It’s so pretty around here right now. Everything is blooming. The winter crops are brilliantly green. Living up to the name — The Green Heart of Italy 💚. On my way to work at Books for Dogs I cross the Tiber. This, I think is a cherry.
I also walked to the supermercato near the centro after the market and got this snap of our fortress. Look at the carpet of daisies!
In the market I bought a “new to me” spring vegetable. There was no name on it and I forgot to ask. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before. The lady told me how to prepare it as a pasta sauce. Here are a couple photos.
I prepared it as she suggested. Italians love to share recipes. I remember when I first moved here I never understood them. Now I do and that makes it much more fun. Here is a picture as I tossed the pasta, the veggie and the sauce of olive oil, garlic, anchovies and capers.
I also took a couple photos of my own flowers on the terrace. Here they are.
Finally, a photo by my friend Doug Hunt who lives near Assisi up on Monte Subasio. Quintessentially spring. It showcases the bucolic beauty of the Umbrian landscape. It is much the same as it was centuries ago. It’s part of what I love about Umbria. We are so fortunate to live in such a place. I thought you would enjoy seeing it.
This week the glazier comes to install the shower glass and the mirrors. After that we can use it! I still have a surprise to show you, once it is installed. Some might not like it. But I am sure I will. Wait and see!
These will be the last pictures until the bathroom is completely finished. We had the idraulico (plumber) put it all the appliances and fixtures yesterday. Then the elettricista came today and put in the above the shower lights. There will be another row above the sink so he will come back. The muratore came to install the bars and seat in the shower. I insisted I have the seat. I like to be able to clean my feet well and shave my legs and it is so much easier when I am seated. The last thing is the shower glass and the mirrors, which I think will be next week. Here are pictures.
On another note, I ordered a bunch of Mexican food from Mexabores. Seems it is based in the Netherlands. They have a lot of good stuff. It arrived today. I see some good Mexican in our future. They gifted us the Corona and the chips. The chips looks yum!
This will be a short post with pictures of the progress on the bathroom. It is starting to shape up. The first is of the finished niche in the shower, minus the shelf which needed an adjustment.
Next is the counter where the sink will sit. It is of the same stone as the shower floor and has two shelves and two cabinets. I wanted someplace to store things. I really like this one.
The glazier came to measure for the shower glass and the mirrors. They will be ready in a week. The plumber comes Monday or Tuesday. To install the toilet, sink and fixtures. Last will be the lights. And the heated shower rack.
Hi everyone! I haven’t written a post for a while. I’ve been a bit busy with doctor appointments. I mentioned one small thing I wondered if there was medication for to my doctor. Well, from there it has spiraled right down the rabbit hole!
First, I will say I am feeling just fine so don’t worry. A couple small things not quite normal in my blood tests led to further blood tests and I mentioned my sister is being treated for Multiple Myeloma right now which does raise my risk level. So in an abundance of caution she recommend I visit a hematologist. Which I did last week. She didn’t seem concerned (definitely not Multiple Myeloma) but she wanted MORE blood tests, an ultrasound and a chest X-ray. Each thing needed to be done separately and entailed a trip to the hospital in Città di Castello, about 20 miles north. I like the hospital, there’s easy parking and there is zero traffic so it’s not terrible. Anyway. I’ve done the X-ray and ultrasound and the technicians both said no problems found. So just the last blood work to do. I guess I’m glad they are so thorough but it’s a lot of trouble! So that’s my world right now.
Otherwise, we have been having typical March weather it’s been warm for a while but now we are having a cold snap. It will go below freezing tonight so I covered my citrus trees. But I have a wonderful little display of Narcissus which are beautiful and up-lifting. Completely enjoying them.
Bathroom. Well, it’s been moving slowly but we are getting closer. My architect has returned from a trip to Sri Lanka on an architectural and garden tour. Maybe things will begin to go faster now. So the progress so far. Almost all the tiles are done and the floor is done. There is a niche in the wall I wanted and they were going to frame it in the same stone we are using for the shower and sink counter. Well, they cut the stone wrong so it’s waiting for the new pieces to be cut. Then the walls will be finished. Irma said the cabinet for under the sink is finished and they will be putting that in this week. The glass guy will come soon to measure for the glass and mirrors. Next week the plumber and electrician are being sorted to come. So we are getting there but aa always…piano, piano.
We have had some fun too. We invited friends who live here part time over to lunch last week. It was great fun. We met a new couple from Australia for aperitivo, also part timers here. They have a villa nearby and I am excited to see it sometime when they return. Other friends are just beginning to return for the spring. All of them part timers here. Winter is always very slow.
So that’s all the news fit to print! Take care everyone. Ciao!
Today is International Women’s day. Here in Italy, women are gifted a sprig of mimosa to celebrate. I worked at Books for Dogs this morning and the town was festooned with mimosas. There were big buckets of it on traffic islands, and in front of stores. Women were walking everywhere carrying their mimosa. It is said the mimosa was chosen because it manages to flourish even in difficult conditions and is associated with women’s own resilience and ability to win their rights. Here’s mine. Gifted to me when I went into the Farmacia to fill a prescription 🙂
I normally park on the other side of the river when I drive to town on market days. The river was pretty and I saw my first fisherman!
My little kumquat tree is loaded with fruit. Most isn’t quite ripe yet. You can tell when they are ready because they get extra orange and soften. I have a great recipe for Chicken and Kumquats which I made tonight. My tree.
We have a plethora of pizzerie in our town 😁. They have all different types of pizza. From the super thin, almost cracker crust that is called Roman style to the thicker crust of the Neapolitan style. Last Thursday we went to Degusto which is very near us and Neapolitan in style. Delicioso. This is Luther’s. Mine was prettier but I didn’t take a picture before I destroyed it, by cutting it. Did you know they don’t cut pizza into slices here? You get the whole pie, uncut. I use scissors to cut it if I get it “to go”.
No bathroom updates to speak of. They finally got the wooden form that they needed to use to cut the tiles around the shower stone. But that’s as far as they got. I hope next week we have more progress. This has been a major roadblock. I realize things happen on “Italian Time” here but this is getting tiresome. Oh well. Piano, piano.
A gray Sunday but it’s my normal laundry day, because the electricity is cheapest on a Sunday, so I’m just enjoying a quiet day. Starting Tuesday the temperatures are really warming up. Daytime from 15 to 18 or about 60 to 65. Not too bad. ~~~~~~~~ This past week I made progress on the inscrutable Italian health system. It can be hard to get appointments here, especially if you want a location or a doctor specifically. But my doctor wants me to see a Hematologist because she has some concerns about my blood tests. She specified the appointment was urgent and was to be within ten days. Mainly this was to speed it up, not because it was really urgent. I went to the CUP in the Farmacia (they make appointments) who said I would get an SMS with the appointment. Which I did, the next day! So I’ve got an appointment next week. I’m not concerned at this time but it needs to be checked I guess. And I really am only writing about the process, which involves a steep learning curve. I am on the wait list for two other appointments. If it’s not an emergency it can take some time. ~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile I worked at Books for Dogs/Libri per i Cani yesterday. I’ve written before but this time I took a few pictures so you could get an idea of the shop. The charity supports two canile which are kennels for rescued dogs plus one other which rescues anything that needs help. I love that she, and she does this all alone, does this.
We get a constant stream of people either donating things for us to sell or those who love to browse for a bargain. We keep busy checking people out and also pricing and displaying the goods. There are a lot of regulars too. Some I like. Some are a bit of a pain. Yesterday a woman came in just at closing and spent a lot of time browsing. She had several things but wanted me to throw in a set of measuring cups that were priced at €2.00. Well, I wasn’t in the mood at that time so I looked at her and said “it’s for the animals”. She put them back. 🙄 Here is the shop. You may notice the Italians are dressed like for the Arctic? Stocking caps and puffer coats. Yeah. They wear these until June. They dress for the calendar, not the weather. To each their own, right?! 🤣
You can get some bargains there for sure. People sometimes bring in Armani designer items and other designer things. The goods do tend to turn over pretty quickly. They also sell furniture. They rent a garage for the bigger things and there is a catalog with pictures. This three piece set of antique inlaid dresser and bedside tables is in the shop. They are asking only €240 for the three.
They also sponsor fun things like quiz nights and bingo at a local restaurant. The quizzes are in English but the bingo is very popular with the Italians too. ~~~~~~~~ Bathroom. Slow but steady progress. It is amazing how much work goes into a small bathroom. Floor with spacers.
Grouted floor.
Grouted wall.
~~~~~~~ Italians have something similar to our chicken soup. Not literally but the food that you eat when you’re not feeling great. Called pasta in bianca, pastina in brodo, riso in bianco or maybe straciatella (egg drop soup). All light and comforting. I made my version this week. It is a soup of pasta in a nice home made chicken broth with a bit of greens. Very much a classic and light comfort food. This is mine 😋
We are heading into a slight warming trend. The earliest fruit trees are blooming pale pink. The almonds are white. It’s uplifting. We decided to go to Calagrana for lunch. They have begun to open for Sunday lunch again. It was fun. There were three tables of English speakers and two tables of Italians, one of which was 14 people. So I think we English speakers were overpowered today. This is a change from the past when it was primarily English speakers. I’m actually very happy about this. We saw some friends from North Carolina who have a home here. And the other table were all Books for Dogs people. The big Italian table were having fun and VERY loud. As always, the women sat at one end of the table, the men, at the other. 🙄
The food was delicious. I chose the Crostone topped with roasted peppers, anchovies, capers and tomatoes. So good. The combination of sweet peppers and tomatoes, tart capers and salty anchovies really worked. Picture by Ely of the ingredients.
Luther had the house smoked Umbrian trout with pickles and toast. No picture. Our second course choices were lamb chops for Luther and Guancia (beef cheeks) on puréed potatoes both really good.
Calagrana had a tough week this week with the loss of Archie, everyone’s favorite terrier. He worked the front of the house and had his own bench, which if you sat there, you shared with him. He had been at Calagrana for all the years I had been going and I really missed his sweet little self today. 😔 RIP Archie. 🌈
Bathroom. Last week they began the process of waterproofing the floor and walls. This is the future shower space. We are getting closer to the “pretty stuff” 🙂. Here are the latest pictures.
When I first moved to Italy, I had never heard of the Sanremo Music Festival (officially called the Italian Song Festival). Over the years since, we usually have watched some of it every night of the four nights it is on in February. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level. It started in 1951 and was broadcast live on Rai 1, the Italian public Radio station.
It does not celebrate the singers. The songs themselves are rated along with the musical arrangements. The songs used to be sung by two different artists, each one using an individual orchestral arrangement, to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers’ competition. During this era of the festival, it was customary that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist. I think it would be more interesting that way, than it is now with just one singer.
I enjoyed it better this year than normal. Maybe it is growing on me? Maybe I have been here too long? Who knows! Anyway, it’s fun and over the top Italian. The songs selected in the competition are in Italian or in any regional language and the three most voted songs are awarded. You vote by calling a number on your cell phone during the song if you like it. I even voted once this year 😁. I snapped some pictures. It is a very inclusive festival. For example, they had a piece performed by a group of people with physical or mental disabilities. It was very well done . That wouldn’t go over so well in the U.S. right now I think 🤔. Here they are.
See, I told you it was over the top Italian. 😉 that guy with the long train? It was 15 meters long. ~~~~~~~~ Bathroom. They set the round shower stone and concreted the floor. I had Irma and Alesandro here this morning and it’s going to start to get disruptive tomorrow. They will need to be cutting the tiles to fit and that will be messy and loud. They will be coming upstairs where we are living and going through to the terrazzo to do this. Oy. Oh well, it must be done.
Bathroom renovation This is a short post . The eletricista was here and ran all the channels for the new lights. Made lots of noise for a few hours. Now we await the stone we ordered for the shower floor. It will hold the drain, and is round. All the other tiles will center around this one stone, so the stone must be first. 🙂 The plumbers finished all their stuff as well. We removed the old tank toilet (which I hated) and are installing a proper toilet like they do here now. The tank is inside of the wall. You can see it here in this photo. Bathrooms are built with a space for the tank but redoing an old bathroom is harder unless you could make a space. We did that closing up a skinny storage area for it.
Here is the stone for the sink countertop, still at the marble fabricator.
This is the round shower stone with the drain.
The muratore are down there now beavering away. They will be finishing the walls and floors, laying tiles, installing appliances. I will post again soon!
Umbria is a four season area, as is most of Italy. People seem to think Italy is warm in winter, especially in the south, but this isn’t true. But it’s also not terribly cold except in the mountainous north. It does snow in most of Italy but usually only a little. They had snow recently in far south Sicily. Our temperatures here can get as cold as the upper 20s at night with normal daytime temperatures in the day in the 50s. It can be gray and damp, with quite a lot of rain. I don’t like the season much but it can be very beautiful in a stark way.
Bathroom ~~~~~~~ I met with Irma yesterday to finalize all the bathroom things like under sink built-ins, shower seat, number of tiles up the walls. We still have to go pick the countertop for the sink and the circle in the shower. This last bit is a little hard to describe so you’ll have to wait to see it in the end. The plumber came and said they didn’t finish the demolition. So the muratore returned today and made a lot of dust and noise. When he was gone we were left with this. I think the plumber returns tomorrow. We’ll see…
Yesterday and today we had very high wind warnings. It boomed on the canopies out on the terrazzo. I drove to the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro where I get my hair cut. Even the VeeDub had trouble with the wind and we had to negotiate around a double trailer semi which had been knocked into the guardrail and partially jack-knifed.
