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.
On Thursday we headed to the train station to get our tickets to Padova. The train would head south to Roma where we’d transfer to the Frecciarossa to speed north past Firenze and Bologna on our way to Padova. The Frecciarossa is a high-speed train, often exceeding 250km/h (155mph), and has reserved seating, WiFi, and other amenities – well worth the €65 per person. In the station, Cinzia found a special edition ALICE magazine that featured nothing but dessert recipes. We flipped through the magazine on our bus ride back to Torre Orsina – lots of great recipes for her to make and me to eat. Back at the bar Maurizio Tanchi found us and presented Cinzia with three copper handmade sottobottiglie (wine bottle coasters). He showed us a prototype weeks earlier and these were his final products. Each was slightly different with a grape design hammered into the pebbled finish. He didn’t want any money for them. I told him that my family and friends might see them and want their own hand-forged copper coasters from Torre Orsina. I would collect the orders. How much per coaster? €10? €20? He said that he don’t prefer this decorative type of work, so the price would be €80. We spoke for the next hour or so with him about blacksmiths in Italy and all things done in the ancient way that are now becoming lost in Italy. There are blacksmiths and glassblowers from California and elsewhere in the U.S. coming to Italy to teach them the European methods that they once learned from Italy. It’s comforting to see someone like Maurizio carrying on the old traditions.
We made plans to go out to dinner with David and Laura on Friday night. Corrado had given them a few restaurant recommendations which they had gone to several times, so something new was in order. Laura did a little research and chose a place in Ferentillo. We departed at 7pm for an early dinner. This was a seafood place, so I went with a trio of bruschetta (olive oil, tomatoes, and truffles) followed by black spaghetti with shrimp. Cinzia chose an antipasto of guanciale (basically a plate of fried strips, like bacon), followed by gnocchi with truffles. The following day David said that he and Laura agreed that I won the “who ordered the best” contest. I told him that’s nothing as I usually win those contests.
On Saturday, the town was having a final post-festa dinner. Rain threatened in the afternoon, so they set up in the old church. This would be the first time we’ve eaten there, so Cinzia was excited. Maria Giulia would be joining us. The morning was spent at the bar playing Scala Quaranta with Paolo and Carlo. This game is like Russian roulette as it only takes one lucky hand to end what had been a slow progression towards the 101 point close. Paolo beat me 2 games to 1 before Carlo joined and we played a more strategic 3-handed version which I easily won. Michele and Cinzia joined us as Carlo returned to tending bar, so we switched to Oh Hell, which we rename to Mannaggia. Everyone played well and had lots of laughs, but I emerged the victor. Maria Giulia then came by and we played burraco. I took is easy on her and pointed out every one of her mistakes, allowing her to correct them. When she won she was once again delighted and began telling everyone in earshot that she beat the American.
After resting up, we made our way to the church to take our seats for dinner with Maria Giulia between us. We started with a plate of antipasti, then gnocchi with a tomato and pecora sauce, followed by grilled pecora. These were huge pieces, mostly ribs, and extended well beyond the edge of the plates and required 2 hands to eat. Very tasty! I paid for the 3 of us over the protests of Maria Giulia – telling her that this was her prize for her earlier burraco victory. A dessert table was set up outside in the piazzetta loaded with all types of homemade goodies. From our previous experience, we know that this is a contact sport as young and old alike assault the dessert table for their piece of the pie, so to speak. The crowd was too thick for Cinzia, who handed me her plate and trusted me to do my best. I grabbed a piece of chocolate cake, blueberry cheesecake, hazelnut torte, and sweet pizza with raisins. For me, I was able to secure more blueberry cheesecake, another type of nutty torte, one of the traditional “peach” confections, and some of the raisin pizza. The bottle of port that Maria Giulia donated to the liquor table was already drained by the time I was able to get there, but I did get some prosecco and later some vin santo for Cinzia.
The ladies quietly went into the bar and arranged a 6-handed game of burraco (3 teams of 2 players using 4 decks of cards) before Maria Giulia could become the wiser. She spotted me and wanted to play. Luckily Antonella was near and she motioned to me that she would be my partner. A grabbed Michelle and gave him the bad news that he would be paired with Maria Giulia. Any pair in town would have to get extremely lucky to beat us as Antonella is the #1 female player in town. We quickly won the game and Maria Giulia wanted a rematch. Between games I counted down the ragged deck of card to find that it was missing 1 joker and 5 other cards! We secured a different deck, verified the cards, and started in on a second game. I told Michele that Satan himself would have to rise out of the piazzetta for him to defeat for a second time before he and Maria Giulia would defeat me and Antonella. We had the lead when midnight approached and Carlo hastily began to close the bar. When I tried to declare us the winners, Maria Giulia was quick to say that the outcome is suspended until we can continue tomorrow.
Sunday would be our last day in Torre Orsina and it would be a full one with lunch at Michele’s followed by an afternoon party at Virgilio’s to mark his 106th birthday. We’ll need out sleep tonight.