Tonight is the start of the festa! It begins with the traditional Cena Lungo Il Borgo, or the long dinner in the village. A long table is constructed with boards resting upon sawhorses and covered with a paper tablecloth. This runs the entire length of the main street between the two piazze, also called the Borgo. Reservations are strongly suggested this year for two reasons. First, this is a popular event, and not only must enough seating be calculated, but the food must also be purchased and prepared for this large group. Trying to get Italians to provide the organizers with a firm headcount for this dinner is like wrangling cats. Leonardo, one of the organizers of the festa, must have consulted with Maria Giulia twice daily in the days leading up to the dinner. Her numbers fluctuated each time, even well past the deadline. Just last night Leonardo approached us during our evening game of burraco and the best he could get from her was “10 – but it may scale up or down”. Second, the region of Umbria has imposed further rules and restrictions on festas in an effort to reduce competition between towns competing for the public’s festa euros, and to make a little profit for themselves. This year, for the first time, any event that draws over 200 people must pay for ambulance services. The cost of this makes it prohibitive to hold the Cena Lungo Il Borgo, so Leonardo and his team must cap the attendance at 200 people. Close to 300 people were able to attend this event in past years, but sadly, no longer.
We waited until a day when the sun and heat were not as intense to make the walk down to the town’s cemetery to visit Luigina. Our cousin was much loved in Torre Orsina. There’s a large bulletin board, by what was once a bus stop, which posts notices of all sorts, but mainly death notices. Luigina has not one, but four different notices, generated by various family members and friends, which announced her passing on June 3rd at the age of 95.
Ferragosto is a national holiday celebrated on 15 August throughout Italy. Everyone is encouraged to head to the beaches or mountains, and 20 million of Italy’s 60 million inhabitants will do just that. The roadways are expected to be parking lots, especially after the tanker explosion in Bologna left their major highway unusable and the bridge collapse in Genoa further crippled the Autostrade. To add further misery, the coastal areas are expecting plenty of rain, forcing many Italians to cancel their Ferragosto plans all together.
You haven’t read a blog update in a few days, mainly because there has been not much of anything to say. We’ve made a trip to the Coop once again to pick up groceries. The prosciutto and copicola are always good, and we’ve picked up some new cheeses to include a lovely Talegio, a Bel Paese, one covered in grape must, more fresh mozzarella, and a 30-month Parmigiano-Reggiano. We bought more fruit, including some Italian prune plums (a.k.a. Stanley plums) from the store’s Bio section that weren’t quite in season yet. A melone, uva, datterini, and pesche from the fruit and vegetable section, and some bread and sweets from the bakery section rounded out our purchases before we headed off to catch the 11:11am bus back to Torre Orsina.
One of the great pleasures of living in Italy is cooking. With access to such wonderful ingredients, all in season, the most simple of recipes turn out absolutely amazing. Last night I decided to make cotoletta alla Milanese. This can be made with either veal or chicken. I bought 7 small pieces of veal cutlet at Coop, along with all of the ingredients: olive oil, butter, breadcrumbs, eggs, flour, and Parmigiano Reggiano. Working in this tiny kitchen is a challenge. Not only is there little counter space, but it seems as if everything is several inches lower than what I’m accustom to in the States. The small kitchen table, sink, counters, and stove are at my knees – well, maybe not at my knees, but close enough.
Why am I so tired? Getting old? Walking up into the hills to our home? Jet lag? All three? Perhaps. Whatever the cause, the solution is easy to come by with the cool summer breezes blowing through the shuttered floor to ceiling windows of our bedroom. Sleep. Lots of lazy sleep.
We are here in Torre Orsina. A beautiful place. The journey here is more difficult the older we get and the flight more intolerable. Are the seats getting closer together? Yes. We took a car service to the Pensacola airport the morning of 1 August at 8:15am and arrived at the train station in Terni at 1:00pm the following day, so almost 22 hours of travel. Corrado picked us up at the station. We are staying at the home of his parents, Gioacchino and Rosanna, which he is in the process of renovating into three apartments. The home is located in the hill above the church in a section called “Il Colle”, or “the hills”. Thankfully it is a bit cooler up in il colle and has been quite comfortable these past 2 nights.
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