Boars at La Rocca

Our city park is really quite central in town, with very limited access to neighboring fields and green spaces other than through the city streets. That didn't stop a herd of wild boar from plowing up all the grass one evening. Michael went for his morning run, only to find the space blocked off by local hunters who were doing their best with dogs to encourage the visitors to move back out into the country. This is definitely not the first time boars have been seen in the park, but they really did a number on the landscaping. To look at it, you would think there had been deliberate plowing of much of the area!

Just a reminder that we're never isolated from nature, even in the heart of the city.

Love,

Alexandra

Meaty Matters

I have had the amusement of seeing the meat delivery to our local butcher's twice recently. The first time, the van drove up the alley and parked outside the shop. The deliveryman opened up the back of the truck, and there were basically large parts of animals and smaller chunks sealed in white garbage sacks. The stuff of horror movies?

A few weeks later, the same van was parked about a block away from the butcher's. The deliveryman opened the van and proceeded to throw a quarter of a cow over his shoulders and set off with it jauntily. I only had time to get a quick shot on his way around the corner.

A far cry from neatly packaged containers of small cuts in the supermarket!

Love,

Alexandra

Machine de Cirque

Last night was a banner event: Michael and I went out to the theatre for a show! First time in over two years, and it was a blast. The event was "Machine de Cirque" and was performed by a 6-man group out of Canada. Fun note: they happened to be eating at the same restaurant as us two nights previously, when we went out for our first date night in ages!

The show was fantastic. We felt good about where we were seated, because we were alone in our theatre box. Clearly, the organizers had taking spacing seriously and had opened up more levels than normally they would in order to allow the audience to feel protected. But on to the show! It was a circus of acrobatics, and the effects were extraordinary. Having such a small stage really increased my anxiety in some of the segments: one of the performers was swooping and dancing and standing on the handlebars of a full-sized bicycle on this tiny space and I was just waiting for him to end in the laps of people in the front row! They had a trapeze and scaffolding with moving trolleys, a seesaw, and more. If you see them in your area, I recommend going! 

It was particularly thrilling to see them, because we actually had tickets to see their performance for March 2020, which was the first performance cancelled here because of the pandemic. Somehow, it felt like a sign of completion? Hard to describe, but it was just such a great evening.

And then we walked 70 meters home.

Love,

Alexandra

Thanksgiving and Christmas

This past Thanksgiving, we decided to do a traditional meal, although reduced somewhat since there were only three of us! We got a huge turkey leg instead of a turkey (which wouldn't fit in my oven, anyway), and then did all the traditional sides: stuffing (dressing, since I couldn't stuff the bird), gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, broccoli (or green beans, don't remember!). We ended with a homemade pumpkin pie. Yum!

Michael spent the holiday with his parents in the US, so I spent most of the time working madly on Christmas presents! 

I had a wonderful Advent season this year because I had such a variety of crafts involved in my gifts. These included leatherwork, knitting, sewing, and so on. It was really fun to see everything come together, and to have such a range in my attempts to suit individual tastes and needs. 

Ashley and James remained in England for Christmas due to covid issues, but we actually ended up with a large and joyous group for the festivities: Eleanor and Matthew came, and then Matthew's sister and her boyfriend also joined us! We were 8 at dinner, so it was a great group. And so much to say! Eleanor and Matthew are expecting! And Katelyn and Nicolas got engaged here!

Nicolas and Katelyn live in Denmark (he's a native), and so they were kind enough to bring down their special rice and other ingredients to make the traditional Christmas rice pudding. It was really scrumptious, and Jeremy and I in particular are not sad that there were leftover ingredients that even now, in February, we are continuing to make up into batches of deliciousness. Since we didn't have enough bedroom space, we found an apartment just a few steps down the road for them to overnight in, but then they stayed with us during the day. 

Omicron surged during this period, so we weren't able to go out as much as we would have liked, but we played plenty of games here. We don't generally have a problem entertaining ourselves. We baked cookies and made the pieces for a gingerbread house, but we only found time to put the house together once our guests had gone!

Faith always loves Christmas

Needless to say, we have to hang
the ornaments high on the tree

Hoping for many more joyful Christmases like this one. It was really one to remember.

Love,

Alexandra

Making up for lost time...Trip to Naples

 Like everyone, we're all saying, "How can it be February already?" Crazy, huh? And all this time I've been meaning to give updates on where we've been and what we've been doing.

First up, was our trip to Naples in October. Michael and I took a weekend anniversary trip to make up for an earlier covid-related cancellation. Fully vaccinated and feeling fine, we decided to risk it and were so happy we did! It is an extremely interesting and vibrant city, and we wanted to stay longer. An easy train ride of a few hours, and we were right in the heart of the Naples.

Our bed and breakfast was a portion of a convent in the Spanish Quarters. This area of Naples, comprised of several different and distinct neighborhoods, has a very complicated history. It was an area outside of the city limits used in the mid-1500s to house Spanish soldiers brought to protect the Spanish Viceroy of Naples. One can imagine that the locals weren't best pleased to discover them in their midst, and presumably bored soldiers were possibly not the most salubrious company to townspeople just trying to go about their business.

Fast-forward to the 20th century, and it was truly a lethal place to be. Poverty and crime were rife, and our local tour guide said that there were killings in the piazza near his home to the extent that he wasn't allowed to play there in the streets. 

And now? It has been reclaimed and is starting to draw pride (and tourist dollars) from its edgy history and picturesque, narrow streets. A common living situation is a "basso" ("low"), a one-room street-level apartment. These bassi commonly have a half-glass door for light, along with an adjacent low window. As you walk by, you can see the whole space at a glance. The relatively high ceilings permit those who wish and can afford it the possibility of creating a loft, generally with a minute spiral staircase to access it.

The restaurants are welcoming, often full to overflowing, so reservations were definitely required to get into the places we wanted to eat. Ironically, one evening we happened to find a restaurant off the main drag that was empty except for ourselves, but we ate extremely well there, and were very much welcomed!

While we were there, we took a guided tour of the Spanish Quarters offered by the bed and breakfast. The guides are required to be locals since they understand the area and its influences and culture, and we found ours to be superb. 

We also did a tour called the "Miglio Sacro" ("Sacred Mile"), exploring a different poor section of the city. This particular tour was focused on the culture and handling of death, and included visits to catacombs, churches that were heavily funded by payments for burial rites, but also local buildings of historical or architectural interest. 

The wealthier parts of the city were easily visited on our own, but of course we only had a few days. We did visit the palace externally (it's an art gallery and we were out of time to go inside) and were surprised to find ourselves face to face with the Rosa Parks house! Go figure. It certainly provided a sense of scale for the palace, though: it was this Lilliputian home in the middle of a courtyard formed by this Brobdignagian structure!

I found this butcher's display case hilarious

An early shopping mall

One of the churches and convents was completely
bombed during WWII, but fortunately the gardens
remained virtually untouched. The courtyard 
was almost entirely filled with ceramic work
like that shown in this photo and the one below.

This presepe had figures that were 12" high, if
that helps you imagine the scale

The church also had a museum which had an amazing
display of textiles

This modern sculptor had a small exhibition, and 
his talent is incredible

There were fish markets everywhere. I was longing 
to have a place with a kitchen so I could take some of 
this back for dinner!

We happened to lunch across from the Banksy of Naples

I loved the corrugations in the base of this defensive tower

The palace, now a museum

See how small it looks! Up close, 
the Rosa Parks house is actually quite a large,
two-story home.

These were some rather fun street lights near our hotel

View from the hotel

This local pasta is a very thick ribbon. 
Our last night's dinner was so delicious,
we arranged to pick some up before heading back to Todi
by train. We got it home successfully
and were able to share it with the kids!

Love,

Alexandra