Dinner in Sassocorvaro

October 24, 2006 Saturday night we went to have dinner with the rest of the volunteers from the Festa. We had only helped a little with the chestnuts (and found out later that many of them had exploded!) and Larry had helped set up some tables, but we felt kind of funny about going. Felice had made such a big deal about the free meal we told him that we would walk there with him. On Thursday, I went over to Paola's house and she told me that this year the dinner was to be in Sassocorvaro because it was too cold at the palestra (gymnasium) in Belforte, which is where it is usually held. She wanted us to go with them and we didn't know what to do because Felice wanted the three of us to go together. Sassocorvaro is probably about 15 km away. much too far to walk, but after all, it was because Felice had taken us to work on the chestnuts that we were invited in the first place. We see him almost everyday so we decided we would talk to him about it when we saw him. Finally, on Saturday, when we still hadn't run in to him, Larry went to his house to tell him about the change. He wasn't home. He had told us that his son was supposed to come down from Bergamo (near Milano) on Saturday to pick him up and take him back to his house so we thought he'd already left. Paola, her daughter Carlotta, and her husband were supposed to come over at 7:45 to pick us up and at 7:30 the doorbell rings and there is Felice dressed up in his finest! So we tell him about the change and you can tell he is upset--no one had told him. Larry called Paola's house and her husband told him that a group of people were meeting at the bar to drive together so Felice could go down there. After Felice left we felt so bad. I told Larry that if Felice couldn't find a ride I would stay home so he could ride in my place. We saw him coming back up the road so Larry went out to tell him that he could go with him, but he told Larry that he had found a ride. We were so relieved!

The meal was fantastic (and free!). There were bottles of wine and water on the tables when we got there. They brought out platters of polenta with mushrooms or sausage, bruschetta and crostini (kind of like bruschetta but with mozzarella cheese and pancetta (like bacon) on it). Il primo piatto was pasta with mushrooms (of course I picked through the mushrooms to get to the noodles), il secondo piatt0 was filet of pork and rolled pork roast stuffed with tartuffi (no, I didn't take any of that!), salad, and dessert! Even eating only the things that I liked, I was stuffed! Larry and Felice both ate a ton and Felice drank enough to last a lifetime! The people around us made a great effort to include us in the conversation and we talked about mushrooms, tartuffi, Halloween (they said a few kids will come trick or treating), music, and dancing! In fact, there was a large dance floor that people kept trying to get us out on! Poor Felice, he wanted to dance, but couldn't seem to find anyone to dance with him! I would have danced with him, but I can not dance at all and would have made a fool of myself! In fact, Daddy always said that I was as graceful as a goose and I always took that to mean that I was not graceful. But I was just thinking that geese look very graceful when you see them flying so maybe all this time I really have been graceful! I guess maybe I should have danced with Felice after all! Once again, they were doing line dancing to all kinds of different music, some very fast music, too! They also did some very fancy ballroom type dancing!

We had a great time! We finally left at about 12:15 and there were young people just showing up! Hopefully, we will be invited to more of these get togethers!

***BTW, Larry is still breathing! Friday night we went to a class on wild mushrooms and we were happy to see that all of the mushrooms Larry ate were good ones! We were given two big books with colored pictures of all the mushrooms in Le Marche. The books tell you if they are edible or not! I guess we will lug the books around with us next time!

Urbino

October 23, 2006 I have been very lazy this week and have not taken the time to share our adventure at the questura (police) office last Tuesday. Before I take you on our journey I want to explain why we needed to go there. When you stay in Italy for more than 8 days you are supposed to get a "permesso di soggiorno" which is a permit to stay. This must be filed before the eighth day of your stay. We have no questura in Belforte so the school takes your papers (one form, proof of insurance, and a copy of a credit card) to the carabinieri in Piandimeleto. They give you a receipt that proves you have filed. The permesso is good for 3 months and usually the students are gone by the time the official permesso is ready. When we were here during the summer we applied for a permesso for tourists with the plans of changing it once we got a receipt for our citizenship papers (which is another story!). The week before we were due to head back to the states we were told that the questura had sent the papers back because of a problem. Never quite understanding what the problem was we left the country. Elvira promised to make us an appointment while we were gone so that we could apply for a permesso in attesa di cittadinanza (waiting for citizenship) when we returned. When we got back she had not made the appointment and then the first appointment she was able to get was for October 17th! So basically, we were here illegally our first month back!

The day started early in the morning because we decided to catch the 6:55 am bus to Urbino. We have gone there twice and both times we left Belforte at 7:35 and seemed to remember changing buses in Mercatale and again in Casinina. This time we had an appointment at 9:45 and didn't want to take the chance of missing a connection so we left earlier just to be sure. While we waited for the bus, we noticed there were a lot of people waiting, which was unusual. They were mostly teenagers. When the bus arrived we were even more surprised because it was a double-decker! Larry had seen a double-decker one other time in Belforte, but it was a first for me! We asked the driver where we change buses and he told us that there were no changes. We were happy about that, but figured we would get to Urbino with several hours to kill. As it turned out, we got there about the same time that we would have gotten there had we left at 7:30 because the bus stopped many times to pick up more kids! I think it stopped 3 times in Piandimeleto alone! By the time we had passed Lunano (about 8 km from here) the bus was full and there was even 1 student sitting on a pull down seat at the front of the bus. We were certainly glad that we got on at the first stop, but I wish we had gone up on top!

After arriving in Urbino we had "un caffè e una ciocolata calda" (coffee and a hot chocolate) while we waited. I was beginning to get nervous. The last time we came to the questura one man was very rude and basically just turned his back on us, instead of trying to explain why he couldn't help us. The office opens at 9:00 so we went in so we could hear our name when it was called. During that time, we didn't hear anyone's name being called so we tried asking the rude man about our appointment and he told us we had to wait. His job for that day was to collect the receipts from people who were coming back for their actual permesso and he wasn't going to do anything except that! When it was almost 9:45, Larry moved up to the window so that we would be the next person in line. He told the man at the counter that we had an appointment and handed him our papers. The man checked the list to see that we did have an appointment and then told us that we needed a visa to apply for the permit! Luckily, the rude man overheard and told him that we didn't. Then he showed us a list of things we needed to have--which was not the same as the list they told us on the phone. Fortunately, I had brought a few things "just in case" and they turned out to be what was needed. We needed copies of eveything and even though there was a copy machine right in the lobby he told us we needed to go to the "tabaccheria" to make copies. So off we went. When we came back he asked us to wait until a young family from Romania (with a baby) took a turn and that was fine. When he looked at our papers he said my name wasn't on the rental agreement and Larry tried to explain that I was his wife so of course I lived there. Nope. We had to fill out another rental agreement in my name (this was because each of us will have a file)--then he copied it for us! Then the rude man said we needed a credit card so when Larry was looking for his the man saw our BancoPosta card and said that would be good. Now this is our ATM card from our account here in Italy. We were given the card before we had even made our first deposit so I don't know what it would have proved! He then asked for 5 photos each even though we were told to bring 4, but again we were lucky because we had six! He took 3 of the photos and stapled them to the papers, gave us our receipt, and then gave us 2 of the photos back. We were beginning to think we had misunderstood when he told us we needed to go upstairs for fingerprints! I wish I had thought to take photos because it was pretty funny! instead of placing our fingers on a pad he rolled the ink onto each finger including the sides. He took each finger individually and then placed all 4 fingers together for one print and then the thumb. When he was done he then rolled ink onto our palms and took a print of the entire hand! The ink he used was not the kind you can just rub off--we used a soap that was granular, kind of like Comet! When he typed up our papers he stared at Larry for a long time and Larry said he was looking at him for a description. I told him to write handsome but old! When Larry checked over his papers for errors he noticed the man had written he had gray hair! He wasn't too happy about that. Then the man said he would put brown for me!! I forgot to check to see what he wrote, but as you know, my hair is much grayer than Larry's!

This man was very friendly and talked with us about Belforte and America and told us he lives in Lunano (the town we walked to that is 8 km away from here). We asked him if there was a computer store because we wanted to buy a wi-fi router. He didn't know what that was, but he called a computer store to see if they had one and drew us a map to find the store. (This was on Tuesday and the next morning I ran into him at the market in Piandimeleto!)

We made it to the store and back to the bus stop at 12:20 with 10 minutes to spare before the bus left for Belforte only to see it pull away as we got there! The schedule said another would arrive at 1:15 so we sat down to wait. The bus arrived about 1:10 and we went to get on (it was the double decker again) and the driver told us it would leave at 1:40, but in fact, didn't leave until 1:55! He let us get on about 1:30 and while we were waiting we saw three people walk by with 3 huge dogs and 2 medium dogs. The people in the next bus were taking pictures so one man posed with his dog. Is that not one of the biggest dogs you've ever seen? Not sure what kind it is, but it is sure cool!

Cooking in Italy

October 14, 2006 So, as you know we were to meet up with Felice to go through the mushrooms, cook them, and eat them. Larry was very apprehensive about trying the mushrooms because Felice doesn't see very well so how would he be able to see if they were good or bad? We decided we would just not go over there unless he came looking for us and guess what? He did! Larry went over there with my advice not to eat too many. He was back home in just a few minutes with his mushrooms wrapped up in a newspaper. They had sorted through the mushrooms and Felice sent him home to cook his own. And he was told by Felice not to throw them away! He told Larry to boil them for 5 minutes until there was foam on top and then to cook them in olive oil and garlic until they were done. Surprisingly, he did cook them and also ate them! Well, he ate half of them and if he isn't dead tomorrow, he will eat the rest of them! He said they weren't all that good, but he was living the Italian experience! His only regret was that he wanted to learn to speak Italian before he died! Then, AFTER he ate them he got on the internet and researched wild mushrooms. Unfortunately, the news isn't good! You can not tell by the way it tastes if it is deadly or not. I was going to save this for tomorrow so I could let you know if he survived, but we found out that it can take 8 days to get sick! So, I'll let you know next week! BTW, he will not be eating the rest of them!

I also had an interesting experience with cooking today. The sun stayed hidden and the house was cold, so I decided to bake cookies. I ran into a few interesting developments. First, there was no shortening to be found. When I asked at the store for the fat you use for cookies they told me it was in the refrigerated section. That seemed rather odd until I found out that it was LARD, not shortening! OK, I said to myself, people cooked with lard for years so it will be fine. I had brought baking powder and vanilla with me so I thought I was good to go. Wrong! I brought measuring cups but no measuring spoons! When I went to see Carlo, he told me that when a recipe calls for a spoonful of something it is the "cucchiaio tavalo" (literally table spoon). But, I said, what if you need 1/4 of a tablespoon? Ah, you need to use your eyes! So with that knowledge, I went home to bake cookies! I eyeballed the vanilla, salt, and baking powder and accurately measured the flour, sugar, and lard. I can tell you right now, the dough did not taste like my regular sugar cookie dough! Which is probably a good thing as I only made 1/3 of a batch and I usually eat that much dough! The finished cookies were not quite what I had hoped for, but then I thought, if I iced them it would mask any difference in taste. Larry went to the store for me to ask for powdered sugar (and to buy wine) as I had not seen any when I was there earlier. He brought home this tiny foil bag of "zucchero al velo" (powdered sugar) which is why I hadn't found it--I was looking for a box! I looked up an icing recipe and was able to make a small batch with the 1 cup of sugar in the package. No food coloring so they are pretty boring, but at least they warmed up the kitchen!

** Interesting note. . I found a very helpful hint on the internet for making sugar cookies. After making the dough instead of making balls and putting it in the fridge for an hour and then rolling it out (while it is hard), roll it out on wax paper (on 2 or 3 sheets or whatever is needed for the amount of dough you have) and then put it in the fridge. When you are ready to cut the cookies you just leave them on the wax paper and cut them out and then transfer to the pan. Then take the scraps, roll them out, and put back in the fridge. This was so easy! An added bonus for me was that I couldn't find wax paper so I bought "cartaforno" which is like parchment paper, and I just transfered the whole thing to the pan so I didn't even have to wash it!
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Looking for Funghi

October 13, 2006 Today we had a very interesting afternoon. Actually, it started around 11:30 when Felice came over and asked if we wanted to go look for funghi (mushrooms). Larry said OK and then Felice asked if I wanted to go,too. I wanted to be sure he really wanted me to go so I asked and he said three people are better than two! So off we went. Larry asked him about the license for mushrooms that we had read about--you need to go to a class and prove you know which ones are poisonous and which ones aren't. Felice just shrugged it off.

We headed down the road that we had walked before, looking for tartuffi, but continued even further. Then we stopped and had a picnic! Felice had carried a bag with him that I thought carried tools for picking mushrooms or something, but instead he pulled out roasted pork slices, bread, and even wine--in a coca cola bottle!

Finally, we went off into the "bosco" (woods) and walked and walked. We soon found some very pretty funghi and Felice told us they were "tutto buono" so we picked the few that were there. Then he had us put them in a pile and told us we would pick them up on the way back. At times I felt as if we were going to get lost because we went through terrain that no human should go through! It was like being in a Tarzan movie. There were times when I could barely make out Larry and Felice through the foliage. Sometimes it was like walking through a briar patch with branches getting caught on your clothes and skin! I have these wonderful shoes that are great for walking on flat surfaces, but are terrible for uneven terrain--and of course, I fell. Luckily, the men had gone on ahead so didn't see! The whole time I was struggling I kept thinking to myself, we will have to go through this again on the way out. Keep in mind that Felice is 75 years old! On top of that, he is almost blind and was wearing shoes that were like boat shoes. I am slipping and sliding and he is just walking steadily up and up and up.

After filling two bags with mushrooms we were going to look for apples. This is because two years ago, Felice had found a bunch of apple trees in that area. He and Larry went to look up this hill and Felice told me to sit down and wait--I didn't argue! So, no apples, but Felice wants Larry to check out a different path to come back up to where I am. Larry told him it was very steep, but of couse, that is the way they went. When Felice was almost to the top (with Larry's help) he made a noise like he was falling and scared me to death. He just laughed!

We gathered three different types of funghi. The first ones were orange and stained your hands when you touched them. The next ones were reddish and often looked like a flower. The last ones were a sort of maroon color. They all were about the same shape and we found big ones and little ones. This is one of the bags we filled. They look very pretty, don't they?

On the way back, Felice wanted me to use his "bastone" (stick) so I could see how much better it was to walk with one. Of course, as soon as the terrain became rough again, he took it back! Luckily, we did not come out the way we went in and for the most part we were on this road. Why we couldn't have gone in this way, I only wish I knew! This adventure took us 5 hours! It was interesting, fun, and exhausting! When we got back to the road that goes into Belforte we heard a car coming and Felice tried to get Larry to hold the bag of mushrooms, so we're guessing that you do need a license to gather them! As we handed off the funghi to Felice he told us to come over tomorrow so we could go through them together. He isn't sure that they are all "buono" so he wants to wait for some reason (maybe have someone else look at them?). Then he said after we go through the bags he will cook them and we can eat them! And I'm thinking, "Yeah, like that's going to happen!"

The Festa Comes to Belforte Part 3

October 9, 2006 After a good night's rest I am ready to tackle the last installment of the blog! Let's talk food! This is where everyone got their food. They had tables set up under a huge canopy. You bought tickets for what you wanted to eat and then you had to go to each window. So, if you ordered tagliatelle, piadina, fragioli, and patate fritte you would need to stand in line 4 times! You can see the honey bee hanging down between the signs and Paola is working in the very back! We had tagliatelle for lunch and piadine with sausage for dinner.

The local "tartuffi" businessman had a very small stand. He had a few tartuffi on display and was selling small jars of minced tartuffi, tartuffi oil, and other tartuffi products. They had samples, but no, thank you! Been there done that. Last year we went to their house and I sampled it and the taste stayed with me for hours! He told Larry that he exports to Canada, but not to the United States. The woman on the left is his wife.

We had jugglers, and a man on a unicycle and a man on stilts. There was even someone throwing fire batons and supposedly eating the fire, but we were too far away to see. While we were eating dinner we could see the batons flying in the air and sometimes the flame would shoot out really high. Sorry the pic is so dark, but as I mentioned, my flash has stopped working!

There was a demonstration of how honey is processed and there were bees on display. Felice brought his honey separator with some old honey combs in it, but fortunately, no bees! He has maybe 10 bee hives along side his house! The bee hives here are usually painted different colors. I guess that is so they can find their house easily!

We decided the reason Felice set up his "stand" on the bridge was so that he could see the women coming from a long way away. He would get up and go talk to them when they were young and pretty! Once when we were walking by, he was talking to a woman and saw me with my camera and asked me to take their picure. He doesn't look happy here, but he was smiling before and after the photo!

Speaking of women. I was once told that Italians can always spot the American women because of the shoes they wear. Well, on Friday night when we saw Paola working in the kitchen (wearing sneakers, by the way), the woman working with her was wearing high heeled, pointed shoes! Sunday, I saw this woman and I took this picture to show you the shoes and the type of roads they are used to walking on! I trip when walking on these cobblestone roads when wearing flat shoes, I would be on the ground in 2 minutes if I were wearing these shoes!

We went back later in the evening for dinner. We caught a few people dancing. They looked like they were doing Country-Western line dancing, but it was to traditional Italian music and they were dancing very slowly and smoothly. It was very enjoyable to watch.

The dining area was quite crowded by the time we finished eating. The picture didn't turn out very good, but at least you can see how many people were under the canopy. We found out that many of the chestnuts exploded while cooking! I'm sure they were from the bags that were done before we started. I went back to get a photo, but they had shut down for the night! All in all, the Festa was a lot of fun. We were lucky, in that we were able to go back and forth whenever we wanted. Next year, I hope to be able to help out more. Until next time, ci vediamo.

The Festa Comes to Belforte Part2

October 8, 2006 As promised, more pictures of the Festa. Here is Paola cooking "piadina" which are very much like gorditas. They cook them until the are crispy and you can eat them as is, or with sausage or prosciutto inside. Here are more of the pastries that were made for the Festa. We are just about honeyed out from eating so many pastries!

There were cute little bees fluttering around selling "una pesca". We're not sure what is meant by "pesca" as that means peach and it also means going fishing and a lucky dip! I'm not even sure what a lucky dip is! There was also one little girl who had her own stand! I took her picture and then planned to go back and buy something from her because I thought it was so cute that she had a stand, but she wasn't there so I couldn't!

There was salami and other meats and the most interesting man! He was happy to pose for a photo! And he was giving samples of his meat. Larry bought one, but not the horse meat salami that he had!

One fellow was wrapping wine and other bottles with some kind of wicker or branches or something and had them for sale. Our friend Felice had set up his own "stand" with the chairs that he refurbishes with jute. I had told him before that I would like to learn so he gave me a lesson right in the middle of the bridge! At times, we had quite a crowd of people watching! A couple of people even took my picture! Sorry to say, my first attempt wasn't very good, I guess I better not quit my day job! Oh, wait, I don't have a day job!! It really isn't very hard, but my back and hands were aching by the time I stopped! Later in the evening, we saw Felice pushing a wheelbarrow piled higher than his head with chairs and the honey extractor that he'd had on display. We asked if we could help and it is a good thing because I have no idea how he would have made it through the crowds of people when he couldn't even see over the top! Larry walked in the front holding on to a chair leg and I walked on the side holding on to another and Felice pushed. When we got to his house he got in the front and had Larry push the wheelbarrow into this very small carport while he guided it in. Larry is trying to tell him that he won't be able to get out, but he just kept going. Finally, he realizes he's stuck, so he tells Larry to pull it out and he gets out from behind it and has Larry push it in again! We probably looked like the Beverly Hillbillies, only we were walking down the street (in the dark) with this piled high wheelbarrow, instead of riding in a truck!

Well, I'm afraid to do it justice I will need one more blog! Believe me, I am not even using all of my photos!

The Festa Comes to Belforte Part 1

October 8, 2006 Last night, Paola had her husband bring us a tray of goodies. They are a sampling of what we later saw at the Festa. It was a chilly day yesterday, so we decided to try out the fireplace. It took several minutes before the chimney started drawing the smoke up, but other than that it worked fine.

We woke up to a dreary day here in Belforte. It rained last night so we were hoping it would be nice today. We went down to the Festa already this morning, checked everything out, and came back home to wait for the events to start.

There are so many things to see. There was a booth with dolls; and one with helmets and swords; and another with honey and cute little angels made of beeswax! In fact, there were several honey stands (since this was the honey festival!) including the one that Larry bought from. We were afraid that there wouldn't be the big turn out that was expected because of the dark skies and cool temperature, but by 5:00 Belforte was packed! I took pictures of almost all of the stands, but even by dividing this blog into 2 parts, there won't be enough room for all of them! I missed getting a photo of the chocolate stand probably because I was too busy sampling and buying some! In fact, my favorite was chocolate with salt! They were little tiny chocolate balls and when you bit into them there was a distinctly salty taste! Yummy. There were stands with wine and cheese; and there was one with apples and nuts, and a man with garlic! In fact, that strand of garlic is now in our house!

Stay tuned for part two! I will need to pick and choose so that you can get a feel for the Festa! One interesting note, while we were eating lunch (which we paid for!) I was sitting at a table waiting for Larry when I heard the people at the table speaking English. I told them that we didn't hear much English around Belforte and they turned out to be students from the castle. When Larry arrived, one of the women said, "Larry" and told the woman next to her that he was a friend from the ICC (Italian Community Center, San Diego--where we took our classes) and he had told her about the school last year so she decided to come! Isn't that funny?