Such was the lazy start to the day, we didn't all assemble for breakfast until around ten o'clock, at which point we all hungrily tucked into scrambled eggs on toast before changing into appropriate footwear to take Reggie out for a walk.
It being Saturday, we decided to head for the nice flat river bank known (to us) as the 'chicken run' walk and we all gently strolled along the river away from town (all except Reggie who bounded around in an attempt to burn off some of his plentiful energy).
By the time we turned around the morning was really warming up, causing us to remove layers of clothing and by the time we got back to the car I was in a t-shirt and even Helen had removed not only her padded body warmer but the heavy cardigan beneath it too.
By the time we got back to the car it was 12.30. We made a quick stop at Bar Delice for coffee before heading back up the hill to drop Reggie home so that we could then go back into Pescia to do the food shopping.
After compiling something resembling a shopping list, we piled into the car leaving Helen at home to have a bonfire up on the terraces.
Our first stop was Lidl. No sooner had we walked in than we were faced with a huge pile of Prosecco for the princely sum of €2.79 per bottle. With a dozen bottles loaded into the trolley we proceeded to hoover up all manner of the sorts of snacks and foods that would only make their way into your trolley when Christmas is near.
As we'd hit the supermarket at the sweet spot (just), it wasn't long before we were checking out and heading over to Esselunga for the 'real' part of the shop.
Trying to keep the four of us together was tricky, but an hour later we had piled high our second trolley of the morning, the majority of which didn't feature on the shopping list anywhere. Not only did Granville insist on a couple of very nice bottles of Barolo for Christmas lunch, but he insisted on paying for the shopping, as he had done in Lidl too - a ridiculously kind gesture, and with Mom throwing Euros in our direction as well, Helen and I hadn't paid a cent towards what we'll be engorging ourselves on over the coming week. It's safe to say we owe them all a meal out somewhere!
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| Enough to last a few days... |
We had no plans for Sunday morning other than walking the dog, so we one by one appeared in the living room and had a bit of breakfast before finally heading out mid morning - although we left mum at home to bake a cake while we went to the quarry for a walk in the woods.
After passing a chap and his car filling water bottles at the spring we let Reggie loose to stretch his long legs, but shortly after having done so we heard the familiar barks and bells of a pack of hunting dogs in the woods very close to us, which put an immediate end to the walk - or at least the walk in the woods.
After getting back to the car we decided to walk a little way up the road and took an old path down into the village of Vellano so that we could do a sort of loop back to the car.
The path was quite steep and had a lot of the old stone still in place underfoot which was quite slippery in places after the damp start in the early morning. Of course, that didn't bother Reggie, who very nearly pulled me over on a particularly slippery section as we entered the village. Marie wasn't quite so lucky and ended up on the floor, as did almost Granville and Helen.
After circumnavigating the treacherous stone via someone's veg patch alongside, we ambled slowly through the village, eventually getting some amazing views back down towards Pescia, the valley below yet again being under cloud.
When we got to the main road, Helen offered to take Reggie to the car and bring the car to us while the rest of us walked to the Bistrot.
As Helen and Reggie headed off out of the village we headed further down the road. It wasn't long before we overtook on foot an old lady dressed in her finery having just been to church.
We exchanged a brief hello, but she was insistent that we stopped to talk. None of us managed to get much of a word in, while this very nice old lady of 86 years told us all about herself: she'd been married to her husband for 60 years until he died recently, she had 3 children and four grandchildren, she was sad at how empty the churches were now since the war and the recounted a story of Italian partisans killing German soldiers outside her house in the village during the second world war, forcing her brothers to go and hide in the woods for fear of German retribution.
Sounds like we understood a lot doesn't it? Well I'm guessing that was only 10% of what she said, we were there for about three quarters of an hour. Helen even arrived in the car and got dragged into the conversation for a while. I finally decided we had to call an end to things and I butted in mid sentence to apologise as we needed to leave. Fortunately, she wasn't offended and happily waved us goodbye.
When we got into the Bistrot and ordered drinks Vinicio, the dad of the family that runs the Bistrot came over to say hello, laughing heartily as he'd seen us talking to the lady - she is clearly famous for talking 'at' folk, which explained why everyone that walked past us as she talked did so without breaking gait or making eye contact.
We went and sat on the balcony n the Bistrot to enjoy the views and the now roasting hot sunshine - it felt well above 20 degrees out on that balcony in the full glare of the sun.
Although we could have stayed for another drink, the time we'd lost with the old lady meant we were now running late as we needed to go and see Amanda and Samantha to collect Helen's homework and to buy some lunch.
We left the Bistrot and descended into the cool cloud below that enshrouded Pietrabuona and everything below it. When we went into the shop we were given not only the handmade gluten-free panforte that we'd asked Amanda to make us (for our Christmas lunch) but also a glass of 'elixir of eternal youth' - basically mulled wine - while we mulled over the choices for lunch.
We eventually left with meat loaf, gravy, salted spinach and pork scallopine in mushroom sauce and headed home.
After changing the gas bottle on the cooker so that we could reheat lunch and Mom could finish cooking the cake that she'd only managed to half bake before the gas ran out, we sat on the patio in the glorious sunshine nibbling on cheese and bread while the main event warmed through in the oven.
By the time we finished lunch it was getting in for three in the afternoon - the time the procession of medieval folk was due to start in Pescia as this afternoon and evening was the famous night of the 'living crib'.
We left Reggie at home and drove into town. We were lucky to find a parking space in the main piazza where we abandoned the car and had a slow walk around town, eventually bumping into the procession as they were filing into the church in the Rione of San Michelle - a procession that included a baby goat in the arms of a young girl.
Once they were all indoors we headed across the river to the Santa Maria quarter to pay Amanda and Samantha another visit as they were manning a stall outside the Gianino department store serving medieval food and mulled wine in exchange for donations to support the arts group in Pescia that arranges various events.
After shoving some money into their jar we tasted bowls of farro and chick pea soup, an old style of salsa verde on bread, bread snacks stuffed with ricotta and spinach, chestnut cake, and of course more mulled wine, before heading into the warmth of the store behind them, the warm sun of the day now having dipped too low to provide us with any comfort.
After leaving we had a quick nose around the Cathedral and the church opposite before heading back across the river to look around the main event in the small Piazza del Grano. The side streets around the piazza had been transformed into medieval streets decked in hessian with dozens of Pesciatina people in costume doing traditional crafts including basket weaving, cloth weaving, black-smithing, and various cooking-related activities.
(The following photos are courtesy of the Sindaco di Pescia (the mayor's office) as Helen's phone didn't save any of the other pictures she took!)
As we made our way into the square itself, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus had already made the stage and were receiving visits from shepherds.
We stood and watched for a little while and decided that the arrival of the three kings was probably still some way off, so left the square, stopping to eat a porchetta panino before giving in to the cold evening by heading home to light the fire.
We spent the evening with a couple of Aperol spritz before introducing everyone to a version of our Christmas pasta after which we sat in front of the TV to watch a Christmas movie.
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