We decided to go out for our first lunch since March! March 11 to be exact.
Yesterday was cool but bright sunshine. We had reservations for two tables of two as they won’t combine tables. But when we arrived there were two tables together but the seating was at either end with the other seat at the corner putting maximum distance between the couples.
We decided to have his stuzzicheria. A platter, a beautiful array of meats and cheeses. This is Patrick’s claim to fame, aside from his wines. He puts a lot of thought into the cheeses, how they go together in a tasting plate. The hams were beautiful. Prosciutto crudo, a cooked pork sliced paper thin, a bresaola, a pancetta. It had been so long since we’ve had this we fell on it like ravenous animals!
229,327 positives in Italy. Up 0.3% – 32,735 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
There are 1,430 positive cases in Umbria. 74 total deaths.
1,613,476 cases in the US – 96,662 deaths. ~~~~~~~ Domenica – pretty-ish day today. A little overcast. We will drive out to Calagrana In a few minutes to pick up our meals. ~~~~~~~~
While out and about yesterday it felt like old times. Only real difference is the masks. At least everyone wears them. And the one-at-a-time rule for stores and businesses. We are happy to see the businesses back. Last night the youngsters were partying like there was no tomorrow. Hope this doesn’t cause too big of a spike.
As of June 3 Italy is open again to cross border travel from other EU countries. Not the US though. We, who are here, can travel freely within Italy. There is plenty to see that we haven’t yet seen. I was talking to a friend who mentioned she hadn’t realized how much of her time was spent traveling, researching and planning travel, anticipating travel, etc. For myself, I am trying to make some day trip plans. But I am having trouble getting started. Why? This is my question…I don’t know. I just can’t seem to take that first step. Luther has a significant birthday in July I need to plan something for that. He wants to go to the beach town with 2 really good restaurants. Not sure I’m up for that yet.
We had our big trip planned for Germany end of July and first part of August. We had found pet/house sitters for this trip from Nova Scotia. They had taken a year off and were traveling Europe. A mix of Airbnbs, working holidays, house sitting etc. Started in Portugal. Then went to, and through Spain. Got locked down in the Dordogne in France. Finally just got loose. They are supposed to head to another part of France and then Italy. I don’t know whether our trip will happen so we will have to let them know as soon as we do. I’m sure they can find a place to stay in Italy cheaply. But they had also hinted they wouldn’t be coming anyway, so we will see. ~~~~~ As promised yesterday…photos…Here is Rocky. Studying the water…
Rocky. Toe in the water.
Finally, drinking the water.
The olives are amazing this year! This means a huge harvest may be coming this November. I will be ready to go the distance and help. Look at the flowers! Now, I’m told only 3 or 4 olives come from each cluster, but this still means a LOT of olives.
219,814 positives in Italy. Up 0.3% – 30,739 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
There are 1,412 positive cases in Umbria. 71 total deaths.
1,340,643 cases in the US – 79,935 deaths. ~~~~~~ A new week. Pretty, if windy, day. Luther had grocery shopping duty so he went this morning. No waiting! We have new more comfortable masks…I don’t even mind wearing them. He tried his and liked it better too. He accomplished the shopping and brought it home. I promptly put all the dry goods into our decontamination room to wait 72 hours. Way easier than trying to wipe everything off. The cold goods I did disinfect before storing them. So we are set for another week or two. Of course I will supplement with trips to the markets for veggies. The next grocery shopping trip we will go together as we used to. Maybe even to the big IperCoop! If it opens back up. ~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday. Gray and rainy but pretty warm. Perfect for growing plants. I made a big pot of soup today. Tonight I’m planing coniglia braised in white wine. Otherwise quiet here.
My friend Joseph wrote a journal entry today. It really got my attention. He is having difficulty acclimating to this new Phase 2. I completely understand. Maybe this will sound weird to many in the US but we will miss our lockdown. First, the lockdown in the US was never anywhere near what our lockdown was/is. We could not even exit our house without a written reason of necessity. The polizia patroled. We learned to just stay home. Only food shopping, medical needs, or medicines were allowed. Otherwise we had to stay HOME.
So we all got used to it. We even embraced it. I would awake in the morning. I would think of my day ahead. Empty. Serene. No obligations. No errands. Bliss. The days ran together. Each just the same as the one before. Alas, that is coming to an end. I know that sounds strange…but we can love a thing, and hate it too, I think. Our markets returning have again, bookended our weeks in Umbertide. We again have anchors so the days no longer run on in an uninterrupted line. We must get used to the new changes. But we must be very careful. We will take no chances. And we will wait to see how this re-opening affects the numbers. Here are some pictures from Jill…
This iris is called Lemon Ice! Makes me think of gelato.
218,268 positives in Italy. Up 0.5% – 30,395 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
There are 1,407 positive cases in Umbria. 71 total deaths.
1,300,079 cases in the US – 78,320 deaths.
~~~~~~ Hi everyone! Sorry if you received two post emails yesterday. Operator error!
~~~~~~~ One of our favorite activities during this enforced inside time is….
As you know I bought artichokes. I cleaned them for a salad I was going to make. These are local. I’ve never had artichokes like these before. They are MEAN. Look at these stickers! The second pic is after I “processed” them.
Tonight we had a salad made from raw artichokes sliced very thinly, with fava beans, fresh spinach, toasted almonds and soft cooked eggs. It was inspired by the book “Six Seasons”, which I mentioned before, although I made a lot of changes. I served the salad with salmon. It was tasty. I took a picture but, sadly, it was blurry. 😔
~~~~~~~
Sunday morning. Beautiful day. The bells are ringing. One day they will, again, call people to Mass. Today I have to pick up our weekly meals on wheels! 🤣 Just kidding. The meals are from Calagrana. This time I won’t get caught by the cops as it is now legal to go over and pick them up. Whew.
~~~~~~~ Buona domenica to all! And happy Mother’s Day! Take care of yourselves…and stay safe! 🌈 Andrà tutto bene!
214,457 positives in Italy. Up 0.7% – 29,684total deaths since beginning of the outbreak.
There are 1,404 positive cases in Umbria. 70 total deaths.
1,216,739 cases in the US – 72,233 deaths. ~~~~~~ Today is a very special day. The Mercato or Market has returned after more than 2 months. Sigh. A semblance of normality. It is a lot smaller but that’s OK.
Of course, I went out to explore. It’s kind of a gray day. There are six slots in the Piazza below. A cheese truck, a cured meats truck, 3 vegetable dealers, and a fish truck. All of the vendors are the ones we had before. You were required to wear a mask to enter. Everyone had one on. The town police were there to enforce. But they didn’t have much to do since everyone complied. I enjoyed saying hi to everyone.
My “favorite” neighbor Josapina. She yammers away at me and I seldom understand her. It doesn’t seem to bother her though.Lemone from SicilyIt is strawberry season. I seem to have missed the spring peas entirely — very sad.One of the big veggie vendors.
The fish lady that I usually buy from was in her normal spot just outside the piazza. Out there were the Porchetta trucks (2), the fish lady, my favorite vegetable vendor, and a cheese stand. I was very surprised that my favorite Porchetta truck had run completely out of Porchetta!
SOLD OUT!!!
Beautiful pesce. Fish! I have missed this.
Spigola – sea bassOrate (Bream) and octopus
While I was out I bought a nice Spigola from my fish lady. Dinner tonight. I decided to grill it. And I figured, with the grill hot I could grill some vegetables. I have a lot from our market basket from Ely. So here is my dinner tonight! It was very yummy.
On the grill.Grilled vegetables. Zucchini, tomatoes, asparagus, and peppers. The peppers turned out to be very spicy! I hadn’t known and ate a big bite 😳Dinner. The skin on the fish was charred. Crispy and yummy with the tender moist inside,
189,973 positives in Italy. Up 1.4% – 25,549 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. There are 1,362 positive cases in Umbria. 61 total deaths.
856,209 cases in the US – 47,242 deaths. ~~~~~~ I finally got through the grocery ordeal. The only good thing was the weather. First I visited the pet store for cat food and litter. The store is much nicer now that it has been expanded.
Then I headed for the shopping “mall” here in Umbertide. It is a far cry from a mall in the American sense, but it has two hallways of shops culminating in the Coop grocery, the biggest food store in town. Most of the other shops are closed now.
The first hurdle was getting a carrello. Shopping cart. Since the lockdown the store took away over half of the shopping carts. So you have to wait around outside until someone returns one. I think it’s to slow people entering the mall.
Once inside I joined the queue down the hall. I was amazed to see someone had opened a new shop inside, it sells coffee and coffee makers. I thought to myself, who the heck opens a shop in the middle of a pandemic!? An optimist, Luther said. Hookay. They DO have a captive audience snaking past the shop waiting to get into the supermarket.
I am in the queue.
New shop!
Once inside I did my shopping. People must wear masks. They have sanitizer and free gloves at the entrance. Plenty of food. Plenty of everything. I was in the market for mostly dry goods. Also staple items like dried legumes, pasta, canned tomatoes, chicken broth. I got some salad greens, and spinach. And some blueberries. A friend made a blueberry cake that has my mouth watering so I’m making one too!
Anyway, that chore is done and I am glad my turn is finished. Luther goes next. I stopped at the ATM. I greeted Angelo downstairs as he stood outside of his alimentari. He was more cheerful than he usually is lately. Probably the weather. I saw Josepina, she is an older woman who lives alone next door. I had worried some about her. She seems good. And there was a black cat meowing to get into the Commercialista office next to our door. Josepina said he wanted though the office to get to the orto (vegetable garden) in the back. Hah!
~~~~~~ My amazing, wonderful, heroic niece Rachel, who is a front-line nurse during this horrible pandemic, recommended a book to me when we last spoke. Rachel and I go way back cooking together so I trust her recommendations implicitly. I right away put in an order at Blackwells bookshops in Oxford England for “Six Seasons” by Joshua McFadden. It won the James Beard Book Award. It arrived today and I am over the moon with excitement about trying some of the recipes. Seasonal. Vegetable focused but not totally vegetarian. I’m sure any of them could be totally vegetarian. But Luther will like them too. I will share with you as I try them.
Dinner was a quiche. I had a TON of eggs from my veggie boxes from Calagrana. Also used some of the potatoes. It was bacon (pancetta), potato, onion and Emmental cheese. I am a very bad pastry maker, it tasted good but was butt-ugly. 🙂
~~~~~~~ Picture from my friend Joanne looking through her pergola at the very blue sky through the blooming wisteria. Wish I could see it!
Wisteria!
~~~~~~~ Stay home and stay safe everyone… 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…
187,327 positives in Italy. Up 1.8% – 25,085 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. There are 1,357 positive cases in Umbria. 61 total deaths.
842,319 cases in the US – 46,399 deaths. ~~~~~~ Look at the title of this post. Can you believe it’s been 50 days?! FIFTY. I for one cannot wait to hear how Italy will handle the ending, or lessening, of the lockdown. I know everyone is being really careful here, almost to a fault. I, for one, appreciate it.
Today is a brilliant day. Not a cloud in the sky. All washed clean from 2+ days of rain. So, so green! I am going to finally get to the grocery store today. I don’t mind going so much if the weather is nice. ~~~~~~ I am appalled at the actions being taken by some of the Governors in the US. I heard Georgia is going to change it’s name from the Peachtree state, to the Petri state. It would be funny, but it’s too real to laugh at. Scared for them. Governor Kemp is doing this even though the state ranks near last in testing, even though it’s not clear that covid-19 cases are declining there, and even knowing “we’re probably going to have to see our cases continue to go up,” as Kemp himself said.
He (Kemp) is opening gyms, barbershops, hairdressers, massage parlors, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys (bowling alleys!?), among other businesses on Friday…and theaters and dine-in restaurants can resume operations April 27. But wait….it gets more sinister….A GA local, George Chidi, just wrote an op-Ed that proffers an explanation for why Kemp is reopening the state for such bizarre businesses as massage parlors, tattoo parlors, hair dressers and restaurants. His argument is pretty stark. The quote is this:
”If there’s no state order calling for businesses to be closed, the people who are unemployed can no longer claim that their unemployment is involuntary, even if it would be utter idiocy for them to return to work. A hair dresser or a massage therapist cannot maintain social distance. But they can certainly file for relief … unless the law says they can work.”
Do you think this is true? Do you think they could have devised a way to screw workers out of some relief? On purpose?! If it is, it is despicable. 😡 ~~~~~~ Dinner last night. Duck confit with beans and potatoes. Courtesy of Agriturismo Calagrana!
Iris – so beautiful. When I was little I picked one on my way home from school. My mother made me go back and apologize. Still love them!
~~~~~~~ Stay home and stay safe everyone… 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…
183,957 positives in Italy. Up 1.5% – 24,648 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. There are 1,353 positive cases in Umbria. 60 total deaths.
814,587 cases in the US – 43,796 deaths. ~~~~~~ Yesterday we began our seventh week of complete, countrywide, lockdown. What can I say? ~~~~~
Today I venture out. It is my turn to be the hunter gatherer. Also we need cat litter. And I finished Luthers mask yesterday, so now we both have masks. I may look for some suitable cloth from which to sew another set. It would be good to have two each.
I love Jill’s picture of her tulips with the amazingly wild backdrop of the mountains and valley. Kind of a cultivated and wild look mixed together.
~~~~~~~~~ Stay home and stay safe everyone… 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…
178,972 positives in Italy. Up 1.7% – 23,660 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. 1,348 positives in Umbria. One more death puts the total at 58.
746,379 cases in the US – 41,379 deaths. Wow. So many. 😢 ~~~~~~
I find I cry easily nowadays. I cry at happy things. I cry at sad things. I cry at a beautiful piece of music. I can cry at anything, really, it can be something as stupid as seeing farmers planting their crops…hoping for a better day. Boo hoo…I’m so happy for them! And I cried while watching…
…the evening news here…and there was a very uplifting piece. They announced the closure of a number of intensive care wards in the hardest hit areas of Lombardia. They walked through rooms filled with empty beds and unused equipment. To see the joy of the nurses and doctors was incredibly moving. After all this time, finally the cases have slowed enough that they don’t need all the extra overflow wards for Covid. It makes it all worthwhile to see their joyous faces. These are the warriors. On the front line. Heros, all. And for my friends in the US I tell you, it is worth the sacrifices we’ve made, to be able see this. ~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the United States… I am so ashamed.
This made me cry too. For an altogether different reason 😡
Sometimes I have to call it as I see it and the differences between my two countries are stark. ~~~~~~~ It is Monday morning. It is gray and rainy. But it just makes Italy’s Green Heart all the more green! If that’s possible. My gardening friends tell me we need the rain. And so do the farmers. So I am happy and will enjoy the rain. And my new terrace plants look happy too.
Happy cat in the garden!
Stay home and stay safe everyone… 🌈 Andrà tutto bene…
172,434 positives in Italy. Up 2.1% – 22,745 total deaths since beginning of the outbreak. 1,337 positives in Umbria. Two more deaths at 57.
653,825 cases in the US – 31,638 deaths. ~~~~~~
I can’t believe today is the forty fifth day since I began posting. That is a long time. It is funny though, how easily we adapt ourselves to our new normal. I’m quite content. Other than missing walks outside, I am doing fine. And speaking of walks. I have devised a circular loop that remains all in the 200 meter limit from my house. I plan to go out for a walk today! Albeit in a loop! ~~~~~~ Someone posted this. It was attached to a tree. I can’t attribute it to an author. But it is exactly how I would have expressed my feelings, had I been a poet. And it is how I hope things will be…
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses and made new choices, and dreamed new images and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
One can hope something wonderful can come of this horror we are living through. I’m not going to say anymore because I don’t want to break the spell. I wish it would be so…
Star of Bethlehem…a wild flower. And a volunteer in Jill’s garden. Somehow, it reenforces my hopes for our earth.
~~~~~~~~~ Please, don’t listen to the people urging you to go out again, like before. It is too soon. 🌈 it will all be better soon…If we just stay the course.
