Picnic Day

Sugo's Blues Band Monday night.

August 14 and 15



I feel I have become boring. We are defiantly in a routine here. We follow the rhythm of market days, painting times, afternoon naps, late dinners and even later concerts. Yesterday was market day. While always interesting, they are always about the same.

Sea food truck, with octopus hanging over the edge, meat truck with smoked pork legs and fresh rabbit, cheese trucks filled with more cheeses than I knew existed, surrounded by little ladies in black, clothes vendors, kitchen supplies, and the vegetable trucks. After that we went up to Castel di Irie for our last day of painting there. I have two more days of painting before my class starts. Honestly, I am tired.

Then it was on to the usual pizza lunch, the usual two hour nap, the usual internet time, no concert, we watched a movie, and then bed.

last painting in Castel di Irie this summer



Today was a break in routine. It is national picnic day. Yes, you heard correctly. Every one in Italy went on a picnic today. Most of these picnics involved a hearty fire, over which nothing was cooked, but the manly acts of cutting wood, cutting poles to hold up tarps and cutting stakes to hold the ropes to hold the stakes were in full force. No one was having their picnic on the ground either. People either had camp tables and chairs or real tables and chairs and were sitting down to a full “pranza” meal. (Two hours minimum) We were the only people with sandwiches. For our picnic we went with our friend and another Dane from Gagliano.

The commune of Gagliano is the biggest in the valley, and although they have the fewest people, the land stretches way up into the mountains. We road up rough roads in a jeep to Fonto Canello. This is a special place for people from Gagliano. There is a fountain and many people had large jugs to fill with water. The road is a Roman road hundreds of years old. Many people used to live up in these mountains, but now they are empty. The commune has built a new, nice building up there. I am not sure what its use is, and it is not finished, but it is nice.

Us and yet another giant Dane. We look like hobbits.

It could be a destination to hike to, because only a 4 wheel drive vehicle could have made it up those roads. When you reach the the end of the road, besides all the people having picnics is a wide plateau. These pictures of the mountains are taken there we were at about 7200 feet. As you can see, the mountains were amazing. There are still cows, sheep and horses that summer up here. The cows are white and look like rocks in the picture. They have on bells and the sound floats through the mountain air. And it is so cool.

White things up close: rock. Distance: Cows

It is at least 10c cooler than in town. We had big hopes for a swimming pond up in the mountains, but it is a mud hole that the cows are using. We are super low on rain.

There is no concert today, but we had a two hour nap anyway. Tomorrow is the festival of San Rocco and a concert by Fabio. So it will be an exciting day.

Picnic with Danes.