The thought of having 24 hours alone, anywhere, especially in Italy, before being joined by friends, is ?????…..Fill the missing word in yourselves, depending how you feel about it. I found it invigorating.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t really 24 hours of footloose and fancy free, as I had some serious commitments that included meetings and an inspection of a house that my wife, Susan, and I were seriously considering buying. But still, being in Italy by myself was a liberating experience.
Susan and I went through the house in the village of Pacentro, in the region of Abruzzo in central Italy, 2 months ago and were captivated by the thought of owning it. It had naby of the pre-requisites that we had outlined, but there were some issues that needed to be checked out before making an offer. We commissioned an engineer to look at the place and after receiving the mostly positive report, I was now coming back to talk it through with him, see the house again and make a final decision.
Back in September we stayed at Paolo’s B+B in L’Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which we loved, so coming back here really was like returning to a second home. Paolo’s Palazzo Rustici is his family’s traditional home with its own internal courtyard surrounded by a three-sided mansion. He has his own law office here, has kept his father and grandfather’s lawyer and judge nameplates proudly on display and has converted 8 rooms into a B+B. After only 4 days there in September, Paolo had become a friend, so seeing him again on this Thursday night was a happy reunion.
Mauro, the civil engineer who checked the house in Pacentro is Paolo’s friend so our morning meeting was at once friendly yet business-like. But it was also quite comic, since Mauro’s English is about as good as my Italian. Paolo acted as translator, which was all well and good when Mauro explained that the heating needed replacing, but then they would animatedly talk for five minutes, gossiping away, whilst I sat there blankly, not understanding a word. When I asked for a translation, 5 minutes of conversation boiled down to “They’ve painted the back wall”. Eventually, after this slightly weird three way conversation, I had gleaned as much information as I needed to understand that the problems in the house, whilst surmountable, demanded more time, energy and money that we were willing to give to the project. We weren’t buying it. However, despite knowing that we weren’t going to buy the property, I still set off to Pacentro to see it for one last time. I had a couple of hours to burn before the inspection, so I burnt them in nearby Sulmona, a charming city (aren’t all towns in Italy charming?) whose principal claim to fame is confetti. Not the chopped bits of white paper you throw over newlyweds, but sort of, yes. In the old days (I’m not sure when), you would throw candy covered almonds over the aforementioned newlyweds. These candied almonds were called confetti. This worked out expensive, so some genius decided that shredded paper was a much more cost-efficient way of showing your joy. However, Sulmona, which was Italy’s wedding candied almonds production centre, continued to make the original confetti. You can tour the factory or buy packets of these delicious sweets in town. They have also bolstered the candied wedding almonds industry with covering the said almonds with a glossy sheen, in a dazzling array of colors. These almonds are then stuck together mostly into flower shapes, forming bright candy bouquets. They really are striking works of art. So, the world wide confetti industry may have moved in different directions, but Sulmona seems to be doing pretty well reinventing itself using its own original confetti. If only Kodak had learnt from Sulmona.
The second inspection of the house left me with a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth (lunch didn’t, but that is obvious). The house was so right in so many ways, but equally, had enough problems to confirm that it wasn’t right for us. Someone will buy it and have a lovely house in the mountains of central Italy.
Tourists come in droves to Italy to see Rome, Florence, Venice and many other places. And it’s perfectly understandable. But happily, they don’t come to L’Aquila, Sulmona and Pacentro, or many, many, many other unknown towns and villages in Italy. It is places like these where we have found the real joy of travel, in different journeys around the world, and gives me and my friends the wanderlust to continue exploring. Even if Susan and I didn’t buy the house, discovering Pacentro and Sulmona is reward in itself and is part of a learning experience.
I had had a great day by myself but was happy to start the real holiday part of this trip with my friends. Mark and Yoni arrived to L’Aquila 24 hours after me, in the evening. Garry will complete the crew when we meet him Sunday morning in Vasto. In any case, upon their arrival, we immediately started with a meal of local delicacies; pasta guitara (which is made by forcing the pasta dough through a sort of guitar shaped extruder to cut it into thick strands), an Abruzzo specialty called arrosticini, which are mini skewers of beef, lamb chicken and other goodies cooked on the grill, chicory and more. Food in Italy is hyper local and seasonal. Abruzzo grows some of the best saffron in the world and the season has just finished. Last night I had pasta with fresh locally made cheese with fresh saffron flowers. Tonight was even one saffron better. Dessert was saffron infused tiramisu, in an unfancy, local joint, filled with happy L’Aquilians. It was our first great meal of many over this coming week.
