Italian commentaries continued...

Ciao!

Could these Marche roads get any smaller, we ask ourselves? YES, is definitely the answer! Try San Leo!! After another great Italian-style breakfast of scrambled eggs, tomatoes, salami & cheese (may do this at home...) we headed to the club house to post our blog ... took awhile, as we wanted to include pictures, and I also had to make an extra trip back and forth, as R forgot the list of Earthlink numbers that he uses for local connections...at any rate, FINALLY found the tennis scores from Sunday – and YES, Roger beat Rafa on clay at long last! (Found out that he won yesterday, but didn’t want to take the time to get a score, so it bothered me all day...) To make a comment on Italian TV – which is all we can get here at the Agriturismo – some of the commercials are hilarious, even without understanding Italian, but the programming primarily consists of 1) talking heads (in Italian, of course); 2) cartoons (and “Tom and Jerry” ARE funny...) and 3) game shows, which we do not understand! The Italian sports report yesterday morning gave the following: Calcio (soccer; seria A & B); YEA JUVE!; motocross (because an Italian was competing); America’s cup (again, because Luna Rossa is competing); and formula 1 racing – that’s all Ferrari...and that was IT! So...tomorrow night, however, I think we may be getting the soccer UEFA Champions League game from Athens on TWO stations – could it be because Liverpool is playing AC Milan?? Okay, enough of Italian culture for the moment; back to the road to San Leo.

San Leo is reputedly the “best” castle fortification in Italy. By that, I’m assuming Alcatraz on a mountain top – and there it was!! Truly unreal; very amazing. And there is a VERY narrow road looking like it was built right out of the hillside, to get to the town; about a lane and a half wide, very winding. Lovely little town – drove through it (took pictures of the vista, which includes the Republic of San Marino) and then parked the car to start the walk straight UP to the castle – but R spotted a small road that looked like UP it went – so we took it, and YEA – talk about saving steps! R measured the altitude gain on GPS, and it was 2,000 feet from town to top ... or rather front door; greater, if you went to the top of the castle. (I know we want lots of steps, but this was WAY over the top, even for me!) Got up there just as they were re-opening after lunch ... and the two employees who worked there must have fussed for 10 minutes of more as a small group gathered with the HUGE key to the castle! Key itself must have weighed 3-4 pounds, and was about 10 inches long – but they could not open the door! Finally, another employee came up who got it open – to a round of applause, of course! To be honest, I found San Leo incredibly depressing. The stone is lovely, but what went on there ... I don’t do torture at all well, you see, and certainly don’t need any visual aids, thank you very much...On top of that, I REALLY cracked the top of my head on a low doorway ... as R says, I spend so much time looking DOWN to make sure I won’t break or sprain an ankle, it really took me by surprise! Sat on the ground for a few minutes trying to collect myself; decided I’d rather not collect myself there, thank you very much, and we headed back down the hill. I would have liked to stop for gelato, but figured getting home would be the best thing all around...so today is a non-Gelato day! (What do they say ... a day without gelato is like a day without sunshine? Or something like that?!)...obviously one of the basic food groups!

Got home around 4:30 and found that even with it being really HOT outside, our incredibly thick house walls kept the inside nice and cool! Sat outside in the yard for a bit before preparing salads of tomatoes and cheese for starters. Then R made chicken in a white wine/cream and mushroom sauce; green beans for veg. It was GREAT! (Figure that the fruits, veggies and meats probably don’t have nearly the chemicals that they do in the U.S., which may account for the taste differences!) There is something SO wonderful about sitting outside on a chair with a good book, and having your husband call out “dinner’s ready!” Now am I spoiled, or what? It was my turn to do dishes, however...[Note from Robert: And it seems I use a LOT of dishes when I cook!]

So that’s about it for today, friends! Tomorrow we were thinking of the cave at Frassatti, but may just take a day off to enjoy our Le Marche house and the beautiful sunshine!

Love to all!
m