Roving Reporter post: We return to Castelnuovo

I am sitting on the gazebo of Il Palazzetto at the Bertolanis' house, perhaps my favorite place in all of Italy. I am listening to the disorienting, but happy sound of a violin, a viola, and a cello all practicing different scales and etudes at the same time. We have brought two friends with us to the music festival this year, and though CZ and L have been practicing for two days, M has just picked up his rented cello. Once they get warmed up, they can start practicing together. (Which they did, after lunch, of course.)

This morning we walked down the hill and into town for a morning cappucino and a trip to buy groceries. But we couldn't find just the right kind of zucchini for tomorrow evening's dinner, so we came back empty-handed, thinking we'd try again tomorrow. When we got to the top of the hill, Sig.ra Bertolani was just walking around the corner of the house where she had been talking to the kids.

"Ecco la mamma," she said to me. "Here's the mama."

"Lentemente," I replied, smiling, because no matter how hard I try, I'm always about 25 yards behind the others when going back up the hill.

Sig.ra Bertolani had just delivered a gorgeous basket of vegetables, with just the zucchini we had been looking for, zucchini blossoms (which she told CZ how to fry); green, purple and white beans; a bit of basil; and two kinds of greens, one bitter (a type pf arugula, perhaps?) and the other sweet. With three days worth of four people carrying groceries up the hill, and now this gift, our small refrigerator is delightfully full. This year I'm cooking off the New York Times pasta section and a Mark Bittman cooking app, plus a few recipes from home. With no measuring devices in either English or metric, I'm improvising, but it works.


All the kids are very helpful, and after dinner they play cribbage, chess, and, last night, Settlers of Catan. When the sun goes down at 10 p.m., it gets cool enough to put on a jacket. Then the stars come out (so many more than in New York!) and we watch the town's lights glittering down below. It's so delightful that we can't seem to go to bed before midnight. Thank goodness for siesta!

Unfortunately, there are some things I can't do well from the iPad, and fixing photo margins and inserting links are among them, so I trust that if you have no idea what I'm talking about and somehow want to, you can find my posts from last year's music festival in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Toscana, Italy