Our weekend started on Friday night with a sagra del cinghiale - wild boar festival - in our local village. Last year we had seen posters for the same event, but having only been here for a couple of months at that point we didn't get anywhere near to making it to the festival. This year, we were determined to go, and when we mentioned it to our apartment guests Charlie and Becky, they seemed really keen both to try some wild boar and to experience some real Italian culture. So at 8pm the four of us headed down to the Circolo (social club) in the village and joined the queue to order our food.
From our limited experience, food festivals like this (this was our third) all seem to operate the same way: you queue at a kiosk where you order your food, pay and take your order slip away with you, then find a table and wait for a waiter or waitress to collect it from you before laying up your table to eat.
With food and wine ordered, we sat ourselves down at one of the very long communal benches and soaked up the atmosphere while our place mats, cutlery and glasses were delivered, shortly followed by water and wine.
It wasn't long before our meat crostini arrived - they were rapidly despatched and enjoyed, after which everyone else sat and watched me eat penne pasta with a wild boar ragu. What can I say, I'd spent 4 hours that morning strimming in the sunshine, I had an APPETITE!
Next followed wild boar stew and roasted wild boar loin which was delicious - the best we've eaten since being here. With the savoury food done with, we headed over to a table at which a Nonna was selling slices of home-made cake, so we took back slices of a chocolate and rice torte and an almond based sponge cake.
It was only after we'd eaten the pudding that I noticed an old chap in the corner offering Pecorino cheese and Proscuitto - well, it would be rude not to try some, so of course we ended up with a plate of this to share between the four of us before finally heading into the dancing area where there was a great display of cheesy cabaret complete with Nonnas (and some Nonnos) all dancing ballroom-style and in sync to various songs. We watched both amused and amazed for an hour or more before finally calling it a night just before midnight - a thoroughly good night was had by all, and for our guests it was the sort of evening that would rarely, if ever, pop up on the tourist radar so Charlie and Becky left feeling like they'd seen a bit of 'real' Tuscany.
Saturday commenced with the usual supermarket trip, after which we came home and made lunch for six as we had the Phillips family due for lunch in exchange for a few hours' work tackling the old shed roof, dismantling the goose house and the removing a pile of rubbish, all in preparation for the visit from the architects and geometra on Wednesday.
We sat out on the patio for lunch - which has actually become something of a rarity over the last five or six weeks, as it's simply been too hot to eat outside, even under the shade of the umbrella.
After a substantial lunch of (tomato bruschette, a tuna, egg and rice salad, and bean dip) we all set to work in a slightly cooler than of late, but very humid afternoon.
By 5pm the rubbish had been disposed of, thanks to Helen and Sue piling it all into the car and making a trip to the bins; the goose house had been cleaned out and its parts all labelled ready for re-construction by Henry and Erik; the goose house had also been almost completely dismantled by Helen, Sue and Erik; and the galvanised roof had been taken off the old shed thanks to some very sweaty work shared between Chris and me. A very productive (or destructive, depending on how you look at it) afternoon's work. As ever, we were utterly grateful to our amazing friends for pitching in and helping us out of a tight spot.
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| Health and safety?! Well, he did at least have goggles on... |
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| Team Goose House. |
Unfortunately we had to cut the get-together short though, and the ever helpful Phillips crew left us just before 6pm so that we could get ourselves ready for a trip up to Lanciole - we had been invited to join the owners of the house that I've working at in Lanciole for a bit of dinner at the Circolo in the village.
Having driven past the Circolo numerous times over the past year, but almost never seen it open, I wasn't sure what to expect - that combined with the fact Helen had never met either Rachael or Steve before, and I had only done so briefly a couple of weeks ago, meant that we were unsure as to what to expect from the evening or how the evening was going to pan out. It turns out that we needn't have worried (or maybe we should, but for different reasons!).
We arrived to find cars strewn all over the place at the sides of the road and lots of people milling around outside the circolo, I'd clearly never driven past this place on a Saturday evening!
The outside entrance of this place give no hint that beyond its doors is a huge room and we were greeted by plenty of lots and lots of communal tables/benches all laid out for dinner, as seems to be the custom. It was already buzzing with people, and were told that they expected around 110 people - it almost appeared on the surface as if we'd been invited to another festival, except it wasn't: we are reliably informed that this is a completely normal Saturday night for this tiny sleepy village! We shared carafes of house wine, the obligatory sharing plates of antipasti, and some fantastic pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven while we all got to know each other properly. Rachael and Steve turned out to be great company and we soon relaxed and had a really fun evening with them, along the way being introduced to many of the friendly locals, one of whom was an old chap who revealed that he had been the Italian boxing champion in 1972 - a lovely, smiley guy who sat with us for some time in between getting up to go and do some of his own ballroom dancing... yes... it was happening here too!!
We eventually retired outside into the cool evening air (there had been rain earlier, which had left the air deliciously fresh-smelling) with some more wine and limoncello and soaked up the lovely warm atmosphere that felt more like a large family gathering - everyone was so friendly, everyone knew everyone else, and we all chatted the night away until around midnight when we said our goodnights and left. Judging by the number of people (of all ages, from young children all the way up to the dancing old folk) still enjoying their evening, we must have been among the first to leave, but we'd had a really fun evening, great company, and promised we'd go back up again soon for another visit.
After two late nights in a row (at least they were late by our standards), we rose later than normal today and didn't rush to get ready for this morning's social event: a brunch up at one of the restaurants (Le Bistrot) in Vellano with David, Sarah and Donatella. We were due up there for 10.45am, so we pottered around - Helen took Reggie for a short walk while I checked my emails and enjoyed a relaxing morning.
It must have been around 10am when Reggie shot outside at the sound of a horn, and started going absolutely nuts! It wasn't long before I realised that the horn must have been on the drive outside, as Reggie showed no sign of letting up his barking.
I went outside to find a red Citroen C3 parked on the drive. Not recognising it, I went further around the front of the house to find Valerio, one of our neighbours wandering around looking for me! He had clearly decided he fancied a nose around the place (I had invited him to pop in sometime when I met him a couple of weeks ago) - he has known our house and land since he was old enough to walk, having been born in the house in which he still lives today, just down the hill from us.
Despite Reggie's incessant barking for the entire 45 minutes he was here, we managed a reasonable conversation with him about various things. Interestingly, one of the first things he said to us - completely unprompted - was that our old shed (the one now standing with no roof) had been there ever since he could remember, so we have confirmed that it is at least 60 years old (we were too polite to ask him how old he is, but guess he might be around 70) and it certainly looks like it has been there longer than that. Valerio, who seems like a very friendly chap, played around with the generator and other bit of machinery and showed plenty of interest in the irrigation timer we had running before deciding his ears had had enough of Reggie's noise and heading off home in his car, telling us to stop at his house some time - a lovely old man and only too willing to talk to us about the local area.
By the time Valerio left, we were running a little late so we hopped straight into the car and headed up to Vellano. Vellano was also hosting a street market today, a new event for the village, so the main street was busy with stalls, people and cars.
We soon spotted Donatella, David and Sarah waiting for us, so we headed straight to the Bistrot and sat down to an epic brunch: mineral water, coffees, fruit juice, plates of meats and cheeses, bread, croissants, French toast with jam, scrambled eggs with crispy bacon and fresh tomatoes, penne pasta with fresh pesto and sweet pasties to finish. We were amazed to find out when we finally got up to pay the bill four hours later, that all of that cost just 10 euros per head!!
We had a lovely time catching up with David, Sarah and Donatella, talking to various other folk as they made their way in and out of the restaurant, and stuffing ourselves silly. What a perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday morning - I could easily see this becoming a weekly ritual (although our waistlines might not thank us for it)!
So as the weekend draws to a close, we couldn't have had a more fun-filled and sociable couple of days. It might take us a couple of days to catch up on our sleep and recover, but it will have been worth it!
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