouldn’t have learned about if I hadn’t gone to some of the talks, and the scenery was spectacular. I will never forget how peaceful it was there.
Next up, we headed off to more adventures in Incisa. Stick around for some lounging around on a farm and learning how to cook home-made ravioli…
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