Ho un raffeddore...

I have a cold…and I don’t like it.

Actually it is more like the flu. Valerie has been fighting a runny nose and cough for about a week and I woke up Saturday morning with a mild sore throat, but by the end of the day I felt like a truck had hit me. Sunday I spent most of the day in bed getting up to eat a little and to use the bathroom while trying to keep my temperature in check. Today I feel better but still have that light headed feeling.

Last winter both of us had some nasty colds a couple times and I hope this season is not the same. This is unusual for us because when we lived in New Mexico neither one of us had to deal with colds very often, I was regularly dealing with pollen allergies but that had more to do with all the sage around our house. I rarely missed a day from work and when I did it was usually do to my chronic lower back muscle problems.

When you mention having a cold here the local response is that it is because the weather is changing; yes it has but that is not how you get a raffeddore. The concept of germs and the way they are spread does not seem to be a subject of common knowledge. I have frequently seen people on the street and working in shops that should probably be at home in bed.

I don’t know if there are germs here that our bodies aren’t used to, being much closer to other people in the compact centro storico or some other issue that has caused us to suffer a greater frequency of cold symptoms. I do know that it is not just because the weather has changed.

Sunday morning was also the time change here in Italy and Valerie commented how lucky we were to have an extra hour to feel like crap on that day.

Fortunately the fresh citrus season has started and we will load up on fresh lemoni and clementine for a boost of Vitamin C.

Others experiencing the Italian life

Valerie’s sister Cara was just here for a little under two weeks, all of which we spent here in Ascoli Piceno. Cara had a chance to see what it is like for us to live in Italy day to day, doing shopping and touring the mercati. We made several day trips to sites around the area but unfortunately for her the weather turned cool and rainy for the last few days. Cara was on a mission to have some gelato everyday and I think she succeeded despite the cool weather and by the time she left she declared Minnie’s on Corso Mazzini as the best gelateria in Ascoli Piceno.

Last week we also had the opportunity to meet with a couple from the Washington, DC area. Bill and Carol found our blogs and have read Valerie’s notes on Slowtrav about Ascoli Piceno and wanted to see it for themselves. They are a delightful couple who share the dream of living in Italy; for them at least part-time after their retirement. They said they had a great experience at their B&B, Antico Casolare and were treated like family.

Green chile pizza!

il cibo New Mexico

We got back late yesterday from Roma where Valerie’s sister Cara flew back to the US. Valerie was feeling like she was fighting a cold and when we were in New Mexico the best thing for a cold was green chile which has a lot of vitamin C. Valerie suggested I take one of the cans of green chile that we have down to the pizzeria around the corner from our apartment and see if they would put it on a pizza for us.

Just after they opened I went down to Pizzeria Il Menestrello and the pizzailo did not flinch when I asked for a pizza margherita and if he could put some green chile from the can I produced from my pocket on top. His response would be translated as “Why not?!”. Twenty minutes later we were enjoying the aroma and taste of pizza margherita con chile verde.

A little bit of New Mexico mixed with Italia.

Window coverings

Italian windows tend to be very similar; many are a set of rectangular windows that open in and have a set of shutters on the outside to close out the light and rain. There generally is not a wide array of double hung, sash, sliding or other types of windows. Since the walls are masonry and the windows open in the option of drapes attached to the wall are usually not practical. Italy has a simple and practical way to dress-up the interior of the windows, they use small cloth panels that fit into the window frame.

Many of these are lace, a very popular product and produced by hand in nearby Offida. This can be expensive to fit more than one window. A simple solution is ‘cut to fit’ material you can buy in some stores and at the weekly mercato. The rolls of fabric have designs that hide the cut lines and you can easily find a size to match your window. With a pair of scissors and a small tension rod that fits in the window frame you can quickly and inexpensively dress up your windows or keep out the peering eyes of your neighbors.

October visitors

We have been busy on the road the past two weeks, seems like everyone we know who comes to Italy all want to be here in the fall. This summer we kept telling people to come then as there was so much going on but no one took our advice, but we always like to have visitors.

Last week we went to Rome to meet our friends Norman and Jeri who were on a Mediterranean cruise and had one day in Rome. We had not seen them in over seven years so this visit was more about catching up than seeing the sights. We spent the day talking in a bar and later over pranzo and also fit in seeing the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and a few places in between. It was like we had just seen them a few weeks ago where we could pick up conversations with the ease of good friends.

While in Rome we picked-up Valerie’s sister Cara who is visiting for two weeks. We had to wait a little longer than expected for Cara as her original flight was cancelled due to weather in the US so she was a day late. We have since returned to Ascoli Piceno and with the day trips we have planned Cara is seeing some of the beautiful countryside in this part of Italy. She marvels as we do at the beauty, food and charm of this area.

That's okay...I have my flashers on

Two Italian laws of driving

There are two things about driving in Italy that are totally acceptable here that stand out to me: First is that you can park any where you would like as long as you have your flashers on. Want to double park and have a coffee – use those flashers. Want to park sideways with the rear of your car sticking in the traffic lane – use those flashers. Need to park in a no parking zone to go say “hi” to a friend – use those flashers.

All of these double parked cars have on their flashers

The other driving technique is you can go the wrong way on a one-way street as long as you back up, with or without your flashers on. The common way to go down a street that is one-way, other than the way you want to go, is to back up. In the US you would have two consequences for doing this, both are negative, a traffic ticket and/or an accident.

Here in Italy these are just common and expected driving practices.

Sagra season is over

Eat, dance and play games

This summer we have enjoyed going to several sagre in and around Ascoli Piceno but now the sagra season is over. La sagra is a unique Italian festival that combines music, games and of course food and many times they are in conjunction with a religious feast but they may simply focus on a type of food. There were so many in our area that we could have attended a different one every Saturday and Sunday this summer.

There is no charge to attend one of these festa but to eat you will need to pay, though the prices are remarkably low. The food is always fresh even though it is made in mass quantities and there is always an offering of local wine. There is the cassa where you place your order and pay then you head over to the food stand to get your food. Since the food is cooked to order you may have a short wait of five or ten minutes. The two of us could usually get a small feast for less than 20 euros.

There is always a sitting area where you eat community style sharing tables with others and the local kids come around and clean-up the tables. Many times we shared the bottle of wine we purchased with our meal with those nearby and had others offer us their wine. Food and wine always brings out the generosity in Italians.

There will be a band and an area cleared for dancing but this usually doesn’t start until later in the evening. Many sagre will also have a contest or raffle for prizes, which will always include food.

With the cooling temperatures of the fall season the sagre are over in our area but we will look forward to next summer’s sagra season.

Anzi, Venosa and back to Ascoli Piceno

We left Matera mid-week and the four of us headed to Anzi, the hometown of Valerie’s grandparents. We were there last October with Celia and this is where we met Michele Cutro, their cousin removed once, twice or maybe three times. Anzi sits at 1100 meters on the south side of a hill with grand views of the Dolomiti Lucane, Laurenzana across the valley and the surrounding mountains. The views are unobstructed and clear as there is little industrial output to mare the blue skies in the area.

We were in Anzi for a couple days exploring the narrow streets with Michele as our guide, visiting Laurenzana which is the hometown of some their relatives as well as some of the surrounding countryside. Laurenzana has a large castello sitting on the hill above town and they have been working on a restoration project since our first visit several years ago. Progress in the project is visible but they still have a long way to go. When we were in Matera we visited the Museo di Arte in the Palazzo Lanfranchi and they had several pieces of art from the main church in Laurenzana, which shares a prominent position with the castello.

We left Saturday morning and Celia and Rhonda headed to Bari for an early Sunday flight back to the US. Valerie and I headed north through the Valle del Vulture and stopped in Venosa, the hometown of the Roman poet Horace. This is an interesting ancient city with Roman roots and amazing medieval structures. The centro storico is small and level and you can easily wind around the stone streets where you will find interesting architecture. On the west end of the centro storico is the castello with a complete moat which houses a museum.

On the opposite end of the centro storico is an archeological park that houses excavated Roman ruins including a bath complex and paved roads. The backdrop to this is the Chiesa Nuova o Incompiuta which is an example of medieval church planning gone bad. This stone structure was an addition to an existing church begun in the thirteenth century but was never completed and what stands now is the unfinished walls. Many of the stone blocks used came from nearby Roman ruins and you can still see many Latin inscriptions.

From Venosa we headed north again to Ascoli Piceno, our adopted hometown.

Lucania...amazing Matera

The land of Sassi

While driving through the rolling plains of eastern Lucania you have no indication that there would be such striking geography for the city of Matera. The city is built on the edge of a deep valley carved through layers of a very soft limestone they call tufa. Caves form naturally in the rock layers along the valley. This light colored rock is easily carved into different shapes and cut into blocks for building, which gives the city a relatively uniform color.

Matera is famous for I Sassi, the two sections of the city that are built into and on the sides of the valley below the ancient city walls. From what we can tell from English and Italian guidebooks the sassi were originally used as a storage and wine producing area as well as hermitages until the civita above overflowed its fortified walls and people began to build out from the steep valley cliffs. This was the location used in the filming of the “Passion of the Christ” several years ago and since then there has been a revitalization of the sassi areas. There are views of uninhabited caves on the opposite cliff wall across the deep ravine, and incredible views of the sassi from these caves.

The sassi are built along the steep valley so there is a lot of up and down walking to see this area but around each curve you get a new view. We found that changing light at different times of day also provided different views of the same places and we had one day of mixed clouds and sun where the shadows played across the white stone.

There are several churches and convents built right into the stone. Many of the houses have a portion that is a cave and additional living quarters constructed outward from the wall. The roofs of these areas then become the street for the level above. The ceilings are barrel arches providing the required support. We stayed in an apartment that was recently restored that had the barrel ceiling and a small cave portion in the rear. There are a mix of hotels and restaurants that have cleverly utilized this unique architecture that are many times difficult to distinguish from the surrounding buildings.

We also saw many cantine, caves that were used for making and storing wine. Grapes would be brought down from the plains above the valley on donkeys and crushed in cisterns carved into the rock then stored in caves deep in the hillside.

The civita resting on the plain above the sassi has many attractions of its own and we found the entire city to be bustling with people going about their daily activities. This is a city that must be experienced first hand to fully appreciate. We have seen nothing like it anywhere else during our travels in Italy.

Rhonda, Celia, Valerie & Bryan


After a few days in Matera with Valerie's cousin Celia and her friend Rhonda all four of us headed west to the homeland of Anzi...