Catching Up on the Blog

Genga
Okay, I’m a little over 2 weeks behind. No excuses just a lot of fun things going on. Let me back up to 14 June to begin blogging again.
It was promising to be a rainy day so we decided to go to Genga where the Grotte di Frassassi is. It is the largest natural cavern in Europe, plus it is also a 20 minute train ride from Jesi into the mountainous area of the Marche. Since we were going there, Joe consulted our Slow Food Guide to Italy and found a restaurant listed. We decided to eat there and then go to the grotte. Upon arrival in Genga it was pouring down rain. The restaurant was listed as being in the vicinity of Genga and a short walk from the grotte. We weren’t exactly sure where to go so we went into the post office. It was a one person post office since Genga is a small town, the caves probably have more visitors per day than the entire population of the town. The postal worker told us (from what we could gather of through our minimal understanding of Italian) that Pierosara was on top of the mountain, 3 kilometers away, but all uphill. She asked Joe, Francesca and I if we could wait 20 minutes and when she closed up the post office for the day she drove us up there. This was shocking to us that someone would do such a thing. I kept thinking that if we were in the US there would be no way that we would do such a thing---getting in a car with a complete stranger.
The lunch was phenomenal. We started with fonduta. The fondue came out in pottery dishes with votive candles. There were three types of cheese (plain, mushrooms added, truffles added) and crusty squares of bread. Francesca thought it was cool to use the small forks and dip her bread in the cheese. We also had a cold cut plate from the region with various salumi--yum. Summer truffles are in season and Joe had a pasta dish with those, I had pasta with wild boar Bolognese—we split our pasta dishes. Francesca ordered gnocchi, but helped me to eat my pasta. For the main course I ordered mixed grill—Francesca ate the “meat lollipops” and Joe had something wonderful too. The sky was beginning to clear as we finished our main courses (secondi piatti) but we couldn’t resist dessert—crepes filled with vanilla gelato and a “fruit of the woods” berry sauce.
Fortunately the rain held off for our walk down hill.
When we arrived at the bottom of the mountain we walked to the grotte. The system was strange. You had to purchase entry tickets at a different location from the cave. So we took the free bus back to the parking area where tickets are purchased. It was a short walk from the train station so we checked the train schedule prior to purchasing tickets. We went through the cave—spectacular. The first “room” of the cave is so large that the cathedral of Milan would fit into it. Relatively speaking this discovery is also quite young, some spelunkers found the cave in 1971. I couldn’t imagine crawling through a small cave and realizing there is a drop off, tossing a pebble into the drop off and waiting many seconds before hearing it hit bottom. Fortunately, the tour does not start with the original cave, but a tunnel that has many doors to keep the environment in its more natural state.
After the tour we high-tailed it to the train station only to have the train we planned to take blow its whistle and continue on down the track without even slowing down. If we waited 4 more hours we could have taken another train, but that was not an option for us. We went to a local hotel and asked if they would please call us a taxi. The concierge was very helpful, he must have made 10 calls before he found a person who would take us back to Jesi.
The taxi driver pulled up in a decked out Mercedes station wagon, all GQ. He told us it would cost 65 Euro since he came from Fabriano which is in the other direction from Jesi. We decided that beat a hotel room cost and got in the car. Joe sat up front and started talking with the driver who happened to be a foodie. Joe told him about our lunch at Da Maria and the driver approved of our selections. He also talked about the regional foods with Joe and some festivals that were going on at the time. He reduced the price of our fare when we arrived at our apartment—guess he enjoyed good conversation with Joe.
That day will stick in my mind due to the kindness of strangers—the postal worker, the concierge, and although we had to pay him the taxi driver.

Ancona
On the 15th—Father’s Day, we decided to go back to Ancona to visit some of the sites that we had not seen the first time. We took the bus in and got off a little before the port. We first visited the Lazzeretto which is a pentagonal building in the water. It had boats tied up around it and was very interesting. It is currently undergoing some restoration work so we didn’t see much on the inside of it.
The Porta Pia (aka Grand Gateway) came next prior to the actual port where people take ferries to various locations. It was originally part of the walled city of Ancona.
We then walked around and saw some of the churches around the area. The most impressive church is duomo church on top of a hill that overlooks boats as they leave the port. It was impressive, not to mention an impressive hike up to it. We were able to inside the church and gleen some of its history. They crypt room was quite interesting since the old bishops were entombed in glass coffins, imagine explaining what a mummified looking corpse is doing in those robes. They were quite old, hundreds of years. The overall view was great.
We then walked down the Vialle della Vittoria that is a tree lined street with a walk way down the middle of it (we walked down it the first time we visited) and stopped at the playground.
In the evening we took the train back to Jesi and had a wonderful Father’s Day.

Parents and others
My parents arrived by car via Rome on the 17th. They rented a car for their stay so that we can have more freedom than simply taking the train or bus.
CJ, a friend from Charlotte, arrived on the 18th.
The 19th we went to Senigallia and had a fun time on the beach.
Upon our return from Oriveto Ron arrived (this is out of order, but it fits with the “others category”)

Orvieto
On the 20th we went to Orvieto to visit our friend Lorenzo and also revisit Orvieto. It is a great town. The week after our visit one of Joe’s visiting teachers owns a pastry shop in Orvieto. As with many of the buildings in Orvieto, there are caverns below the shop. Maurizio, the chef, invited Joe and the rest of us to tour his caves. It was very interesting. We stood in a cistern that was built by the Etruscans, saw a medieval “trash space” places where wine was aged, etc. Our guide was very passionate about the caves and provided a lot of information throughout the tour. Saturday afternoon we headed to Lago Balsena to “chill out” and then eat at a restaurant we visited last summer. We like this restaurant because it is high on a hill overlooking the lake. It was great again!

The week after Orvieto we ventured to Falconara Maritima to the beach. It has calmer waters. Francesca caught some sort of virus that week so we did not do much in terms of going places. She is much better now, but 2 days with fever and many more with another type of ailment kept us close to home. One thing that Joe, CJ, Ron, a classmate Jennifer, Maurizio the visiting chef, and I did was go to Uliassi. It is a Michelin one star restaurant in Senigalia. It was a great time. It was mainly seafood, and being on the cusp of liking seafood, I truly enjoyed the meal. The chef came out and spoke with us for a while and we also were able to tour the kitchen.

Weekend of June 27
Joe and CJ left for Bologna on Friday afternoon to see Iron Maiden at the Gods of Metal music festival. They rented a SMART car, and being the lucky person who gets to pick up the rentals, I was able to drive it from the rental place to our apartment. I wouldn’t mind having one of the 4 seaters. They had a great time at the concert.
I cooked dinner for my parents and Francesca in Jesi and we closed up early for the night.
Saturday we hung out and then in the evening ate a recommended restaurant called Hostaria Santa Lucia. We had heard the chef was temperamental and we got to see that in action. Some people from the south of Italy (as stated by the chef) refused to pay the bill. He followed them out of the restaurant and was yelling. At one point he hit the car they were in. After the altercation, he came back in and started ranting and apologizing at the same time for what occurred. Too bad my Italian isn’t any better. The food was great! The entertainment was also interesting.
Sunday we dropped CJ off at the train station and headed for the Conero Pennisula. We had heard that everyone goes to the beach on the weekend and we witnessed it. The entire coast line was like Spring Break. People wall to wall, people making their own parking spaces, it was insane. So we headed up to Loreto. It is second to Lourdes, France in terms of Catholic pilgrimages. I had never heard of it. It was fascinating. According to our guidebook for the Marche, “the house in Nazareth where Jesus lived after his return from Egypt was transported by angels first to Istria and then” to Loreto. We stood in the small sanctuary area that was apparently the house. Sorry no pictures allowed in churches. From there we braved the beach at Civitanova Marche to eat at a Slow Food restaurant. It was great (aside from finding parking about 1.5 miles away). The location was right on the beach in an air conditioned restaurant. Afterward, Francesca and my dad went swimming in the water and my mom, Joe, and I sat on the beach and watched hundreds of people walk by with their shoe leather tans or bright red sunburns. I am still amazed at the amount of people who were at the beach. To finish off Sunday we stopped in Ancona for a short walk (traditional for Italians on Sunday evenings) up the Vialle della Vittoria. The breeze from the water was great.

Photos to come once I get them from Joe (he took the pictures).

Montalcino and Montepulciano

On the way back from Giglio we stopped in Montalcino and Montepulciano. Masa, Sadao, Toshi, and I had a wine tasting at a small Slow Food enoteca appropriately named "Bachus." It was a funky little place that had a very friendly staff and was a little off the main street so not as touristy. It rained almost the entire trip back so there are no panoramic shots of the area--it is beautiful!

I had never been to Montepulciano. It is a neat city, much bigger than Montalcino and it probably hosts more visitors. We came across an enoteca that invited people to tour the underground cellars-hence the video. It was very interesting and all of the barrels were full of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. We did taste a few wines there too.

Isola Giglio

The Island of Giglio was great! When you talk about various activity orientations with cultures, the culture of Giglio is definitely in the "being" category. I could go back there and spend one week hanging out not worrying about anything.

Marcella was a wonderful, gracious host. I first met her in December of 2007 as her student in a cooking class. I enjoyed hearing her talk about Italian cuisine and also about her island. Now I truly understand her love of the place. She is so knowledgable about the culture, history, flora and fauny. She also seemed to know just about everyone.

The waters around the island were crystal clear. It was beautiful! In some of the movie shots you can see. The small inlet with Joe walking down the stairs has ancient Roman ruins. One of the hotels has a foundation consisting of a Roman foundation. How cool!

On the trip back to Jesi we stopped in Montalcino and Montepulciano for some wine tasting....more to come on that. (Our wireless server has been down so posts have been late. Also check out Joe's blog, it makes your mouth water so don't read it on an empty stomach.)

Laundry and this weekend

Well, I'm trying to catch up with my blog. This week has flown by and I realized that I didn't even put anything up about the Florence or the rest of Zia's visit.
We did go to San Marino. It was beautiful. If it had not been overcast I'm sure we would have been able to see beautiful vistas from the mountain top. The down side was that because San Marino is tax free, it was like a big shopping mall. I would like to visit it again one day.
We went to Florence last weekend. Monday (June 2) was a national holiday so it was tough finding a hotel, but we did. Florence was crowded, I couldn't imagine what high season would be like. If felt weird to have so much English (that is American English) spoken in Florence.
The exchange rate is hurting everyone. Even the vendors at the leather market near the Medici chapel said that they had to raise prices and couldn't haggle as much because the almighty dollar is not what is once was and so we are not spending as much.
We had some great pizza! Good company and interesting adventures.
Francesca and I hung out for the week and this morning we did laundry. I will forever be thankful for my in-home laundry facilities. It costs about $17 to wash and dry a large load of clothes. Don't even get me started on the cost of taking laundry to people who do it for you!
This weekend we head to "Giglio" which is an island off the coast of Tuscany. Francesca is referring to it as the island of the Skog (if you have not read that children's book, it's a good one). Three of Joe's classmates are going with us. We drive to Siena tonight and then one to Porto Santo Stefano in the morning to catch the ferry to the island.
We are going at the invitation of a very nice woman named Marcella who Joe met through a woman in Slow Food Charlotte. Marcella is also a chef who teaches at the Epicious Culinary School in Florence.
More on this trip when we return.

At the park with Zia, Mom and Dad

Firenze Trip