We were saddened to learn of Peppe's death yesterday. He was a well-known figure in town, out and about frequently but always with time to chew the fat. He entertained himself greatly by greeting us in English and trying to extend himself with "'ow areh yew?" when he was feeling particularly daring. I found out after his death that he was a sanitation worker (hence his knowing everyone!).
Ciao, Peppe.
Alexandra
So, a couple of weeks ago, we bought a farm. Okay, not really a farm farm. But a piece of land of about a hectare (2 1/2 acres) with some olive, cherry, and apple trees. It even has a small semi-detached house complete with exterior wood-fired oven and ground-floor stables/workshop area!
Guess where we're spending every weekend. Between blackberry picking and fig harvesting (and grapes and almonds!), I have been very happily employed. When that becomes too hot, I move into the house to do some work on that: it has the dilapidated chic aesthetic at the moment, with paint peeling off the ceiling in sheets. Since we intend to tear down several of the walls and the ceiling, I have no plans to repaint. However, we are working on scraping the paint to encourage it to come down before we put furniture in the place.
This is all going to be done on a shoestring. Since there is no heating in the house, I managed to score a wood-fired stove for free from someone who never used theirs. Cost: 20 euros for transportation. We got the kitchen cabinets and all appliances for very little. We have already been given several cast-off items of furniture, including some chests of drawers and armoires which came with the house. All in all, we are happy with how that element is going.
We are, however, dismayed by the current prices for basic construction items. There is a window in the master bedroom that has completely fallen apart, and is beyond repair. Replacement windows are currently going for about half the cost of a transatlantic flight. The chimney needs to be extended to improve the draw, and I shudder to contemplate the cost of the required scaffolding.
That said, there is very little we need to do on an urgent basis. We can do most of the work ourselves, and that certainly takes us back to our roots as a married couple!
Michael is currently focused on creating swales for water retention. Given the slope of the property, water is sure to run off in sheets. We live in a climate where that is something to be avoided; our goal is to keep as much water on the property as humanly possible.
Fun note: when a girl is born in a family, a walnut tree is planted with her name on it. When she gets married, that tree is felled in order to make the bedroom furniture! I don't think Claire will be getting bedroom furniture out of it, but there will definitely be "her" walnut tree here. That will be planted in October, most likely. In the meantime, I'm having fun sprouting all kinds of seeds: apricots, avocado, chick peas, beans, and so on. We'll see what takes!
Love,
Alexandra
Todi hosts an annual event which mostly consists of theatre productions. Due to language difficulties, we have written it off as something in which we could participate. This year, however, was different: I am now on the board of one of the supporting organizations, and the president was kind enough to comp Michael and me tickets for four separate events.
Even just getting into the theatre is always a thrill to me because it is so lovely. This time, though, we had an even bigger thrill: we both discovered that actually we understood a lot more than expected during the two plays! Most of the things we missed were simply because of mic issues or intense emotion being conveyed which rendered the voices/words difficult to understand -- which would have been the case had the production been in English. The other productions were a modern dance production of Pinocchio, which was so surreal we are scratching our heads days later, and a piano concert by a young, legally blind musician. The latter was quite unexpected: she was a lot soft-jazzier than expected (think Nina Simone, although I don't really know what to call that genre) and was very well received. It was a great concert.
It was a delight to have our dinner, then leave the house five minutes before the theatre doors opened and arrive in plenty of time. There were a lot of locals, but also a good proportion of visitors, providing a mix of faces. Most of all, it has been really lovely to participate more fully in community life. We'll definitely be back next year!
Love,
Alexandra
Since we have lived here, we have consumed a positively ridiculous quantity of capers. Some ideas? Put in tuna with dried tomatoes and mayo. Add to lemon chicken. Pasta with a tomato-based sauce containing tuna, onions, and capers. The list is quite long and I'm always happy to add to said list.
I have also heard rumors that caper plants grow all over the place here, but have never had the chance to follow it up. Happening to mention it to an acquaintance, she happily told me that not only did she know where to find the caper plants, but there were probably still some in season to be harvested! We agreed to meet the following day so she could show me where they were and proper harvesting techniques.
Come to find out that not only are the buds edible, but also the new leaves and the smaller fruits (seed pods). I happily collected as many as we could find; being at the end of the season, we only collected enough for a smallish jar, but my objective of learning location and technique was easily met. Joy!
Caper buds and leaves have to be soaked in salt, which can be the primary means of preservation. Having soaked them in salt, however, they can also be pickled or preserved in brine. The latter two are my preference, so after a few days' salt treatment I will be learning how to pickle capers.
Love,
Alexandra
In February, I took a few days to run off on my own to Maratea. A small town south of Naples, it is halfway up some pretty impressive hills. Getting to the hotel was definitely going to involve a taxi. It was absolute heaven to have a few days where the only person whose opinion I had to consult was myself. I ate well, I slept well, I walked up to the Redeemer statue, and I got a marriage proposal. After the last, I quite happily hopped on the train home.
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| This statue is something like 70 feet tall |
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| I definitely ate well! |
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| You can see the Redeemer statue as the white speck on top of the hill |
In March, several of us were in and out visiting Michael's dad in Tifton during his battle with cancer. A tough time for everyone, but important and rewarding. It was great to see other extended friends and family who came by, as well.
April was Liberation Day, along with the fun Bersaglieri, a military corps that runs in formation while blowing on brass instruments. Always a great spectacle!
In late May/early June, Michael was finally back for a brief time, and we took advantage of that to go visit Matera (not Maratea!) with Atlanta friends Nick and Angela. This is an intriguing place, because the inhabitants lived in caves until the late 1950s/early 1960s. At that time, it was considered a shameful backwater, but it has since been rehabilitated and is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Michael and I treated ourselves to a hotel that actually had been a cave home. It was delightfully cool compared to outside temperatures, but my goodness, was it humid! Some of the docents at the various museums had relatives who had lived in the caves, and they reported numerous health effects related to the damp. However, the forced removal did not win overwhelming support, since the strong community ties were completely ruptured as a result. Interesting trade-offs.
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| This was used as the set for The Passion because it so resembles old Jerusalem (supposedly) |
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On the way home from that trip, we went to visit Jeremy in Sicily. It was great to see his digs and be introduced to all the people he's already met! Plus, when he regales us with stories about happenings at this, that, or the other place, we can imagine it that much more easily. And, of course, it involved more train transportation: never a downside as far as I'm concerned. An added bonus was the train ferry, where the train is shunted onto a ferry, having previously been divided into two sections.
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| Jeremy and I thoroughly enjoyed crashing this baptism |
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| The train ferry! |
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| Going into the train ferry |
June was a busy time for me, because I was making complete glam outfits (including shoes!) for a wedding we were planning to attend in early July. I was pretty much chained to my studio that whole month! I was pretty happy with how things turned out, though.
We also had the calcetto tournament! This is the mini-soccer cup that sees local neighborhoods and towns competing to be champions. This year they made the great decision to hold it in the park, which allowed for better crowd flow and management, better views for spectators, and the possibility of turning the courtyard of the high school into a lovely restaurant!
Late June/early July was definitely bittersweet: our first grandchild was born on the same day her great-grandfather was buried. She came a little early, most likely to bring comfort to our grief. Michael and I had the delight of visiting for a few weeks while she was still fresh! Such a sweet thing. We absolutely relish all the photos we can get (which I won't post since we want to respect their social media desires)! Also during that time Todi hosted a Fiat 500 rally in which I participated.
Back in Todi, we had the balloon festival. Our house has an absolutely spectacular view of the valley whence they depart, so I rose early every day to the whoosh! of the gas burners as the first balloons floated directly over our terrace.
I also had the pleasure of going on a hike which included the tour of a privately-held 13th-century abbey. The chapel is now host to modern sculptures, but the frescoes were still visible and quite impressive. The frescoes are not as old as the church, dating I think to the 1400s or 1500s.
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| Todi as seen from the abbey |
And now, in August, we come full-circle on our update: I have finally finished knitting that dratted cotton dress that caused this hiatus, and am making suede shoes to match. Here's hoping I'll be able to wear them in October, when the weather is a bit cooler!
Love,
Alexandra
Sadly, the reason I haven’t been writing is not because I’ve
been so busy traveling to exotic locations and going out continuously (although some of that has happened). Rather,
it is a question of inattention and consequent injury. The somewhat tedious
story is that I was planning to knit a long dress from a fine cotton yarn.
Cotton is very inelastic, so it seemed important to learn a new technique for
throwing the yarn that would cause less stress on my arms and/or shoulders. The
recommended technique is that practiced in Peru, where the yarn passes around the
back of the neck and allows a minimum of hand movement. I was so
smitten with this technique, because apart from anything else, it looks really
cool.
I alternated (diligently!) with my traditional hold for two
days’ worth of work, ending on a Saturday. By Sunday morning, my hands were in
agony and completely unworkable. After tests and therapy, the general (but not
undisputed) conclusion was tennis elbow in both arms. Whether or not it was
those specific tendons is not unanimous, but there is unanimity that tendinitis
it is, and complete rest was/is required.
Good luck with that. Chopping onions? The first few weeks,
nearly impossible. But it’s very hard to create a menu with any flavor that
requires no knife work whatsoever. Carrying groceries? Similarly tough,
although the kids were helpful with that the first few weeks. I pursued Tecar
treatment for several weeks, and have been icing and popping ibuprofen (which I
have now stopped because of concerns for long-term nsaid use). The only
recourse now is rest, attention to pain levels, and generally just waiting.
Bleah.
Hence my lack of keyboard use. I will be trying to catch up
with the blog; “rest” does not mean “never doing anything fun”, so of course I
want to share!
Love,
Alexandra
This weekend has been the may competition for archery. There is a reason it's reputed to be one of the best competitions to attend. There is so much more than "just" archery, and the targets are so creative! This year, they held a market- with basket makers, jewelers, weaponry, toys, candy, soaps, notebooks, meats, cheeses, honey, plants and so much more. That started Saturday morning and was continued on Sunday.
Saturday afternoon, they held the first group of competitors, since there were too many archers for just one day. This year, there were a lot of uphill and downhill targets, as well as a fair number of moving targets.
In the evening, they had the "siege of the castle". It has so many moving parts. First thing you do is shoot through the right hand window of the castle. If you get through it, it triggers soldiers behind the crenulations to move from one side to the other and back again. You have to knock one over. IF you do that, the sword in the left hand side starts to swing, letting you try to get through THAT window. If you get through that window, the drawbridge lowers, revealing a moving plate that you have to break. Four steps, in five arrows. It is no mean feat to get to the end.
While that was going on, in the Piazza, they had drummers, then pyro-people, and then dancers. I was hoping that the pyro folk were going to do some fire breathing, but no luck. It was still pretty cool. The dancers were even better than they had been in years past. I inevitably want to pick up new hobbies whenever the competitions come to town.
Sunday morning, the competition started bright and early. Okay, fine it started at 9, but after Saturday's excitement, that sure FELT early. I spent the day walking around with Matteo Lucaroni's piazzola, and having a great time. I mostly served as an extra hand and security. Worth a mention that it is absolutely terrifying to be standing just around the corner at the same level as the target when people are shooting. You can certainly understand why archers were so effective at destroying soldier's morale. When it got to lunch time, and the competition was over, with a quick stop at the licorice vendor, I headed home. I discovered that Mummy and Daddy had done their best to clean out the market of their foodstuffs and we had a lovely lunch.
After lunch, (and a small nap) I went into the piazza for prize giving. Turns out, they had started early and by the time I got out, prizes had already been given. This was fine by me, as I was actually mostly there for the flag waving and dancing. After a little bit of a wait, we got to see both the flag wavers and their drummers perform. They did an amazing job despite the wind.
All in all, a great way to spend the weekend.
Ciao,
Florence-Edward
