We’ve seen a lot of animals so far during our short stay in Guardialfiera.  (And, of course, we’ve heard the turkey behind our house plus roosters and chickens.)

There are no shortage of outdoor cats, and I’m making a quest to take a photo of every single one.  Some cats are house pets and some seem to be wild, but people take care of all of them.  Chad has forbidden me from petting them, so I just take photos.  (Ask me about our trip to Panama City, Panama in 2014 when I ended up in the hospital after an encounter with a cat.  And who knew that Johns Hopkins University has a hospital program in Panama?)

someone put out some food for this cat

these two cats were supervising our neighbor as she was unloading the car

Tigre, the bar cat at the bar near our house

this cat has a permanent crick in its neck and looks perpetually curious

another cat

another cat

another cat

another cat

another cat

another cat

We’ve also seen some cute dogs.  There is little car traffic in the village, so it’s safe for the dogs to run around.

there is so little traffic in this village that this dog decided to relax in the street

these two little dogs run around the village together having the time of their lives

this little dog is quite shy but always watches us when we walk by his house – today he saw us and started squeaking a “hello”

The village looks over forest and mountains that are, apparently, home to wolves and wild boar.  We haven’t gone for any forest hikes, yet, so our one true wildlife sighting has been a little fox running across the road the other day.

And of course, there is the donkey from our exploratory drive up the mountain during our first week when I yelled “Stop the car so I can take a picture of the donkey!”

the donkey just outside of the village with his friend the white puppy

Then, earlier this week, we went for our evening stroll through the center of the village and I said, “Do I see a horse butt over there?”

in case you forget that we are in a rural, agricultural area, someone rode their horse to the bar

Finally, photos of our two snuggly kitties that we left at home with Jim and Fran.

Luna is very photogenic

Bokchoy is not

Well, it’s hard to believe that we’ve only been in Guardialfiera for two weeks and a couple of days.  It feels like a lot longer since we’ve been making connections with people here.  We’ve also noticed a lot of spring-time changes in the vegetation here.  For example, the cherry tree behind our house has lost its spring blooms and now has all of its spring leaves.  And the native fig trees (which grow like weeds around here) are also pushing out spring leaves. 

This is our first visit to Italy during the spring season, so it is fun to experience the season as things blossom and grow.  In honor of spring, here are some photos of the vegetation around the village.

you can find olive trees all over the place here

I like this lichen (do you get what I did there?)

we’ve seen a lot of irises here, many of which seem to be just out in the wild

I like this little garden

and this garden

We’ve seen a lot of citrus trees here – oranges, lemons, tangerines…

these little wildflowers are cute

this little citrus bush was recently planted, we just noticed it today

and more irises

When we started our European sabbatical in 2009, we had a very strict budget.  The exchange rate between the dollar and the euro was $1.25 to 1 euro, and we planned out our money accordingly.  Well, all that went out the window a few short weeks later when the euro rate jumped up to $1.50, so we adjusted our expectations for how much we were spending.

The best advice was from our friend Claudio in the Cinqueterre in northwest Italy.  He said, “You have to stop converting the money into dollars in your head and just think of it in euros.”  If you keep converting to dollars, you will make yourself crazy because it will seem that things are becoming more and more expensive with the fluctuations in the exchange rate.  In reality, a euro is a euro is a euro. 

This mantra has ruled our travel life ever since, and now, regardless of the exchange rate, we just think in euros.  Especially since we have learned more about hourly wages, the price of things have more meaning.  (Italy doesn’t legislate a minimum wage, but currently the typical hourly wage is around 9 euros compared to the US minimum wage of $7.25.)

In our village, we pay for most things with cash – a coffee at the bar (one euro), a few items at the grocery store, a loaf of fresh bread at the bakery (1.50 euro), a bottle of laundry detergent at the tabacchi (the multi-purpose store that has everything from groceries to jewelry to toys). 

This laundry detergent was 2,80 euro – much cheaper than the US

Most places in Italy do take credit cards, but cards are not as commonly used as they are in the States.  Plus, the cost of living in Italy is very affordable, and if you’re popping into a little shop to buy just one thing for one or two euros, it is weird to pay with a card.

We’ve learned that, in Europe, luxuries are expensive but daily necessities are cheap.  For example (and I will convert to dollars here in order to make my point), gasoline is a bit of a luxury.  Gas is currently 1.85 euros/liter which is $6.80 per gallon.  Wine, on the other hand, is a necessity, and a five-liter jug of decent white table wine is 5 euros.  When you consider that a bottle of wine is 750 ml, this translates to about 80 cents per bottle.

Groceries are also very affordable.  A six-pack of free-range eggs at the grocery store is 2 euros.  A half-liter bottle of whole milk (for my hot tea in the morning) is 89 cents and is the perfect size considering how little I use each day.  And check out this bundle of broccoli that we got for 50 cents from our village grocery store:

we bought this broccoli in our little village for 50 cents, best broccoli of my life – wine bottle for scale

Health care in Italy is also way more affordable than in the US.  I recently read a magazine article written by a British woman who had moved to Italy.  After moving here, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through surgery, follow-up treatment, and reconstruction.  She paid 40 euros for the initial mammagram, and then everything else was free. 

Compare this to my experience two years ago when I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, tripped in the dark and hit my head, and had to go to the hospital to get stitches.  It cost $2,300 out of pocket.  (Chad and I have a high-deductible health insurance plan which, believe it or not, is cheaper on an annual basis than a more comprehensive plan, even with an event like getting stitches in the middle of the night.)  So for everyone in the US who is obstinately against socialized medicine, please do a little research.

Perhaps my favorite observation on the topic of Money is the design of the euro currency itself.  For paper bills, they are each a different size and different color depending on denomination.  The 50 is bigger than the 20 which is bigger than the 10 which is bigger than the 5.  Genius!  Plus, the bills have images of building elements such as windows, bridges and aqueducts so, as an architect, I was smitten at first sight.

paper bills and coins

architecture!

Today we traveled to Monteferrante to have lunch with some of Chad’s relatives.  Monteferrante is located in Abruzzo which is the region just north of Molise.  Monteferrante is the home village of Chad’s great-grandparents. 

We’ve been there twice before, but always in August during the national holiday month called Ferragosto when there are other visitors.  It was interesting to visit the village on a quiet spring day. 

View of Monteferrante

Monteferrante is a typical example of an Italian hilltop village that is dying.  The village is very cute, but it has dwindled to about 50 inhabitants.  (When we first visited in 2016, there were 87 full-time residents.)  It has no restaurants and just one little multi-purpose store where you can buy cigarettes, underwear, some groceries…the necessities.   The lone bar has cut back on its hours.  There is a pharmacy that keeps a few hours a week and a post office and a church, but nothing else to entice new residents. 

the cute bar in Monteferrante – the patio is wonderful

We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with the family.  We had lunch with cousins Gabriella and Antonino, their daughter Alice, and Alice’s son Achille, and we ate at the house of Gabriella’s father, Adolfo.  We met Adolfo in 2016 and enjoyed our time with him, but he passed away in 2018 a few months before our next visit to Monteferrante.  Now his house belongs to his daughters who visit it from time to time.

Adolfo’s house

lunch in 2016 with Adolfo at the head of the table

At lunch, the food was wonderful, of course, and the conversation was lively.  We last saw Gabriella, Antonino, Alice and Achille in 2018, so it was fun to catch up with everyone.

Antonino went foraging for wild asparagus this morning

pasta with wild asparagus and pancetta (bacon) and and glass of organic rose wine

delicious lunch

After lunch, we visited with cousin Silvana who lives across the street.  Her mother Maria passed away last year which made us sad.  Maria was always so friendly to us and made the best food.  She was a good lady.  Anyway, it was good to see Silvana and spend some time with her.  I meant to take a photo, but I forgot.  We’ll be going back to Monteferrante in 3 weeks, so I’ll get a photo at that time.

Chad and Maria – that pasta was amazing

To wrap up, let me tell you about our drive to Monteferrante.  For some reason, when we left Guardialfiera, Google Maps took us through and up and over the mountains instead of on the highway.  We traveled on narrow country roads, winding around hairpin curves.  The total drive to Monteferrante was two hours, and 1-1/2 hours were on these mountain roads.  At one point, we had to pull over to the side of the road and get out of the car to walk around for a few minutes to recuperate. 

At another point, Chad stopped the car and said, “Get your phone and take a photo, because no one is going to believe that Google Maps guided us on this route.”

this is where Chad and I had a “What in the world?” moment – a little bridge on a gravel road, and if you squint, you can a tiny bit of the stream on the left

We did enjoy the countryside and the views.  We were in the middle of nowhere, frequently with no houses or signs of human life, just looking at fields and forest and mountains.  We also saw A LOT of solar panel installations.  I’m guessing that the state or national government or public utility companies have built these, since they are out in the middle of nowhere and not associated with houses or other buildings.

a view of solar panels on our drive, and note the very narrow mountain road

In any case, we enjoyed the countryside, and we never want to do that again.  Thanks but no thanks, Google Maps!  NB: the drive home to Guardialfiera was on the highway.  It was flatter and straighter, and it only took one hour and 45 minutes.

me, Alice, Achille, Antonino, Gabriella

There are a lot of things that happen during the week that don’t fall into any particular theme in a blog post, so I’ve decided to gather these thoughts into a brain dump at the end of the week.  This week’s dump, in no particular order:

When we went to Casacalenda yesterday, we took advantage of free parking in a 60-minute zone, knowing that we were just running a few errands.  30 minutes later, we passed a guy on the street who had watched us park, and he reminded us that it was 60-minute parking.  I appreciated him looking out for us, and we thanked him kindly for reminding us.  (Remember that our car has French license plates, so it is clear that we are not locals and we might need some advice.)

People usually figure out pretty quickly that we are not Italian.  However, as soon as we attempt to speak a few words in Italian, they are all so friendly and helpful, sometimes to the point where I want to say, “Slow down!  Slow down!  I only know beginner Italian!”  We’ve experienced this in all countries where we’ve traveled – make an attempt at the local language, and people will be very helpful.

Guardialfiera is a small, tight-knit village.  You always say “ciao” or “buon giorno” when you pass someone on the street, even if you don’t recognize them.  When you go into a little shop for the first or second time, the proprietor is polite but not generally so welcoming.  Since you are a stranger, they are not sure if they will see you again. 

When you go back to the shop for a third or fourth time, hoo-boy!  Now you are part of the community and there are so many questions about why you’re here, how long you will be here, and why you should move here.  It is really charming.

It also helps when you ask the advice of people.  Chad asked the butcher about different products, and then we are magically having samples of the butcher’s homemade sausage.  We go into the little grocery shop to ask about the cheese that he has for sale, and the owner says, “the best cheese comes directly from the cheese-maker, you should seek that out instead.”

One thing that has been fun is that fact that people just walk up to us and ask a bunch of questions.  People will cross the street to come quiz us.  “You’re new here.”  “Where are you from?”  “Why do you have a French car?”  “I’ve never seen you before.”  “Let me tell you about my life.”  Once again, it’s quite charming and is making us feel very much at home.  And I’m practicing Italian on the fly, trying to understand the dialect and vocabulary.

We’ve met several people during our week and a half here.  Most of these people are retired men or local shopkeepers.  Younger people go away from the village to work during the week, and the older women and stay-at-home moms don’t hang out in the town square or at the bars during the day.  In any case, everyone we have met has been friendly and welcoming and, well, curious.  I’m guessing that we will setting into a social routine sooner rather than later.

A cold front came through earlier this week.  We left our house for a stroll one morning, and when we saw the police lady, she yelled at Chad to go back inside and get a jacket.  (She doesn’t like the cold.)  There was this whole exchange about the weather and the need for a coat.  Of course, I was bundled up in my ski jacket.

On Tuesday night, Chad and I went to bed and were jiggled awake at 11:55 pm by a terremoto.  Earthquakes are not uncommon in Italy.  When we were here in 2018, we experienced one while in Monteferrante.  What was unique about that one was that we actually heard it echoing around the mountains.  In all of the earthquakes that I experienced in California, I had never heard one before.  The quake this week was just a bit of a jiggle and was enough to get the village dogs barking like crazy.  We learned the next morning that it was a 4.6 quake near Campobasso.  And, of course, it was a topic of conversation in the village the next day.

In addition to settling into a daily routine here, we are also figuring out a weekly routine.

On weekdays, we generally stay in the village unless there is a need to run an errand elsewhere.  Chad has his work during the week, and I have my pastimes.  We take several walks a day, and I do additional exploring by myself to take photos and plan curated walks to show Chad the little details that I find around town such as these:

this bench is built onto the side of a house

the stand for these plants says “the garden costs less than a therapist (and there are also tomatoes)”

I noticed these little flowers growing out of a structural support under a balcony

a close-up of the flowers

One of the fun weekly events is the open-air market which takes place on Wednesday mornings.  There are vendors which have household goods such as kitchen gear (pots, pans, cheese graters, knives, etc), shoes, and linens, but there are also two food vendors – a pescivendolo (seafood vendor) and a fruttivendolo (fruits and vegetables vendor).  The local butcher doesn’t sell seafood, so we make it a point of going to the pescivendolo on Wednesday morning to get seafood.  The sea coast is only 30 minutes away by car, so the seafood from the pescivendolo is so very fresh.  In fact, some of the little creatures are still moving around as we are trying to figure out what to buy for lunch.  Yum!

a view of the kitchenwares vendor at the weekly market

the fruit and vegetable vendor at the local market

the pescivendolo at the weekly market

We also recently learned that there is a fruttivendolo truck which comes on Thursdays and a cheese guy who comes on Saturday mornings.  This reminds me of the bakery vendor who came to Chad’s ancestral village, Monteferrante, on a weekly basis when we were visiting there.  These vendors come to the small villages for a couple of hours and then go to the next village.  This means that small and tiny villages can get fresh goods on a regular basis, even if they don’t have a proper grocery store or bakery.

Chad waiting in line to get bread from the mobile bread vendor in 2018

Another exciting thing in our week is remembering which day is which trash day.  Trash day is six days a week, but every day has a different purpose so you can’t just put your trash out willy-nilly.  Each type of trash has its own assigned day.  We got this trash schedule from the town hall:

The trash calendar starts with Monday (lunedi) and sorts the trash as follows: umido (wet “humid”/organic waste), carta (paper, cardboard), plastica (plastic), secco (dry trash and non-recyclables), vetro (glass) alluminio (aluminum)

In addition to all of this, Friday is typically the day for laundry and house-cleaning for us.

our laundry day – European houses don’t typically have clothes dryers, so your balcony has a clothes line

We keep the weekend open for running errands in the bigger cities of Termoli or Campobasso, sighting-seeing in the region, or visiting family.  For example, today we went to Campobasso to purchase some things, and tomorrow we will go to Monteferrante to have lunch with some of Chad’s family.

And on that note, stay tuned for some highlights from this week.

Yesterday we took a quick trip to the neighboring town of Casacalenda, a 20-minute drive away. 

view on the drive to Casacalenda

view towards the old town of Casacalenda

We were on a quest to find an ATM machine to get cash.  We were also in search of a gas station to get GPL gas (liquid propane gas) for the car.  When we picked up our car in Rome, we were told that the car could run on either unleaded gas or GPL gas (and it has separate gas tanks for each).  We should always have some unleaded in the tank because the car won’t start without it, but GPL is cheaper for filling the tank and driving.  Not all gas stations have GPL, so you have to hunt around for them.  Alas, the two gas stations that we visited did not have GPL.

Casacalenda is a town of 2,100 people.  As we were walking around the town, I told Chad, “After being in Guardialfiera for 10 days, Casacalenda feels too big.”  This coming from someone who grew up in a town of 3,000 which seemed entirely too small at the time, and who has lived in large cities/metropolises ever since leaving Branson.  I did enjoy walking around Casacalenda, though.

we found a little home goods shop which was using the alley as retail space to exhibit plants for sale – the entrance to the shop is under the striped awning

across the street from the home goods shop was a dedicated parking spot which was reserved for pregnant women and new mothers

I like this carved face on the side of a house

I like the weeds and flowers growing out of this retaining wall

While in Casacalenda, we ran a couple of errands in addition to getting cash.  We happened upon a “caseificio” which is a little cheese-making factory that also has a public-facing sales shop.  We went into the shop and, after consulting with the clerk, came out with three cheeses.

Caseificio La Fonte Nuova – the person-sized door is the entry to the shop and the garage doors lead into the cheese-making area

the cheese on the top left has hot peppers in it, the cheese on the top right is an aged/hard/flavorful cows cheese, and the bottom left is soft ricotta which I’m sure was made just hours before we bought it

We also saw a little grocery that had all organic products.  Imagine that in a little town of 2,100 people.  However, for us, it seemed to be mostly things in jars like jam and sauces, and we didn’t need anything like that so we kept on walking. 

the organic grocery store

We then went into a grocery store to get a few things, but it was small and cramped and in the first aisle we were overwhelmed with household cleaning products and customers so we left.  We decided that our grocery options in Guardialfiera were sufficient for day-to-day needs, and we can always go to a bigger grocery in Termoli or Campobasso.

One thing that is unique and interesting about Casacalenda is its outdoor public art program.  There is a map posted in front of the town hall that pinpoints the locations of the art installations.  We walked by a few of the art pieces, but I wasn’t savvy enough in the beginning to take photos, so I was just able to capture a couple.

town map of Casacalenda with locations of the outdoor public art installations

this art was painted in a niche on the side of a building

this art was a shiny silver tree with gourds hanging from it

We returned home being happy for our adventure, and doubly happy with our adopted village of Guardialfiera.

view of Guardialfiera as we returned home

This morning, we headed to Campobasso to run our weekend errands.   We made a pit stop at an olive tree farm to see if we could buy some local olive oil, but unfortunately it wasn’t open.  We’ll have to go back on a weekday morning and check it out.

Upon leaving the olive farm, instead of directly us to the quickest route to the highway, the GPS on the phone directed us on a little country road up the side of a mountain, through the mountaintop village of Lupara (population 500), and then back down the other side of the mountain.  The road was narrow with lots of hairpin turns, but it was a nice detour through the countryside.

view from the road – note the snow-capped mountains in the distance

view on the way down the mountain – you can see the winding road at the bottom of the photo

We found GPL gas on the side of the highway.  I did the math conversion, and it was $2.80 per gallon.  

In Campobasso, we went into a huge clothing store where I bought some house slippers for five bucks.  Our apartment floors are all tile, so my feet get cold walking around.  Plus, another cold front will blow through this week, bringing temperatures in the 30s and 40s, so cozy slippers seem like a good idea.

cozy slippers

We also went to a huge grocery store to stock up on some things that we can’t find in our village. Most importantly, we stopped at a garden store to buy some terra cotta pots and dirt so we could repot the plants we got last weekend.

the plant on our front balcony

herbs on our back balcony which gets more sun

All in all, it was a successful trip, and our little apartment is feeling more like home with plants and cozy slippers.

Our typical day starts at a decent hour.  With the recent “daylight savings” time change in Italy, the day dawns at 6:30 am and the sun is above the horizon 20 minutes later.  This is a nice change from Atlanta where the sky barely starts to get light at 7:00 am, and it can be annoying to get up while it is still dark outside.  Here, the bedroom balcony doors face east, so we are pleasantly awakened by the sun. 

dawn

early morning

Also, our neighbor has a pet turkey, so the gobble-gobble is sometimes the first greeting in the morning.  I posted a short video to Facebook while I was looking at the view across the valley and listening to the church bells and the turkey:

https://www.facebook.com/juli.abbott.9/videos/5443558655747610

Breakfast at home for me is usually fresh bread and jam or a pastry (from the local bakery), yogurt, juice (peach nectar this week) and hot tea.  Sometimes we go down to the little bar just down the street instead and have a coffee/cappuccino and a cornetto.  A cornetto is the Italian version of a croissant, and it frequently has a filling such as vanilla cream, chocolate, or marmalade.  Even if we don’t go to the little bar, we do take a walk around the village most mornings to get some exercise and get ready for our day.

Since Chad is working remotely, he usually spends a couple of hours in the morning on work.  He has a team of colleagues in Kyiv Ukraine, so this allows him to troubleshoot things with the team in Europe before the client in the U.S. starts work.  Since I am NOT working, I take the time to catch up on the daily news, read my Kindle, do some morning stretches/exercise, and take care of little chores around our apartment.

Before lunch, we take another walk around the village.  With no restaurants in the village, we typically eat at home at 1:00 or 2:00 pm.  Then Chad works a full afternoon, liaising with the client and managing the team.  I have several activities in the afternoon, so much so that I can’t get everything done.  I explore the village, study Italian, read my History of Molise book (we are staying in the region of Molise), run any errands if needed, work on a blog post and read my Kindle again (after I finish working my way through The Complete Works of Jane Austen, I have Gone with the Wind tee’d up).

Our lunch and dinner meals at home vary.  So far we’ve had lots of veggies, pasta (of course), polenta, rice, chicken (from the local butcher), chicken noodle soup (thanks to Chad’s amazing cooking), lentils, garbanzos, fresh bread, seafood, and then fruit for dessert.

lunch – arugula salad with tuna, carrots, red bell pepper, and some local version of mozzarella on the side

dinner – sauteed shrimp, grilled radicchio, polenta

Getting back to our daily schedule, the late afternoon/evening starts with a passagiata (a “stroll”).  The passagiata is a time-honored tradition in all Italian villages, towns, and cities which marks the end of the afternoon.  Everyone goes out for an hour or two to walk as a family or as a couple or as a group of friends.  You stop to say hi and chat with other people.  You might pop into a bar to have an aperitivo (cocktail) or a small beer or a glass of wine and some snacks.  In our little village, the main street is the primary venue for the passagiata, but we stroll down other little streets and passages as well.  The sun goes down around 7:30 and it is dark by 8:00, so then we retire to our little apartment for the evening. 

Here’s a nice view of the clouds during sunset while we were sitting at a cafe table at the bar and having a little beverage

We have a little snack while Chad makes dinner – cheese, deli meats, savory crackers, olives. 

appetizers

Then, because Chad made it, we eat an amazing meal, even if it just very simple cooking.  After dinner we might watch a little something on the computer together.  Chad figured out how to connect his laptop to the TV in the apartment, so we can watch things on Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other services.

At the end of the day, we hit the hay while listening to a random dog barking outside and the church bells tolling the hour.  And since we don’t hear the fire engines and ambulance sirens and train yard clanks and the angry Atlanta drivers honking, I sleep like a baby in the rural mountain silence.

view from our bedroom at night

After our day trip to Termoli yesterday, we spent a quiet Sunday in our little village.  Well, relatively quiet.

Let me back up for a little bit.  Four days before we flew to Italy, we were privileged to experience the daylight savings time change in the U.S.  Then we came to Italy and dealt with the change in time zones.  Then today, we were privileged to once again experience the spring time change, this time in Italy.  Perhaps one of these days my body will know what time it is.

In any case, the church bells went crazy this morning at 6:50 am.  Since this is our first Sunday in the village, I can only guess that these bells are aa regular occurrence on a Sunday morning.  Our bedroom balcony doors face east over the valley, so we are usually awakened early by the morning sun.  But I did hear the bells this morning and then looked at the time on my phone and said, “What the…?”

The main church on top of the hill

We had a lazy morning with a breakfast of fresh bread that I bought at the bakery on Friday, spread with fig jam, and served with juice, coffee and hot tea.  I read my Kindle for a while (currently plowing through Jane Austen’s works, she is so funny) while Chad did some chores around the house. 

Throughout the day we took several walks around the village as many people do.  Around 12:30 pm, we went to our local bar to have a beer and “be seen” before lunch, and we met the local Canadian couple at the little bar just down from our house.  They moved to the village four years ago, so they had lots of interesting things to say about getting settled in the village and in Italy – everything from paying your water bill to renovating a house to getting an Italian drivers license.

The bar has seating “al fresco” in a parking space across the street

As an architect, I thought working with an Italian contractor would be the most frustrating thing here when the attitude – not just of builders but of everyone – is that “ah, we will deal with that tomorrow.”  Now I believe that the most stressful thing will be getting an Italian drivers license.  As a foreigner, you have to go to driving school, take a written test of driving theory, and then take a driving test in a car with a manual transmission.  Yay.

After getting so much great information/stories from the wonderful Canadian couple, we went home to make lunch.  One thing that Chad and I have remarked upon is the fact that the food that we buy here is so delicious and of such high quality, that we don’t have to do a lot to it when we make a meal.  Lunch was some chicken sautéed in a pan, grilled radicchio, boiled potatoes, the local version of mozzarella, and some olives.  And for dinner tonight, Chad used the leftover chicken, radicchio and potatoes to make chicken soup, adding some pasta noodles.  So good!

lunch

appetizers

chicken soup for dinner

Between lunch and dinner, we drove up into the hills to explore the terrain around our village.  We passed farmhouses, olive tree groves, and fields of wildflowers.  The roads were all single-lane country roads – some paved and some just gravel.  When a car came from the other direction (which was rare), we just scooted way over onto the shoulder and took a pause to let the other car pass.    For me, it was a very peaceful drive exploring the countryside.  For Chad who was driving on narrow, winding mountain roads, it was not so pleasant.

driving on one of the country lanes

country roads, take me home, to the place I belong…

during our drive through the hills, we encountered this little donkey and his best friend, the white puppy

Now we’re firmly ensconced in our little apartment.  We watched some British television after dinner and are now winding down for the evening.  

a view from our front balcony down the main street of the town

It’s supposed to rain and thunderstorm all day tomorrow and then Tuesday is supposed to be quite cold – high temps in the 40s – so we removed our new plants from the balconies and brought them indoors for the time being. 

all little plants have to come inside before the next freezing weather

And while we settle in for (hopefully) one last blast of winter, we wish everyone a good week, and we look forward to more adventures in the village.

Today is Saturday, so Chad didn’t have to work.  We took the opportunity of a free day to make a trip to the city of Termoli on the east coast of Italy, about a 30-minute drive.  We wound down the mountain from Guardialfiera and crossed the plains to the coast.  On the outskirts of Termoli, we stopped at a plant nursery that Chad had seen on the map.  The nursery had flowering plants, succulents, fruit trees, olive trees, palm trees, herbs and other plants. 

i fiori – flowers

citrus trees

pretty flowers on this little tree

We had fun walking around and talking to the proprietors.  In the end, we bought a spiky-leaf plant for our front balcony and marjoram, thyme and mint for the back balcony.  (See below.)  We decided to wait to buy flowering plants from the flower shop downstairs from our apartment so we can support a local business.

olive trees at the nursery

pretty flowers on this tree

an overview

I loved this tree with these little flowers – they were so delicate

The city of Termoli has about 33,000 people, and it is the second largest city in the Molise region after the region’s capital, Campobasso (with its population of 50,000 people.)  Today, Termoli is a fishing, tourist, and industrial center.  (Fiat has a factory here.)

Along the Adriatic coast in Molise and Abruzzo to the north, you can find trabocchi.  Trabocchi are traditional fishing piers from the 19th century where wide nets are strung out to catch fish as they swim along the coast. 

a traditional fishing pier

For tourism, Termoli has an old medieval town plus many kilometers of beach along the coast.  Today, there were only a few people on the beach, but I can only imagine that the beaches are unbelievably crowded during the holiday month of August.

one of the beaches in Termoli today – see the white stuff in the distance? those are snow-capped mountains! how cool is that!

Termoli has a parcel of land that juts out into the Adriatic Sea.  This piece of land includes a hilltop, so this was a perfect location for the early inhabitants to establish a village.  The location would have been easily defensible as well as providing a good port for seafaring and trade.  In fact, despite the many miles of Molise coastline, Termoli has the only usable port.

fishing boats in the port of Termoli

In the middle ages, the old village on the hill was enclosed by defensive walls and turrets.  Then in the 13th century, a defensive tower, now known as the Swabian Castle, was built.  All of these structures were built as fortifications against invasions by other peoples.

an old turret

here’s the castle on the left and part of the old town and its wall on the right

a gate into the old town

The 13th century also saw the construction of the town’s main church on a large square at the top of the hill.  

the main piazza of the old town – the basilica is tucked around to the left

The church is built in the Romanesque style which is typically fairly plain without all of the decorations of the Gothic style or the Renaissance style.

the basilica

the interior of the basilica – note the wooden roof, similar to the Romanesque churches in Campobasso that also had wooden roofs

the pipe organ in the Termoli basilica

mosaics in the crypt of the basilica at Termoli

Just to the left of the cathedral is the former bishop’s house, built in the 16th century.  How convenient that the bishop could walk right next door to his “office,” the cathedral! 

the bishop’s house

On the other side of the cathedral is the Chiesa di Sant’Anna, also from the 16th century.  Now, why you need to build a church right next to the cathedral, that is a mystery to me.

La Chiesa di Sant’Anna

As you can imagine, all of the streets in the old town are narrow and lined with cobblestones.  Some are wide enough for a single car to navigate, but most are pedestrian-only.

And here’s the most fascinating street.  There is one alleyway that is only 41 centimeters wide (16.14 inches).  It competes with one other street in Italy to be considered the narrowest street in the country.  The other narrow street starts at 43 cm and then narrows down to 38 cm.  In any case, this little alleyway is quite creepy to traverse if you are claustrophobic.  (I kept thinking, “deep breath, deep breath, deep breath…”)

the narrow alley with Chad on the far end with his red shirt

me trying to hold myself together in this claustrophobic little alley

In contrast to the old town, newer Termoli stretches beyond the old defensive walls and into the surrounding plains and hills.  We walked just outside of the old walls and into the newer area to pick up some things for the house (stickers to make labels with our names for our apartment intercom and mailbox, soup bowls, cheese grater, spatula) and just to check out things in general.  We found the main shopping street which is pedestrian-only, and people were out in droves enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

the main shopping street in Termoli

…and our purchases at the “home goods” store

Since Termoli is a fishing town, for lunch we went back up into the old town and had a five-course seafood tasting menu at a really great restaurant.  This meal lasted for three hours. 

the very cool dining room of restaurant Svevia

we had a really good local white wine which comes from a vineyard 5 km from Termoli

octopus and cuttlefish salad with celery

savory bread pudding with seafood served in a fish broth – this is a traditional dish for poor fisherman – the black decoration is some sort of fried cheese thing – there were mussels in the bread pudding and shrimp and a tubular thing in the broth

fresh pasta with seafood – shrimp, mussels, something tubular, little tomatoes

baked fish fillet – very light in flavor and texture – served with roasted potatoes

It was all very delicious, but it was entirely too much food for me, although I tried to eat as much of it as possible.  By the end, I was so full that my stomach hurt, and I really wanted to burp but I was afraid that I would throw up if a burp came out.  So I just moaned.  Oh, and I had little floaty stars flying around my vision.    But I did eat every bite of the dessert, pistachio gelato!

pistachio gelato with chopped pistachio on top, served in a Spanish crust (not sure what this means but it was delicious) – all served on a bed of pistachio cream, pistachio reduction that was like a simple syrup, and pulverized pistachios – uh, yum!

and then an after-dinner drink – grappa for me and a local amaro for Chad that was delicious but “hoo-boy!”

Now it is 8:00 pm, and we are both still so incredibly full from lunch that we are not even remotely interested in an evening meal.  So on that note, I will leave you with photos of our new plants on our balconies which makes this little apartment feel more like home.

our spiky plant on the front balcony

our herbs will live on the back balcony where they will get more sun