Being a birthday morning, took things very easily to start with. I am getting through a novel a day here, just as well there is a decent collection of them. Most are in Italian, some in German, but there are sufficient in English to keep me going. If all else fails, I have dozens of classics loaded on the laptop - Jules Verne, Conan Doyle, H G Wells and many more. If only Karen wasn't hogging the lappy in the afternoons for her book.
No presents, except for some liquorice that Karen must have smuggles into yesterday's groceries when I wasn't looking. A text from Bella, but Alastair is at risk of being written out of my will. After breakfast headed into town to collect the email, using our nice yellow UTP cable again. A nice group of emails in from all and sundry, much appreciated. Must say I have no great concern about being 50, can't see it makes any difference.
Karen and I waited for ever at Angelo's grocery for our lunchtime rolls, and then went down to Dario's to book for tonight, but no sign of him yet. We did find another new passage up from his trattoria to our piazza, 99 steps one after the other. Ouch!
Some nice frissante lambrusco for lunch, and found the latest gorgonzola a beauty. Some of them are too mild - this one is just right, and if you leave it on the table for a bit first, it can almost be poured onto our bread. Our lunches are pretty good.
After lunch we headed back to Dario's to sort tonight, and found ourselves being given a birthday drink by Les. Siesta time - not that we actually sleep much, more a time for reading for me and Sally, and Karen on the book for a few more days at least. Got my MP3 out for the first time to really relax.
At 4:30 we felt we had to move, so had a splash at the pool. Not nearly as warm today, as the sun is a whole lot less fierce than a week ago. Thankfully. We had decided to have dinner at Dario's again, though with some reservations after last time. Mucked about for the rest of the evening, and headed out just after 8pm, cunningly timed to avoid being sent upstairs again. No worries, we did stay downstairs, and had a somewhat confusing time trying to sort out what the choices were for the evening, if indeed there were choices. Our young German waiter's Italian is better than his English. We thought that we could choose pizza or pasta for primo piatte then have steak for secondo piatti. The pizzas being delivered to another table looked good, so opted for them, and then had to choose the type. It's much harder trying to choose what to have from scratch than picking from a list, so asked for a misto or mix. Dario had the good sense to make three different ones, cut them in thirds and send them out. Quattro formaggio, salami and a mixed one - all very tasty and a decent size. Worked our way though them, with some difficulty, expecting another course afterwards, but were asked about dessert. On reflection we suspect that pizzas make up a meal by themselves, but if we'd had pasta we would have progressed onto steak. All very confusing. Had pannacotta and a fruit-covered cake for dessert, followed by limoncello or coffee. A pleasant surprise when it came time to pay as, after a bit of deliberation, Dario plucked 35€ out of the air. Pretty random!
There had been a lovely surprise partway through the meal, when Jenny & Angelo (friends of Les & Helen) popped in to deliver me a card, a nice bottle of local wine, and an Italian-style double-air-kiss.
After dinner, made our way to the main square, Piazza Giuseppe Marconi, for a concert of local choirs. These ranged from primary school age to elderly men – no women much older than 20 though. Half the population of the town must have been in rows of plastic outdoor chairs, and more leaning on walls or sitting on steps around the square. The singing was interesting, not wonderful, but it was lovely being in among the community. Many of the songs are in the local dialect, which sounds quite unlike Italian. It is a mix of Italian, French and to my ears, some Adriatic sounds.
All the choirs have uniforms, even if it is only a jacket, and the same men kept popping up in different choirs or playing different instruments. We stayed to the end at about 11:45, so it was quite a major event, clearly much appreciated by the locals.
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