Easter

Sadly, on Good Friday, my aunt Mariuccia lost her fight against cancer and died; two years to the day after her husband.  Here in Italy funerals take place within 24 hours and because of Easter, the funeral had to take place on Easter Saturday.  We drove to Milan for the ceremony on the evening before and then came back late Saturday.  This is why our posts have been rather lacking; more to lack of sleep than a shortage of happenings.

Anyway, most of the exciting Easter happenings here in Citta della Pieve have passed us by as we have been busy painting walls and ceilings and trying to get as much done as possible before more tiles are laid.  Luckily, the weather is still good and so we have soaked and dried several batches of terracotta tiles ready for the builders on Tuesday.

We thought we would wander through the elegantly turned out Sunday crowds to see the stalls that had been set up on Good Friday for the Easter market.  Regional food specialities included bread from Puglia, a Gorgonzola stand, several cheese and salami stalls and, in particular, a group of stands from the earthquake-stricken Norcia area.  There was an artisanal beer stall that used hemp in the brewing and a huge saffron stand extolling our famous local produce.  All the restaurants and bars were open too, and, as the weather was good, there was quite a crowd and it certainly would not have been good to move the car as parking was at a premium.

We made several purchases as it was foody heaven and as much of it is in jars or bottles, it will keep until we have a kitchen.

On the subject of the kitchen, the builders have put the tiles up (they do that before fitting the kitchen units here) and the kitchen designer is due to come and measure up on Thursday morning.  It will take about a month to arrive and because it is German they insist on fitting it themselves, so hopefully that will all go to plan.

Dinner at Bruno Coppetta’s tonight as we were just too exhausted after painting and gardening to think about cooking.  What a great meal again.  I had the Chianina beef roast with a ‘spring sauce’ (peas and carrots) and oven roasted potatoes.  Jamie had the lamb casserole and cannellini beans.  All washed down with two glasses of prosecco and half a litre of Chianti (well, it was our wedding anniversary). And then a saffron panna cotta and crema Catalana (Creme brulee) for pud with a complimentary glass of passito and coffee.

I do not think it gets any better than this and the staff are so wonderful, and even put up with Daisy trying to savage their ankles.