Buongiorno a tutti!
How is everyone? I’ve had a great but busy week here.
I have, in no particular order…
1. …Been to see the lovely Cascate delle Marmore – the Marmore Waterfalls which are really impressive. It has the highest man-made waterfall in Europe (created in the 3rd century BC by the Romans). Its 9 Euros to go into the surrounding park area where you can do a number of walks around the waterfalls. It’s absolutely stunning and when there’s sun, I can imagine there being a perpetual rainbow because the air is always filled with a fine mist. You have to be careful when you visit though as sometimes they turn the waterfall off (imagine!) because the water is needed for creating hydroelectricity and that’s done somewhere else. You can check a timetable online.
2. …Been to see some cows! My neighbour and I popped over to a cow farm the other day to see the baby cows. (I’m sure there is a specific name for this but I can’t for the life of me think of it – answers on a postcard!) My neighbour is on a mission to get me educated in `country ways`. Last month she had me planting my own row of potatoes. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to see and learn about the ‘birds and the bees’ for cows (The vet rams his entire arm up the cows bottom, pokes around and then depending on what he finds up there, he gets a massive needle with er, well I’m sure you can work out the rest). The whole thing seemed rather indelicate and I felt a bit sorry for the poor cow. He didn’t even attempt to get her drunk first.
This is a little 3 day old calf. She (I think she looks like a ‘she’ at least), has been separated from her mum whose milk is valuable and put in a small metal box and given a powdered milk solution instead. When she’s a bit older she’ll be transferred to a bigger and more overcrowded area. This, people, I think would be considered a 5 star resort in comparison to many other places. My visit to the cow farm has not made me rue my vegetarian lifestyle at all.
3. …Been celebrating Saint Giovanni (24 June) by bathing myself in water steeped in flowers (and alas, quite a few insects) so that I could be beautiful and free of disease (hmm). Italy, and perhaps all Catholic countries, have quite a lot of saints that need celebrating and some unusual ways of doing it. In fact, I have an Italian calendar and I don’t think there’s even one day that isn’t dedicated to one saint or another.
This was a ladle or two of flowery water prepared by my neighbour. I am devastated to report that is doesn’t seem to have affected my level of beauty and I feel about the same in terms of general health. Maybe next year?
4. …Been making bread. I think it all looks good here but those flat holey things are crispy and impossibly hard to eat for anyone that doesn’t have teeth made of diamonds. Thanks Mr Hollywood.
5. Been playing with my neighbours kittens. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Unfortunately their fleas are almost as big as them poor little things (the kittens, not the fleas).
6. Been on a stunning walk to Lago di Pilato which is nestled in the mountains under Mount Vettore, the highest mountain in the Sibillini’s. This walk beats the other crazy walk I did a few weeks ago that was over a river and up a near vertical slope. It was perhaps a tiny bit more of a gentle slope (89 degrees as opposed to 90 maybe) but went up for longer and going down was more stressful than going up because the path was rocky and slippy. It’s the only walk I’ve ever been on where I’ve felt sorry for the “Old Sue”, my former self of a few hours before that had been walking up and who had been thinking the end of the path was nigh but actually having another 2 hours to go (my walking book helpfully doesn’t give you any details as to distance but it was just over 12km in total and with a 1km climb). Anyway for anyone interested in this walk: go to Foce and walk between the mountains. The path is clear and rather unusually marked out! If you’re like me (not a mountain goat) allow 3 or 3.5 hours or so to get up there and maybe 2.5 or 3 hours back the same way.
The scenery in the mountains is always stunning but the flowers were amazing. At every different level there were different types of flowers. I’ve never seen wild pansy’s before but they were growing really quite high up.
It’s not permitted to go too near or touch the lake. There’s some little red prawn type things in there you don’t find anywhere else. It was absolutely crystal clear.
Beautiful!
Quite a large portion of the walk was walking on glaciers! We walked along this one and then discovered it had a rather unsettling cave underneath.
6. …Been to Senigallia on a little vacation to stay with some Italian buddies. It was a lovely little break. Each time I go to the beach I realise how much I miss it. I think the need to search for sea glass is now an inherent part of my being. And this weekend I finally “got” the concept of Italian beach holidays. Let me explain. To my English eyes, this is a typical Italian holiday: Have one or two months off work and go to the same place you’ve always gone to stay in your “beach” house which is often only about 10 minutes from your “normal” house. Spend all day and every day lying on a sunbed, “taking the sun” as they say (or more accurately, burning themselves to a crisp), surrounded by millions (I jest not!) of other sunbeds and a beach so crammed with people it’s difficult to get anywhere. If they’re not at the beach, then they come to their “mountain” house and sit outside in big groups all day in a garden under a parasol and rarely venture out. For me, holidays have always been an opportunity to see new places; what a waste to do the same thing year in and year out when there’s so much to see and do in the world! How can they justify it?! As a result, I’ve secretly scoffed at this crazy Italian tradition and even pitied them a bit. But no, I had it all wrong…
What they’re doing is taking time out to spend quality time with their family and friends, the people they grew up with. They go to the same bunch of sunbeds (“stabilimento” – there are lots of little stabilimenti up and down the beach) where they know everyone. Every day is a reunion and opportunity to have a laugh and spend time with the people they love, care about and grew up with. Maybe because I’m out here on my own without my family and friends I hadn’t grasped the concept, but I can understand it now – it’s not where they are that’s important, it’s who they’re with. We miss this type of holiday in England to our detriment in my opinion.
But honestly, do they really need THAT many sunbeds! It goes on like that for miles and miles!
This was an empty day at the beach apparently! In July, you can’t move for people.
So I think that about sums up the last week or two. The next couple of weeks are going to be equally busy I think! Anyway, I hope you’re all having a good week. I’ll sign off with a pretty sunset pic taken from the terrace!
x
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