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.
Once again during our stay in Torre Orsina we were invited to Michele’s home to share a meal with his family. Today it would be lunch. Michele also asked David and Laura to join us. His mother, Milena, is an excellent cook. So with much anticipation we made our way to his home on the piazzetta at 1pm. Joining us at the table would be his father, Lucio, his siblings Giacomo and Marta, and their neighbor, Guise. We had picked up a small box of sweets for our hostess and I brought a setup of Desjgn playing cards with me from Florida for Michele. Milena started us off with a plate of antipasti: an eggplant filled with meat, a breaded and fried stuffed eggplant, a small black bread panino filled with radicchio and soft cheese, a piece of focaccia with a slice of prosciutto, and a frittata made with local porcine harvested from the hills by Lucio. The small black bread panino was described as “a drug” by Giacomo as you can eat a seemingly endless number of these tiny snacks. There was also a plate with 4 huge wedges of various cheeses and a bowl a freshly picked purple figs that Guise provided. For the pasta course we had mezza rigatoni with a pomodoro and speck ragu and for the second course we had turkey, of all things. Maybe she figured that with four Americani at her table that turkey seemed a fitting dish. She cut a whole turkey into pieces and marinated it in a mix of white wine and herbs the day before. It was roasted and served with lemon – tender and delicious. Dessert included the sweet raisin pizza which she set aside from the trays she made last night, a small homemade tiramisu, and a great bowl of fruit. Lucio brought out some limoncello to conclude the meal. After a few photos in front of their fireplace, we were completely stuffed and now only had to conquer the hill back to our home for a short rest before making our way to Virgilio’s in two hours.
Virgilio’s home was already full of commotion when we arrived. The kitchen table was full of desserts – a traditional semolina cake, two crostate di marmellata visciole and another of marmellata prugne, and several bottles of beverages. It’s widely agreed that marmellata visciole is the favorite crostata of all Torre Orsina. Visciole are a type of tiny cherry. They are traditionally left in the sun for 2 weeks to macerate with a little sugar. Maria Giulia and Flavia sat at the table while Elda ran about making sure that Virgilio and the growing number of guests were comfortable. Daniela and Roberta were there, along with Cesare and Ginevra (Antonella was at work). Luigino was there too, and his son Graziano and his family arrived a bit later. Emilio and Alessandra stayed home because Mia had a fever (we never got to see them during this trip). A congregation of women from the town passed in and out as well as neighbors from San Sebastiano.
When it came time for the birthday cake a scramble ensued as no one had thought to bring a candle. One was found and photographers and videographers surrounded Virgilio as he blew out the candle on his 106th birthday cake. We were told that one of the videos would appear on tomorrow’s local Terni news accompanied by some words that Maria Giulia had written for the reporter the night before. We stayed around until everyone departed, leaving Elda to do the clean-up. When Cinzia kissed Virgilio goodbye he asked her when we would return. Cinzia said, “Tra tre anni”, and Virgilio replied, “Sarò qui.” (I’ll be here).
We were too full from lunch and birthday cakes to eat dinner, so after a rest we made our way down to the bar to say our final goodbyes, but not before bringing Elda all of our uneaten groceries – a huge piece of Parmigiano, assorted pasta, butter, olive oil, fruit, etc. and even a couple of unused bus tickets. We chatted and laughed for about an hour. We’d be visiting Venice, and she showed us a necklace that my mother had given her many, many years ago. When she went to Venice with Daniela recently, she found a bracelet that matched. After a bunch of hugs and kisses, and a few tears, we left her home and made our way to the bar. We grabbed an ice cream and I said goodbye to the table full of women playing burraco. Everyone wants us to return next year, as always, but we told them we’d probably be back in 3 years. Maria Giulia reminded us that time flies, so don’t stay away too long. We’ll miss them all until we see them again.