Another busy weekend!
On Saturday I started out with a stop at the ufficio postale (post office) to mail our absentee ballots. We were pleased to learn this fall that Island County will email the ballots to voters. That made it much easier for us to vote. In the past having them mail the ballots to us here was not very satisfactory. Once neither ballot showed up and once mine arrived but Dom’s did not. Finally, for the last election, we had the ballots forwarded to my parents’ house and my mother express mailed them to us. While I was out I also stopped at the ferramenta (hardware store) where I purchased a new handle for the grass rake. The old one snapped in the middle on Friday when I was using it to poke at the fire.
Back home I did a little gardening—cutting back the climbing rose at the edge of the patio. After lunch I joined some of our neighbors for a Saturday marcia podistica (walker’s march). I completed the 2.5 km course twice for a total of 5 km (about 3 miles).
Dom and I went out for a pizza dinner and later in the evening we attended a concert at our local church celebrating the 40th anniversary of the local blood donors’ group. The church was lovely with all the lights on and the special flowers from last Sunday’s baptism still in full bloom on the altars. The tenor who sang was good enough but when he cut short the program because of problems with his voice he and the pianist did one last number—O Sole Mio. It was the best number of the evening! 
Sunday morning we rose early (6 am!!) and took part in the marcia podistica at Orentano, a small town between Lucca and Pontedera. It was another lovely morning and we completed the 6 km course through the town and surrounding countryside. The start of the marcia was in the local school gymnasium which was presided over by their mascot—the Orcino Bandit complete with strategically place salami!
In the afternoon Dom and I met up with friends Bob and Joy and went up to the chestnut sagra (festival) at the top of the Brancoli hill. Our friends Mary and Orlando work at the festival every year. Orlando is one of the chestnut roasters—a role Dom likened to be condemned to Purgatory—while Mary helps serve necci (chestnut flour crepes).
The festival takes up the entire town square so there is little parking at the hilltop village. We took the shuttle bus from the nearby town of Ponte a Moriano. Once at the sagra we said hello to Orlando before we began our chestnut tasting. The main square of the town was full of people having a great time. The fact that wine was free probably helped but so did the music and the Indian summer evening. It took us a while to figure out you had to buy a ceramic bowl in order to get roast or boiled chestnuts. Neither Dom nor I are fond of roast chestnuts but we gamely tried the boiled variety. I was surprised to find I really liked them. They are boiled in salt water with herbs and are quite tasty.
After the boiled chestnuts the four of us found the necci stand. There was another charge for the rolled up crepes that came filled with ricotta or Nutella spread. The necci line was absolute chaos and we waited for over half an hour before getting served. As we reached the front of the mob that served as a “line” I saw that the only woman filling orders was about twenty years of age. To our right were a number of young men with whom she flirted incessantly and served prior to those of us who had been in line much longer. Poor Mary was sort of caught in the middle of the entire necci production line—she waited for crepes, spread ricotta or Nutella on them before the finished product to the young woman filling orders. It was a job that seemed only marginally better than Orlando’s.
We took our necci back to where Orlando was working, refilling our wine glasses along the way. Standing along the stone wall facing the chestnut roasters we ate, kibitzed with Orlando and tried not to get hit by the passing cars. There was so little room to spare that one did not dare stick out a foot for fear it would end up under a tire. The necci were delicious and the view down towards Lucca was spectacular. The light faded and we decided to leave and go for a bowl of pasta.
When we got back to the shuttle bus stop there was quite a crowd waiting. It quickly grew dark and the number of people increased. After fifteen or twenty minutes two busses arrived. They were promptly mobbed by the crowd. We hung back and waited for the second bus. After the first left, Joy was first in line for the second. I got on soon after her and we went to the back of the bus. Unbeknownst to us there was some sort of an argument at the front and the bus driver decided to close the doors when the vehicle still had standing room. It took off down the hill and we saw Bob and Dom start walking down the hill.
Joy and I spent most of the ride trying to figure out what to do. Dom had the keys to our car which was the vehicle all four of us had taken to Ponte a Moriano. Neither Bob nor Dom had a cell phone. Joy had the only keys to their house which was located at the bottom of the hill about halfway between the sagra location and Ponte a Moriano. Eventually we figured out we could get a ride on the shuttle back to Bob and Joy’s house and then we could drive their car up the hill and pick up Dom and Bob. The plan worked perfectly and we found the men part way down the hill. Dom said it was an interesting walk as at times it was pitch black.
The four of us went to Ponte a Moriano for our car before finally going off for our pasta dinner. Afterwards, Dom and I stopped briefly at the party in Partigliano where there was to be dancing and more chestnuts. By that time (9:30 pm) we were so tired all we could do was go home to bed. We were both asleep by 11 pm—early for us!
Today we began the olive harvest. Over 50 kilos (110 lbs.) picked today!
No comments:
Post a Comment