We are legal!!

Today was the big day. We drove up to Citta di Castello to the Questura to get our Permessi! I have to say it was a bit anti-climactic. Went in, got fingerprinted again, signed a paper and they gave us our cards. All done in 5 minutes. They are good until June 25, 2015. You know what that means, right? We pretty much have to start working on getting it renewed right away. Maybe it’s faster to renew? Who knows!

Since we were up there we drove up to San Guigliano to the furniture store to pick out a table for our kitchen which we did. I hope it fits up the stairs! Always an issue here.

Pranzo guests!

We have done a few errands this week. We found a store called Leroy Merlin which is like a Home Depot. It has a lot of stuff we needed. I got some plastic bins to help organize stuff and some plug adapters. Luther said electrical stuff here is haphazard and I’d say that’s an understatement. Everytime I go to plug something in I need an adapter. They have grounded plugs and ungrounded plugs and the reverse for outlets and I never have what I need!

We also paid a visit to Deruta of ceramics fame. I bought some salt and pepper shakers and a utensil holder for my counter.

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We got our stuffa (pellet stove) working. Yay! Keeps the room nice and warm and is pretty festive next to the tree don’t you think?

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We also got our grill!!! We ordered a standard Weber grill which I am intimately familiar with. Now I can start cooking but first I need to find charcoal. Baby steps. Luther put the grill together while I was working on lunch for our first guests.

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We invited Susan and Gary and Joseph and Paul (all American lunch!) and I decided to buck tradition and make a green pozole since I had shipped some of the needed ingredients. It was a bit different because I had to substitute some stuff but it came out pretty good. Anyway my guests seemed to like it. I think when I cook, if possible I’ll make things that we can’t get here. It is nice to have some variety. We really enjoyed entertaining in our new home!

Christmas in Umbertide

The Christmas Market is going strong in the Piazza and along the nearby streets. They have some pretty nice things. Lots of hand knitted hats and scarves. A stand with beautiful towels and linen. And this could not happen in the US, there is a white truffle stand! I was walking along and caught the unmistakable aroma of the truffles then looked around and there they were.

Truffles
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Prices are 10 Euro, 15 Euro, or 20 Euro for a truffle of varying sizes.
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Various merchandise.
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Did I mention they play music from loud speakers all over town? Mostly Christmas music but they also like the Eagles. AND they have put red carpets in front of the stores in the Centro and nearby streets. We have a red carpet right down Via Grilli where we live. They have lots and lots of lights up at night on all the streets too. Very festive.

Via Grilli
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Other parts of town.
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Last Friday we went to an amazing concert in the Church on the Piazza San Francesco. It was a Homage to Mozart played by the Chamber Orchestra of Perugia. There was a wonderful almost duel between the first violin and a woman playing a viola. I had heard that piece before but when you see and hear it in person it is mesmerizing. There will be three more concerts by them between now and the end of the holidays. We will surely go. And they are free. Big turn out as well.

Permessi
We got some AMAZING news yesterday, finally, at long last, our Permessi di Sogiorni are ready for pickup on Saturday December 20. Wow. What a Christmas present. It only took five months. We have to begin the process all over pretty soon.

Media
We have gotten our Skye TV set up now and now have more channels that we will ever need. All different languages and lots of English stuff. I have to say, six months without TV was not a problem for me. Right now Luther has found the Padre Pio Network – only in Italy.

We also ordered some speakers to be delivered and set up Monday. We have been having internet issues. The WIFI is in the living room and the office is at the other end of the house (not really that far) and we have issues getting internet there. This house is over 300 years old and there are some mighty thick walls which we think are impeding reception. We need to work on this.

Upcoming
We are invited to Lynda’s house. She rented us her apartment last January on our house hunting trip. She lives here full time now and is British. She is going back to the UK for Christmas and we are taking care of Sandy her 14 year old cat. We are invited for mince pies and mulled wine and to meet Sandy. How Happy Holidays!

We have a busy week ahead. Vera is coming tomorrow to clean Susan and Gary’s apartment that we borrowed. Speakers come tomorrow. We have some buying errands to run. We have also invited our first guests over for lunch on Thursday. We will be six, Susan and Gary and Joseph and Paul. I found some cilantro yesterday and am excited to do something southwestern – or as close as I can come to that here.

WE HAVE MOVED! FINALY!

At long last we are in our own home. December 8. It is soooo wonderful! We had a house cleaner in. Her name is Vera. She cleans for Susan and Gary too. She spent two full days cleaning and it looks good. Here are pictures.

Hall from in front of back bedroom and office.
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Office.
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Next two are the pantry.
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Next three are the kitchen.
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Dining room
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View out really clean picture window.
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Luther in the living room.
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Space age dishwasher.
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I even put up our itty bitty Christmas tree.
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Here are a few pictures from the office window of the town Christmas tree and the Wednesday market.

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A funny thing that would never happen in the US. We bought a 48 inch smart TV from Formica. He set it all up and left. We have not paid for it. €849. I guess we’ll have to walk over and pay them sometime. Strange.

I need to catch up

Apartment
Today is Thursday, one week after Thanksgiving. I am cautiously optimistic that we will move on Saturday. The heat has been fixed and the floors are being finished. The kitchen has been finished by Pedini. We have shelves installed in the pantry! I have been able to do a little organizing of the kitchen.

IKEA trip
We took a trip to Florence to visit the IKEA there and see how it compared to the one we visited in Ancona. MUCH busier. We went on Monday. I would hate to see it on Saturday! I had a big long list of stuff we need for the house, mostly for the kitchen and bath. We also bought bedside tables for our room and a bookshelf that will serve as an end table beside the sofa. It will have storage as well. We left home at 9AM and arrived around 10:40AM. After we shopped it took half an hour to check out! But that meant it was about 1PM and time for lunch.

We drove to Chianti and had a nice lunch in the wine area. Nice folks in the empty restaurant. They gave us a piece of chocolate cake that was awesome.

Returning the Renault
We had taken to calling her Sirena after the voice on the GPS. We hated to see her go. The lease agreement had been extended twice to the limit of the possible term. We had an appointment to drop her off in Rome near the airport at 2PM on Wednesday. We drove to Perugia first to rent another car. I drove Sirena down with Luther following in what we now call the Clown Car, a Lancia Ypsilon. He had a heck of a time keeping up! I kept a close watch on him all the way there as Sirena was guiding me back to her home. It was pretty stressful as I hadn’t really driven much in the 5 months since we had come here. But it worked out OK. So-long Sirena.

We drove over to nearby Fiumicino for lunch. We found a staid old restaurant with waiters who may have been there since 1929 when they opened. The food was good though. We kept it to a pasta for me and risotto for Luther. Both with local, delicious seafood.

We drove the clown car to it’s limits on the way home and arrived around 5PM after stopping at the Coop for some supplies.

That should do it for the catch up. I hope I can have some pictures of our new home AFTER we move in in my next post. Cross your fingers for us!

Did not happen…

Update. We did not move in as expected today. There was an issue with the heating and they need the heat to refinish the floors. They were supposed to sort that out today then do the floors tomorrow. So maybe Monday or Tuesday? At this point I am not holding my breath.

Thanksgiving!

I am a lucky person to have shared our American Thanksgiving, and my first one in Italy with my good American friends Susan and Gary and their guests from California and six of our Italian friends and two Italian children. It was an amazing feast! It has been documented in pictures below.

Alas, I was still cooking in the borrowed apartment as we are not quite ready to move into our place yet. My contribution to the meal was dinner rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The cranberries had crossed the ocean with Gina and Mark. I also decided to roast the little Cannara onions in balsamic vinegar, stock and herbs to share. I had to send Luther on an errand to buy a mixer and it was pouring rain. He manned up and walked to Formica and therefore made his contribution to the mashed potatoes.

We gathered at Susan’s and Gary’s apartment at about 12:30. Gary, Gina and Mark had gone up into the Niccone valley to Calagrana to pick up the turkey. Since none of us have a big oven Susan had arranged with the restaurant to obtain and cook our turkey. I might add it was the largest turkey any of us had EVER seen. 15 kilos or about 35 pounds! Eli, restaurant owner and British, had started the turkey at midnight and collaborated with her sister in Philadelphia on Skype. The turkey roasted for 12 hours. She also made some wonderful appetizers, a pork roast in case there wasn’t enough food (!) and a pie. She sent along the drippings for us to make gravy.

Susan’s beautiful table!!

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We started the preparations and Simone, Simona and Fabio arrived with contributions of their own. Simona and Simone are Milanese transplants who live off the grid on a farm south of Umbertide. Fabio is a technical guy and also creates olive wood utensils, lamps, etc. Fabio was the most excited of everyone. He had seen our Thanksgiving on TV and this was his first actual one. Most of the pictures below are from him.

Antoinetta, Barbara, Emanuele and their boys arrived last. We had a prosecco toast and dug into the appetizers. Here are some pictures.

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Next we dished up the Meal. Here is the ENORMOUS turkey which had the boys in total awe!

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And the buffet with all of the dishes. I demonstrated to the Italians how to load up their plates and I was pleased to see they did so with enthusiasm.

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Fabio’s plate and the table.

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Onions.

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Gravy.

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Beans.

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Mark stepped up to carve the bird.

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And finally we all sat down to the feast. We gave a toast to our friendship and our ability to share a wonderful, international meal.

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Luther had helped with the wine selections along with Gary and Mark. Susan had made a pumpkin pie. There were two other pies we were too stuffed to eat.

Christmas tree!

On Thursday I watched out the window as they unloaded a big, round concrete thing with a hole down the center. I realized it must be fore the Christmas tree in the piazza. Sure enough a couple of hours later a truck began to maneuver itself in.

There was a difference between the way the tree is transported here and in the US. I have seen plenty of the trees that are brought into Washington DC, the capital etc. and they are trussed up tightly and on a very long flatbed truck that accommodates the full length. Not here. No trussing. Small dump truck style truck. I wondered how they must have gotten along on the highways. The tree spilled out the sides etc. Here are pictures of them trying to get down the narrow street into the piazza.

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After the cherry picker managed to push the branches down so they wouldn’t take out the street lamp, the workmen had to go into the apartment on the left with a balcony full of flowers and help the old man there move them. Finally it was in the square and suspended above the ground so they could trim the trunk to fit in the hole. Sorry about the screen.

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Here is the tree from our front door after it had been anchored into it’s base. It really is a big beautiful tree. I can’t wait to see it decorated!

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We talked to Emanuele yesterday. Things are really shaping up over there. I am actually starting to get excited about moving in! He said next Saturday would be a good day – a week from today. He told us we couldn’t move in on Monday or Friday as they were bad luck days to move into a house. Oh-Kay. I asked him to attached my magnetic knife holder to the wall. I had bought a new one to bring with me. He was quite amazed at it. He had never seen one. I guess they don’t have them here. He also will have the shelves from the living room installed in the pantry for me. Yay! I guess it’s the Capricorn in me but nothing makes me happier than tidy storage.

And a final note. Last night in the middle of the night I was woken by a band playing. I got up and there, in the middle of the piazza, was a truck that had an entire band in it playing at the top of their lungs! I looked at the clock which read 4AM. I vaguely remember Susan mentioning this but I need to find out what the heck it was all about. Always something! They drove off out of the piazza to wake up the rest of the town.

Monte Vibiano

House Update
It has been raining for the last two days. Progress in the house: electrician is nearly done. They have finished the plumbing hookups in the kitchen but the oven is out of the cabinet and in the middle of the floor. I guess they are having problems with the gas hookup or something. They moved the bed, mattress, dresser, shelves for office, table and chairs into the back. They are nearly finished painting the living room which is the last room. I am still unclear as to how they will refinish the floors. I don’t think it will be ready this week but we shall see.

Visit to Monte Vibiano winery
Today was a beautiful day. We were meeting Gary and Susan and their guests from California, Gina and Mark. We had reservations to take the full tour of the Monte Vibiano winery. This entailed driving golf cars up into the vineyards and olive groves. They insist they are NOT golf carts but oddly enough the center of our steering wheel had a little clip to hold a score card. Hmmm. There was another group from Sweden, maybe 10 or 12 people. We all piled into the carts and off we went up through the village on tiny streets and into a beautifully manicured vineyard and olive grove. It was such a pretty autumn day with bright sun and still some color. Here are some pictures.

Row of golf carts.

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Four hundred year old olive tree.

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Autumn vineyards.

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Narrow path we drove into the vineyard.

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After we returned we went on a tour of the winery. Here are the French oak barrels in which they age the wine.

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Then we tasted their four wines along with some of their olive oil. They have an interesting way with their oil. They put it into tiny bottles (10ml I think they said or one serving size) and then freeze it. They claim this keeps it as though it just flowed out of the presses. Could just be a gimmick but who knows! They have great marketing.

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After we left we headed to Panicale, which was pretty close, for lunch. Our intended restaurant was closed but there was another one in town so we ate there and it was good if not great. A lovely day and we enjoyed getting to know Gina and Mark.

Gina and Mark had brought cranberries and allspice and cloves with them for my zinfandel cranberry sauce which I just finished making. Thanksgiving is just a week away and the preparations are underway.

When Umbertide was bombed

Emanuele loaned a book to me called la Nostra Calvario or Our Calvary. It is mostly about Umbertide before and after the war focusing on the bombing. The Americans and British were trying to stop the Germans in their retreat and tried to bomb the bridge over the Tiber river. They sent four waves of planes each with four bombs most of which fell on poor Umbertide. 72 people were killed. The bridge was finally hit.

Here is a picture of Piazza Matteotti where we have been living since our arrival. It was taken during a Mussolini rally. The door with the arch beneath the banner is the door to our building right next to the Bar Pazzi (Bar Mary today).

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