The city of Pontremoli is perhaps the most perfect of all cities ( ah yes post has nothing to do with gratuitous pictures for pleasing grandmothers. . . . ) as I was saying, I know that I am of course biased, but the city of Potremoli is truly the most perfect city I have ever encountered, being laid out on a line which Belloc reminds us in the Path to Rome is the function of a civilized town, all rotund designs being barbarian. Additionally it has both country and city in perfect harmony with one another and is happily situated on the narrow strip of land between two rivers. For its population of 6,000 it is amazingly cultured offering one of the most pretigious literary awards, in Italy. There are theatres, ballets, markets, cultural festivals, etc. and so on. In its heyday it boasted a seminary, a monastary, a convent, a fortress, and an episcopal seat, and off the top of my head I can count at least six catholic churches. Incredible. But all this is nothing compared, to my favorite aspect of Pontremoli-- that no matter how many times I visit it, there is always another suprise.

Last market I popped into the duomo to visit the little side chapel where the Tabernacle is. On my way in, to the right, where there used to be a fairly normal Italian altar was instead said altar, with the marble front removed and behind glass, a dressed corpse in full regalia, lying on his side ala Liz Taylor with his head rested on his palm. I asked the little turtley man who is always tidying the church what it was and it turns out Potremoli has its own Roman martyr which was brought from the catacombs in the 800s. Apparently they air the little fellow out every ninth of September and then close him up again the following day. Thank you dear pontremoli for reminding me that things are not always what they seem and that we really need to resurrect the burying of saintly folk in altars. What a cool Catholic tradition.

Feasting in August

I don't know why this page takes so long to load but it does. Sorry about the sporadic postings these days. I usually just about have time to check the NPR page and that's about it. But all is well here in Gravagna. August is vacation month for the Italians and there were tons of people here for Feraugosto this year. We went to the big dinner that everyone has up on the mountain and feasted to our hearts content. The following day there was a picnic lunch way up on the mountain where they pasture the animals and I think the Italian picnicing is about the most involved procedure I have ever seen.
First they load up their cars with all their food and it ain't no panino and beer. My wonderful Bertolini cousins invited us to eat with them and they pulled out lasagnas, roast lamb, torta, rice bomba, bread, salame, cheese, figs, baskets upon basket of wine, huge water coolers, tables chairs, cushions, tableclothes. You name it, they had it there. Italians apparently take picnicing very seriously. We started eating at about noon and it all wrapped up about six with plenty of napping in between. It should take six hours to eat dinner every once in a while and two or three days to prepare it. These are things worth doing.

Meanwhile the Wingates have been visiting. Henry and Ben have been busy with landscape painting and everyone in the village is curious about what they do all day in the big dark studio room. Ben and I had our seventh wedding anniversary and we celebrated with panna cotta ( a delicious dessert similar to creme brulee but without egg) over at Marietta. Delicious.

Lastly above is a photo of the cena this year and a token photo of Julia, well loved by all, most especially Giuseppe. Here he is telling me about his wife's artifical heart.

al mare

july update

Between a very busy summer, lot of time outside, and Ben needing the majority of our limited internet for work purposes I am not sure how frequent the posts will be but keep checking!

We have had a great month, punctuated by a visit from Gwen Adams who has brought us music, laughter, and lots of great stories. Also Ben's friends from the studio came up for the weekend and Angelica had her first modeling job sitting on the bench out in the courtyard. Julia is now crawling and learning that Gravagna is a very stony and rocky place for a small baby. Her favorite thing to do is sit at our little kitchen step and pull herself up to a standing and watch the wind blow the bead curtains that we have to keep the flies out. We were getting wonderful raw milk from a lady in the village but the cow just got pregnant and dried up so we are back on the regular stuff again. The raspberries have been really plentiful this year and the girls and I raided a couple abandoned bushes and they were so great.

Ben discovered another swimming hole even deeper than the waterfall down by the abandoned mill and we took the girls there today. Afterwards we explored down the creek and of all things found a wonderful deposit of clay. The girls had fun smearing it all over each other and i put some on my face and afterwards it made our skin so smooth! I brought back a bag to use at night after I wash my face. What a find!

Wowl I am feeling wonderfully mellow after five hours out in the sun and water.

Oh and the man in the photo is our neighbor Giuseppe who hurt his wrist up in a tree (he's 81) and had us help him make his dinner the other day.

Here are some sardines that I got from the fish man the other day. Here you cook them with bread crumbs,olive oil, pecorino, garlic, and parsley on top. ah the naps are ending. I'll seize a moment late.

not sure why these photos double posted but I am to scared to mess with photos right now with our super slow uploading time. I know everyone is sick of seeing pictures of my children and is probably dying for some cool stone houses or tuscan vineyards but my mom JUST got a computer (a mac--way to go mom!) and is really exited to see some pictures of the kids since I am a horrible daughter who never mails her any. That's Zita in the sling reliving her babyhood, incedentally. And the last one is the kids "fishing" on the first sunny day after the great deluge we had.

I am listening to Trio Medeiveal right now which is all I EVER listen to now (as well as the GREAT theme-song to Serenity) because all our old music is trapped on our dead compy and all that we have right now is what was on the ipod when compy died. Oh well it is making me sing more and at least I have a husband who plays the flute wonderfully.

Hoping to go for mushrooms again tomorrow. Angelica and I found some cool specimens up by the Campo Sportivo but they were none of them good to eat despite a few being bolete mushrooms. We actually found chanterelles but I was too stupid to pick them all since i was only bringing one home to identify. RRRRR.

In other news Berto's daughter has been giving me milk fresh from the cow and lives right in town which has been great. I have really been enjoying it. Not much other news other that we are hoping to all go to Florence this next week and I am so exited. I haven't been into the city since we got here and Ben found out that the best markets are on the third Sunday of the month. My sister's going to be away from her apartment for the weekend so we have a place to crash.

I also got to talk for a while with Don Lucca this morning who is the priest in the village. He is so young (thirty) and really energetic and great. I invited him up for dinner when Gwen comes so fun times ahead!

Ah and to explain, that is Julia wearing her "buona cuoca" (good cook) hat. I thought it was fitting.