It was a good weekend. We went to the market on Saturday morning. I like the Saturday one better than the big Wednesday one. That evening we had reservations to attend a concert at the Civitelli Ranieri by Jamaaladeen Tacuma one of the fellows. He is probably around our age and grew up in Philadelphia. He is a bassist. He had 3 other musicians backing him up, or playing with him. The first number was one of those jazz pieces that I just detest. I was dreading the rest of the show. But after that one I liked each one better than the last. It was a great show. Susan and Gary went with us.

On Sunday we went to Spoleto accompanied by Susan and Gary to see the furniture I mentioned. We drove down and followed Betty’s perfect directions to the parking garage. We phoned them and Betty and Bob walked down to meet us and lead us to their house. They live right in the centro storico. Lovely area. Spoleto is a beautiful city. probably about 40,000 people so not too big, not too small. I had thought of moving there but couldn’t really find anyone or any real estate while searching.

Bob and Betty have lived in Spoleto for five years. They rent an apartment. They also lived in the Sudan, Croatia and Serbia before moving there. They have decided to return to the US, somewhere in California.

The furniture was really pretty. Bob is an engineer and designed much of the furniture we saw. It was built to fit their space so making it work in ours would be difficult. I did like the bedroom sets and the chairs in the living room. There were many small appliances and things we could use. I am still thinking about whether to buy anything. The only issue is getting it to Umbertide.

After we left Bob and Betty we went up to the Piazza Mercato. It was the big Jazz festival called 2 Mondi in town so it was decorated nicely. Below are bells strung on blue ribbons. They are sister cities with Charleston SC and they each do a Jazz festival every year.

I was looking for Osteria del Matto supposed to be just off this Piazza. It is a pretty vine covered place. They were booked but let us go down into the cellar where there was a table set up for 6 people. It turned out to be a great place to sit. It was quieter than the room above. Here we are just before lunch began.

I had been told it was a quirky place and it lived up to it’s reputation. I also heard that Mamma is in the kitchen and they feed you what Mamma makes. It was remarkable. They brought a plate of each of 10 course. You served yourself so I could do portion control. Everything was great. Here is what we had.

Faro
Bruschetta with tomato
Bruschetta with anchovies w/greens
meatballs
salad
Fried ricotta
Pork with mustard sauce
fried zucchini blossoms
tomato porcini pasta
sweet ricotta with fruit

The service was pretty unique as well. We had a woman and a man who came with the food and wine. I believe that the man is Matto who is the son of Mamma. He was pretty amusing.

The total bill was 25 euro per person including 2 and a half liters of red house wine. We were there about four hours but the time flew. The conversation was fun.

Back we went to Umbertide. I will go back to Spoleto and probably visit Osteria del Matto again too.

Last night was the world cup. The Piazza was packed. We saw Jim (our real estate agent) for the first time since he had returned from Croatia. It was a fun weekend.