EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR WEEK AT COOKING SCHOOL
Unfortuntately, I just can't seem to get my a** in gear to write this report! I also need to re-size all the pictures...I did get them cropped, but selecting the ones to use and then re-sizing is another project. I guess the project seems a little overwhelming right now...it'll be a combination trip report, review of the house (Il Refugio), and also a review of the cooking school, Cook Italy. So, it WILL be here, just probably later rather than sooner!
BlogFame
Today at the market in Marsciano we ran into our English friend Hazel. She introduced us to her friend Sharon, who lives in Marsciano. Hazel said to us, "But she already knows you!" Huh?
I don't know where when or how Hazel and Sharon met, but as fellow Brits, they were apparently comparing notes and friends, listing the other Brits who live in the area. Hazel told Sharon that she also knew an American couple who live in San Venanzo, and Sharon's reply was "Oh, Barb and Art?" She then went on to tell Hazel that she follows our blog and knew all about us!!!
The world just continues to get smaller and smaller!
BACK FROM COOKING SCHOOL!
Yesterday we returned to San Venanzo after our week long cooking school in Cortona. The laundry is done, the pictures have been downloaded onto the ocmputer, and now all I have to do is write the report! I had thought about taking my computer so that I could blog day by day, but I didn't, and in retrospect, I don't know where I would have found the time anyway. So....I'll start remembering and writing all about it, in between scanning the recipes into the computer.
The school was wonderful...we loved everything about it...the location, the teacher, the food, the other couple!
The website for the school we attended is www.cookitaly.com
SCREENS, NEIGHBORS AND A NEW PASSPORT
AUGUST 20, 2004
We are enjoying our new screens so much!!! We have them in every window except the blue bathroom and the kitchen. When those windows are replaced the screens will be added. For now, just to have a screen door to the garden is wonderful…it allows the light to come into the hall and the breeze to flow through the house. We seem to get most of our breezes from the south or the west, and the garden door faces south.
The other screens in the living room, guest room and hall allow us to get some cross-ventilation, and the screen in our bedroom helps us to cool the room down in the evening, and to keep an otherwise dark room a little more light. We still close the shutters in the late afternoon to keep the hottest sun out of the room, but the screens are so wonderful!
For us as Americans, screens are a normal, no, expected fact of life. Well, maybe that’s no longer true, since so many people now have central air. Even when we had central air we still enjoyed opening up the house to let the breezes flow through, but we’re probably in the minority.
Not having to worry about bees in the house is great, and not only are flies annoying, they are also grossly disgusting, so I don’t have to worry about them getting on my food. The man who installed them did a great job, and we hope to be able to begin replacing the windows soon.
*****
We had some friends from the Slow Travel message board over for lunch yesterday. Jonathan and Phillipa are from England, and are in Italy for a couple of weeks. As is the ST tradition, we try to get together with other members whenever possible…it’s nice to put faces with names!
We were lucky that the weather didn’t get as hot as predicted, but I had prepared a light lunch in anticipation of the heat. We decided to eat inside, since there wasn’t much of a breeze in the garden. We had bruschetta with home-made pesto, tuna and bean salad, focaccia, caprese, and for dessert, my standard chocolate chip cookies. After lunch we took a short stroll through San Venanzo, then let Jonathan catch up on his email since they didn’t bring their computer.
As a wonderful surprise, they brought us some cheddar cheese! We were so grateful! Why there is no yellow cheese in Italy is puzzling. Yes, we love Parmigiano, Pecorino, and mozzarella…all the wonderful cheeses of Italy…but there are times when it would be nice to have some cheddar. Or some Colby…we could cook Mexican for a change, or just make macaroni and cheese! We also miss sour cream, although I have tried substituting plain yogurt in recipes.
Maybe someday when we finally get back to England we can pop in on Jonathan and Phillipa with some treat from Italy!
*****
Yesterday our neighbor Sandro had a meeting with the mayor (il sindaco), and we learned that the cleanup of the park behind us will begin in October! We don’t know if this was because of Sandro’s request, or if it was scheduled to happen anyway. We also think that the dead tree in our yard will be removed, as well as the one that’s right up against the house.
Sandro then had a meeting with Signor Rellini, Mauro’s father, to set up the cleaning of the gutters and the roof after the park is cleaned. There’s no point in cleaning them now since the debris from the trees will continue to fall. Our only hope at this point is that our half of these costs isn’t too overwhelming!
We sat outside in the small park across the street from our house last night. The Farnesi’s use this as their living room, and with the mild temperatures and nice breezes, it’s a wonderful place to enjoy the evening.
Yesterday was their last day in San Venanzo. They returned to Bologna this morning, and will be back for a short visit in November. Sandro’s’ wife Josepinna still works, and I think they must own a shop of some sort. We think when she retires they’ll spend more time here…maybe spring through summer. It was such a relief to us that they turned out to be such wonderful people! They’ve been so kind, and so helpful…friendly without being over-bearing. They seem to be happy with us as neighbors, and we’re glad to have passed muster!
Our water pressure dropped unexpectedly after dinner, and we had no idea why. Armando’s water wasn’t affected, but we know from last winter that their condominium has a reserve tank. As we sat talking with the Farnesi’s, a man walked by and Sandro asked him if he had water. The man said no, and told us what had happened.
Somehow, a farmer had been plowing and had accidentally hit a water line! Repairs were underway, but of course no one knew how long that might take. Our supper was over and our dishes washed, but the Farnesi’s hadn’t; even had dinner yet, so this was quite a problem for them. Luckily, Armando gave them a huge tank of water.
Sandro and Enyo told us that because the tractors drive on the public roads, they’re required to have insurance. They said that the insurance would pay for the repairs, but that the man, a cousin of theirs (surprise!) would have to personally pay a fine.
We also learned that Sandro has lived in Bologna for the last forty years, and that Enyo was also born in San Venanzo. Both men worked for and retired from Phillip Morris in Bologna!!! We told them that Louisville (and Kentucky) had once been very important to the tobacco industry, but that fewer and fewer people were smoking, so things had changed.
It wasn’t any news to us when they talked about how many Europeans still smoke, and about how many young people are smoking. Even in the states, it’s amazing to see how many kids start smoking…even though I did when I was a teenager. I did it to look cool, but I usually think that kids now would be smarter. I guess if that were true the teenage birthrate would be down, and we all know that’s not happening!
Anyway, it was a nice evening, just sitting, talking, relaxing…feeling a part of the neighborhood! Yesterday as I was walking up from watering the basil plants, Donatella (from Tecnocasa) drove by, and we exchanged hellos…again, seeing someone you know driving by is a good sign! Also yesterday, Sandro came back to the house after having been at the bar down the street, and told us that he had seen our English friends Hazel and Adrian…..again, just part of the neighborhood! They had come to San Venanzo for Adrian to get his hair cut at the place Art had recommended.
I have an appointment for a haircut this afternoon so that I don’t get too shaggy while we’re at cooking school. I hope the weather stays mild, but we’ll take our fan just in case. We don’t have to be at the villa until after 4:40, so we’ll have plenty of time on Sunday morning to get organized and packed. I love being able to take conveniences like the fan and my pillow!!
*****
I had a phone call from the US Embassy in Rome yesterday! The good news is that my passport and renewal application arrived safely! The bad news is that the money order I purchased from Fabio at the Post Office was completed incorrectly!
This “money order” is similar to those in the states…the money is guaranteed…already paid. When I bought it at the Post Office, Fabio told me to sign it at the bottom. The machine had imprinted it with the amount to be paid and with the payee’s name, just as in the states. Since it’s normal for the sender to sign a money order in the states, I accepted Fabio’s directions, signed it, and mailed it to Rome.
The man at the Embassy said that they can’t accept it…because I signed it, it “looks” like a personal check, and they don’t accept personal checks! It’s irritating since they know as well as I do that the money has already been paid and there’s no problem with it bouncing. Of course it’s also irritating to know that Fabio F*#%!* up again!!!!
The man at the Embassy said that I could just send him another check and that he would just mail the first one back to me with the new passport. Because I was concerned that Fabio wouldn’t cash it for me since it’s made out to the Embassy, I asked the man to send it to me now, so that I could take it to Fabio and asked that it just be replaced with a new, correct version.
Later, Wendy offered to call and talk to Fabio, and he said that it’s not a problem to refund the money back to me. Of course he still thinks that he did it the right way. Wendy had to go to the bank today, the regular bank, and she just bought the “assegno circolare” from them and mailed it to Rome for me. Corrado confirmed to her that the Embassy was right and that Fabio was wrong. At least I don’t have to worry about trying to explain all this to him!
Since I won’t receive the “wrong” check back from Rome until after we return from cooking school, the process would have been held up until then.
By having Wendy mail the check today, the renewal process will be able to continue, and hopefully I’ll have my new passport with a few weeks. I’m glad that I try to plan ahead just in case problems arise!
We’ll have to go to Terni to renew our Permesso di Sogiorno’s in September, and I’m sure that will be loads of fun too! Apparently we have to take all our documents again and maybe some new ones to boot. We’re going to try to find out exactly what we need before we go. For some reason, the Italian bureaucracy seems to get some thrill out of keeping the public in the dark about what forms are needed for any such situation. Their policy seems to be “if you don’t ask, we don’t tell”…and you have to ask many, many specific questions and anticipate every possible problem.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
AUGUST 15, 2004
When you’re living in a foreign country, it’s absolutely essential that you have someone in the states who can take care of business for you. We added my sister to our checking account before we moved to Italy so that she could pay any bills that might require a check, and so that she could transfer money to us. We haven’t given her power of attorney, but maybe we should. I don’t know if there would be a situation where this would be helpful, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.
While we were in the states in May, we sold my car. I had kept it since the insurance was negligible, and it was cheaper than having to rent a car when we were there in December/January, and then again in May. Since we won’t return to the states until December, there wasn’t much point in keeping it any longer, so we sold it and cancelled the insurance. A few weeks later we received a refund check from the insurance company, and my sister deposited it into our account.
This is another thing that’s important…to have a U.S. address, and someone who can monitor your mail. Luckily for us, my sister very generously offered to do this for us. At first I just assumed that my daughter would take this job, but since she didn’t really approve of our move, this scenario sort of fell apart. We can’t thank my sister enough for helping us out.
Another useful tool for living overseas is the internet. I’ve set up our bank account online so that I can monitor our money, pay bills, and initiate electronic transfers. While checking our account recently, I couldn’t figure out why there was an electronic transfer in the amount of eighty something dollars to a company called Liberty Mutual.
I contacted my sister to see if she had any idea who and what this charge was. She reminded me that our car insurance company had changed from Prudential to Liberty Mutual…I don’t know if it was a buy out, a merger, a split, or what. My last electronic car insurance premium had been labeled “Prudential”, so I had completely forgotten about this change.
Meanwhile I had contacted our representative at Fifth Third Bank to ask her if she had any information about this transfer of funds. She told me that she’d had a similar problem, also with Liberty Mutual the previous week. They had gotten an account number wrong and had taken money out of the wrong account! I assumed that this was what happened to us.
Because of this previous problem, the Fifth Third rep had the number for the appropriate department at Liberty Mutual. Knowing that we’re in Italy, and also that we can’t call an 800 number, she offered to call and try to resolve this problem.
Imagine my surprise when she called me back and told me that Liberty Mutual said that there had been NO MISTAKE, because we still had a car insurance policy. Oh boy…I knew this would be a mess.
The Fifth Third rep then graciously offered to call the insurance company and to put us on a three way call. After many transfers, we were finally connected to someone who seemed willing to listen to our problem.
After I explained the problem, the first thing the Liberty Mutual rep told me was that yes, we DID still have a car insurance policy. I said, NO, we didn’t…it had been cancelled in early May, and that we had even received a refund check in June for the overpayment. Again, the rep told me that yes, I did have a policy, but that she could cancel it as of that day.
Do you know how much self control it took to grit my teeth and say very slowly and very deliberately, NO, we DON’T have a policy. It was CANCELLED in May, and YOU need to figure out what the problem is and issue me a refund check NOW!!!!! I told her that NO electronic payments had been made for June or July, and that we had received the refund check from them in June.
The rep then put us on hold so that she could check with an agent who could verify details that she didn’t have access to. We waited for quite awhile, and several times she came on the line to say that she was still trying to reach an agent. I told her that I was in Italy, and that Fifth Third was graciously paying for this call. I explained that our time was valuable too, and that we needed to have someone settle this problem ASAP.
Eventually she got through to an agent, and when she came back she acknowledged that yes, the policy had indeed been cancelled on May 12. Of course there was no apology for her inaccurate information, or for the fact that she basically called me a liar. Never-the-less…..
I requested that the eighty some odd dollars be electronically re-deposited into my account at once. The Liberty Mutual rep then informed me that this wasn’t possible. I found it hard to believe that they could take the money electronically, but not put it back. Even I have the capability to transfer money from my computer at home…how could a large company like this not have the same capabilities?
I also asked what sort of compensation they would be offering for this mistake…not only had they had the use of my money (and deprived me of the use of it in the meantime), they had also greatly inconvenienced both me AND Fifth Third, taking up our time in dealing with this problem.
It was at this point that the rep connected me with a supervisor. Luckily the rep briefed the supervisor on our situation so that I didn’t have to repeat the whole story. I asked what type of compensation would be made, and when I could expect restitution. The supervisor told me that compensation wasn’t possible, but that she would try to have the check sent to me via an overnight service.
I was quite careful to express my complete and utter DISsatisfaction with this company and the way they did business. I told the supervisor that I was very glad we were no longer doing business with them, and that I found it hard to believe that a company of this size could be so inept.
Earlier, the woman from Fifth Third had been unable to connect me to a three way call because the office was having a staff meeting. The phones had been set to an answering machine that directed the caller to try back in 45 minutes, after the meeting was over! I found this to be unbelievable! A large national insurance company that turns off its phones for a staff meeting!!! This is the sort of thing that I might expect from a small local insurance agency, but NOT from a company of this size!!!
Since all this transpired on a Friday, I didn’t really expect to get the check on Saturday. I figured it would come on Tuesday, after having been sent on Monday.
When I spoke with my sister yesterday, Saturday, I asked her if the check had come, and she told me that it had not. She also told me that in the meantime she had received a letter from Liberty Mutual stating that my premium amount had changed, and that beginning on September 3rd, I would be paying the new amount.
My sister was able to give me the website for Liberty Mutual, and I sent them a rather nasty email, requesting the check, as well as compensation, NOW! I also explicitly FORBID them to withdraw anymore funds from my account, and threatened legal action if this happened again. My sister, who works in the insurance field, told me that the state insurance commission is quite interested in these types of problems, and acts quite quickly to resolve them. I guess that will be my next step.
I did request an acknowledgement of my email, and also requested that they tell me exactly WHEN I could expect their check. I’ll need to contact Fifth Third to see if it’s possible to block their electronic transfer, just in case.
The morals of this story are: have someone in the states who can keep an eye on things for you…always check your credit card and bank statements, and NEVER, EVER do business with Liberty Mutual!
SHOOTING STARS
AUGUST 14, 2004
We remembered to walk outside to look for shooting stars last night. Although we weren't sure which part of the sky to watch, we didn't have long to wait. After about 5 minutes we saw the space shuttle racing across the sky.
We had both missed this during our previous evening of star gazing, but for whatever reason I happened to notice it last night, and Art was able to locate it too. Had we not known that it was possible to see the shuttle with the naked eye I guess we would have thought this was just a very high plane! Anyway, it was sort of cool, especially since we had just seen a greeting from the shuttle astronauts to the opening ceremonies at the Olympics.
As we were watching the shuttle disappear from view, we both caught sight of a shooting star! AT least we now knew which direction to look. We continued to watch the skies for another ten or fifteen minutes, and saw four or five more. Had we been able to lie down on a blanket and save our necks from straining, we might have stayed out a little longer. As it was, our necks were sore, and we were both a little cool in shorts and tee shirts.
A wonderful breeze had brought in much cooler temperatures, and of course once the sun went down it was even cooler! One of those nights when you know it will be great for sleeping with the window open! What a great summer we've had this year.
SURVIVING IN ITALY
FRIDAY AUGUST 13, 2004
Back in July we started to see posters advertising a concert by Gloria Gaynor. The only thing I remember her for is "I Will Survive"...a great song at the time. I guess it's still a good song today...a bit dated, and maybe used more for specific situations. Anyway, we never were sure where the concert would be held, but on the day of the concert we happened to be in Marsciano. There, in the parking lot of the Mercato Centrale, the small mall that houses the Coop and several other stores, was a stage and rows and rows of folding chairs! Along the small road leading to the parking lot were booths selling all kinds of stuff. One of the booths had some really beautiful art glass, and I wondered who would buy a large piece of art glass before the concert. Where would you put it? Even if you bought a small piece that fit under your seat, wouldn't the chances of it getting broken be pretty good? I guess I'm the only one who thinks about these things. We didn't go back for the concert, so I don't have any idea what Gloria sounds like these days.
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We forgot to go outside last night to watch for shooting stars, but will be sure to look tonight. The only time I ever saw a shooting star was several years ago when there was a meteorite shower. We stayed up late and drove out towards Shelbyville then turned down a country road and pulled over to the side with lots of other people. We carried our blankets to an open field and laid down to watch the show.
Art couldn't believe that I had never seen a shooting star, but I guess when you grow up in the city you just don't get many opportunities. Now that we're here, the opportunities are endless, and I intend to take advantage of them!
This weekend is the 30 hour marathon gathering at the park outside of Ospedaletto for star gazing. The moon is dark on Monday, so it will be very nearly dark this weekend.
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We had our English friends, Hazel and Adrian over for lunch yesterday. They bought a house in Ospedaletto and we met them last spring in Ternana's. For now they'll be in Italy from April until September. In September they'll return to their home in Oxford and will take groups of schoolboys to Normandy. Adrian is fluent in French, and worked for this school after he retired from the RAF.
His life has been very interesting...his father was an ambassador. He lived in Venice as a child (right ON the Grand Canal!) and has also lived in the Belgian Congo, Thailand, San Francisco, Switzerland, France, and who knows where else. I'm sure his years in the RAF took him to a few additional places. Hazel just retired from the BBC, and I'm anxious to talk with her about that.
We had a nice long with some typical Italian foods...prosciutto with melon, Panzanella (tomato bread salad) and white beans baked with olive oil and a little pancetta. After lunch we talked about our lives in Italy, and some of the common problems we've had. Their kitchen has just been installed, and they're still waiting for the gas and water to be connected. So far they've been cooking on two burners, no oven. We hope to see more of Hazel and Adrian as time goes on.
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Those of you who have seen Italian television know how awful it can be. They have lots of game shows that don't make any sense to us, and every show features scores of scantily clad young girls, just for show. Sex, or sex appeal, is used as an advertising tool to the nth degree.
While paging through a real estate magazine the other day, I came across this ad for a bank or mortgage company. The gist of the ad is that this woman is so happy because she just got a really good interest rate, but the way it's presented is rather interesting....I think you'll be able to translate the Italian......
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION/ROTECASTELLO
August 10, 2004
Boy did THIS post cause some problems! As usual, I have to give you some background first.
When I started to blog, I would usually read the article to Art…to get his feedback, to see if I had forgotten to mention something important, and also just so that we could re-live the experience together. In retrospect, I guess part of me was also proud to show off my writing skills and to get positive feedback about it.
As time went on and I began to write more and more, I stopped reading each and every post to Art. He would see me at the computer and ask if I was blogging. I would say, I’m writing about our lunch with so and so, or about the market in Marsciano, or whatever it was. Then when I was finished I would post the article on the blog and add it to my blog folder.
Yesterday I was writing about the medieval festival that we had gone to over the weekend. Art commented that he really needed to read my blog so that he could catch up on what I’d been posting.
When I was finished writing, I asked Art if he would like to hear what I had written, not only so he could catch up, but also because we had so much fun at the festival and it would be nice to re-live it together. I started out reading, and this is the first paragraph I read…..
Rotecastello is a cute little hill town that we’ve driven past almost every day since last September, but have never visited. This was due to Art’s lack of interest (he thought it was just going to be a borgo) and to my lack of insistence. It seemed likely that we would have finally visited the town after we bought our mosaic from a couple who live there. This was back in April at the Mercato in Marsciano. But we never did seem to find the time. We were always on our way to somewhere else. On Friday we finally made it to Rotecastello.
After the first line, Art said “no, we don’t drive past it every day”, and I said “what’dya mean…of course we do!” Then he said “but it’s not on the same road”. Okay…technically true, BUT…ALTHOUGH Rotecastello IS reached by turning off the road to San Venanzo (the SS317), it’s visible for nearly a mile while we drive on the SS 317. The road curves around, and Rotecastello sits on a hilltop just off to the side of the road. It didn’t seem necessary to bog the story down with the minute details of how to reach Rotecastello. So…I continued on to the second sentence…..
This was due to Art’s lack of interest (he thought it was just going to be a borgo) and to my lack of insistence.
And I heard Art gasping and groaning behind me. What!?!? “Well”, he said, “that really makes me sound like it was my fault! Like I was the one who didn’t want to go.” Okay, I re-read the sentence…it says the reason you didn’t want to go was because you thought it was a borgo…correct? Correct. And it says that I wasn’t interested enough to insist…correct? Correct. So what’s the problem?
So Art goes into this big thing about how it makes HIM look like the bad guy, like he WOULDN’T take me because I hadn’t been persistent enough. And by putting this on the web for the world to see, everyone would think he was a jerk. And that he would be so embarrassed to meet new people at the SlowTrav get-togethers, knowing that they had read about this!
I explained over and over that it was not my intention to make him look bad, and that I didn’t think other people would take it that way. I thought I was giving the reason HE never felt compelled to go there, and that I was obviously totally ambivalent about it, so I never insisted. These are the facts as I see them. No blame, no criticism, just the facts. We both knew that eventually we would go to Rotecastello, but for the time being, it just wasn’t high on our agenda.
Since this conversation seemed to be going downhill, and since Art had criticized both the first AND the second SENTENCES, I didn’t think it was a good idea to continue reading. Whether this was because I was being petty, or because I was insulted at having my writing criticized, or just upset about having MY version of the events questioned, I don’t know. But whatever it was, I just said, well, I don’t think I’ll read any more, and I turned off the computer. I wasn’t “huffy” about it, just sort of matter-of-fact. I sort of felt like this just wasn’t the time.
Now that REALLY made Art mad. He thought that I was acting childish, and that additionally I was ignoring his feelings. I tried to explain once again that what I had written was NOT disparaging, and that irregardless, it was MY point of view. I encouraged him to write his own version for the blog…I thought it would be a nice contrast to have a “he said” "she said” thing.
Art wasn’t interested in writing for the blog, and the disagreement continued. I suggested that we send the article to anyone he wanted, to get another opinion. Or we could send it to however many people he wanted and we could take a poll. I suggested that we send it to a couple, so that we could get a male and female perspective. He wasn’t interested in any of that.
Well you know how it is when you’re just spoiling for a fight…any excuse will do, no matter how ridiculous it seems later. So we continued to argue. I was more surprised at his reaction than mad, and kept trying to explain that I was not casting blame. Eventually, I became defensive about my writing…about being asked to change something that I believed to be true. After all, this was MY blog, the place where I could express my feelings. Art continued to feel as if I was ignoring his feelings and being inconsiderate. He knows I HATE to be criticized, and thought that I was just being stubborn.
Apparently we’ve had just a little too much togetherness, and we were both spoiling for a fight. Every time one of us would be ready to smooth things over, the other one would get fired up again. This went on for quite some time. We were both convinced that we were right, and that was that.
After a couple of hours, and some time away from each other, we finally made our peace. Art said that he had over-reacted, and I said that I would re-word the offending sentence. But I still stood by my description of “driving past” Rotecastello. Art told me that the only reason he had picked on this was because he felt it only served to emphasize the fact that we were SO close, but he still wouldn’t take me.
As I said, I know all this sounds ridiculous, but at the time it was very real and very intense. Battle lines were drawn, and things were quite tense for a while. Back when I was still reading Art most of my blogs, I had enough sense not to read him the one about “togetherness”, knowing that it would cause some friction. Reading this particular post took me completely by surprise though. From now on, I’ll just tell him about what I wrote, paraphrasing where necessary and glossing over any potentially sensitive areas.
And so, without further delay, (and with minimal changes), here’s the story of our visit to Rotecastello!
ROTECASTELLO
AUGUST 8, 2004
Rotecastello is a cute little hill town that we’ve driven past almost every day since last September, but have never visited. This was because Art thought it was just going to be a borgo, and I wasn’t sufficiently curious. We both kept thinking “someday” we’d visit. It seemed likely that we would have finally visited the town after we bought our mosaic from a couple who live there. This was back in April at the Mercato in Marsciano. But we never did seem to find the time. We were always on our way to somewhere else. On Friday we finally made it to Rotecastello.
We had seen a flier advertising a medieval festival in Rotecastello on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day featured a different form of entertainment and a different menu. We decided that Friday night sounded good…a “blues” band was scheduled…could be interesting.
We drove over to Rotecastello about 9:30, and were a little surprised to see how many cars were parked alongside the road. The town is tiny, and sits on top of a hill, so it’s not possible for cars to park in the town itself. We had to park quite a way down the road and walk down the road and up into the town.
At the base of the hill we saw the place to order the food. Tables were set up in the soccer field. Since we had eaten dinner at home, we didn’t order, but planned to return another night for dinner.
As we walked up the hill, the pathway was lined with candles lighting the way, and the ambiance was pure medieval. The further up the hill we walked, the more charmed (and surprised) we were. What a cute, charming, amazingly medieval town this was. We kept asking each other…”Why haven’t we come here before?” And “Who knew?!”
The road wound up and around the hill, full of twisting narrow lanes lined with medieval stone houses. It was hard to tell we were still in the 21st century. We were both completely charmed.
Rotecastello must have a population of less than 200 people, and apparently most of them most are artists. Doorway after doorway opened into rooms filled with various forms of art….paintings, mosaics, textiles. The variety was amazing. The quality was impressive.
In the main town square, the piazza, there was a bandstand set up, and musicians were beginning to assemble. A woman took the stage and began to introduce the band. She told a little bit about the festival and about Rotecastello…but that’s about all I understood. The details were just a little beyond me. I did understand that the band was from Marsciano.
Once the band (finally) took the stage, they jumped right into it…”Mustang Sally”, “Midnight Hour”, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”, “I Feel Good”, and on and on. I was having a ball…the music was music that I loved, and they were actually pretty good!
A few of their selections were questionable…”That’s the Way (Uh huh Uh huh) I Like It”, and “Get Down Tonight”, but I figure that anything American was/is popular, even the bad stuff.
They played for over TWO HOURS, and when they finally finished for the night we took a final look around the piazza. A table was set up in the corner and was covered with brochures. A sign indicated that this table was promoting ecology.
I began looking at the brochures, and noticed that one had a picture of stars on it. Once I read it, I realized that it was for the same park that Adamo had taken us to, and that there was to be another stargazing the following weekend. Since I realized that it would be the dark of the moon, I told Art that we should plan to go.
It was then that I realized that the man attending the table was the same man who had given the lecture and led the program for the star-gazing. Of course he remembered us…being the only Americans in the area tends to make people remember us.
We chatted a bit with this professor, took a variety of brochures, and headed back down the hill. Most of the brochures were about the general area…Orvieto, surrounding areas, various activities and festivals.
We saw a few members of the band and told them how much we had enjoyed their music.
We decided that we would definitely return the following night…this time for dinner, and then for the planned entertainment, which was opera and classical music performed by eight different people.
Saturday
When we arrived on Saturday night, the crowd waiting to eat was quite large. We should have gotten there earlier, but Luciano had arrived with the screens to install, and we just got a late start. We got in line, and once we were closer to the ordering booth, a menu was passed to us. The choices were all wonderful….. umbricelli, tagliatelle with duck sauce, cinghiale (wild boar), assorted desserts, several antipasti.
We decided to each get the umbricelli with tartufati, to share one mixed antipasto, one order of the mixed grill, and also one order of tuna and bean salad. We also ordered one dessert to share. There were three choices, but once the guy said “chocolate”, I said “I’ll take it!” We ordered a bottle of water and a bottle of red wine. The wine was €3, and the total for dinner was €27. That might sound a little expensive, but I considered it a donation to Rotecastello…I’m guessing that a lot of this stuff was donated. Anything that will help to preserve this medieval jewel is well worth it.
We were told to take our receipt, find a place to sit, and give the receipt to one of the girls in long skirts. Although most of the tables were full, we eventually found two empty spots at the end of a table, facing one another.
A girl came by within a few minutes, gave us placemats and utensils, and took our order slip. We watched as the girls took and delivered orders non-stop. Our water and wine were delivered after a few minutes, but since it was so busy, it was about twenty minutes before our food arrived. We didn’t really mind the wait…it was fun to people watch. Everyone knew everyone else, and greetings and kisses flowed with the wine. The Italians are extremely social and friendly people, and we enjoy watching them enjoy life.
Once our food arrived, everything was incredibly delicious. Since we’d been smelling the meat cooking on the grill, we weren’t at all surprised. The tuna and bean salad was delicious…this was the first time we’d ever had this typical Italian dish, but it certainly won’t be the last.
The mixed grill was a nice variety of grilled meats, a nice sized pork chop, s piece of steak, and some sort of sausage. The pasta was incredible, and surprisingly, it was still hot when it arrived at the table. In retrospect, we could have shared one bowl of pasta…but it was so delicious that we each ate every bite! The dessert was good…nothing spectacular, but then, most Italian desserts aren’t. At least it was chocolate.
After we finished eating, we walked up the hill, and once we reached the town we decided to wander down a lane that we hadn’t see the previous night. This lane took us around the perimeter of the village, and after a few minutes we came to a large community oven…what a great idea! I wish we had one of those in San Venanzo.
The lane eventually led us back to the main piazza. As we had come up into town, we had heard a man singing “Nessun Dorma”…and doing a pretty good job of it too. While we were walking around a woman was singing, and she too had a great voice. As we approached the piazza, a man was singing “Figaro”. His voice was powerful, booming, and deep. Once the bandstand came into view, we were both amazed to see a small Oriental young man onstage. It was hard to believe that this powerful voice was coming from such a small person, but it was true. He did an incredible job with the song, and received a standing ovation when he was finished.
We stood at the edge of the piazza, and standing next to us was our good friend Gilberto…the man who had done so much wonderful work on our house! He introduced us to his wife and daughter who were both beautiful. We saw our English friends, Adrian and Hazel wander by, but by the time we realized who they were, it was too late to call to them. We also saw Dino, the man who had made the window for our bedroom, and previously, the door to our garden. This is one of the nice things about settling in…we start to see people we know or just recognize faces and nod hello.
Once the singing was over, people began to leave. A couple sitting in the front row left, and Art and I took their place. We didn’t know what was coming next, but figured we might as well wait and see. The same woman who had introduced the band the previous night took the stage and began to speak. She spoke at great length about the history of Rotecastello, and its medieval days.
We heard the drums before we saw them, and because we were surrounded by all the stone buildings, it was hard to tell where the sound was coming from. The speaker looked to our right, and although we couldn’t see around the corner, we looked too.
And then they appeared. A procession…a medieval procession, led by the drummers, then pages, then knights. Noblemen appeared, followed by more knights. More noblemen, this time accompanied by their ladies. Monks. Laborers. Townspeople. Men, women and children, carrying baskets with animals and assorted foods. The whole scene was absolutely incredible. The costumes were magnificent…authentic to the last detail.
The town officials took the stage, and the man who I assume was the mayor greeted everyone, and thanked us all for coming. A young boy raised his long medieval horn and blew something that seemed to be a rallying call. The procession then continued their march down the street as the drummers pounded out the beat.
All in all, this was one of the most authentic, amazing and fun evenings we’ve ever had. Our one regret was that we hadn’t brought our camera! We looked at each other in disbelief, and vowed that next year not only would we attend the festival, but we would also come prepared with our camera…and this may be the time to invest in a movie camera at last!
MEETING THE NEIGHBORS
AUGUST 6, 2004
Yesterday we finally met the rest of our neighbors. The sister of the man we bought the house from has been here since last week, along with her husband, Egno. We still don’t know her name, but she is a sweetheart. (Update: we now know that her name is Iris)
Previously I had corrected our first report that the house was owned by two brothers once we had met the sister. Now we realize that there are THREE siblings…two bothers and one sister. We DID buy our house from the other brother, Gino. We found out that the reason Gino sold his house was because his wife didn’t like the house/San Venanzo/traveling…not quite sure which.
Anyway, the other brother, Sandro, has arrived, along with his wife Josepinna. They also live in Bologna…apparently at some point this family moved en masse to Bologna.
The sister, who shall be referred to as Signora Farnesi, had greeted us warmly when we first met. She had already placed a call to her brother Sandro, to tell him what wonderful people we were. Signora Farnesi’s husband is quiet, but still friendly and welcoming.
Sandro is the baby of the family, and his sister is the oldest. She’s 72, and Sandro is 62. Sandro is by far the most out-going, and his wife is also very friendly. They’ve set up a cushioned swing in the park across the street from our house, and this is more or less their living room. They sit in the park and talk, play cards, and greet everyone who goes by. Not only do the know everyone, they’re also related to most of them, one way or another. Typical small town.
The other day we were invited to sit in the park with them. Signora Farnesi patted the spot next to her on the swing and motioned for me to sit next to her. She hugged me and said once again what a wonderful person I was! We discovered that Signora Farnesi and Josepinna had known each other first, and that’s how Josepinna met her husband, Sandro!
We were invited in to their house…something that we were most anxious to see. We knew that this half of the house was divided into two apartments, but that’s about all we knew. Oh, except that we did get a peek into the window that opens onto our garden when Signora Farnesi was getting the room ready for her brother and his wife. Art was upset to see that this room has the beams on the ceiling still exposed, although they are painted white. Art would LOVE to have exposed beams, but all our ceilings are flat. I don't know if the beams have been covered or what.
We got the grand tour, and now see how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Since this house is built on a hill, there are many different levels. We have four levels in our house, and although I didn’t keep count, I think the other half has even more. The room that’s behind our bedroom and hall walls is a bedroom that is accessed via a spiral staircase! Of course once the tour was finished we sat down for a cold drink, then returned to the park.
The men asked Art what color he used to paint our garage door because they want to paint their garage door to match! They also asked who did the stone work in front of our garage because they would like to have theirs redone in the same way. This area is made of stone similar to what we used to make our patio. This stone must be supplied by the commune, and it forms the gutter that carries the rainwater down the street.
The very next day the two men were outside painting their garage door dark brown to match ours! And when Art talked to them about cleaning out the gutters on the house, they were very receptive. The gutters on the front of the house must be clogged, because last winter water backed up in them, causing mold in our white bathroom, and also causing some of the stucco to break loose from the eaves. We were really glad we weren’t staking there when it fell!
Sandro told Art that he would have the gutters cleaned and that he would pay for it and that we wouldn’t have to pay for anything! They also told us that the house had just been completely re-stuccoed just a few years ago.
The next day we had the opportunity to show our house to them and to another San Venanzo resident who was visiting. The visitor hesitated at first, but hey! We spent so much time and money on this, we love to show off the finished product. Also, I’m sure that there’s a great deal of curiosity about the changes we’ve made.
Once the Farnesi’s entered the house, they gasped with surprise and began saying “compliment!” and “bravi!” and “que bella!” They genuinely seemed to like the changes we had made both inside and outside. The new door to the garden was a hit, as was the garden itself. Their house is much simpler, just as this house was when we bought it. Since it’s just a summer house, there’s no reason to invest a lot of money in furnishings or decorations.
Sandro, seeing that I liked to garden, told me that I was free to do whatever I liked with not only the three planters in front of our house, but also with the two that are in front of their house. He doesn’t like the plants that are there now, and encouraged me to replace them. I told him that I didn’t like them either, but for now they can stay because at least the stay green no matter what. Eventually I’ll replace them when I can some up with a good alternative! I definitely don’t want annuals there…way too much trouble, but I’m not really sure what my choice are at this point.
Our neighbors will be here for the month of August, then the house will be quiet again. Other than a long weekend at Easter when one of the children came with some friends for a long weekend, the house is empty. It’s been very strange for us to hear someone talking next door, but they certainly haven’t bothered us. Their hospitality and friendliness has really made us wish that they were here more often!
MORE SUNFLOWER PICTURES!
Here's a link to some more of the pictures we've taken over the past week or two. Click on the sunflower to open the album, then click on the first foto and you'll be able to view them as a slide show.
http://www.slowtrips.com/photo/showgallery.php?ppuser=130&cat=500
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Spina Bifida
