Painting, Shopping, Red Garlic Saturday July 9

We have been so busy since the hail storm. Everyday is like three or four instead of the normal two. Things are going suspiciously well this year. A few years ago we were in Sulmona and we only had a 50 Euro note. That is the same as having no money. We tried to buy lunch, but the guy could not make change. Jim went in to a branch of OUR bank and waited in line about one hour to have them tell him, no, they would not make change and he should go to the post office. We went without lunch. Hungry in Italy. Its a sin.

After the hailstorm

This year we faced a similar challenge on market day. We had 20 Euro notes, but most people cannot change a 20. Most people cannot change a 10 at the beginning of the day. We went in the local branch of our bank and I read my little note. I was somewhat nervous about pulling a note out of my pocket in a bank, but all it said was, “can you change this to smaller bills?” He said, “YES!” giant success. We were doing so well we decided to ask if we could deposit money in our account. (Usually this takes 2 hours minimum in the bank in Pratola, which we can only get to by car. Usually this is what we do with our rental car on the first day we have it) He looked up Jim’s name in the computer and YES we can deposit money in this bank. All this work and it only took 15 minutes. Last year we were in the bank so long that I picked up a book to buy. That took three pages of paper work and probably added another 45 minutes to the total time. So we will be headed back to the bank with enough dollars to cover next years expenses.

Other exciting news: we got new, much brighter lights for our hallway. Now we can see how shabby our hallway actually looks, but there is not much we can do when periodically water pours down the stairs and out the front door. The wall that still has paint on it clearly shows what a bad paint job I did. All other paint is washed away. All the interior paint is tempera so the stones can breath. 

Yesterday, I finished up my two morning pastels and in the afternoon I finished two portraits. In-between we went grocery shopping with Noel, the Irish dude. He knows all the best places to get a cup of coffee and which places have the best value. The place we went has double sized cappuccinos and delicious cake and pastries. 

Giant Grocery Store

We had never realized their was a grocery store in the same “strip mall”. We had a very successful shopping trip. I hate to even go in a grocery store in the U.S., but hear it is an adventure. Also grocery stores here do not smell like dead animals, although you are more likely to see something that does look like a dead animal. 

In Progress

 While I was out here painting, I could hear the sound of the vegtable truck. The sound track went from "Little bity poke a dot bikini" to "Ave Maria". It is so fun here!

Wayside Cap

Finished!

Artist's Reward! breakfast cookies with MORE chocolate

After a relaxing afternoon of playing solitaire, reading and starting another portrait, Noel, Irish dude, and his wife Marzia, Italian babe, picked us up for another adventure. This time is was off to Campo di Fano for the “Red Garlic Festival”. Getting to Campo di Fano was worth the trip: proving beyond any doubt that it is the journey not the destination that maters. Fans is a hill town above Sulmona. The Marelle mountains rise straight up from the Salmon valley making them look taller that the mountains that surround Castelvecchio.There were hugh groves of beech trees, fields of corn, vineyards, gardens and sunflowers. We ended up in Salmon twice, but watching the sun set over the mountains was worth it. 

At a Garlic Festa I expected lots of interesting ways to eat garlic, possibly local vendors making deep fried garlic, garlic with powered sugar, garlic mashed potatoes, (yum), people dancing the traditional garlic dances and maybe a person dressed up like a red garlic. But no. There were none of these things. 

What there was, was at least 3000 people sitting at a combination of white plastic tables and chairs and the traditional wooden trestle fold-up tables with benches. This is how it works: first you look at the menu poster and decide what you want. You get a small piece of paper that lists all the options and you write in numbers next to what you want. Then you wait in line and pay for your choices. Next you go to another group of lines. There are many lines for the different food. Some lines take longer than others. Probably everyone in your party should go stand in line, because it is hard to get some food and then change lines. Jim and Italian babe accomplished their mission while Irish dude and I saved us a table. We had arrostichini, bruschetta with the reddest tomatoes I have ever seen and, what I suspect is typical festa food: the pizza fritte. In Vermont we call this fried dough. The pizza fritta is delicious. Honestly, what fried food isn’t, hot, crispy and super greasy. There is no powdered sugar involved. In Oklahoma we call this “Indian fry bread”. Each of us got one napkin. Oh well, that is what pants are for. Basically, the whole point of the festa is to feed 3000 people really good food. There was a music stage with a DJ playing accordion songs and little kids were dancing around trying to hop into the shifting lights on the ground. There were a few trucks selling giant ropes of garlic, the ever present peanut sellers and a truck with the kind of junk children in any country scream for. Sulmona red garlic is famous, at least in Italy. The cloves are a purplish red: very beautiful and tasty.

We didn’t order any wine, because it seemed so expensive by the glass 4 or 8 Euros, but upon reflection, I think that was the price per bottle. In the super market the cheapest wine I saw was .75 for a liter box with an expensive bottle going for 6E. At least once a week some nearby town has one of these food festas. We will be having the Solina wheat festival soon in Castelvecchio. At least there we will have homemade pasta made with local wheat. 

As we wove our way through the tables of cheerful families at 9:30 the food lines were longer than ever and more and more people were arriving. We got back to Castelvecchio after 10. The piazza was full of people spilling out into the street. Kids were running around and the place was packed. Why aren’t these people home watching TV? Silly them, out socializing in the beautiful, cool, Italian night under a waxing crescent moon.