Italia & Village Life
Village Life ....... Eight weeks have passed since we arrived in Montone and we seem to experience and learn something different each day. Our interaction with the Montonesi people is so interesting. Some of the people are shy and reserved with the "buon giorno" (good morning) and "buona sera" (good evening) being their only communication, while others like to have a chat in Italian, and seem to forget how difficult at times it is to understand what they are saying to you, but with lots of hand gestures we manage. We are now feeling at home living here, and there are days that we stay around the village instead of touring. Our faces and names are known by the locals in the village and it is nice to walk around and be able to stop and have a somewhat restricted chat about the weather, a local event or how to cook a particular meal.
Others
like our friend Maria, who we met after two days of being here, likes to chat in
fluent Italian.
Liz and Maria spend time together with Maria speaking Italian and Liz trying to
translate and then reply in Italian. Maria always corrects Liz on her pronunciation, while Liz
just hopes that she is making sense to Maria. We have found a couple of
people in the village who have limited "broken" English but it is wonderful at
times to be able to ask for a "broken" English translation.
Maria has cooked us the best lasagne, and ricotta spinach cannelloni. After long discussions in Italian Liz was given the recipe and has cooked the lasagne successfully. Liz was invited to visit Maria's home and garden about 4 doors down from us. This large garden was full of flowers and vegetables. Every type of vegetable and herb were growing and Liz came away with a box full of vegetables, flowers and a very nice bottle of red wine.
While we have been here, there have been a couple of birthdays that we found out about and one was Maria’s, who turned 67 and then two days later her husband Silvio, turned 80 years of age. They really appreciated our small gifts that we presented to them. Another of our neighbours are Luciana and Carlo who live just “up the road” from us and Luciana is there for Liz to help out for translation in a slower and less complicated form of Italian. She loves to know where we are going and what we have done each day and is so hospitable with invites in for a drink of home made wine.
Carlo is Rob's friend. At first he would
just look at us and each day Rob would persist and say "buon giorno".
Carlo is in his late 20's. He started to watch us and then would
appear very close to us, so after much persistence by Rob, he started to say
hello to us. The friendship grew when Bill and Liz visited and met him.
Since then through some translation, Rob is now Carlo's best friend and he has
found out that he has two turtles, loves coke, cars and the Grand Prix, and he
would like Rob to ring him from Australia. Rob is also teaching him
English and we have progressed from hello to good morning and we are now working
on good evening. Carlo loves music and Rob and he have many
discussions regarding performances of artists at Wembley Stadium
After Maria and Silvio’s birthdays, it was then time for Rob’s friend, Carlo to inform us in lengthy confused Italian, that it was his birthday, a week later. We made sure that we gave him a gift and for the next four days he wore the tee shirt we gave him as a gift. The smile on his face when he received it from us was worth a million dollars.
There are lots of personalities in the village and we are now able to recognise different people - for example who is a member of the Montone band, who owns or works in the newsagency, the post office, the beauty salon, and the small grocery store. Then there is the priest who wanders around in jeans and tee shirt, the restaurant owners and even the mayor of Montone. This all takes time and that is why we are quite busy.
We have also been invited into the home of Sergio and Manuella, who have a unique small three story villa within the village. Sergio speaks a little English, so there have been brilliant conversations between the four of us, including his wife Manuella who is delightful. She gave us a bottle of home made peach jam which was delicious.
We Must Be Locals, Prices Are Dropping..... What has been very interesting in the time we have been in Montone is that the price we pay for wine and coffee at the local cafe has dropped. We started off paying Euro1.50 (A$2.60) for a cappuccino and Euro2.00 (A$3.45) for a glass of wine but over the last few weeks the price has dropped to the price the locals pay, Euro1.00 for coffee and Euro1.50 for wine.
Non Stop Music.... Musical entertainment seems to be non stop in Italy and the local Montone music festival finished with the Montone Junior Band who were between the ages of 15 – 20 years of age and another night it was the Montone Choir in San Francesco Church just up a couple of streets from our apartment. The choir consisted of both men and women who sang in Italian for two hours.
Another Jazz Festival.... this time in Citta di Castello, 15 minutes from Montone. We happened to fall over this small piazza (square) and a blues jazz trio were playing. The restaurant was holding the event and supplying food and drinks gratis for the people who happened to wander in to listen. We met up with four American woman (two now living in Italy) and after the music had finished, we all went out to a local Italian Restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though Rob had five women to contend with and all talking at once.
More music – will it ever stop.... At the bottom of the hill from Montone is the small village of Santa Maria de Sette and it was their turn to host a music festival. The night we attended it was a duet, Marco and Claudia who were on the small stage in front of the dance floor. Marco played the piano accordion and electronic organ while Claudia sang. There was an echo chamber and dry ice to give atmosphere. This couple played for a full 2 hours, non stop (no union rules here), while the Italians ate, drank and danced the night away. They really know how to enjoy themselves.
The
Village Pizza
Shop Re-opens.... After an extensive refurbishment
which included all new equipment, the village pizza shop opposite us has
re-opened and this has lead to an interesting observation which appears to be
widespread in Italy, except in restaurants. They only make big (grande)
pizzas which are at least 600mm diameter. You then purchase the pizza by
the slice and what you don't take is sold to others. This puzzled us
because they have such a wide variety of pizzas that there must be a huge amount
of waste, if the remainder of the pizza is not sold.
Shopping In Italy..... Sunday is a day of rest and all food shops are closed. If you like to shop, not food shop, Monday is not a good day for this, as many of the shops in tourist areas close for the day. Each day the shops close for siesta between 1.00 pm and 4.00 pm so you must pick your time.
Everything Runs On Time In Italy????? We have learnt over the last 7 weeks that everything runs on time in Italy which is amazing. Our only problem is that our watches seem to be running fast by 15 to 45 minutes all the time. So we have learnt that if a concert is due to start at say 9:15 PM then you, along with everyone else, turns up at 9:30 to 9:45 PM. Once you understand the system it really is not a problem and certainly nothing to stress about.
The
Changing Countryside..... It is interesting the changes to
the surrounding countryside over the last 8 weeks. The sweet corn used for pig
fodder is nearly ready to harvest. Sunflowers which had been
blooming and always facing the sun have now started to droop their heads and
going brown. It seems the sunflowers are not for harvesting but for crop
rotation to put nutrients back into the soil. The wheat has been harvested and the
hay baled and stored for winter. The lorries and tractors filled with wood for the
winter fires are now appearing on the roads, and the first load was delivered to
a house in the village. This garage has wood stocked from the floor to the
ceiling ready for the winter, even though it is still ranging from 30 - 36
degrees most days. Many of the fields where wheat was growing have been
ploughed and are laying fallow for the winter and many of the tobacco crops are
being harvested. With recent rains the countryside is lush
and green and really is a picture.
The Art of Conversation..... A definite skill that all Italians seem to have is the art of conversation and community spirit. Whenever there is an event in the village, everybody attends. All the Montonesi know each other, and there is constant chatter amongst everyone. The only time that it is fairly quiet is during siesta, but after siesta it all begins again. The Italians seem to be very family orientated with the young, middle aged and elderly mixing beautifully.