Once the festa ended and September 2nd drew closer, people in the town started discussing Virgilio’s birthday celebration. In the previous years, they would host a party in the piazzetta with sweets, drinks, and sometimes music. After all, he’s been the oldest person in Torre Orsina for quite a while, and is now the oldest person in all of Umbria. The town is proud of Virgilio and wanted to join in on marking his big day. The family had decided that this year Virgilio would stay home. I’m assuming this decision was made by Maria Giulia and perhaps Elda. The reasoning was twofold: this is the first years Virgilio would be celebrating his birthday without his wife, Luigina, and Virgilio no longer walks much further than the piazza. Making the walk to the piazzetta would be too much and celebrating without Luigina didn’t seem appropriate. So the town would have to be content to stop by his home to pay their respects. Family would gather at 5pm and visitors sometime afterwards.
It’s been a few days since the last blog entry, so let me cover several days as we wrap up our stay in Torre Orsina. On Wednesday we thought that we were supposed to meet Daniela at Roberta’s jewelry shop in Terni at 1pm so that the four of us could all go to lunch. Somehow this was lost in translation. When we arrived at Roberta’s shop she said that she was going home to spin on her stationary bike and that Daniela had no plans join us for lunch. She recommended a couple restaurants, both of which were closed for lunch, so we went with her 3rd choice – a small sandwich shop. After a cheese-laden lunch we rode the bus back home for our naps.
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