We are back

Last dinner at our house

Fond farewell to the 20 year old can of shaving cream that came with the house.

August 31st came and someone pulled the plug on summer. The pizza shop has no line, there is much less variety of produce in the market, people are stocking up on hugh amounts of sauce tomatoes, potatoes, and dried beans. People can be seen gathering berries and nuts along the roads. Squirrel season.

The leaves sound the dry, rustle of autumn. The sunflowers, that were merely babies when we got here, are brown stocks in the fields. School was still in session and today the janitor was mowing and sweeping up around the building. A season has passed. The temperature has dropped from in the high 30s to a low of 11 yesterday. Translating that to the real world: high 30s; you think you will die if you walk outside in the afternoon: eleven: you wear jeans and a t-shirt and roll up your car windows, you carry your light jacket, but do not need it; 15 car windows re-open.


It is not that fun to wring out cold wet laundry when it is under 20 degrees. The laundry does not dry: even after hanging out there all day. The sun has moved at least 35 degrees to the south where it sets at 6:30 instead of 9pm. Gardens are finishing up. It has rained more this week than all summer.







And then the turn around! Summer returns. We have four great beach days. It roads aren’t crowded, it isn’t too hot and the beaches are not filled with people.

Last day on the beach

The big festival of San Francesco will happen without us. The stage is still there, because of the lack of vendors in the market. Christmas, other festivals, days spent in the piazza, days snowed in: all will happen here. A quarter of a world away we will dream of next summer. Our maps, like seed catalogs, spread on the kitchen table.

Be sure to tune in next summer for all your old favorites: Shoes of the Day!, Small Things, Amazing English Sayings on T-shirts and new, important stories like: What to do When You Can’t Figure Out How to Flush the Toilet;  How to spot a Dane, Great or Otherwise;  How to not Die While Driving in Italy. Better yet, visit us in Italy.
Until then, arrivaderci e bouno fortuno!

Our favorite: Stone beach

Last day in Italy

Rome airport still looking good

Dublin airport: not bad

JFK: I have seen better

Saturday and Sunday...almost the last day

We sat at the beach all day. We went back to our rock beach and have decided it is #1. Come and we will take you there.

Sand Beach

Rocky beach

Doing a watercolor!

One of our last meals at home. Tomorrow night will be the very last. We bought our neighbors old stove and we got a nice new cart from IKEA. You can also see the Cappachino machine. The mirror was given to us by some friends.
Pretty sweet.

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THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

Pescocostanzo

Pescocostanzo

Pescocostanzo

Pecentro

Pecentro

Pecentro

BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS: SILLY PLASTIC

Roccacasale

Roccacasale

Roccacasale

It is getting a little out of control here. I can’t remember what day it is or what we have done. I know it is now Friday because of the chicken. We can only buy a chicken on market day and I am quite sure it is not Tuesday. My computer has confirmed the chicken and also says it is Friday. We had a sudden fear that we might miss our plane, because we could not keep up with the days.

Let’s start with Thursday. It was a super gray day. Totally not a beach day and possibly a hang out at home day. We went up to Secinaro for a bit and then over to Gagliano to say good by to some friends and to get some amaretta cookies. MMMMM worth the trip. Unfortunately they are all presents.

I was so happy we got to have our wonderful home lunch of pizza and salad. The weather was a bit better so we set off for the second time to the town of Pescocostanzo. I had thought it was on rt. 17, but its name is so long that it is actually on another road. I wanted to see it because it was called an art town and there were three galleries. They were filled with terrible art that I can’t believe anyone would buy. Maybe I am missing something here, because I think the woman that owns the art gallery where my work is, said that no one in Denmark would buy pictures like mine. From the galleries I have seen in Italy it seems no one would buy it here either. Oh well. I kind of like what I do. Anyway, it was a beautiful town. Nothing open and deserted, but beautiful. From there we went to Pecentro. This is a town that is famous for its three towers and they were amazing. I think it should also be famous for the ceramic number plaques on each house. Each street has a different design.

We have been trying to get to Roccacasale for two years. We see it all the time, because it is built straight up the side of a hill with a triangular shaped castle at the top. It has been invaded many times so there are many archways for people to sneak around under. It is a beautiful town, but we parked next to a building where an elderly woman was screaming. I guess she had Alzheimer’s. It was really distressing and kind of ruined my positive feeling. From there it was home to a delicious dinner.

Friday Sept 7
Ok now I am writing about today and I can hardly keep it all straight. First there was market. Chicken!! And hilarious t-shirts: Yonk64, New York Street Boy; Girls Shops LA and NYC.  I do not think I have seen one t-shirt in Italian, except for soccer shirts. Then we drove to Pescara and somehow managed to find the art supply store. It was a really good one. They had Winsor & Newton fixative, open stock Rembrandt pastels, lots of paper, oils and watercolors. I was so excited. Just an aside: google map directions are about useless in Italy. There are few street signs and there is a round about every two minutes. But we found it anyway! And I don’t even have a really good map. No detail what so ever.

Then on North to check out beaches. Amazingly we managed to park next to one of the few non-pay beaches. Mostly you have to rent an umbrella and chairs to be on the beach, but there are a few spots for people with their own umbrellas. The amazing thing about this area of the Adriatic is that just up from the beach, before the railroad track, is a pine forest. If it was really hot it would be the perfect place to hang out. It was not wicked hot today. The water was full of sand so it was not as beautiful, but it was no problem for swimming, except I kept thinking about sharks.

 From the beach we drove up the mountains to Atri. This is a truly beautiful town and it is a real town, reminiscent of San Sepolcro, Flaminia’s town, with lots of stores, people and cafes. The other places where we have been that were so deserted might have people also. It might have been the time of day or the rain. There were at least five churches, probably more. The relator  who helped us buy our home has a house there for sale for 18,000E. It needs complete renovation, but the town would be an amazing place to live or it could probably be sold for more than the cost of renovation. We didn’t know where it was so we couldn’t see it, but the town is in the mountains only six miles from the coast. We were going to come home through the mountains, but we decided to take the autostrade. It is good that we did or we would still be out there somewhere in the dark. Now the chicken is half gone and we are half plastered. We have to finish the limoncello and we had a great cake from the bakery. There are rules here. Three days left in Italy. Wow. And why did no one visit us from America? So weird. 

Sept 5

We seem to have entered rainbow season. We both think this is the first rainbow we have ever seen in the morning. It stretched clear across the Sirentes. Rainbows are enhanced by rain.

Today was still not a beach day so we went to Popoli. It is a beautiful small city. There are parks and running water down town. What a difference from totally stone CVS. The churches were all closed, much to Jim’s relief, so we just looked at stuff.

This is the shoe store of my friend, Mica De Angleis’s relatives. It was exciting to find it.

This will come as a big surprise, but we stopped for pastry and coffee.


From there we headed a few miles down the road to Tocca da Casauria, no you have never hear of it. Again nothing was open and I do mean nothing. Sept 4 - 10 seems to be vacation time. The churches are probably closed due to earth quake damage, but it was still a beautiful town to walk around. In many places more modern houses have incorporated the original Roman wall around the town. Not many towns have their Roman wall still standing. They are salvaged for newer buildings.

interesting art

downtown gas station

Next we stumbled on the vineyard that makes the Montelpuciano wine in bottles have the little sticks on them, Cantina Faccagnini. What a place. It is huge and full of lots of eclectic art work. There was no one around. We spent some time in the tasting room, but no one ever came. I think we could have acquired a lot of wine at no cost.

We were driving on to Scafa, because of alleged hot springs, although now I think they are sulfur springs. We saw a sign that said “IKEA 15 minutes”. Jim hopped right on that. Forget sulfur water. 25 minutes later we were eating meatballs in the one week old Ikea.

Here it is pronounced EEKayAh. The man at the highway toll booth has learned to accept IKEA pronunciation. Well it was packed with people, but maybe it is because no where else is open from 1 - 4:30pm. Still it was more fun than Roma. The people were more laid back and we weren’t stressed from getting to the airport and picking up the car. Bonus question of the day: Did we spend any money?

adventure quest

Undeterred by the less than perfect weather we set out on our quest for adventure. As with all adventures, it started with coffee in the piazza.

Market now deserted

garden I took a photo of at beginning of summer

Meat coming in the front door of the supermarcato.

Then on to get pizza, the market, the supermarket, the post office, where the line was too long, and last to Victorio’s office to get his help with turning off our gas.

It took him one more phone call and 30 minutes and we left with our bill, which had to be paid at the post office. The line was just as long, but we had to wait so we could take the paid bill back to him. The post office here is primarily a bank. The only thing we saw mailed was the package to Flaminia’s family. People with pension checks cash them at the bank. A lot of money changed hands. I am thinking people cash their entire check and take the cash home. After 30 minutes we were back in Victorio’s office and we are now done with the gas company.

It was to be a short adventure day, although going to the post office is an adventure in itself. Our neighbors are coming for a farewell dinner. I don’t want to have to say good by to people. I would like to slip away, but that would be rude. We drove up to Rocca d Messa and Jim PASSED a car.

Rocca d Messa

small thing Rocca d Messa

Ovindali

Ovindali

Ovindali

 So Italiano. It is not endless summer in Italy. Rocca d Messa is a lot like Stowe, VT. Everything is all alpine and winter sports oriented. Today it was deserted. There was not even a restaurant open. On we went to Ovindali. Another ski town, but with more of a local population. We had Napoli style pizza. Jim’s looked like a ball of dough with the pizza stuff inside. His had mushroom, mozzarella, and pruchetto. Mine had no mushrooms and looked a little like the ham and cheese croissants at LaBrioche, only lots better. We finally tried the fried rice ball which is just like it sounds with the addition of cheese in the middle. Little fried things are popular in Abruzzo. The guy that owned the place spoke English and we had a good conversation.  We discussed how Italians don’t know Abruzzo. He said that Romans come to ski in Ovindali, but that is all they know. He did caricatures and they were all over the walls. He was good. 

It was raining off and on so we did not walk around Ovindali much, but I took a couple of pictures.

Entrance Celano

view from Celano

 Interesting things in the Museum at Celano

From their we headed over the mountains, more tornades, to Celano. Home of the square castle that I managed to take a few pictures of from the car on a previous trip. This time we got out and went into the castle. They had two museums: one scared art and one of swords and stuff. There were lots of pieces of stonework which I found interesting. It was pretty great not to be obligated to read about stuff as it was all in Italian. We didn’t walk around the outside of the castle because of the rain, but that is something else to look forward to another day. We were on the other side of the Sirentes from our house, but it is not a bad drive and has spectacular views of the windmills and coming into our valley. There is a town we have driven through on this route, but never stopped. It has four coffee bars and, I swear, no other business establishments. We had coffee at one of the places. They knew right away we were not Italian. How do they do that? The coffee was great, whatever, it always is.

While at the top of the mountains surrounded by windmills, we saw two wolves.

My picture of them is a lot like the pictures you see of Champ, but they were wolves for sure. Now we are home and Jim is making dinner. All is right with the world.