In Roman Footsteps

 This past Sunday, Michael and I took advantage of an outing proposed by one of the local historical societies here. The plan was to walk along what are thought to be the vestiges of the Via Amerina, admiring the medieval and in some cases Roman architecture along the way. Following our perambulations, we would lunch together at a local agriturismo heretofore unvisited by us.

Meeting at 7:30, we started off. Our guide explained to us that at a certain period in Roman history, the Empire held essentially only the wide area around Rome and Ravenna (to the north, direction Venice). To get from Rome to Ravenna, however, meant staying within a rather narrow corridor; on either side were to be found hostile forces. The Via Amerina was the road in the center of that narrow tract. While it is still easily visible south of Narni, the northern reaches within Umbria are less distinct and more open to interpretation based on geography and landmarks. It appears as though it was not paved with the huge stones used elsewhere, or perhaps the stones were taken in later times for building.

The first mill we came to:
the owner was able to make enough
money to purchase houses
 for each of  his ten children
back in the 1950s

Since it is located in a valley (which is flatter and better for walking and/or transporting goods with donkeys and carts), it also is near a river, the Arnita. What do you find along rivers but mills? There are apparently eight mills still extant on the Via Amerina in our area; our hike saw us passing by four. They are all in private hands now, mostly with the "guts" removed, but we were lucky enough to be given a tour by one mill owner whose equipment is still as it was last used in the 1970s. The building has been used continuously since before the 1500s by the same family. The person living there now is the last descendant of this family, though, so it ends with her.

First mills, abandoned since the 1970s

First mill, entrance.

This first mill was not properly part of the Via Amerina, but rather was located on the Arnita. We had to follow a little woodland path to meet up with the Amerina.

Having walked in the woods for a bit, we emerged
onto a path skirting a field. Fiore is in the distant left.

Everyone was ragging on my beloved castle. From
what I gathered, the crenellations may have been 
added later? Anyway, since it's not like the local architecture,
they don't it.

You can just see Todi in the distance

This is how the path looked
for most of the way

Roman and later travelers would need a place to stop and rest, get basic amenities, and so on. Thus were developed "ospedali" on the way: not "hospitals" in the current sense of health care centers, but "hospitality" locations in the sense of overnight facilities and maybe even some basic health care for travelers. The point of interest we were directed to is called "ospedalicchio", and is the location of what was originally a way point. In the medieval period, it became a facility run by the order Santa Maria Maddalena di Montecchio (I think I remembered it properly) and specialized in treating leprosy. At that time, bathing of the diseased skin was found to be restorative; the local river was certainly helpful with that. There was also a small chapel which is still present today, and has been recently restored as part of an ambitious agriturismo project which had a major setback due to the pandemic.

This is a huge new wannabe agriturismo that
fell on hard times in the pandemic. It hasn't yet
been finished, yet all the copper downspouts have 
been stolen.

Now attached to the large
building above, this was a chapel associated
with the "ospedale"

First bridge! Certainly
rebuilt since Roman times 
based on the masonry work

The Arnita runs mostly dry in summer

I found the geology intriguing

Second mill! We couldn't get closer because the road 
deviated from the river and it was private property.

Ponte Romana, most certainly rebuilt in the medieval
and recently repointed.

Because the safe corridor
was narrow, it was watched from towers
for possible troop movements or 
incursions by the surrounding enemies. 
This was the Torre Olivieri, owned by the same 
family as the last mill we visited.

Third mill, purportedly privately owned as a summer
house.

Third mill, from the other side.

Ponte Falce, "Sickle Bridge" 
because of the curved path heading
out of the "handle" provide by the bridge

Ponte Falce from the side

Wild boar! Actually somewhat protected by an agriturismo

Such a sweet face! It was snuffling along rooting up plants.
Yes, they're very destructive and can be extremely
dangerous, particularly when they have young.

I realize that I somewhat stupidly didn't take photos of the outside of the fourth mill. It is a working farmhouse, hardscrabble existence for sure. The owner was gracious enough to show us the workings of the mill, which has not been in use since the 1970s.

Christmas dinner

The far left was for animal feed, the right (center) was for polenta

Left (center in real life) was the polenta mill, right was for flour.
There were levers underneath the various mills to divert the water
flow and provide power to the particular mill.

Scale for weighing bags

Olive grinding

The jute disks were used in
olive pressing for filtration

The roads out of the farmhouse were so steep that we were told to walk up them and one of our guides would take a few drivers in the car he'd thoughtfully left at this location back to the parking area to pick up the rest of us. We walked up some seriously steep roads that our Panda would not have been able to travel. Even having got to the "less steep" portion, when we were finally in the vehicles, we had to get out three times to push the car up the hill! Really inaccessible countryside. Absolutely lovely, though.

And then, lunch! Who should we clap eyes on upon entering? My dear friend Orietta!! I knew that she'd been waitressing but had not idea it was in the particular location. It was a lovely spot with an openable terrace/dining room.

View from our (shaded) seats

We had some of the best prosecco I've ever had, and several of our co-adventurers were also commenting on it. It didn't have a label on it, and was served out of completely plain glass bottles. Because of this, I asked the waiter about it and he said he'd let me know which winery it came from. Unfortunately, we all forgot before we left because we were stuffed with a delicious meal and in a food coma. I did send a message to Orietta, though, and she brought me four bottles to enjoy! Finally, I've found out which cantina it came from. 

Yeah, not so fast. How did it come? Yes, in the same plain, green bottles it was served in at lunch. Sigh. And the thing is, it's not even got a mushroom cork with a cage. We'll have to drink it quickly so we don't risk its popping!

Cheers,

Alexandra

We're back! And hungry for pizza!

We're so happy to be able to get out and about a bit more. We're not doing anything crazy like going to a discotheque (as if), but we have extended ourselves to takeout pizza from Dige's. 

For those who haven't visited, Dige's is a Tuderte fixture. Located in the first (small) piazza you come to in town, they are a corner joint right next to the bus stop. They get a ton of school traffic, needless to say, but they also get a lot of loyalty from locals. 

Called "pizza al taglio" ("cut pizza"), they are large, rectangular sheets of pizza with different toppings. You order the part of the pizza you want based on the toppings, and indicate the size that they cut off using scissors. During the pandemic, they went with a different way of making the pizzas, including a new recipe for the crust and no longer using the HUGE metal pans that they used to have. Different, yes. Better? I think both ways of doing the pizza are spectacular, so I can't say.

 If you prefer, and are organized, you can also order a thin-crust individual round pizza. These are about 14" diameter, but since they're thin, they're quite manageable if you're hungry. Or you can have leftovers! A "normal" size piece of cheese pizza will set you back about $1.50 or $2.00, and an individual pizza to order runs about $7.

They also offer wonderful chicken salad, spelt salad, chicken wings, and porchetta! Porchetta is an incredible roast pork sandwich made with split focaccia. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Love,

Alexandra

Pizza al taglio

Porchetta!

Chicken salad and spelt salad

Overall view. Tiziana and Massimo are the owners and chefs, in back.

End of the Balloons

We had a 9-days' wonder in our balloon festival, but it is over. No more early waking to the "whoosh" of the burners, then rushing out to the terrace to watch them sail overhead. At least, not until next year! Late in the week, I came across a flyer that had photos of the participants' balloons and the pilots, as well as information on their country of provenance. It made for an even more enjoyable experience, matching the balloons with owners and countries. Interestingly, the pilots from England and Northern Ireland flew under the individual countries' flags rather than the United Kingdom's flag. There was one pilot who declared the EU flag as his patria. We only had one Italian pilot this year. There were a lot of participants from Belgium and Germany, intriguingly enough.

Just for eye candy, I'm posting a few more photos from various days in the competition.

Love, 

Alexandra

The orange balloon hails from the US

Nighttime Visitor

 After we turned out the main light, I was reading in bed and heard this formidable whirrrrrrr. I felt a sizable thing clunk against my chest. Brushing it away hastily, I turned the light back on. 

There was the largest wasp I had ever seen flying around. Michael courageously grabbed a broom to shoo it away while I cowered under the sheets any time it came near. This crazy beast had no desire to go outside. We (ha! Michael) tried easing it towards the window. Every time he got close, it decided it would much rather be somewhere else in our room.

Finally, it zipped outside. Despite the relative warmth, we slept with the windows closed and hoped it had a good night elsewhere.

In the morning, we were greeted by her highness on the terrace:

Turns out, it's a European wasp, one of the biggest in the world if I'm remembering correctly. I measured this one and it was nearly three centimeters long. It is crazy large. They're not hugely aggressive as wasps go, but will punch a really good sting on you if they get flustered.

By the evening, it had left us. I wasn't sorry.

Love,

Alexandra

Garibaldi's facelift

It was actually last month that I was able to enjoy the sight of Garibaldi's getting a full cleaning. Car pollution had taken its toll on the statue, and workers were busily scrubbing away from the bucket truck:

All clean now!

Love,

Alexandra

Marathon completed

 I've been working since June on a ridiculous project in the context of rising temperatures and no air conditioning: a heavy, double-knitted blanket for Michael's office. I've only ever done one double-knitted project (a hat), so this was quite an extension of the concept. In order to finish it before the house got impossibly hot, it's been a daily goal to knit 8 rows. That might not sound like a lot, but that is more than 4000 stitches, since each row was 510 stitches. Needless to say, I haven't had a lot of time for blogging or anything else other than basic cooking/house tasks/bureaucracy.

Double knitted = reversible, in a negative sense

But it's done! More than 227,000 stitches later, it's ready to be put in a storage bag to protect against moths and wait until the winter. I'll try to catch up with other news and events in the next few days, but my wrists are inexplicably tight at the moment.

Love,

Alexandra

Graduation and more

 As one might expect in Covid times, my academic career (for the time being at least) has come to an end with what might be described as a fizzle. While there will be a graduation ceremony, I elected not to stay in Aberdeen to receive my degree, preferring to return to Italy to celebrate with loved ones. Somewhat amusing that I have managed to skip all possible graduation ceremonies one way or another. Part of me wants the closure that a graduation ceremony would bring. At the same time, I know that I would hate it the whole time. I want the idea of a graduation without all the waiting around and without being in the spotlight. For those who want to watch, there will be an online ceremony of some sort, which you can watch here on Monday, July 19^th  at 3 pm UK time, but I have no idea what it will be like.

The next step is, of course, job hunting. I enjoyed my graduation project immensely, and I am working on my programming skills to make myself as employable as possible in the cyber-security sector. My project (the department’s version of a thesis) was centered around a specific attack on an ElGamal elliptic curve cryptosystem. This attack is easily avoidable by setting up some checks along the way, but they need to be set up. If anyone wants to read it, I’d love to show it to you. There are a couple mistakes that didn’t get caught in the editing process, and more than a couple of things that I would like to expand on. Overall, I am satisfied with my work. As I have time, I’m continuing to do an unsupervised continuation to include some of the things I didn’t have time to explain fully.

While at university I have found words to describe myself and the way I experience the world. I’m genderfluid and asexual! I’m so happy to FINALLY have words and not feel like I’m wrong or should just ignore the feelings and hope they go away.

Genderfluid means that my gender and how I want to be perceived changes. My pronouns float a bit, but are primarily she/her and they/them, but I do go by he/him as well. They/them is never wrong. I now go by Florence-Edward, and I use the title Mx. (pronounced either emmex or mix).  So, my proper name is Mx. Florence-Edward Marie Hook. An example of how to use all of this information would be “I wrote a letter to Florence-Edward. The first time I wrote their address, I forgot that they go by Mx. Hook now so I had to get another envelope to correct it.” While I have yet to change my name to this legally, I’m eventually going to look into how to do this, especially given the rather complicated situation I have.

What happens when your photographer (thank you Ella!) makes you spin around to show off your cape.

Mandatory "graduate with the unicorn" graduation picture

Asexual just means that I’m not really attracted to anyone. I can still fall in love; I just don’t pass by people and go “they’re hot”. I spent a good number of nights wondering what sexual attraction was and if I felt it. I also worried that I was somehow weird or broken for it. While I may be in the minority for it, I’m not alone. While this may limit my romantic partners, I’m certain I don’t want to spend my life with somebody who doesn’t accept me for myself.

It’s so exciting to be able to put words to these vague bumbling feelings I have always had and have everything snap into focus. I feel like I have a good understanding of myself. While some people may ask how I recon my catholic beliefs with being LGBT+ twice over (which are stereotypically conflicting), the answer to me is exceedingly simple simple. God is love. God created us as varied beings, and loves us as he created us. I believe that he created me as genderfluid and ace (abbreviation of asexual), and that it is natural for me to live as I was myself. A creature created in God’s image.

Even with all the Covid mess and the unusual end to everything, I am immensely pleased with getting through university. I have made some very good friends, learned quite a bit about mathematics (and at the moment I’m not planning to shelf my academic interest in it forever), learned about myself, and I feel like I’ve done good things during my time here.

Stay safe.

Ciao,

Florence-Edward