Meeting some of the locals...

Wednesday and off to delightful Montepulciano in Tuscany, a town of leather, wine, beautiful views, typical Umbrian cuisine (gnocchi and pasta for lunch with a good Montepulciano vino rosso).  But the highlight was helping David to choose an Italian outfit – terracotta pants, dark green polo shirt and tan leather belt.  The search for shoes was unsuccessful, but apparently he’s since found these in Venice. 

Eating (yet again) - David and I at Montepulciano

Sunset at Birgitte and Piero's -
 what a view!

Dinner at Piero and Birgitte’s was wonderful.  We were a little apprehensive about how we’d communicate, but Birgitte’s English is very good and Piero lacked confidence rather than English.  We were served a classic Italian meal of home grown tomato with buffalo mozzarella and basil, then ravioli with rich mushroom sauce, then veal cooked with fennel and a sprig of lavender (!) with green salad, then chocolate tart and lemon gelato, then cheese, grappa (home made, but don’t tell anyone – could have stripped off paint) and coffee with a swig of liquorice liqueur. Is your mouth watering?  They’ll be picking grapes to make their home wine in the next few weeks and they jumped at our offer to help.  Should be fun!  Hope our guests at the time think so too.

We delivered David to the train station Thursday morning so he could head off to the next stage of his holiday adventure then spent the rest of the day restocking supplies, cleaning the house ready for the next guests and fitting in a nap.  Late afternoon, John and Janette were driven to our door by Janette’s cousin who lives in Rome (he is a pilot, and John reckoned he likes to fly in the car too – tipped over 135kph often).  Jan collected John and Janice from the station at 8pm, then it was spaghetti bolognaise and a surprisingly late night as we all caught up. 

We had arranged a time to visit the lovely chap who has a ceramic factory in Deruta on Friday morning. His gorgeous niece Laura was on hand to show us around the factory and explain the many steps involved in producing a ceramic piece.  We all purchased something and then drove up to the old town for lunch at our favourite Trattoria Gusto.  After exploring a couple more shops, all were fading so headed home. 

We ordered more ceramics from Laura
and her family.



This potter can turn out a pot in less than a minute.  Very impressive!



90 years old and still has a steady hand and no glasses!



Our guests began to become acquainted with Assisi while Jan and I purchased more supplies from the Saturday morning market (basil plants to provide fresh herbs, plaited onions, delicious tomatoes) and then explored the shopping centre in Collestrada – 44 check outs at the supermarket/department store!  Great selection of food, including ‘legs’ of prosciutto and a fish monger would cut steaks from the whole sword fish on a table of ice.  Not something we’d see in Sydney. We spent the afternoon sitting under the grape vine on the terrace at Eremo Paradiso before feasting on fettucine with garlic, smoked salmon, pine nuts and fetta with salad.  Everything DOES taste better in Italy!  

It's now Sunday and we’re heading off soon into Assisi to see ‘Chiara di Dio', a musical about the life of St Clare.  I saw the short version of it 3 times when I was last in Assisi so I’m looking forward to the full show.  It is a very beautiful production.  A thunderstorm during the night has brought cooler temperatures and occasional showers.  Feeling very much like Autumn now.