Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday

Yesterday I did my first translating for the commune. They had google translated stuff and it was terrible of course. I just went back and made the English ok. I hope they use it because it was much better than before. It was for the new sacred art museum.

Last night we went to a wine tasting with dinner. It started at 8:00, no really it started around 9pm. People talked a lot about the wine, how to look at wine, smell it…all important stuff, but I don’t believe anyone was there that did not know that. The wine maker is a woman and she is making wine at a hirer altitude than people thought possible. So it is a “miracle”. She was unpretentious and looked like she could live in Vermont. We sat at the foreigner table and I was happy to not interact with the Americans or Canadians or whatever English speaking group was at the opposite end of the table. Diner ended at midnight.

some dinner guests

Wine maker is short woman with dark hair

to clear the palette

The wine wine: hints of apple and just cut grass. Really good.

Sparkling wine, nice, but hard to really taste through the bubbles

The red was too heavy for the heat, but got better as time went on.

Antipasto

Antipasto

Antipasto

Antipasto. The black stuff is black truffles.

Pasta

Meat

 This restaurant has an excellent reputation, but the wine people went on so long that I think the food was not able to be served when it was ready. I would probably not go back there. We did have a really good time with our friends. When dinner was over Bass, from UK, asked if anyone wanted to play table tennis. When I said yes, I am sure he thought he was going to cream me. I thought so too, because why would you ask if you didn’t think you could win? But heh heh, I beat him two games by several points each time. So that made it a great night for me. When I was growing up and playing ping pong we used to describe putting back spin on the ball as “putting English” on it. Bass used back spin with every serve and he is English.

Wednesday

 We picked Audrey up at the airport in Rome and got our car: a Fiat Twingo. It is pretty small and only a two door. But maybe it will get even better gas milage than the car we had last year, a Lancia. We managed to stop at IKEA and we managed to get back onto the auto strada. We wanted to buy some frames and light bulbs. Compact fluorescents and LEDs are very expensive here. We got three and it was over 20E. The lamp we bought was 7,50E, but the bulb was 9E.  We are working out our plans for the week and it will be pretty great. So stay tuned. Only two weeks left. We are going to enjoy them.


Finally last night: music on the piazza. The group included our neighbor, the drummer and probably other local people, we only stayed for a few songs because we were too tired. I think there is music the next four nights.

This morning we drove to Rocca d Messa for coffee and then on to Ovindali for the market. From there we went on to Alba Fucens. 

Shopping in the market with Audrey

Church in the town of Alba Fucens

Today we went to Alba Fucens. These are Roman ruins of a fort that houses 2000 people in about 300 AD. They were to protect Roma from the Equi: the people of the Subequo valley. Equi is plural. Well it was beautiful. Quiet, peaceful and the stones could almost speak. The walls of stone were beautifully fashioned with the rock fit together perfectly. Most of the artifacts from Alba Fucens are in the museum of Abruzzo in Chieti. Now I want to go there.

Audrey and Jim contemplate the view.

Jim continues contemplating.

Me and an old column.

Amazing stone pattern.

More evidence of amazing stone cutting.

Looking young with a 1700 year old column and that is only the age of the rock after it was worked by humans.

With company you can have a picture of us as well as a cool stone pattern.

More Roman columns.

Jim and Audrey

Overview of the ruins

We walked over a hill to find the amphitheater I did not expect it to be so big. Someone told us that there is a nearby town were all the cobble stones are from Alba Fucens. So if you are an old place, you better hope you get buried by dirt or ashes. This is a must see for visitors. I had thought it was down on the plain by Avazzano, but it is surrounded by mountains and is an incredible setting, of course.

Outside the archway

Woman outstanding in her amphitheater

Walking through the arch

The arch from inside