So we finally met up with Emanuele at the apartment after the ceiling incident of which he was aware. He found it incredibly amusing that Josephine (the one with the key who showed us the damage) only really wanted him to pay her 10 euro to clean up the dust. And even more amusing was that our downstairs neighbor came to him complaining about the construction and that she was going to the police. Emanuele explained he had all the permits. You may remember this is the same neighbor who called us banditos when we were trying to determine which meter was ours. She went to the police that day as well. After Emanuele explained he had the permits she asked about the floor in the kitchen which he had torn up. Turns out she was just trying to shake him down. She asked him to give her the wood to burn in her fireplace and she wouldn’t go to the police! He was fine with that so everyone is happy. And laughing.

Here is a picture of the pasta I made last night. It is called Bucatini number 9. It is fat spaghetti but it’s hollow! Very popular here and I like it too.

Today we went on a day trip way down to the southern tip of Umbria to a Roman ruin called Carsulae from the 2rd century BC. There is a road called the Via Flaminia that runs from Rome to Remini. It is long! The Romans built that road. There are highways that run it’s route today. This ruin contains a small portion of the original road along with ruins of a town with a theater, forum, and amphitheater. Here are some photos. This is the road, it even has curbs and gutters and you can see the worn places where the cart wheels rolled.

The archway entering the town. Still standing; no mortar!

What’s left of the forum.

We were looking for lunch and were near a town that the books said was one of the prettiest in Italy, and that’s saying a lot! San Gemini is the town. Up on a hill. We did indeed find a nice little restaurant inside the walls called Taverna del Torchhio. We sat outside. It was a beautiful day with light breezes, perfect temperature (finally) and blue skies. I had the beef carpaccio with arugula and cheese and then orecchietti with pesto and a cheese I was unfamiliar with. Luther had panzanella – the typical bread salad and then roasted lamb. All very good. Here is the view from our table.

Here are a few pictures of the beautiful town. The first is a little walkway along the walls. The next is a 11th century church, then the courtyard outside the church and finally a passage through to the walls with the view over the valley.

As I mentioned we are in the middle of the band festival. Last night we were treated to an orchestra with a rock group from Pisa. They even had a man and a woman who danced. It was all very wonderful. The guitarist, bass and drummer in the band were some of the best I’ve ever heard. We actually went out to the piazza to watch. Here’s a picture.