SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 1 - LEAVING HOME, TO HEAD FOR HOME

May 28, 2013, 12:58 am

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A year has passed since our last visit to the Sabina. In 2012 Richard and I and our friend Candace decided to spend a full month in Italy basing ourselves in the hilltown of Casperia in the Province of Rieti which is about and hour and a half from Rome.

Aerial view of Casperia showing the Porta Rieti

Of course there is so much to see in Italy, but rather than spreading ourselves thin cramming in twenty cities in thirty days, we decided to go deep and see what it was like to spend an entire month in one place... There was no question that this was the right thing to do... Our decision paid us back in amazing rewards, new friendships, and rich experiences we could never have imagined. 

Photo of our April 30, 2012 lunch party at Friends Cafe, April 30, 2012 courtesy of Massimo Fidale

So here I am again on a plane with Candace heading to Rome. Richard left two weeks ahead of me. He and his tap shoes have been exploring Firenze and Perugia, the capital of Umbria, before he headed down to Casperia and Il Sogno to get things ready for my arrival. 

Many of you know that Richard is an avid tap dancer--something he has discovered late in life--and that he writes a blog on his tap dancing journey called The Happy Hoofer. 


Richard plans to take pictures of his tap shoes visiting the sites in all the places he visits during his tour for a future blog posting. So far he has sent pictures of his tap shoes in a number of places in Florence and Perugia. Early on in the trip he sent me this photo of his shoes taking in the view of the ancient Forum Boarum and Santa Maria in Cosmedin Church, the home of the famous Bocca della Verità, from the window of his hotel room in Rome. Candace has her shoes off and on the seat beside her. They are iridescent in the reading lights of the darkened cabin and I think they are beautiful... "If Richard can take photos of shoes, why can't we?" I think. 

Candace's beautiful shoes resting on the trans-Atlantic flight from Toronto to Munich

We arrive in Munich, elated but confused. Somehow in our fatigue and jetlag (Candace has been flying back and forth from Europe to drop off Richard then pick me up, and I have been working long and hard hours teaching English to three different Japanese ESL groups and departed Canada with Candace on a midnight flight to Toronto on the last day of one of the programmes) we have gotten lost in the Munich Terminal and we are losing precious time for our connecting flight to Rome. We get a little panicked, then as usual Candace finds her bearings and guides us through the maze of bureaucracy and architecture to our waiting gate and our Lufthanza flight to Roma.

I have left my English world behind... On the flight from Toronto to Munich I hear French and German mix with English. Arriving in Munich all linguistic familiarity and afinity ceases. I speak five languages in varying degrees of proficiency but German is not one of them... Ich sprechekein Deutsch... and I can only understand a few words: ausgang, eingang, über, unter, bitte, danke, saft and kartoffeln. My vocabulary is laughable... Thankfully most Europeans, unlike most North Americans, speak at least three and sometimes more languages, and one of them is usually English...

At the gate for our flight to Rome about a good percentage of the waiting crowd are Italian and finally, the language I have been dying to hear and speak is audible here and there around me... Just a few hours more and I will be home.

By the time Candace and I board the flight we are exhausted. I doze for the first half of the flight but then rouse myself to catch my first glimpse of Italy through the sliver of window to my left. Are those the Alps or the Appenines? Where are we? How much longer do we have.

As time passes I notice not only mountains but some flatlands and some lakes as well. Is that Lake Bolsena or Lago di Bracciano? My grasp of the geography of the Etruscan side of the Tiber is tenuous at best... but if that river down there is the Tiber... 

Monte Terminillo photographed from Monte Guadagnolo courtesy of Georgio Clemente

All of a sudden I see a snow covered mountain that I recognize... Monte Terminillo, the highest peak in the province of Rieti... and if that's Terminillo... WE ARE FLYING OVER THE SABINA!!!

I crane my neck to see the lush green countryside west of the mountain and see stretches of Saint Frances' sacred valley, the Valle di Rieti. As the airplane descends enroute to Rome I think I recognise Fara in Sabina and Monte Soratte.  I can feel my pulse racing... We are almost there...

We touch down at Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Candace, who has flown all the way to Vancouver from Europe to take me to Rome on a pass must turn around and immediately fly back to Canada. She has a number of work flights to do and some exams to write before she can come back to join us in Casperia.  I am in awe of her stamina and even more of the depth of her friendship.

With a kiss and a hug we make our farewells. I head out into the terminal to find the train to Poggio Mirteto while Candace disappears into the milling crowds heading toward her flight...  

Ma, sono veramente arrivato. I've really arrived! Sono tornato in Italia... a Roma... I am back in Italy... in Rome... e fra poco saro' nella mia Sabina. and soon I will be in my Sabina.

I find the train station easily. I buy an 11 Euro ticket for Poggio Mirteto Scalo at a wicket near the platform, then head out onto the binario to wait.

I take out my Wind cellphone which I charged in Vancouver before my departure and press the button to turn it on. The sound of the familiar signature chime of four ascending notes makes me smile... There are a few euros credit left on the phone from last year. Time to see if I can still make calls...

In turn I phone three friends: Alessandra in Rome, Clelia in Tuscania, and Massimo in nearby Fiumicino. I am exhausted from the flight and my Italian is rusty, but no one seems to mind. It is so great to hear their voices. I tell them I have arrived safely and that I look forward to seeing them as soon as possible. Then I try Richard.  

He sounds so relaxed. He says he has the house all prepared and that there will be a Negroni waiting for me at Friends. I can't wait!   


The train from the airport to Poggio Mirteto Station departs every half hour on the Orte Line and takes 90 minutes. The next available train for Poggio Mirteto will depart at 2:28 getting me to Poggio Mirteto Scalo around four. 

A graffitti covered train glides magestically into Fiumicino station. I gather my bags and climb board for this second last leg of my journey to Casperia... 90 minutes of train travel will be followed by one last leg of 20 minutes on a bus.

I find a seat on the right hand side of the train. The further north I get, this side of the train will afford me my first views of the Sabine hill. It is a beautiful sunny day in Italy. The train is not that crowded, and slowly begins to empty out as we pass through Rome. We pass through Roma Trastevere where I bought my Wind cell phone a year ago, then slowly glide on to Roma Ostiense with its Mussolini era station building beside the ancient pyramid tomb of Cestius and the nearby Protestant cemetery. 


The Cimitero Acattolico di Roma is a popular tourist attraction. The remains of poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley and those of Danish sculptor Hendrik Christian Andersen are buried her among those of many other illuminaries.

I haven't made it there for a visit there yet but one day...

My train rumbles on. Across from me sit a middle-aged Italian couple seemingly recently returned from a romantic holiday in the Caribbean. We strike up a conversation that lasts until they get off at Monte Rotondo. I am now only a few stations away from my destination. To my right climb the umbrella pine crowned hills of the Sabina while on my left sometimes visible through the scrim of trees that rim its banks meander the silver waters of the Tiber.

We pass through the station for Fara in Sabina. Less than a half hour drive northeast from the station in an exquisite green valley oasis lies the Carolingian era Abbazia di Farfa, one of medieval era Italy's most powerful abbeys. But I am not thinking so much of the beautiful church as I am of the amazing bed linens we hope to buy at the artisanal textile shop on the Abbey's grounds... 

Photo courtesy of Laboratorio Artigiano Tessile di Scipioni Gustavo website

...that, and another excellent meal at the Trattoria da Lupi across the street.

My mind floods with the memories of our time in the Sabina in 2012. Every hill, every twist of the Tiber has a memory of breathtaking views, time spent with amazing friends, or an unforgettable meal. 

As the train slows down and glides into Poggio Mirteto Scalo, I crane my neck for a glimpse of Ecofattorie Sabine where we bought our organic cheese, sausages, and other ingredients for so many delicious meals. I have half a mind to drag my bags the 400 metres or so from the train station to the shop and stock up, but I am expecting that the bus to Casperia will be arriving soon and that the less things I have to carry, the better.

The first thing that hits you when you get off the train in the Sabina is the wood fire smoke-perfumed air. It is olive pruning season and the farmers in the surrounding hills gather the olive trimmings together in piles and burn them for weeks on end. Then there is also the smell of kitchen fires. Here in the Sabina most of the bread and even much of the cakes and pastry people eat are baked in wood fired ovens. My head reels, as much with the myriad of memories this smell brings as from the smoke itself. I close my eyes for a moment and take in breath after deep breath, feeling the fatigue of my long journey slip away. I am home... well almost.

The Poggio Mirteto Station, which looks like it is perpetually undergoing renovation, is largely empty. 

It being Sunday, the shops across the street are mostly closed and shuttered, but the Cedro del Libano Bar is open. 

I walk towards the third bus stop to wait for the pullman to Casperia when my phone rings. It is Richard. 

He says that Stefano and Nicoleta were worried that there might not be a bus because it was Sunday and that he and Nicoleta's mother Mara would be picking me up by car in about 10 minutes.  Perfetto!

I grab my bags and walk back toward the station to where the carpark is and wait. The minutes tick by. A number of cars drive up to pick up or drop off other people who head into the bar for a coffee. Then a bus bound for Casperia also pulls in, soon  followed by Richard and Mara in Mara's red car. 

The 20 minute journey from Poggio Mirteto to Casperia is a blur. The salutary effects of the woodsmoke in the Sabine Hill air gave way to a heady mix of excitement, fatique and sensory overload. I rode up front with Mara, Nicoleta's mother, and Richard rode in the back.

What I do remember thinking was that Nicoleta's mother was a real dear to come all the way from Casperia to pick me up and how grateful I was to be on the final leg of my journey in a car travelling over beloved and very familiar roads. 

As Mara's car took us up and out of the Tiber valley a breathtaking view of the hilltown-studded Colli Sabini appeared on our right. Mara very graciously slowed down the car to allow me to take a picture of far off Catino with its 1200 year-old pentagonal tower. So many memories. Ciao Giorgio! 

Cantalupo courtesy of Filippo Simonetti

A few more minutes down the road and up loomed Cantalupo in all its glory. Despite its proximity to Casperia, we had never gotten around to a visit during our past stays and I hoped we could rectify that this time around.

I can only describe the experience of anticipation on the drive to Casperia from Poggio Mirteto like the feeling felt waiting for an unveiling... 

Roccantica, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Though other hill towns reveal themselves from far off, you don't get to see Casperia until you are almost upon her. As the road twists and turns she hides herself like a tease behind the wooded slopes of Montefiolo and the spur of rock upon which the comune's picturesque cemetery perches. Then, just as the car rounds a curve along the base of the cemetery hill, she appears.

 

 

Mara manoeuvred her car through the bustling traffic circle, past Santa Maria in Assunta church, Bar Petrocchi and the gas station on the right, and our beloved little alimentari and handy Bank of Etruria on our left, driving us right up to the Porta Romana gate. Finally, we have arrived! 

Bags in hand, we thanked and bade a quick farewell to Mara, who drove off on an errand...

I paused for a moment just inside the Porta Romana to read the posters on the town bulletin board, then turned and left the 21st century with its cars and technology behind into the Middle Ages... Well not quite...

There are about twenty or so broad cobbled steps leading up from the Porta Romana to Piazza Umberto I and a second gate that leads into the heart of the medieval borgo. For centuries these steps provided easy access to donkeys and horses that conveyed goods and people in and out of the hilltown. Here and there, stuck into the outside walls of the stone houses of the borgo you can still see examples of the cast iron rings the people of Aspra used to tether these animals. 

Richard took my red carry-on suitcase and sprang up the stairs. I grabbed my remaining two bags and followed him at a slower pace, dying to see what and who waited at the top of the stairs, and at the same time savouring every step. ...and then, I arrive at the top of the stairs and see Friends Cafe and Nicoleta...

 

And there was our favourite table waiting for us...

 Boh, the Friends' mascot cat says it's time for that Negroni!

I am so tired, but so very happy. The heady mix of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth is my favourite drink on the entire planet...  and no one knows how to make them like Nicoleta does. (Sorry Stefano) :)

It's the perfect end to my first day back in the Sabina. I am back at Friends Cafe with dear friends, my favourite drink, and a spectacular Sabine sunset to top it all off.

But about 200 steps remain between me and Il Sogno, our home away from home while we are here in the Sabina. My first Negroni finished, I reluctantly pull myself away from the table, gather my belongings and trudge up the hill.

At the house, Richard has a fire waiting. I unpack, change my clothes and have a rest for a while... But I am hungry all of a sudden, and though there is food in the house, we know we will be heading down the hill again soon.

The best bruschette in all the world await us back at Friends.

By the time we make it back down the hill to Friends, it is dark and rather cold out. Nicoleta shivers and complains about the cold... She recommends that we eat inside, but we are crazy Canadians with scarves and down jackets. We dit down at our favourite table and order bruschette drizzled with the most delicious Sabina D.O.P. olive oil from our friend Andrea's parent's olive groves in Castelnuovo di Farfa. Any oil that the toasted bread does not absorb I transfer from plate to greedy mouth with my finger. It is too delicious to waste even a drop. 

For our main course we have Stefano's signature stringozzi al ragu'. It is a perfect warming dish on a cold night like this. The delicious food, the bottle of Pecorino and the jet lag make me drowsy. I am having such a wonderful time talking to Stefano and Nicoleta as we eat, but I realize that I really am tired and that it is time to head back up the hill to bed... Tomorrow is another day. 

We kiss Stefano and Nicoleta good night and carfefully wend our way up the cobbled stairs back up the hill to home and to bed.

I can't remember this myself but the photo says it all. Apparently I was so tired when I got back home that I sat down in the kitchen and fell asleep with my head on the counter...  Oh well...

Tomorrow, another adventure begins...

 
 

 

    
 

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GLASS BEADS FROM ANCIENT ROME Discovered In An Ancient Mound Tomb in Japan

May 30, 2013, 10:01 am

≫ Next: I CAVALLI DELLA SABINA - Following The Grande Transumanza

≪ Previous: SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 1 - LEAVING HOME, TO HEAD FOR HOME

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Photo courtesy of Kyoto Shimbun

Okay, this has nothing to do with the Sabina, but I found this really interesting. Some of you may know that I lived and studied in Japan for about two and a half years in a small town called Okayama in the late 70s and early 80s. A friend of mine from Rome sent me a very interesting article on Facebook today about a recent archeological discovery in Japan.

Three multi-layered gold flecked glass beads from Imperial Rome were found in a mound tomb 古墳　near one of Japan's ancient capitals, Nagaoka-Kyo　長岡京, near Kyoto. The name of the mound tomb is Utusukushi Tomb No. 1. 宇津久志１号墳, which you can see being excavated in this photo below.

Image courtesy of syoki-kaimei.blog

According to the articles, the beads likely date from the 1st to 4th century AD and somehow were traded  and travelled 10,000 kilometers to Japan. The tomb itself dates from the mid fifth century.

I am adding links to two articles in English, one in Italian, and two in Japanese for those of you who are interested.
 
ENGLISH
http://www.silkroadgourmet.com/silk-road-in-the-news-7-roman-jewelry-in-5th-c-japanese-tomb/

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/06/2012/roman-beads-found-in-japan
 
ITALIANO
http://arigato.blogosfere.it/2012/06/scoperta-clamorosa-in-giappone-gioielli-dellantica-roma-ritrovati-in-una-vecchia-tomba-a-kyoto.html
 
日本語
http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sightseeing/article/20120621000144
  
http://syoki-kaimei.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2013-01-26 

I CAVALLI DELLA SABINA - Following The Grande Transumanza

June 2, 2013, 3:14 pm

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As mentioned in an earlier post, an amazing event is going on right now in the Sabina. This is the Great Transhumance or Grande Transumanza, the movement of about 150 beautiful horses from the Tiber Valley over the mountains to their summer pastures on Monte Terminillo. 

The owner of these horses is a man named Manio Fani, seen here at right leading his family and workers.

This event started today, June 2nd. The first leg of the journey has brought the horses, many with their cute little foals, from Ponzano to the beautful Santuario di Vescovio in Torri In Sabina. 

By the end of their journey, these amazing horses and their caregivers will have traversed the territories of these Sabine comunes: Stimigliano, Tarano, Torri, Vacone, Montasola, Cottanello, Contigliano, Morro, Rivodutri, Cantalice, Rieti andMicigliano.
 

These photos, taken by our friend Alessandra Finiti, show the horses arriving in Vescovio and having a rest there while the Fani family and their workers have lunch.

A little foal enjoying a rest during its first visit to the Sanctuary of Vescovio

Manlio Fani gallops across a field at Vescovio

A well-deserved rest after a roam in the Roman ruins...

I hope that Alessandra and others will keep us posted on the progress of these beautiful horses. 

Enroute to Montasola where the horses will overnight

Buon viaggio a tutti!

THE MANY FACES OF MONS SORACTE - MOUNTAIN OF MYSTERY

June 10, 2013, 1:57 am

≫ Next: SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 2 - STREET SIGNS, SEWER GRATES AND GATTI! - My First Full Day in Casperia

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This photo of Monte Soratte courtesy of 06blog.it

"Monte Soratte is a mountain ridge in the province of Rome, Italy. It is a narrow, isolated limestone ridge with a length of 5.5 kilometres and six peaks."
 

Google Maps view of Monte Soratte (A) the Tiber valley, and several comunes in the Sabina

That is how Wikipedia begins to describe this mountain of mystery sacred to the ancient people of the lower Tiber Region: the Etruscans, the Faliscans, the Capenati and the Sabines.

Monte Soratte by courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

With a height of 691 metres—2,267 feet, for you Americans—Monte Soratte is no Mt. Fuji or Kilimanjaro.
 

Monte Soratte - Mountain of mystery in all its majesty captured by Filippo Simonetti

 Corno Grande, at 2,912 metres, is the highest peak in the Apennines... And there are much higher mountains in the Italian Alps, but no Italian mountain, other than perhaps Vesuvius, commands my attention or demands my respect the way Monte Soratte does.

Monte Soratte seen from Poggio Catino, courtesy of Manuel Montanari

It is easy to see how Soratte became the object of ancient veneration. Monte Soratte is a mountain island, the lone major elevation in the Tiber valley, a true landmark, visible for miles around. The way the rays of the setting sun plays upon its slopes...

Monte Soratte from Montopoli courtesy of Filippo Simonetti

...or how it suddenly magically reveals itself from the Tiber fogs make it truly seem like a mountain set apart by the gods.

Monte Soratte by Paolo Pitoni

The ancient Etruscans, Faliscans, Capenati and Sabines worshiped the god Soranus here. In Roman times the tutelary deity was Apollo. 

Monte Soratte panorama courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Later on Soratte with its many caves became a refuge for Christian hermit monks. Legend has it that Pope Sylvester I took refuge here during a persecution under Emperor Constantine. The sixth century Hermitage of Saint Sylvester, built on the remains of a temple of Apollo commemorates this event. 

L'eremo di San Silvestro courtesy of tesorintornoroma.it

There are four other hermitages on the mountain, that of Sant'Antonio, Santa Lucia, San Sebastiano and the church of Santa Romana.  

Ruins of the Church of Santa Romana courtesy of www.teverenotizie.it

Attesting to Monte Soratte's continued veneration are a number of important religious festivals and sagre associated with these shrines, including the Festa della Madonna di Maggio, famous for its torchlight processions.

Festa della Madonna di Maggio photo courtesy of Rome for Free http://freeofchargeinrome.blogspot.ca

Perhaps another aspect of Monte Soratte that added to its mysterious allure to ancient peoples were its many pits and caves created by karst erosion. These pits called meri can reach a depth of 115 metres. It was perhaps this ready-made honeycomb of caves along with its proximity to Rome that led the Fascist authorities in 1937 to begin construction of a series of tunnels and bunkers that were to serve as a refuge to the supreme command of the Italian army in case of war.

The bunker entrances during the initial phase of construction courtesy of www.bunkersoratte.it

The bunkers on Monte Soratte were used during WWII as the headquarters of Nazi Field Marshall Kesselring after he was forced to leave his former headquarters in Frascati. Legend has it that the Nazi's hid a huge treasure in one of the caves under Monte Soratte which to this day has not been recovered.

The following account is written in The Lost Treasure of the Nazis by Noel Richards:The mountain village of San Oreste lies north of Rome and rests at the base of Monte Soratte. The mountain is honeycombed with mine shafts. On May 3, 1944, Nazi SS troops went to Monte Sorrate and in a rock-hewn vault deep within one of its tunnels, hid a fortune worth $72,000,000. The cache consisted of 60 tons of gold bullion siezed by the Germans from the National Bank of Italy, plus a huge amount of jewelry looted by the Nazis from Rome's Jewish community. After depositing the treasure deep in the mountain, they then buried it under thousands of tons of rock with a huge explosion. The lone survivor of this burial escaped only to be sought out and killed later on. Numerous treasure expeditions have sought this hoard without success.

Casperia's Sta. Maria in Assunta Church with Monte Soratte in the background, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

During the Cold War part of the same cave and tunnel system used by the Fascists and the Nazi's was refitted as an Atomic bunker to house the Italian government but this work was never completed. Who knows why the project was stopped, but then again, perhaps they dug down deep enough, found what they were looking for and...

Clouds and Sunset over Monte Soratte courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Apparantly tours of the bunkers are available from time to time. In the meantime, sunsets over Soratte are truly spectacular, as radiant as the lost Nazi gold that perhaps still lies under the mountain, waiting to be found.

Sunset over Soratte by Alessandra Finiti

For those of you who can read Italian and who enjoy historical fantasy fiction, Marco Borsi, who you will read about in a later post about our visit to Cottanello earlier this year, has written an very interesting book that touches on the legends associated with Monte Soratte and the ancient gods called I Primi Altari (the First Altars). 

My Italian is still not very good, so I am going through it slowly, but I am enjoying what I understand.

Soratte emerges from the Tiber fog, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

When I first thought about creating this post, I thought of it mostly as a way to showcase the various amazing images of Monte Soratte taken by, and kindly shared by, my Italian friends... I think I have done that, and I am glad this has turned into something a little more...

Monte Soratte, courtesy of Andrea Marchetti

Monte Soratte and the Tiber fogs, courtesy of Casa Fagiolina in Canneto

Monte Soratte at dawn, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Monte Soratte from Poggio Mirteto, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Monte Soratte from Catino, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Monte Soratte from Montpoli, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Monte Soratte under the moonlight, courtesy of Filippo Simonetti

Monte Soratte in the distance seen from Fara in Sabina, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Monte Soratte from Casperia courtesy of Richard Rooney

Monte Soratte with honeysuckle, courtesy of Filippo Simonetti

Monte Soratte and light on the Tiber valley, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Monte Soratte in the rain seen from Vacone, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Sunset over Sorratte, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

An apartment in Poggio Mirteto with a fabulous view, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Monte Soratte seen from Canneto in the evening, courtesy of Casa Fagiolina

Monte Soratte from Casperia, courtesy of Stefano Aperio Bella

Monte Soratte with poppies courtesy of Lorenzo Ballanti

Excellent Sabina postcard courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

I do indeed love Soratte. The next time we visit the Sabina, I hope we can take a day trip with our friends and visit Sant'Oreste, the little village near the southern peak... And then there is that gold...

Monte Soratte and a splendid Sabine sunset, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

 If you understund Italian, here is a link to a very well done documentary on Monte Soratte broadcast in July 2015 by Rai 3.

SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 2 - STREET SIGNS, SEWER GRATES AND GATTI! - My First Full Day in Casperia

June 18, 2013, 2:26 pm

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My first picture taken on my first full day in the Sabina. The view from the bedroom at Il Sogno

My first night back in the Sabina, at Il Sogno in Casperia I slept like a log. Of course I was exhausted from the trip and was more than a bit jetlagged. All I remember is Richard adding some logs to the camino (fireplace) in the bedroom and the next moment it was day. I don't remember putting my head to the pillow.

A half dozen different breeds of birds were singing outside our window. Intermixed among their tweets, coos and chirrups, like the echo of a favourite song sung by a long lost friend was the muffled clanging of sheeps bells ringing in the distance. It was a beautiful sunny day in the Sabina. I wish I could wake up every day and feel like this.

Pecore, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Richard was up making an espresso in the kitchen with our favourite Illy coffee. I pulled myself away from the window and headed into the kitchen to make some toast for some morning crostini. Last year, during one of our early forays to the alimentari for supplies, Letizia, one of the women who works at the deli counter, told us how to eat the local red prosciutto over hot toast. 

The heat from the toasted bread melts the rich white fat from the prosciutto into the toast releasing a heady aroma. Who needs butter? Anyway, since that day we usually have toast with prosciutto crudo once a day, either with coffee for breakfast or as an antipasto for lunch while we are here.

After breakfast we went out for a first walk around town. Last Christmas we decided to buy ourselves a new digital camera. I hadn't had much of a chance to practice with it before we left so I brought it with me, thinking I would take a lot of stock photos of Casperia to use later on for the blog. The light was perfect for a good morning shot of our front door so I took a couple of photos.

Anyone who has ever visited any of the Italian hill towns usually comes home with a collection of door photos. No two are the same. Some are rectangular, and some are curved at the top. Some are two panelled while others are a single door. 

Some are painted, some are just the weathered wood, and many are all possible stages of what you can have in between and make for a great photo. Someone could do a whole coffee table book on the subject... or at least a set of interesting looking post cards. 

The door to Il Sogno with the terrace garden on the left above the cantina.

Richard and I wandered down Via Mazzini and I took pictures as we went. 

Via Mazzini, the street where Il Sogno, the house we rent is located, is named after Genoese-born visonary Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the key figures of the 19th century struggle to unify Italy,and an early advocate for a United States of Europe. 

I made a mental note to myself to photograph as many of the street and alley name signs I could find and research the significance of each name. 

Further down Via Mazzini we pass La Torretta Bed & Breakfast. One ofthe palazzi beside it is undergoing restoration and renovation. It is a beautiful three story stone structure. We greet the workers as we pass and try to peak inside but the interior seems completely gutted. I wonder who has bought it and what it will look like when everything is finished.

 

Sign for La Torretta B&B

Further past La Torretta is one of my favourite intersections in Casperia. Here you can see Via Mazzini with the white stones, merging on to Via Garibaldi paved in black basalt. It is my favourite intersection for a number of reasons. First, the process of moving from one street to another brings to mind the process of changing gears on a ten-speed bike; changing the chain from one sprocket to another... It is sort of hard to explain... You have to remember that walking around town in Casperia you are always climbing or descending... always changing gears...

It is a combination of the two sloped streets meeting, one white, one black, both descending toward each other. The physical sensation of changing from a descent to an ascent as you change coloured roads... and then there is this amazing view of Via Garibaldi snaking below as you pass.

It is perhaps Casperia's most photographed street section. Here is my photo of it. Giorgio Clementi...

Photo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Alessandra Finiti, and other more talented photographers than I have several amazing shots of it.

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Via Garibaldi, like every Via Garibaldi in every city, town and village across Italy is named for the hero of Il Risorgimento, the fight for Italian unity and nationhood, Nice-born general and politician Giuseppe Garibaldi.  

Garibaldi and his heroic efforts caught the imagination of people all over the world. Our Italian friends might be surprised to know that since 1860 there has been a volcanic peak here in British Columbia named Mount Garibaldi. Nearby Mount Garibaldi is a lake named Garibaldi Lake, and since 1927, the 1,946.5 square kilometre area around the mountain and lake has been known as Garibaldi Provincial Park.

Street sign for Via Cola di Rienzo

From Via Garibaldi, we turn off onto Via Cola di Rienzo. This street is not named after any Italian soft drink, but after another interesting figure from Italian history, this time medieval history, the 14th century Roman-born visionary, popular leader and Tribune of Rome, Nicola di Rienzo. 

Cola di Rienzo succeeded ruling Rome for a while, but met a tragic end at the hands of an angry Roman mob on October 8, 1354. If you visit the Campidoglio Museum or the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome you can see a statue of Cola di Rienzo between the steps leading up to the museum and the church. This statue, raised in 1877, stands close to the place where he was killed.

As we walk through the streets and alleyways of Casperia, our attention is drawn to a number of interesting details which we had not noticed or paid that much attention to during our previous visits. 

Cast iron storm drain cover made at a fountry in Rieti

During our earlier visits to Casperia we tended to focus our attention on the buildings that surrounded us... Our gaze was usually drawn up to the amazing defensive tower houses that dominate the borgo.

  

This, being our third visit to Casperia, I am able to pay more attention to minor details in the scenery around us. The textures and colours of the story-filled stone walls of the houses...

...and the different layouts and patterns used to pave Casperia's cobbled streets.

A while back, one of Giorgio Clementi's black and white photos of a storm drain cover in Casperia caught my attention. Here it is, with the ancient named of the comune, Aspra and a date, 1885. I believe that this cast iron sewer grate is somewhere on Via Rivellini.

Photo courtesy of Giorgio  Clementi

Anyway, back in Vancouver I began to pay attention to the sewer grates we have in our own city and began to take pictures of them. Prior to seeing Giorgio's photo of this grate in Casperia, I never used to think of anything as mundane as a storm drain cover as art or something beautiful. Today as we walk through the vie and vicoli of Casperia I pay attention to not only what towers above me, but also to what lays at my feet, so I take pictures of all the storm drains and sewer grates we come across... 

The wrought iron fixtures come from a number of foundries... Some local, from Rieti, and some from as far south as Salerno.

We arrive at Casperia's main square, the Piazza Municipio, the political heart of the comune.  Here, along one side of the piazza in a cream coloured palazzo is housed Casperia's municipal hall.

On one side of the wall is a magnificent memorial to Casperia's war dead. Over the gateway into the town office is the Stemma Comunale, or coat of arms of Casperia, with its castle crowned asp and star. 

There is even a stone version of the stemma carved onto the keystone of the doorway. Continuing past the piazza we notice this fun little mail box on one of the houses...

 ...and another cast iron sewer grate at our feet....

The writing says VBS Brevete. I am not sure what it means...

At some point we find ourselves on Via Gugliemo Marconi. This street's sign seems to be much older than most of the others.

 

This street honours the memory of Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi who is famous for his pioneering work on long distance radio transmission. Marconi is celebrated as the inventor of the radio. Like Garibaldi, Marconi no doubt has a street or piazza named after him in every Italian community.

Via Tomassoli seems to be named for a much loved teacher and benefactor named Virgilio Tomassoli. Apparantlyhe left asubstantial inheritance when he died with the wish that the funds would go toward a scholarship to support Asprese boyswho wanted tostudy in Rome.Each year, Aspra'scity councilgave the nameof a young manworthyto receivethiskind ofscholarship that would allow him to study in Rome. There is a 19th century portrait in the Casperia town council chambers showing him with a sign that says that he was worthy off his students. Apparantly Via tomassoli is a name that dates back only to around the year 1900. Prior to that, it was named Via Comunale.

One thing I began to notice more this time around were the number of small date plaques in the walls of Casperia's houses. Here is one from 1557...

Further along our walk I came across another manhole grate. This one is from a foundry in Rome.

Here are a few more street signs.

Tito Tazio, or Titus Tatius as he is known in English, was the Sabine king of Cures during the time of the famous rape (more properly translated as abduction) of the Sabine women. Titus Tatius marched on Rome at the head of a Sabine army and succeded in capturing the Capitoline through the help of the treachery of the vestal virgin Tarpeia. 

The intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David, Louvre. Titus Tatius is at left.

At some part in the battle, the captured Sabine women intervened and a reconciliation ensued after which Tatius ruled alongside Romulus as King of Rome for five years until his assassination in Lavinium.

I can only assume that Vicolo dei Claudi commemorates the Gens Claudia, the patrician Roman family which produced the Claudian emperors of Rome... 

Via Massari is named after Asprese-born writer and poet Orazio Massari, who in 1600 published the epic poem La Sabiniade. 

Here again is another street inscription we found dating back to 1600. If any of you can read what the inscription says and tell me, I will post it later.

Some of the street and alley names are of course totally self evident. This little alley leads under an overpass and into a section of stone walled gardens that overlook the east wall of the borgo. 

It wouldn't be a proper walk in a Sabine hilltown without an encounter or two with the feline residents of the area. Here is a picture of one of the many gatti asprese we came across enjoying the springtime sun. Che c'e'? he seems to say.

A view of the snaking Via Garibaldi from another angle

According to what I have been told by local history expert Lorenzo Capanna, Via Nardi-Bruschi is dedicated to two patrician Aspresi: LuigiNardi and GiacomoBruschi, both who were generous benefactors of and donors to Aspra's hospital.Until 1900the streethadthree names: The portion near Piazza Umberto I was called Via dell'Ospedale, the middle section was called Via del Giglio (Lily Street), and the part that connected to Via Garibaldi was known as ViaScarsella.

I mentioned earlier that the way the streets of Sabine hill towns are cobbled varies from town to town and street to street. This arching fish scale design can be found in many towns across Italy. 

Here again is another gatto asprese seemingly stunned by the heat of the spring day... Perhaps he is just in deep thought... "Where have I seen that turista before?"

 

Further along the street we found another old inscription. I am not sure whether this reads 1367 or 1567. Probably the latter. Wikipedia has great pages that talk about what happened in workd history on any given year. Here's a link to the one for 1567.

1567?

Via Nardi-Bruschi takes us out on to the town walls just to the east of Friends Cafe on Piazza Umberto I...

...past a little vicolo nearby, I assume, there once was or still is the town hospital.

The steps leading up toward the remains of the medieval tower overlooking Piazzale Oddo Valeriani, the one and only traffic circle in Casperia.

When we reach the top of the old tower we are just a few short paces from Friends Cafe. There is a beautiful view of Santa Maria in Assunta Church.

We have shopping to do so we head on down to the alimentari. I pause along the way to take photos of some more modern signs. It seems there is a fight brewing about some sort of cell phone tower being proposed for the town. 

This is a public notice about a town hall meeting planned for the evening of Tuesday, March 5th at the town auditorium to discuss the tower. The comune promises that technicians and experts will attend the meeting, as well as representatives from the "No Antenna" Committee.

It seems that people are not just concerned about the damage it will do to the beauty of the surroundings, but that there are also some serious health concerns about the strength of the radio signals from the tower.

As we pass out the Porta Romana and head toward the alimentari, we pass a sign commemorating the awarding to Casperia the much coveted Orange Flag from the Italian Touring Club and think about the previous public notice and the obvious contradictions.

One of our favourite stops in the day - Massimo and Irene's Margherita Alimentari

Letizia and Maria serving customers at the Alimentari's well stocked deli counter

There is nothing like the satisfyingly creamy goodness of a young local pecorino cheese like the Campagnolo sold here.

We stock up on staples: cheese, prosciutto, baby zucchine, tomatoes, arugula, cannelini beans, canned tuna, bottled water, and Oh! wine! I ask Massimo to sell us a couple of litres of his family's stock of Sabina D.O.P. olive oil. He promises to bring it the next day.

Loaded with groceries, we head back past the pastry shop and post office toward the Porta Romana. We climb up the stairs and find Stefano and Nicoleta enjoying a late breakfast (espresso and a pastry) outside Friends. We sit down and join them. Stefano is all bundled up seeming more ready for winter than a Spring day, but then again, he's Italian and we are Canadians.

A little gray cat ambles across the piazza heading past the vespasiano (public urinal) toward the steps up the hill. I go over and investigate. I believe I have talked about vespasiani and the origin of the name, but for those of you who have not read that earlier post, Vespasian was a Roman Emperor (AD 69 to 79), the founder of the Flavian Dynasty. Quoting directly from Wikipedia:

Vespasian imposed a Urine Tax (Latin: vectigal urinae) on the distribution of urine from public urinals in Rome's Cloaca Maxima (great sewer) system. (The Roman lower classes urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools.) The urine collected from public urinals was sold as an ingredient for several chemical processes. It was used in tanning, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas. The buyers of the urine paid the tax.

The Roman historian Suetonius reports that when Vespasian's son Titus complained about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and asked whether he felt offended by its smell (sciscitans num odore offenderetur). When Titus said "No," he replied, "Yet it comes from urine" („Atqui ex lotio est“).

The phrase Pecunia non olet is still used today to say that the value of money is not tainted by its origins. Vespasian's name still attaches to public urinals in France (vespasiennes), Italy (vespasiani), and Romania (vespasiene).

We enjoyed a short visit with Stefano and Nicoleta. Stefano took a picture of Richard and I hamming it up behind the bar.

Photo courtesy of Stefano Aperio Bella

Prior to our arrival we had been concerned that Nicoleta's cat Mao Mao had been gravely ill. Apparently Mao Mao has diabetes. We asked how she was doing and as there were no customers yet in the bar, Nicoleta took us to her apartment for a short visit.

Mao Mao, March 20, 2012

If you remember from one of my earlier posts, Richard and I met Mao Mao one day on a walk to the town Cemetery.

At that time, we didn't know if Mao Mao was a boy or a girl, only that we had met a very beautiful silver tabby cat that was very affectionate and drooled when you patted it. We named our new friend "the Drooler."

We were very surprised to find out later after I posted my blog that this was Nicoleta's cat and that she, was a girl.

 
 
 




Anyway, we were very anxious to visit her. Mao Mao had lost a lot of weight from the diabetes, but she seemed in good spirits. It had been touch and go for a while. We had a little visit, gave her a few gentle pats. Passed on get well wishes from our cat Smokey, then headed back up the hill for lunch.

Later that afternoon we went down to Friends again for a Negroni and an appetizer. Boh, the bar mascot was there.  He seemed very happy to be in Stefano's lap.

Boh getting his pats and planning the rest of his evening...

Later on in the evening, we headed back up the hill. I wondered as we trudged up the basalt cobbled steps, "How many steps have we walked today". "Do my calorie burning efforts match my calorie intake?" And then I thought, "Lasciala perdere!"

 



Back at Il Sogno Richard made a wonderful pot of wild asparagus risotto. (Thank you Francesco!) I broke out a bottle of Orvieto Secco, put on some Paolo Conte tunes, and we settled in for the night.  

A plastic glass full of Sabina D.O.P. Extra Virgin Oilive Oil i begged from Stefano at Friends.

Afternote: I would like to thank three people who very kindly helped me get information, or helped me to correct information, on the street names of Casperia: my friend Clelia Angelelli, Casperia town councillor Marco Cossu, and local historian Lorenzo Capanna. Grazie infinite!

POST CARDS OF THE SABINA - OLD & NEW

June 19, 2013, 8:38 pm

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Old postcard of Casperia

If you don't know, my job description is a bit unusual. I work as a house historian. I research the social history of houses, who built them, who lived in them, what events happened in them, who got married or died in them, what scandals or otherwise interesting stories are attached to them. Over the course of the past 12 years I have researched the histories of close to 900 houses. Most of these are in Vancouver. About 40 are in New Westminster, and a few are in North Vancouver. It takes about a couple of weeks to finish a job, depending on how many houses are included in a project. In the end, my clients end up with a booket that showcases everything that is researchable about their house. You will find many of the interesting stories I have come across through this research in my house history blog, When An Old House Whispers. It is fascinating work, but often not that constant. 

Every Saturday during the summer I also offer walking tours, or History Walks as I like to call them, in three of Vancouver's historic neighbourhoods: Strathcona, Vancouver's old East End; the West End; and Mount Pleasant. 

Years ago, when I lived and worked in the West End, I loved walking to work and looking at the old houses that still remain in the shadows of the highrise apartments and condos. I loved reading about Vancouver's history, and looking at the old photos of the neighbourhood as it was during its Victorian and Edwardian era heyday. 

Burnaby Street looking east from mid-1200 block, Philip Timms - VPL #5266

The picture above shows the 1200 block of Burnaby Street in the West End where I lived from about 1988 to 1995. None of these houses stand today. The 10 storey apartment building where I lived stands on the site of the large house seen at the right of the photo. It was the mansion of CPR secretary treasurer William Ferriman Salsbury. 

The other thing I loved finding in the Vancouver history books were old colourized post cards of the City. Here is one of my favourites.

English Bay Beach, 1916 - City of Vancouver Archives Image Be P93

The only buildings still standing is the Victorian Bandstand in Alexandra Park and the Sylvia Hotel, then the Sylvia Apartments. The small trees you see in the park space around the bandstand are all huge shade trees now. 

After my first visit to the Sabina in 2009, I started to do as much online research as I could into the history of the region, particularly Casperia. As my relationship with the Sabina deepened through Facebook connections, a number of Facebook friends shared old postcard pictures of the Sabina or directed me to sites where I found quite a few myself. Of course, I tried to find as many as possible for Casperia, as that was the part of Sabina I first visited and know best.

Old Aspra - Casperia before 1947

Casperia in the 1970s as seen from the road from Roccantica

A view of the Porta Romana from Piazza Umberto I, where Friends Cafe is today

View of the convent on Monte Fiolo in Casperia

Post card sent to Casperia from Ethiopia

This beautiful colour panorama card below was sent to me by my friend Clelia. Casperia was her home when she was a little girl and though she lives now in Tuscania, Casperia remains her passion.

Courtesy of Clelia Angelelli

When we visited Casperia in 2009 and again in 2012 we were struck by the fact that though we were visiting what has to be one of the most strikingly beautiful places in the world, none of the post cards we could find for sale really did the region any justice. This, in spite of the fact that there are so many talented photographers who have taken literally thousands of breathtaking shots of the Sabina and shared them on Facebook and the Internet...

But, it seems that this was not always the case... These old postcards are evidence. 

Altino, RI

Perhaps with the changes in communication technology, the ease of sending e-cards, sharing photos and messaging online the custom of sending postcards has fallen out of favour... Obviously most of these towns no longer look exactly like they did 50, 60, 70, or a 100 years ago, but it seems to me that even a reprint of these beautiful, old, mostly black and white postcards might result in better sales and more people sending cards than the ones that are currently available.

Cittaducale, RI

The towers at Collalto Sabino, RI

Collegiove, RI

Cottanello, RI as seen from Monte San Cataldo

Fara in Sabina in 1932

Another card from Fara in Sabina

The Franciscan Santuary at Fonte Colombo just outside of Rieti

Frescoes in apse of San Paolo Church in Poggio Mirteto, RI

Greccio in 1964

Labro, RI

 Here follow six different postcards from the comune of Leonessa. We have not visited Leonessa yet, but looking at these post cards certainly makes me want to.

Leonessa, RI

Leonessa, RI in 1978

Leonessa, RI in 1978

Leonessa, RI in 1978

Leonessa, RI in 1978

Leonessa, RI

Leonessa, RI

  I have not been to Magliano Sabino either, or at least I have not been up to the old town, but I want to. Besides looking like a very interesting place to explore, there is an amazing museum, and it is from here that Monte Soratte is supposed to look like the profile of Mussolini.

Magliano Sabino, RI

Oliveto Sabino, RI

Poggio Mirteto is the largest town in Sabina Teverina. Poggio Mirteto Scalo is where we get off the train from Rome to take the bus to Casperia, my favourite bus ride in the world, and Poggio Mirteto Scalo is also the home to my favourite place to buy organic meat and produce from the Sabina, Ecofattorie Sabine. Here are two great postcards of Poggio Mirteto Scalo Station from its pre-WWII glory days.

Stazione di Poggio Mirteto by Gianluigi Giannini

Poggio Mirteto Stazione in 1920

 The town of Poggio Mirteto is fascinating in its own right. It has an amazing piazza with some great restaurants, cafes, and a fabulous gelateria, and it also has a beautiful old town. Richard and I have visited a number of times to see our friend Alessandra there.

Here's a great black and white shot of the Piazza Martiri della Liberta, followed by a colourized version.

Poggio Mirteto's Piazza Martiri della Liberta' courtesy of Gianluigi Giannini

Poggio Mirteto's Piazza Martiri della Liberta' courtesy of Gianluigi Giannini

Poggio Mirteto's Piazza Martiri della Liberta' courtesy of Gianluigi Giannini

Here are two shots from Poggio Bustone. I will be writing about my visit there in a subsequent post. I loved visiting the Franciscan Sanctuary there.

Convento di San Giacomo at Poggio Bustone

Franciscan Santuary at Poggio Bustone - This is where Saint Francis received his vision of forgiveness

View of Catino courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Castle of Poggio Poponesco near Fiamignano, RI

Pozzalia Sabina in 1958

The Duomo of Rieti

Rivodutri, RI

In 2012 Richard and I were lucky enough to visit this stunning castle town southeast of Rieti. There is a great restaurant there called La Fontana.

Rocca Sinibalda, 1963

Rocca Sinibalda

Rocca Sinibalda, RI

In 2012 during our visit to Roccantica, Richard and I had a wonderful time celebrating with the locals at the 40th annual Sagra del Fritello or Cauliflower Fritter Festival. Fried cauliflower never tasted so delicious, and it was amazing to watch dozens of cooks deep frying enough frittelli for more than 1000 people in roiling hot oil over roaring wood fires.

Roccantica in 1913

Roccantica, RI

Roccantica, RI

Roccantica's Villa Seminario Maggiore in 1955

The next two postcards are from Toffia and show the church of Santa Maria Nuova. I love how one postcard shows the hill devoid of trees and the other has the hill overgrown. I wonder which photograph is older. 

I have yet been to Toffia but the next time I am in the Sabina I absolutely have to go. These old images are stunning. 

Toffia, RI

Toffia RI

So there you have the some of the old post cards. I am sure that I have more in myt files that I will introduce at a later date, but how about these new post cards? These postcard prototypes are collages created by Alessandra Finiti using a mix of her images and those of Giorgio Clementi. I love them. I think it is time we had some new post cards for the Sabina...

The Many Faces of Casperia: Captured through the Lens of Paolo Pitoni

August 24, 2013, 12:49 am

≫ Next: "TI AMO" SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 3 - A VISIT WITH ALESSANDRA & A TRIP TO POGGIO MIRTETO - March 5th

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I have written in previous installments about how photographs posted on the Internet changed our life... how a random image of Casperia, the result of a Google search for hill towns in Lazio, struck a chord and lead us to discover the wonderful world of the Sabina. The power of that first random photo propelled us to visit Casperia and tour a number of Sabine hill towns for the first time in the Spring of 2009. That first visit we stayed only for a week but in 2012 and in 2013 we returned to stay for a month.

Prior to our second visit, I made a number of contacts with people living in the Sabina, or who had their roots there, through Facebook.  The first of these was the result of a random posting of this next picture that I took in Casperia of a doorway of a house on a little street called Vicolo Serpenti. 

A lady who spent her childhood in a house on that little side street responded to my posting, admired the photo and asked me to be her Facebook friend. The rest, as they say, is history.

I continue to stay in touch with our Italian friends through Facebook and Skype. I am a member of a number of Facebook groups interested in raising the profile of the Sabina. Through this and through my posts on this blog I have connected with more people who love the Sabina. 

Every morning, one of the first things I do after waking up, even sometimes before making coffee, I go to my computer, open Facebook, and while I respond to posts and messages from friends here in Canada and elsewhere I look eagerly for new photos of my beloved Sabina.

A few days ago I noticed a number of pictures of Casperia taken by Paolo Pitoni. I have admired Paolo's photographs of the Sabina for quite a while... but these beautiful photos of Casperia truly blew me away... Scrolling through Paolo's photos took me on a virtual tour of Casperia. With each click of the mouse I saw another and yet another of my favourite places, and many pleasant memories of our time in Casperia... special times spent with our friends there began to flood my mind.

Nicoleta, is that you smoking a cigarette there up on the wall outside Friends Cafe there, or someone else? I wondered what Stefano was cooking in the restaurant kitchen at the time the photo was being taken. "Ciao ragazzi!"

When I looked at Paolo's photo of Santa Maria Assunta Church I could almost hear the bells of the evening Angelus... "Ave... Ave... Ave Maria..."  
                                                                     Memories...

In the bottom left hand of the picture you can see a piece of the roof of Petrocchi Bar. The spirited women who work behind the counter were the first people we met in Casperia. "Posso si prega di avere tre bicchieri di prosecco?" 

Across the piazzale, out of view is Massimo and Irene's alimentari where Letizia serves at the beautifully stocked deli counter and Maria stands guard over the fruit. 

I followed Paolo's photos up and into the borgo past the flower shop through the Porta Romana...

  

...up the stone stairs, past the vespasiano up to Piazza Umberto I, a little stone paved square that holds so many of my happiest memories.

I half expected to see Boh or Cicciopalla, two of the town's resident cats, strolling along the stone wall keeping a watch over who comes and goes...

How many times have I looked over these walls and marvelled at the view?...

How many times have I walked through this second gate after a happy Negroni (or two) or a delicious menu of bruschette drizzled with fragrant Sabina D.O.P. followed by a steaming plate of hearty, beautifully sauced Stringozzi thinking 'I am the luckiest man in the world to be able to be here in this special place'? 
   

Paolo's pictures invite me deeper into Casperia's centro storico. I wander up the cobbled steps past the old Locanda or Inn...

Stone archways on either side of the main street beckon. I explore with Paolo the winding vie and vicoli of Casperia, old Aspra in Sabina... past centuries old doorways each guarding their own stories... 

The old stone and brick textured walls themselves seem to whisper... "Anch'io hostorie da raccontare... Rimane un po',emi ascolti..."
  

Casperia's narrow medieval streets are a maze. In its heyday, old Aspra truly must have been un castello inespugnabile... an impregnable fortress town...

What once were defensive walls are now decorated with geraniums and other flowers in hanging terracotta pots...

Every now and then the road turns and there is a vista of the Tiber Valley with Mount Soratte in the distance. 

We arrive at Casperia's beautiful Piazza Comunale where the town hall stands with its poignant war memorial. Today the Piazza is quiet... sleepy.... 

The stores and businesses that used to operate inside the centro storico have moved outside the town walls.
  

We leave the piazza and climb higher... past Johnny Madge's Wine Bar... past my favourite intersection where basalt cobbled Via Garibaldi intersects with lighter stone surfaced Via Mazzini... up past Roberto and Maureen's LaTorretta B&B... Is that Boh the cat escaping down Via Garibaldi?"Boh! Dove vai?"

Past more mysterious vicoli...

...past Il Sogno, Chris and Meg Phillips' apartment which we have rented these past three visits...

...past the 1000 year old square watchtower... the town's oldest structure... Most visitors who pass by it probably don't even know what it is... Every now and then the raw rock of the ancient hill the town is built on will explode out one side of a house... this too decorated with potted flowers.

 

And then we round a corner...  
 

...and the Romanesque tower of San Giovanni Battista Church, the highest point in the borgo, comes into view.

In front of the town's second church, dedicated to Casperia's Patron Saint, is another pretty little piazza.

Inside the church in an old oratorio behind the high altar is a monumental Nativity Scene, or Presepe Monumentale. This wonder is the result of ten years of loving labour my a man named Giannicola Mariani. The scale model of Bethlehem replicates medieval Casperia, street by street, building by building. It is truly a sight to be seen.
  

Having reached the highest point within the town walls we leave the Church and its shady piazza...

...and make our way down by another route...

...past Vicolo Serpenti, where our friend Clelia lived, and where Maria who works at the alimentari now lives.
 

Enroute we see a sign "Vicolo degli Orti" and go down to steps to see old stone walled gardens brimming with green...

Cats, lazing on the sun-warmed stone steps of the street, blink at us as we walk by...

We continue down through another ancient stone arch, past more tower houses garlanded with jasmine and geraniums. 

Finally we find the road that leads down to the town's second gate...

The Porta Rieti, or Porta Santa Maria as it is also called...

 In a couple of wondrous hours we have explored the streets and alleys of Casperia from one end to another... But we know we have only scratched the surface... Inside the walls there are other streets and alleys waiting to be discovered... each twist of the road, every corner is another adventure...

When I saw Paolo's photos on Facebook I knew right away that I wanted to use them in a blog post... that I wanted to share the Casperia that he saw and captured with his lens. And I would like to thank Paolo for his kindness in allowing me, a stranger, to use them here. It was a great priviledge and an honour to be allowed to showcase his work.  Grazie di cuore.

Paolo Pitoni was born inRieti on New Year's Day 1978. He is a professor ofhumanities specializing in supportat the Passo Corese First Degree Secondary School. Over the past nine years he has spent teaching school in the hill towns aroundthe Sabina he has developed a profoundappreciationof the history andbeauty of the Sabine landscape. His special joy is to share the beauty of his native Sabina with school childrenthroughphoto labs.

I leave you with one last spectacular photo taken by Paolo. 

I hope you have enjoyed this virtual tour of Casperia as seen through the lens of Paolo Pitoni.

"TI AMO" SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 3 - A VISIT WITH ALESSANDRA & A TRIP TO POGGIO MIRTETO - March 5th

September 6, 2013, 12:55 am

≫ Next: "MERCOLEDÌ INSIEME!" - SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 4 - A DAY TRIP TO THE CASTELLI ROMANI with STEFANO & NICOLETA - March 6th

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It is another beautiful day in the Sabina. The sun is out, but the skies are not quite as clear as yesterday. 

Montasola in the hazy distance

There is a haze in the air, perhaps from the farmers burning their piles of pruned olive branches in the olive orchards... But perhaps there is a turn in the weather. I don't really care. Rain or shine, I am just happy to be here. 

I look out of our bedroom window at Il Sogno down to the street many metres below. There is a cat patrolling down there somewhere. I can hear his assertive yowl. "Questovicoloè mio! Meow!"

I think of our cat Smokey back in Vancouver and I wonder how he is dealing with the kitchen renovation.

I look at the moss and lichen covered terracotta tiles roof across the way and revel in the myriad of colours and textures there. Like every morning here we wake up to a mixture of excited bird song, the muffled dingledong of distant sheeps bells and the sound of farm machinery... Music to my ears...

I can smell the rich aroma of Illy Coffee bubbling in the Bialetti on the stove in the kitchen... It is breakfast time and I am hungry.

In preparation for my arrival, Richard bought a goodly amount of delicious supplies at the alimentari, but he has also supplemented our stash with some great bread from Figlii Giusti, the same family-run bakery just outside Casperia's Porta Romana where we bought Clelia's birthday cake last year. At first glance, the bread looks like pane di segale or Italian rye, but Richard informs me that it is a special and particularly famous whole wheat bread called pane di Lariano made in a town just south of Rome. It smells delicious. I pull out the toaster, plug it in, and then open the fridge and fish out a package of our favourite local prosciutto.
 

I also grab a bottle of our favourite blood orange juice and pour two cups full.

I scramble a few eggs while the bread toasts and decorate the small omelette with black olives and some cherry tomatoes.

Up pops the toast, half which I drizzle with some beautiful golden green Sabina D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil, the other half I drape with prosciutto. As soon as the unctuous pork hits the toast, the fat begins to melt "like butter" and a savoury salty porky perfume fills the room.

  

Breakfast!!! I know its not traditional Italian to have breakfast this way. Most Italians are happy with just a cornetto or cream-filled pastry and a caffè, but we are Canadesi... and though we are trying to learn as much Italian as we can, and absorb as much of the culture as we can, our breakfasts will likely be substantial, more hearty affairs for the duration of the trip.

Today is a special day. One of our friends, Alessandra Finiti, is coming to Casperia for a visit. I became acquainted with Alessandra, a lawyer, born in nearby Poggio Mirteto but who lives and works in Rome, through Facebook. Alessandra is a proud Sabine and a passionate Sabina booster. She manages a number of pages promoting the Sabina on Facebook, including Hello Sabina, and La Bassa Sabina in Vetrina.


Richard and I met Alessandra and her father Dottore Luigi in person for the first time during our visit to Italy last year at I Mille Sapori restaurant on the main piazza in Poggio Mirteto. 

After a nice lunch together Alessandra took us on an wonderful walking tour of Poggio Mirteto's centro storico...

...and later during the trip also introduced us to our friend Fiorenzo Francioli who works for the Pro Loco, or comunal promotional office, of the town of Montebuono. If we had not gotten to know Alessandra through Facebook, we would not have been able to have so many of the amazing experiences we had during our 2012 trip to the Sabina. We were so looking forward to seeing her again. 

We got a call that she was on her way so I grabbed the camera and Richard grabbed his trusy IPad and we headed down to the Porta Romana. I took a few random pictures on the way, mostly cast iron storm drain covers... inspired, by Giorgio Clementi who finds great photographs and potential art everywhere.   

It was interesting to see what was made locally near Rome and what came from foundries further away. During this visit, more than the two previous ones, I noticed small details about our surroundings. Here and there on the town walls, usually over the doors of houses, were bricks incised with the date of construction. Some of them were so old that they were difficult to read. Is this from 1812 or 1842?

We headed down the last set of steps to Piazza Umberto I. Our friends Stefano and Nicoleta were already at Friends Cafe, but Alessandra had not arrived yet. We headed for the town wall by the old fountain and looked down toward the car park and there she was, camera ready, wouldn't you know. That is so Alessandra! We shouted down "Bella! Ciaoooo!" and took each other's picture. Here is the photo we took of Alessandra...  

And here is the photo she took of the two of us.

Courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

We rushed down to the Porta Romana to give her a "Welcome to Casperia" kiss and escort her up the stairs up to the Piazza. As you can see, it was a cool march day. Richard and I were bundled up in our puffies. Alessandra had on a long coat amd a scarf. We hung around Friends for a bit chatting with Nicoleta and Stefano. Alessandra got into a lively discussion on the Sabina with Giampiero, one of Friends Cafe's loyal locals. We watched from the sidelines.

We decided we would go for a walk with Alessandra through the old town and show her where we were staying. 

Though she had seen photos of Il Sogno before, she hadn't yet seen it with our own eyes.  Just as we were about to head up, Alessandra took a picture of us sitting on the wall outside the cafe. It was a cool dark day, but we were with good friends... In our hearts, the sun was shining.

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

It was still early and things were a bit slow at the Cafe, so Nicoleta got to accompany us on our tour. 

Photo courtesy of Richard Rooney

We headed up the stairs into the inner borgo, stopping first to take pictures at the Piazza Comunale.

"Say cheese, Alessandra!" - Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

We continued our journey up the meandering cobbled streets of Casperia up Via Mazzini, past La Torretta B&B to Il Sogno, our home away from home here in the Sabina, and gave Alessandra and Nicoleta a tour inside. Alessandra's partner, Giovanni, is a house building and restoring contractor so Alessandra was very interested to see how Chris and Meg, the owners of Il Sogno, had restored and decorated the house. She walked around the house taking everything in with an appraising and appreciative eye. Like everyone who ever sees the inside of the Phillips' house, with its rustic (but heated) terra cotta floors, its beautifully recycled centuries old wooden doors, the magnificent fireplace in the main bedroom, the over-the-top mosaiced bath, to the spiral staircase to the second bedroom below, Alessandra was suitably impressed. So many old apartments in Italian hilltowns get totally gutted and modernized, but the Phillips certainly treated their house in Casperia with a deep respect, maintaining and featuring as much of the original brick and stone features inside as possible. It truly is a jewel.

Front steps of Il Sogno - Courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

You may have been wondering what Alessandra was carrying in that blue plastic bag you saw in the photos earlier... At the house the precious and much appreciated contents were revealed... a beautiful bottle of Sabina D.O.P. Olive Oil... just the right size to take home to Canada! Grazie Alessandra! What a thoughtful gift!

From Il Sogno, we continued to climb up more stairs to the top of the hill, taking pictures as we went... 

...and listening to Alessandra explain the historical significance of the names of the streets along the way. 

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Tito Tazio, or Titus Tatius as we know him in English, was the Sabina king of Cureswho, after the rape of the Sabine women, attacked Rome and captured the Capitol with the help of the treacherous Tarpeia. 

Gemelli!

The Sabine women, however, convinced Tatius and the Roman king, Romulus, to reconcile and subsequently they ruled jointly over the Romans and Sabines until Titus Tatius death in 748 B.C.E.

 

 

The oldest building in Casperia is he remains of a 1000 year-old watch tower just a stone's throw away from where we stay. Many centuries ago, it must have been much taller... perhaps not as tall as the beautiful pentagonal tower in Catino, but taller than it is today. 
It would have been from here that the alarms rang warning the people of Aspra of an impending attack. Each time I walk by I lay my hands on the ancient stones and think that if these old rocks could only speak, what stories they could tell.

It was during this walk through Casperia with Alessandra and Nicoleta that I came upon my idea of a blog post on the history of the street names of Casperia.

Alessandra did not have long for a visit. She had to get to Poggio Mirteto for a work appointment. She wondered if we might like to take the drive back with her, tour around Poggio Mirteto's old town which we visited with her the year before, while she had her appointment.

Richard took this picture of Alessandra in the car's rear view mirror enroute to Poggio Mirteto. Everyone sees things differently. Alessandra was born and grew up in the Sabina... and it is wonderful to see the Sabina through Alessandra's eyes.

Poggio Mirteto is a bustling town, a full service hub of commerce in the Colli Sabini with shops, restaurants, boutiques, a book store, several real estate offices, alimentari, and a great shop specializing in the local food products of the Sabina, including Sabina D.O.P. Olive oil. According to Wikipedia, it had a population of 5,879 in 2008 so it is about six times larger than Casperia, and is a fun change of pace.

Having said that, after a quick espresso in a new caffe on the main piazza, we bid farewell to Alessandra who went off to her appointment, and Richard and I took leave the bustle of the main square and head through the gate for a trip down memory lane in Poggio Mirteto's old town.

Like our previous foray into Poggio Mirteto's Centro Storico, we find the cats very welcoming. And, as in the past, we stop and pat every furry back that is offered us, missing our Smokey back in Vancouver...

Last year Alessandra had posted a great picture of four cats ensconced in planters on this balcony. When we visited Poggio Mirteto with her in 2012, the cats were waiting there for us to take our own picture, but this year, with the cool weather, we have no such luck. The balcony door is closed and the cats are all locked inside... Oh well...

It may have been my imagination butI think I recognize a lot of the feline faces we see from our previous visit...

Like Casperia, Poggio Mirteto's Centro Storico is an amazing maze of stone cobbled streets and alleys. As you wend your way through the old town it sometimes feels like you have entered an Escher painting. One big difference between Casperia and Poggio Mirteto is the colour that is used on the buildings... There are many more houses and buildings that have been plastered and brightly painted while Casperia is mostly made of rugged grey stone. 

Here in Poggio Mirteto there are delightful pinks and creamy yellows and terra cotta colours mixed with the greys and browns of the local stone.

But like Casperia, and perhaps every hill town in Lazio, Poggio Mirteto is a feast of textures and subtle hues as well. Is that Roman brick from some ruined villa there among the medieval stone? Chissa?Who knows? And perhaps not knowing adds to the romance of it all.

As we wander through the streets we find places we remember from our previous visit... Memories flood our mind bringing even bigger smiles to our faces... I love this yellow, but I doubt it would work in Vancouver... We have too much rain, too much grey sky...

We stop and take a "selfie" with our new digital camera. Say "Sabiiiiiiiiina"

We continued our journey through the winding cobbled streets of the old town. Because of the different topography of the hill sites and the differences in the local stone, how streets are laid out, their design and colour, each of the hill towns have their own unique appearance and feel.

There are quite a few houses painted in pastel pinks and cream yellow.
 

Yes Richard. You are perfectly framed but... Ahem... A little bit posed, don't you think?
 

The beauty of the old doors in these hill towns never ceases to impress me... There could be a whole calendar or post card series, or even a coffee table book of just these doors.

It is too bad the weather was overcast... A little more sunshine and these photos would be popping with colour...

Here and there we noticed for sale signs... this one for a mini apartment with a cantina (rustic storage room) and a balcony with a panoramic view. The key words in this sign are "da ristrutturare" which means that the apartment is likely in poor shape and needs some serious T.L.C. in the form of restoration... With a little money, a good architect and reliable contractors, this little apartment is going to be someone's perfect Sabine pied à terre.

 

We round a corner and come across our first graffito in a hill town.

It is a bit of a shock... Graffitti is something you expect in Rome. It's everywhere. But here in the Sabina, it was a little unexpected... But how romantic! Instead of some angry political rant or a declaration of support for this or that soccer team someone wrote is bold red letters "TI AMO" I LOVE YOU. So we took a couple of pictures knowing full well we could use these in the blog and in future Facebook posts. No doubt we are not the only ones to have used it this way.

Over the past while I have used this photo quite a few times as my Facebook cover photo or profile picture and it always elicits a large number of "Likes".

So, to whomever wrote this powwerful message of love, I hope the person you intended it for responded positively and that you are happy together. Un abbracio da lontano...

We continue our walk through the old town, eventually heading back out the gate onto the main piazza. 

We take a tour around the piazza and through a number of back streets checking out a few of the shops as we wait for Alessandra's appointment to be over. 

I love taking pictures of the displays of fresh produce...
 

The boxes of multi-coloured tomatoes make me think of our own little garden in front of our East End Vancouver rowhouse... When we get back to Canada, it will be too late to plant tomatoes from the seeds we saved from last year's harvest. Last year we raised over 100 plants of more than twelve different varieties... This year we will have to content ourselves with what seedlings we can find in the farmers markets...
 

Though I am not a fan of extreme heat, I envy Italy's long hot growing season and the many wonderful things farmers—and home gardeners—can grow here because of it.

Rounding another corner we come across the shop where Alessandra bought us our Sabina D.O.P., E... Non Solo Carne at Via Giacomo Matteotti, 23. The name means "And... Not Only Meat".

And it is true. The little shop sells an amazing variety of Sabine specialties, from cheeses, honey, and wine to olive oil, and all sorts of local goodies. Yes, the Sabina, like you would expect Italy is all over the place, is a true foodie paradise. Thank god we have those 200 steps from the Porta Romana to our house or we would be going home with a serious weight problem.

A few steps from the shop we find an interesting looking restaurant, Osteria La Chianina. We don't have time to eat there today but I take pictures of their extensive beef-heavy menu which looks really interesting.

At the top of the menu is a picture of a white bull. The restaurant is named after the ancient Chianina breed of cattle which has been bred and raised in the Tiber Valley for over 2200 years... There are a number of depictions of ancient Roman sacrifice still extant, including this relief showing a Suovetaurilia where a bull, a sheep and a pig are to be sacrificed. 

It is quite likely that the pure white bulls used in these sacrifices were of this ancient Chianina breed.
 

We find another vegetable stand with a beautiful display of apples and artichokes. I love artichokes, and I am looking forward to the time when we can go to Rome and finally experience the famous deep fried Carciofi alla Giudia, or Jewish style artichokes in Rome's old Jewish Quarter.
  

The sign below the artichokes in the photo above boasts that the newly arrived Bufala Mozzarella is so fresh that it is "ancora calda..." ...still hot!

We receive a call from Alessandra. Her appointment is over and we are to meet her back at the piazza. She introduces us to her colleague, we have another coffee at the little cafe, and then she drives us back to Poggio Mirteto station where we do a little shopping at Ecofattorie Sabine before we board the bus back to Casperia.

As we pass through the Porta Romana, I think "What a great day!" But it is not over yet. There is one more thing I want to do before we climb up the stairs to Il Sogno, and that is to drop by to see Stefano and Nicoleta at Friends Cafe... and maybe have a drink...  or two...

Negroni time segues into soccer time, which builds an appetite for dinner time. I order my usual, bruschette with sliced ripe Italian tomato drizzled with Sabina D.O.P., and Stringozzi al Ragu'. Heaven!

Tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us. Stefano and Nicoleta have made us promise that we are theirs every Wednesday, their day off. Tomorrow for our first Wednesday together, we will head off to the Castelli Romani south of Rome for a culinary adventure. I can't wait! 

We watch the sun as it sets gloriously over the gold-bathed Sabine Hills—the Colli Sabini—then kiss Nicoleta and Stefano goodnight and happily head up the 200 stone steps to our home away from home.

 

Good night! Buona notte!

_____________________________________

Poggio Mirteto Piazza Vittoria Emanuele 1913 Carnevalone, courtesy of Lorenzo Ballanti

For those of you who have not visited Poggio Mirteto, it is certainly worth a visit. Not only is the main town with its old centro storico worth a visit, but there are important Roman ruins nearby as well, and some great stores that sell Sabine specialties like the aforementioned E... Non Solo Carne which is in downtown Poggio Mirteto, and our favourite, Ecofattorie Sabine, which is in Poggio Mirteto Scalo. 

Here are some links relating to the comune and its attractions:

Poggio Mirteto on Wikipedia (Italian)

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poggio_Mirteto 

Comune of Poggio Mirteto Website:

http://www.comune.poggiomirteto.ri.it/

Pro Loco di Poggio Mirteto:
http://www.prolocopoggiomirteto.org/ 

Photos of Poggio Mirteto by Giorgio Clementi
http://www.giorgioclementi.com/sabina/Poggio%20Mirteto/index.html 

Bagni Lucilla - Roman Ruins in Poggio Mirteto
http://www.speleovespertilio.it/bagnilucilla.htm 

Villa Ettorina - Holiday Villa in Poggio Mirteto
http://www.homelidays.it/poggio-mirteto/casa-villa-86574it1.htm 

Other Accommodations in and near Poggio Mirteto:
http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/citta.cfm?citta=Poggio%20Mirteto&IDregione=7 

Restaurants in Poggio Mirteto on Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurants-g1202892-Poggio_Mirteto_Province_of_Rieti_Lazio.html

E... Non Solo Carne (Meat and other Specialties of the Sabina)
http://www.vacanzeinsabina.it/prodotti-tipici/prodotti-tipici-lazio-42.asp 

Ecofattorie Sabine (Organic Specialities of the Sabina)
http://www.ecofattorie.it/framesxok.htm

Monte Soratte from Poggio Mirteto courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

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"MERCOLEDÌ INSIEME!" - SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 4 - A DAY TRIP TO THE CASTELLI ROMANI with STEFANO & NICOLETA - March 6th

October 9, 2013, 9:51 am

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Castel Gandolfo and Lago Albano courtesy of Luca Deblu68

Last year, when we visited the Sabina, we stayed in Casperia for about a month... It was the most amazing time in my life for so many reasons. Every day was an adventure. Every winding country road we took during our day trips through the rolling olive studded hills of the Sabina led us to discover new amazing medieval towns, beautiful pastoral valleys filled with picture-book farms and fields with happy sheep. We were surrounded by the most breathtaking scenery I have seen outside Canada. 

But even more than the amazing history and the panoramic scenery and the breathtaking Negroni-coloured sunsets, it was the people that we met in the Sabina that truly made our holiday.

I have written extensively about our good fortune in meeting truly amazing people during our 2012 trip to the Sabina... If you have been following this blog, you know their names already: Clelia, Daniele, Alessandra, Arianna, Fiorenzo, Paola, Massimo, Giorgio, Andrea... And if you follow this blog you will be reading more about them soon... 

But this post focusses on two people in particular, our friends Stefano and Nicoleta who during our visit in 2012 took us under their wing and gave us an experience that truly changed our lives, an expereince we will never forget, a day trip to the Grotta Grande of Monteleone.

If you click on the link above, it will take you to the post I wrote about that adventure. In a nutshell, Stefano and Nicoleta are avid speleologists, or cavers. There are a huge number of caves, both natural and man-made in the area, and they wanted to take us to explore the inside of a bat-filled, stalactite-roofed cave in Monteleone. They first took us to explore the amazing ruins of the Roman amphitheatre in Trebula Mutuesca...

...before making a pitstop in the beautiful centro storico of Monteleone Sabino to buy prosciutto cotto and mortadella-filled panini for lunch.

Neither Richard nor I were prepared for our experience in the cave... I mean, this was really something outside of our usual experience... something we would not have actively sought out to do ourselves, but we are sure glad that we did when this rare opportunity presented itself.

I thought we would feel claustrophiobia, or at least that was what I was afraid of... but instead we were filled with wonder...

Later after we got out and had our panini lunch, when they proposed we try rappelling over the small cliff above the cave's mouth, we didn't blink an eye. Our knees may have shook with fear a bit... but we didn't blink an eye...

What an amazing bonding experience it was! When we arrived back in Casperia this year Nicoleta and Stefano made us promise to save every Wednesday, their weekly day off, for them... They wanted to take us out to some of their favourite haunts in the region. What can I say? Our first excursion together was such an extraordinary experience... this request was extremely easy to agree to...

On our first Mercoledìinsieme Stefano and Nicoleta took us to visit the Castelli Romani.

These are a collection of picturesque towns perched on the rims of volcanic lakes to the southeast of Rome.

It is a region known for its wines, including the famous Frascati wines which local Romans and tourists alike love to drink in the trattorie on hot summer days. It is also the place where the Popes over the centuries have had their summer residences. Fifty five hectares of the town of Castel Gandolfo, an area eleven hectares larger than Vatican City, actually belongs to the Pope.

Stefano sets the GPS for the Castelli Romani as we depart Casperia... Hey! What are Richard's tap shoes doing on the dashboard?

As Stefano and Nicoleta feared, il tempo era un po' cattivo. The sky was a dull grey as we left Casperia and headed south, and it did not improve the entire day... I know Stefano and Nicoleta were disappointed... but we were just thrilled to be on a road trip with them.

Adults in front... kids in the back

It is not far from Casperia to the Castelli Romani, especially when you use the A1. Stefano explained to us the points of interest on the way. 

Did you know that if you greet a flock of sheep as you pass by in your car or riding your vespa or whatever, that it is supposed to bring you good fortune? Every time we saw a flock of sheep we would all break out into a chorus of "Ciao pecore! Ciao pecore! Ciao! Ciao! Ciao! And they would turn and look at us like this...

Ciao Pecore!

Yes, we were like a bunch of kids in the car... The two  worst behaving ones were in the back.Richard and Nicoleta chattered and joked with one another. Every now and then they would burst forth into another round of "Ciao pecore" and when there weren't any sheep to be seen they would break into the Italian version of "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet." Stefano just laughed and rolled his eyes.

Arricia in the Castelli  Romani, courtesy of Conto Italiano

We passed by Ciampino with its airport. As we drove south into the Alban Hills it became apparent that the Castelli Romani was a prosperous area. Gone were the small farms and austere stony hill towns so familiar in the Sabina. Here there seemed to be villas everywhere. When we arrived in Arricia, our first destination, it was pretty socked in, but what we saw was impressive. Once one of the main cities of the ancient Latin League, Arricia at one time rivalled Rome during the days of the Republic. In the 1700s, Arricia was a popular stop between Rome and Naples for Europe's wealthy during the age of the Grand Tour. With its imposing setting and awe inspiring skyline it was also a popular subject for visiting artists. Even with the town shrowded in the mist and rain I could understand why.

Arricia Sunset by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Today, among other things, Arricia is famous for its Porchetta, Italy's greatest gift to pork lovers... There is nothing like the flavour, juicy texture, and herby aroma of fresh sliced roasted porchetta.  
 

Porchetta courtesy of Alessio Damato via Wikipedia

Anyone who has visited our house in Vancouver knows that our cat Smokey goes crazy every time we cook pork tenderloin or port sausages or eat bacon. The smell of pork for Smokey is more powerful than the most potent catnip...
 

Smokey waiting for some pork during one of our regular Stringozzi nights.

I think that if there was ever an Italian "kitty heaven" for Smokey, Arricia, with all its succulent porchetta, would be it. 

 
Our lunchtime destination was a family-run restaurant called Osteria Dar Compare. Stefano and Nicoleta have been there a number of times... This is one of their favourite restaurants... I could feel their excitement as we drew nearer. I was getting excited too. They had described the porchetta and a number of other menu items in glowing terms, and truth be told, I was pretty hungry. Finally we had arrived. Across the street, nestled in among a number of other fraschette as the local tipical restaurants are called, was our destination.

Shot of the entrance of Osteria Dar Compare on Google Maps... It was not as sunny on the day we were there.

As we were parking the car, the rain began to really pour. But who cared? It was lunch time. We all jumped out of the car and ran across Via Borgo San Rocco to the  entrance of the restaurant.

The first sight to greet our eyes was an amazing display case full of cheeses, salamis, olives and other antipasti and roasted vegetables preserved in oil and vinegar. 

 

The owners recognized Stefano and Nicoleta and greeted them warmly, guiding us to one of the long tables ranged along the wall.

I don't remember Stefano or Nicoleta really ordering anything, other than a delicious platter of pasta... The food, mostly a huge variety of antipasti, and wine seemed to appear almost automatically, like magic.

Olives, cheeses, prosciutto, little liver sausages, chewy spicy air dried coppiette, bufala mozzarella, marinated zucchini slices and artichokes, delicious bread...

But the star of the show was of course the porchetta which was served not on plates, but on pieces of butcher paper. I must confess, we were so hungry and focussed on eating the porchetta that we forgot to take a proper picture of it until it was more than half eaten.

Oh well. You will just have to trust me...  Of course we had some wonderful local wine... 

Italians aren't prissy about their wine pairings... Although some wines will be traditionally be served with certain foods, in general we have found that red wine is consumed during the cold season, and cooled white wines prevail in the hot summer. 

It was a cold, rainy day in the Castelli Romani, so we were poured some red which we drank in stemless bistro-style glasses.

Cin Cin!

Stefano and Nicoleta introducted us to a delicious sparkling red, typical of the region called Romanella. Wow! After all the antipasti and porchetta I couldn't believe that Stefano would have room for pasta... but he did.

Wow! What a meal! At the end of it all came out a tray of digestivi: Limoncello, Nocello, and Grappa, with some delicious ciambelline.

It was a  perfect end to a perfect lunch spent great friends! But our day wasn't finished yet. We stood up to bid our farewells to the owners of the restaurant... As we were leaving, they presented Richard and I with a souvenir... one of the restaurant plates with "Dar Compare" written on it.

Happy and very full, we made our way through the drizzle across the street to Stefano's car. Before heading back north to the Sabina, Stefano took us on a tour through some of the towns. At the heart of the Castelli Romani are two circular volcanic lakes: Lago Albano and Lago di Nemi. We drove south through the town of Genzano Di Roma which perches on the cliffs along the edge of Lago di Nemi. Genzano is another town with ancient roots. There are a number of significant archeological remains in the area from the time when wealthy Romans built their summer villas there. One of the Roman Emperors, Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161 A.D.), the builder of the Antonine Wall in Scotland, was born in one of those villas.

From Genzano, we turned north and headed to the beautiful town of Nemi. It was raining so much we didn't bother to take our cameras out. We were blissed out from the amazing and just savouring our time with our friends. But Nemi even in the rain and low clouds was indeed beautiful. 

Panorama of Nemi by Renato Clementi via Wikipedia

If Arriccia is famous for Porchetta, Nemi is famous for its delicious fragoline, or wild strawberries. 

Nemi strawberries by Stephen Sommerhalter via Wikipedia

We parked the car and ran through the rain to a small little restaurant with a beautiful wood fire blazing inside called
Lo Specchio di Diana. 

Lo Specchio di Diana means Diana's Mirror. The cult of the Goddess Diana, the goddess of the moon and the hunt, was centred in the Alban hills in ancient times. I assume that the name is a reference to the lake. The restaurant is on the main floor and there is an inn above the restuarant in the upper storeys.

We were a bit damp and cold from the rain so we sat down by the crackling fire and it was here that Stefano and Nicoleta ordered out dessert: wild strawberries in cream!

Yum!

Nemi has some interesting history too. Like most of the Castelli Romani, its roots go back to ancient times... Like nearby Genzano there are a number of archeological features in the area.  During the renaissance two ancient Roman ships were discovered at the bottom of the lake. This is how Wikipedia tells it:



Caligula built several very large and costly luxury barges for use on the lake. One ship was a shrine dedicated to ceremonies for the Egyptian Isis cult or the cult of Diana Nemorensis, designed to be towed, and the other was a pleasure boat with buildings on it. After Caligula's overthrow, the boats were scuttled.

The ships were rediscovered during the Renaissance, when architect Leon Battista Alberti is reported to have attempted to raise the ships by roping them to buoyant barrels. While ingenious, this method proved unsuccessful, because of extensive rotting.

The boats were finally salvaged from 1929 to 1932 under orders of Benito Mussolini. This was just one of many attempts to relate himself to the Roman Emperors of the past. The ships were exposed by lowering the lake level using underground canals that were dug by the ancient Romans. The excavation was led by Guido Ucelli and was reported in Le Nave di Nemi by Guido Ucelli (Rome, 1950). They were destroyed by fire on 31 May 1944, it is disputed whether this was done by defeated German forces retreating from Italy at the end of World War II or accidentally by squatters taking refuge in the museum building. Surviving remnants from the excavations as well as replicas are now displayed in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome. The ship hulls survive today at Museo delle Navi Romane, Nemi.
  

Dessert and coffee finished, we reluctantly went out into the wet once more and got back into the car. This was a very different day than the one we spent with Nicoletta and Stefano visiting the Grotta Grande di Monteleone Sabino the year before. But what a wonderful adventure.We drove back to the Sabina in the growing dark, happy and full, not only from the great food, but of some amazing memories. Grazie, amici miei! I couldn't wait to discover what our next Wednesday adventure together would be.

Touring HIGH ON THE HOG - Andar per Olio e per Cultura: A Cultural and Gastronomical Motorcycle Tour in the Sabina

October 18, 2013, 2:23 am

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≪ Previous: "MERCOLEDÌ INSIEME!" - SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 4 - A DAY TRIP TO THE CASTELLI ROMANI with STEFANO & NICOLETA - March 6th

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"E anche quest'anno siamo pronti per guidarvi tra lestrade della Sabina, tra gli ulivi e le montagne dai mille colori...

Montebuono and Fianello in autumn by Giorgio Clementi

...i borghi medievali che come per incanto, il tempo non ha usurato. I frantoi del paese vi aspettano per farvi assaggiare la spremuta più antica che c'è, tra piatti tipici, musica e compagnia. Chiese con affreschi duecenteschi o di Iacopo di Roccantica...

San Pietro ai Muricento courtesy of I luoghi di Cuore

Terme di Agrippa mangiate ormai dalla natura, sono qui, con una storia di oltre 2000 anni. Qui, il tempo si è fermato."

Translation: 

And also this year we are readyto guide youthroughthestreetsof Sabina,among the olive treesand the mountainsof a thousand colours... 

The medieval borgo of Fianello. Photo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

the medieval villages thatlike magic,time has noteroded.The millsof the countryare waiting for youto taste theoldest juice that there is,including local dishes, musicand companionship.Churcheswiththirteenth-century frescoes, orthose by IacopoRoccantica, the Baths of Agrippa, eaten nowby nature... 

External view of the apse of San Pietro ai Muricento with the ruins of the Terme of Agrippa in the foreground, by the author

They arehere, with a history ofover 2000 years.Here, timestands still...

This kind of poetry one would expect in some exclusive travel magazine aimed at well-heeled world travellers with an interest in high end gourmet tours of Italy. These words though, are aimed at a specific type of tourists, and those tourists are bikers... And I am not talking about spandex clad cyclists, I am talking about REAL BIKERS, the kind who ride motorcycles.

On November 9th and 10th the Tourism Association/ProLoco of Montebuono is organizing its second annual Guided Motorcycle Tour of Montebuono and its historic environs. The name of the tour is Andar per Olio e per Cultura in Motocicletta, which roughly translated means and Olive Oil and Cultural Tour by Motorcycle. 

The tour is timed to coincide with Sabina's annual olive harvest and includes visits to local olive oil producers, where the lucky participants get to view close up the process of transforming freshly harvested olives into pungently fragrant spicy green Sabina D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and taste it on fresh toasted bruschetta. The itinerary also includes visits to a number of important historic and cultural sites in the Montebuono area including the churches of San Pietro ai Muricento and Santa Maria in Assunta in Fianello--both of them built atop important Roman villa ruins--as well as the fortified hill town of Cottanello, and the Sanctuary of Santa Maria in Vescovio. 

Biker Breakfast in Montebuono. Photo courtesy of Gustavo Fabri

Both tours, in good Italian fashion, begin with an ample breakfast, and include a hearty outdoor lunch. The longer Saturday tour finished with a social dinner at a local restaurant. Mamma mia! Knowing what these folks will see, eat, drink, and experience, it is enough to make me want to learn how to ride a motorcycle so I can join in the fun next year! 

One of the key organizers of this tour is our friend Fiorenzo Francioli. We met Fiorenzo last year and spent an unforgettable afternoon with him touring the historic sites of Montebuono and Fianello. 

Fiorenzo is not only the key tourism officer of the Comune of Montebuono, a truly wonderful ambassador for his town and the Sabina, he is also an avid biker. 

Here is the schedule for the two days of tours. 

SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER

Ore9.00-09.30:ISCRIZIONI, colazione e gadget.
Registration and breakfast and mementos.

Santa Maria in Vescovio

Ore10.30-11.00:Motogiro e visita guidata al Santuario di S.Maria in Vescovio.
  

On the road by Foto di Claudio D'Artibale

Ride on motorbike to the Santuary of Santa Maria in Vescovio for a guided visit.

Drizzling freshly pressed Sabina D.O.P. olive oil on bruschette. Yum! Photo courtesy of Gustavo Fabri

Ore11.30-12.00:Aperitivo e visita al Frantoio “SAPORA”
Snacks/Drinks and a visit to the Olive Mill "Sapora"
 

Lunch al fresco in the olive grove. Photo courtesy of Claudio D'Artibale

Ore13.00-13.30:Pranzo presso il borgo medievale di Fianello.
Lunch near the medieval walled town of Fianello.

Meat on the grill by Gustavo Fabri

Ore15.00-16.00:Concerto del gruppo "Tom Shepperd's Production"
Concert by the group "Tom Shepperd's Production"

Fianello by Matteo Bordini via vagabondo.net

Ore 16.30-17.00:Visita al borgo di Fianello
Tour of the walled town of Fianello

Ore 20.30:Cena sociale presso Ristorante: "Il Muretto" di Montebuono
 

Photo courtesy of Mucca Viola

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER
 

Biker's Breakfast by Ramona Abati

Ore 9.00-9.30: ISCRIZIONI, colazione e gadget.
Registration, breakfast, and mementos
 

Fresh pressed Sabina D.O.P. Olive Oil

Ore 10.30-11.00:Motogiro e visita al frantoio a pietra "Leonardi" di Configni.
Motorbike to Configni to visit the stone olive mill Leonardi di Configni
 

Bruschette. Foto di Claudio D'Artibale

Ore 12.00-12.30:Visita alla chiesa di San Pietro ai Muricento di Montebuono con esibizione del gruppo musicale “Lemon Three”
Visit the Church of San Pietro ai Muricento with a musical exhibition of the group "Lemon Three"

Concert at San Pietro ai Centimuro Photo by Jacques Francois di Cesare

Note the glass panel on the floor of the church of San Pietro ai Muricento under this biker's boots. Photo by Mucca Viola

Below the glass panels on the floor, visitors can see the excavated remains of the ancient Roman Villa under the church.

Ore 13.00-13.30: Pranzo presso il frantoio "Minicucci Cairo". 

Lunch among the olive groves. Photo by Jacques Francois di Cesare

You can follow the course of each day's tours on Google Maps by clicking on the the links embedded in the dates noted above.

 

So what does all this cost participants, given all that is included, not very much at all.

A visit to the Antica Fattoria Sabina by Gustavo Fabri

There participants pay €15.00 a day. The dinner on Saturday costs extra. If you participate on both days you end up paying a mere €30.00. Forthose who want tostay overnightthere is a special overnight offer ofHospitality at a local B&B or Agriturismo for just€20.00, orfreecamping.

 

This will be the 5th Annual Andar per Olio e per Cultura In Motocicletta. It draws people from all over Lazio and Umbria, possibly even other parts of Italy.

Fiorenzo sent me this explanation from a previous years tour explaining the motive behind the project.

"The Tourist Association Pro Loco of Montebuono continues its activities to promote the area adding this event to the many events already organized. The idea comes from the observation of a contemporary phenomenon that since the 80s there has been a significant increase in interest from many users, young and old, of motorized two-wheelers: the motorbike. In recent years an increasing number of trade journals, magazines, websites and groups of enthusiasts dedicated to motorcycle sports have featured articles on motorcycle tours that combine the spirit of knowledge of places and cultures and the search of good food and wine gastronomy. Even in the villages of our province it is now increasingly common to meet numbers of motorcyclists who come here seeking a weekend retreat in search of places of Art, Culture, Faith and local flavours.

Based on this preliminary analysis, it seemed like a natural evolution to propose to the many fans of mototouring an opportunity to get together and tour that would give us a further opportunity to promote our area, a region not only rich in monuments of great historical, cultural and artistic value, but also has a rich history of important olive oil production that stretches back millenia and has resulted in the Sabina D.O.P. designation. Thus was born, in 2009, the idea for the "Andar per Olio e per Cultura in Motocicletta" tour programme which has been repeated every year since then growing in popularity and appreciation. 

Last year, at the end of the day, the tour was summed up as follows: 

      

"130 participants with more than 100 bikes with two days of programming provided ... an idea of ​​promotion of the territory" a network "that slowly grows and spreads and promotes knowledge of the local economy .....its monumental and cultural riches through the desire of groups of cyclists to gather and participate in activities together ...... Activities that offer opportunities and spaces for artistic expression to the youth of the region ... Activities that promote awareness of the typical gastronomy of quality and DOP Sabina extra virgin olive oil bringing participants in contact directly with local producers....... and finally promotes friendships that binds people and unites the emotions."

Montebuono has so much to offer. People wishing to find out more about this event, or who are interested in learning more about the history, the many fascinating attractions, and gastroniomical possibilities, and options for staying in the region should contact the office of the ProLoco for MonteBuono. 

Associazione Turistica Pro-loco

• Indirizzo: Via delle Scuole n. 10, 02040 Montebuono (RI)
• Telefono: 0765.607631

o   Dalila:389 2539870

o   Matilde:334 1096424

• Fax: 0765.607631
• Email:proloco_montebuono@hotmail.it
• Twitter:https://twitter.com/promontebuono
• Website:http://www.facebook.com/prolocomontebuono2012
• Blog:http://prolocomontebuono.wordpress.com/

I highly recommend a visit. 

Photo courtesy of Fiorenzo Francioli

 Now for my motorcycle lesson!

 _______________________________________ 

Grazie a Fiorenzo Francioli e a tutti tutti coloro chegentilmentemi ha permesso diusarele loro fotoin questo blog. 

PANPEPATO SABINO - Il Gusto del Natale in Sabina.

December 23, 2013, 11:04 am

≫ Next: SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 4 - SALISANO, MOMPEO, FARFA, and CASTELNUOVO di FARFA - March 7, 2013

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Winter view of Catino, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

The olive harvest is over, the days are colder, the nights are longer, and snow begins to decorate the postcard-perfect hilltowns of the Sabina. It's that time again.

In the light and greenery-doecrated piazze of towns and villages throughout the Sabina, from Passo Corese to Antrodoco, from Monteleone to Montebuono, Christmas Markets are being held.  

Christmas Market in Poggio Mirteto, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

In these stalls you can buy all sorts of wonderful gifts, from local arts and crafts, hand-made soaps, decorations and toys, local wines and cheeses, the newly harvested Sabina D.O.P. olio novello, and all sorts of delicious cakes and confections, some internationally familiar, and some not so familiar...

In this post, I would like to introduce to you a Sabine Christmas treat called Panpepato. As you can see in the poster below advertising the Sagra, or festival, held in its honour in the town of Collevecchio, this is sometimes spelled Pampepato. 

Panpepato, sometimes translated as gingerbread, means literally "peppered bread". Panpepato has existed in various versions throughout central Italy from as far back as the middle ages. Recipes vary from region to region, from town to town, even from family to family.  

The most internationally famous version is Panforte from Siena in Tuscany. This is exported and sold in stores in Canada and the US, and likely most parts of Europe around Christmas time.

Panforte Siennese photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The "forte" or "strong" in the name comes from the fact that the cake was heavily spiced with black pepper.  

This particular version of Panpepato Sabino comes from our friends Fiorenzo Francioli and his wife Antonella Bigi who live in the historic town of Montebuono Sabino. 

If you have followed this blog for a while, you will know that Fiorenzo works with the ProLoco of Montebuono and that he is an avid motorcyclist. Richard and I first met Fiorenzo a couple of years back when we wanted to visit the hill town of Fianello...

Fianello and its pentagonal tower courtesy of Matteo Bordini via Vagabondo.net

...and the fascinating, recently restored medieval churches of Sta. Maria Assunta...

 

...and San Pietro ai Muricento--both which are built atop the ruins of ancient Roman villas...

Courtesy of I Luoghi di Cuore

As part of his work to promote Montebuono and all its historic and cultural treasures, Fiorenzo organizes a popular motorcycle tour of the region called Andar per Olio e per Cultura that attracts over a 120 participants each year.
   

Photo courtesy of Claudio D'Artibale

Fiorenzo and his wife Antonella are not only skilled cooks, but they are also very accomplished bakers -- they have a wood fired bread oven in their home kitchen! Over the past month or so I have been following with envy Fiorenzo's pasta making and bread making exploits on Facebook.
 

A recent post of his about Panpepato, re-posted by another of our friends, Alessandra Finiti, reminded me that I wanted to try my hand at Panpepato Sabino, especially since it was a recipe that came from our friends in Montebuono. 

Photo courtesy of Fiorenzo Francioli and Antonella Bigi

So, here is Fiorenzo and Antonella's recipe for

PANPEPATO SABINO

Ingredients:
 Almonds - 100 g
 Hazelnuts - 100g
 Walnuts - 100g
 Candied peel ( orange peel ) - 100 g
 Sultana raisins - 100 g
 Dark chocolate - 150 g
 Honey - 200g
 2 tsp Cinnamon
 1 tsp ground Nutmeg
 fresh cracked Black Pepper
 White Flour

The ingredients with the hazelnuts not yet chopped

Soak the raisins in warm water for at least 20 minutes before you prepare the other ingredients. 

 

Chop walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and chocolate. 

 

Put these in a large mixing bowl. 

 

Add the candied fruit, a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon , one tsp nutmeg, a generous sprinkling of ground black pepper...

...and finally the wrung out the raisins.


 
Turn on the oven and set it to a temperature of 180°C/356°F. Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, heat the honey and some water over low heat. Bring the honey to a boil. 



Pour immediately over the ingredients in the bowl so that the chocolate melts. 

Hot honey!

At this point add some flour a bit at a time mixing all the time. 



The resulting mixture should have the right consistency to be able to shape the rolls to be placed on the baking sheet. 

 

You can prepare 5 to 6 pieces depending on the size.

 

Bake for 10 minutes.
 

Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool down before you remove them from the pan. 



Although the recipe did not call for it...

...we gave our Panpepato a light dusting of confectioner's sugar. 

The Panpepato can be stored for a couple of weeks in a cool place in tin containers, and can be easily wrapped in cellophane to give as gifts...

 

So there you have it everyone, a wonderful recipe that brings the taste and tradition of the Sabina to your home. 

Casperia, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

The recipe is so easy, and the results are delicious. Just ask my Mom!

My mother taking her first taste of Panpepato Sabino after Christmas Dinner 2013

Thanks to all of you who have been reading and supporting me in the writing of this blog. Richard and Smokey and I wish you Buon Natale, and every good wish for a happy, healthy, prosperous, and love-filled 2014. Stay tuned for more posts. Alla prossima!!!

SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 4 - SALISANO, MOMPEO, FARFA, and CASTELNUOVO di FARFA - March 7, 2013

January 14, 2014, 5:56 pm

≫ Next: Sabina's Olive Oil Harvest and how it relates to Motorcycles, and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

≪ Previous: PANPEPATO SABINO - Il Gusto del Natale in Sabina.

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Salisano Panorama courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

I have written in previous posts how Facebook has been an influence on our relationship with the Sabina. Though it was a random picture of Casperia found in an Internet search that first brought this amazing region to our attention, it was seeing pictures of nearby hill towns taken by photographers like Giorgio Clementi and Alessandra Finiti that were posted on Facebook that shaped our subsequent travel plans to the area. 

The Langobard Pentagonal Tower looms over Catino, courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

During our 2012 trip we got to visit Catino, Poggio Mirteto, Montopoli, and Bocchignano thanks to these photographic introductions. 

An archway in Montopoli

When we got back to Canada, I started to explore more of the Sabina online and made up a list. For our 2013 visit to the Sabina, there would be some repeats... We knew we had to visit the Abbey of Farfa to buy bed linens at the Laboratorio Artigiano Tessile there... And we knew we wanted to revisit Santa Maria in Vescovio in Torri in Sabina... The amazing lunch we had at L'Oasi the year before was impossible to forget.

Troffie con Salsa di Noce at L'Oasi Restaurant

But we had a new list of places we wanted to see... And that included the hilltowns of Salisano and Mompeo to the southeast of Casperia. 

So we hopped into our trusty "automatic" Audi rent-a-car, turned left out of the parking lot and followed the narrow road under Casperia's walls north and then east to the intersection with the highway where we turned south.

I love this particular road... Yes, I know, I say it about most of the roads we have travelled on in the Sabina, but I really do love this one... First you get to pass by Roccantica, which on most sunny days is truly stunning.

So many happy memories of our time spent at the Sagra del Fritello the year before... Built on a slope on the lower skirts of Monte Tancia, the zigzag stone streets through the town make you feel like you are walking through a movie set. And, apparently it was... Just recently I was trying to free up some space on my harddrive and was going through some Italian TV shows and movies I had downloaded when I clicked on an episode of a show called "La meglio gioventù". Imagine my surprise when I suddenly recognized Monte Soratte, and then—when they panned away—I saw the main piazza and gate of Roccantica. It is so great to have these surprise discoveries from the Sabina.

As we drove by Roccantica I noticed the sign for La Tacita Country Club. Apparently, the restaurant there, Triskelis, is absolutely amazing. Trip Advisor ranks La Tacita Number 4 of 24 attractions in the province of Rieti. But more than anything I would like to go there during the summer months when the roses are in bloom to see Vacunae Rosae, their international renowned rose garden. 

I have always loved roses... My home town, Victoria, British Columbia, is famous for its English-style gardens. There are roses everywhere. The heady perfume of an old fashioned hybrid tea always takes me back to my childhood. It is such a powerful primal thing. 

The small Vancouver East End lot of the house I used to live in had a garden with 70 different roses. La Tacita's Vacunae Rosae has 20,000 square metres with 7000 roses bushes and 5000 varieties. Lucky visitors must literally swoon from the scent!

Photo of La Tacita's Rose Garden, Vacunae Rosae, courtesy of Rosemania.it

It is ironic to think that way back, when I was planning my first trip to Italy in june of 1999 that one of the places I wanted to visit was this rose garden in Roccantica. Sadly, we only had two weeks, and there were so many other things I really wanted to see and discover during our visit to Rome, Ravenna and Pompeii. We came so close to visiting the Sabina and perhaps even discovering Casperia in 1999 because of Roccantica's roses. That had to wait ten long years. Sadly, every visit to Italy since then has been in the "off season" when the roses are not in bloom... Oh well, some day...   

Further south, the road swings by Poggio Catino and Catino's hauntingly beautiful landmark pentagonal Longobard tower. If the road is not too full of cars it is easy to park on the side of the highway and get some amazing pictures. 

It was this photo of Catino's tower looming out of the mist, taken by Giorgio Clementiand posted on one of the Sabina Facebook pages that really opened our eyes to just how amazing every turn of the road in this special region could be. Last year when, through Giorgio's invitation, Richard and I were able to visit Catino and actually touch the tower, was a truly magical experience. 

So when we drove by Catino we rolled down the window, waved, and shouted, "Ciao Giorgio!" Pazzi Canadese!

We continued southward, happy to be on a familiar road with so many memories, but anxious to discover a new one. The traffic increased as we wound our way closer to Poggio Mirteto. 

We followed the traffic travelling Via Matteotti, the road that skirts around behind the main town of the Sabina Tiberina. 

The main piazza of Poggia Mirteto fast approaches on the right. We are heading straight though...

We passed the entrance to Poggio Mirteto's beautiful piazza that we visited with Alessandra the day before and followed Via Roma southward to its juncture with the Strada Provinciale 46 where we turned east. But even this stretch of the road was familiar. We were deep in olive grove country. Some of the best olive oil in the Sabina comes from the trees around Bocchignano.

Bocchignano is truly one of the Sabina's jewels. As we passed by the town gate with its pretty turreted church I suddenly remembered a particular moment from our visit to the town last year. 

Photo of Bocchignano courtesy of Castelli di Bucciniano

We were on the village ramparts looking across a beautiful green valley. It was almost dusk and we could see a shepherd with his sheep dogs expertly herd a large flock of baaing sheep, down a steep slope toward what I assumed was a farmyard. 

You can't see or hear the sheep, but they were there...

As they coursed down the hillside zigzagging in their dozens, bells clanging, I was reminded of the way the steel balls of a pachinko machine travel down through the maze of troughs, barriers and moving bats to and make their way down to the bottom of the machine. The sheep and their bells were of course much more beautiful to the eyes and ears than those steel balls pinging and clanging in the Japanese machine, but the image I think is apt.

The road descended down into a beautful olive tree studded valley. To our right, as the curve of the road would allow us, we could see in the distance Montopoli resplendent on the crest of its hill. Somewhere down in the valley below us nestled below Fara in Sabina was Farfa Abbey... But beautiful Farfa would have to wait for a bit. 

As we followed SP 46 skirting the feet of Mount Tancia new vistas opened up to us. Up on a ridge to our left was a new hill town. Was it Salisano? 

Castel San Pietro seen in the distance from an olive grove - Courtesy of http://castelsanpietrorieti.altervista.org/

It looked too small. I asked Richard to pull out the map and check and see what it was called. It turned out to be a pretty little village called Castel San Pietro which, we found out later, was a frazione or outlying parish of Poggio Mirteto... a place to visit when we knew more about it and had more time with a car. 

Salisano and Mompeo both finally appeared across a valley on their respective peaks.

A light mizzle rain was falling when we drove up the winding road into Salisano. We parked our car just outside the gate of the Centro Storico and set out on a stroll.

Like most hill towns in the region, there was a small, but pretty central piazza with a beautiful monumental fountain... one that actually worked!




According to "Modalità e forme di organizzazione territoriale della valle del Farfa tra il IX e gli inizi del XIII secolo: il caso di Salisano (Rieti), in Temporis Signa, Spoleto 2009" a scholarly article co-authored by Federico Giletti and Donata Carrafelli and published in 2009, the first recorded mentions of Salisano appear in the documents of the Abbey of Farfa between the eighth and ninth centuries AD. These documents mention a "fundus Salisanus", the name of a parcel of land which belonged to the Abbey of Farfa corresponding roughly to the whole hill on which todays historic centre of Salisano stands. In addition to Salisano, the same sources mention other place names preserved to this day in the region such as Grassianus and Galonianus, corresponding to modern day Rasciano and Gallo.
It is very likely that "fundus Salisanus" represents a preservation of a Roman place name from the classical era, probably derived from the name of a noble called Salisanus Salisius who likely was the owner of a rustic villa that was once located on the hill of Salisano.The first indication that there was a castellum or fortification on the hill comes from a document dated to 961.

You have read these words before from me, but I will write them again, each and every one of the Sabine hill towns has its own unique character. Each has their own unique feel, atmosphere, and layout, which is influenced by its environment, topography, the types of available building material, which also influences the dominant colour scheme. My initial impressions of Salisano were that it was much more refined, neat and tidy than Casperia or even Roccantica. It could be a difference in the type of stone available that determines all this, but it made me think of the original name of Casperia, which until the late 1940s was "Aspra", which translates from Italian as rough, rugged, harsh, etc. Salisano with its beautifully paved flat streets is none of that.

The gate of the castle town from the Salisano Commune Website

 So we went inside the old town and did some exploring.

The Chiese San Pietro e San Paolo

Just inside the centro storico is a beautiful golden stuccoed church, the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. From the piazza in front of the church the two main roads inside the town diverge and then reconnect on the other side of the town sort of forming a canoe shape.

Inside the city gates we found a notice board with some very sad news for Richard.  In January, during the Feast of the Epiphany, or La Befana, as it is sometimes called, there was a Sagra for Polenta in Salisano. Richard wept when he found out he had missed it... We both love Polenta, but Richard really loves Polenta. He is actually quite good at making it and would have been really interested to try Polenta in Salisano.

Don't cry Richard... There is always next year!

 Off the sides of the two main streets were side streets or vicoli, many covered with stone arches. 

 

We found this lovely little fountain. Some of the vicoli lead out to the circle road from where we could enjoy some beautiful views of the Sabine countryside. 

The streets in Salisano are paved in a much more finished style than those in Casperia... Because of the mist of rain on the cobbles the contrasting colours really popped. Again, there is a sense of refinement here.

I took a picture of this doorway, but this one by Giorgio Clementi is way better.

We turned around a corner and found a restaurant called Locanda del Gufetto which translates as the Owlet Inn. The Locanda del Gufetto is very highly rated on TripAdvisor. The funny thing was that there was a man standing in one of the doorways using a blowtorch to burn the feather stubs off a chicken which seemed destined for a soup pot or some other dish. I have a feeling that not a lot of foreign tourists come to Salisano so I didn't feel comfortable asking if it would be okay to take a picture... Then again, perhaps I should have...
 

Salisano is a very beautiful, but at least on the day we visited it, a very quiet town. It may be very different on a weekend or during the summer though. I would love to come and visit at some other time of the year and perhaps try a dish at the Locanda del Gufetto. For a virtual tour of the exterior and interior of the restaurant, click here.

Satisfied that we had had a good look at Salisano, we headed back to the car and headed down into the valley to find the road that would climb up to Mompeo.  

Antique postcard of Mompeo, date unknown

According to the Italian language version of Wikipedia, the territory of Mompeo in antiquity was certainly inhabited by Sabines connected with the city of Cures which was located near present day Corese Terra in the commune of Fara in Sabina. During Roman times there were a number of important villas in the vicinity. Today some water reservoirs, aqueducts, and baths are the few visible remains of these ancient rural country homes.

Gnaeus Pompeis at the Louvre. Photo by Leon Reed

Certain traditions claim that one of these villas was owned by the Roman Dictator Fabius Maximus (275-203 B.C.)  but this assumption is not supported by conclusive evidence. Much more certain is that another villa near Palombara was once owned by Gnaeus Pompeius, the elder son of Pompey the Great.

It is no wonder that upper class ancient Romans chose this part of the Sabina for their villas. Besides its proximity to Rome, its healthy climate, its fertile soil, the abundant water all spoke to them of another ancient Sabine city, the ancient Regillum, the supposed home of the Sabine Attius Clausus, also known as Appius Claudius Sabinus, the semi-legendary founder of the Gens Claudia, one of the most prominent patrician houses of ancient Rome. Tradition holds that ancient Regillum was located in the territory of Mompeo. The main street of the town was once called Corso Regillo. 

Old colour photograph of Viale Regillo and the asylum in Mompeo

Nowadays the south stretch of the ring road is known as Viale Reggilo while its northern half is called Via Appio Claudio.

Google Map of Mompeo

During the middle ages, Mompeo belonged to Farfa Abbey. Later on in the renaissance it was held by the Orsini family until 1559. After being held for a short while by the Marquis Caponi of Florence, Mompeo was ceded in the 1600s to a noble Roman family named Naro who held it until the early ninteenth century.  

Among the many interesting ancient Roman era artifacts found in the area are a number of funerary stone tower monuments and a Roman milestone 1.75 metres high and 2.10 metres in circumference. This milestone, discovered in 1956, was erected by the Emperor Augustus some time between 16 and 13 BC. The milestone is evidence of a paved Roman road that branched off the Via Salaria near Passo Corese and passed through the Valley of Farfa, passed Mompeo and climbed over the hills near Monte San Giovanni, then descended into the Rieti Valley to Rieti. Besides connecting the various villas in the area, this road is thought to have been principally used to transport salt to the various centres in the Sabina. 

The inscription on the milestone reads: IMP (erator) CAESAR DIVI F(ilius) AUGUSTUS COS(nsul) XI TRIBUN(iciae) POTEST(atis) VI EX S(enatus) C(onsulto) XXXV, which translated means: EmperorCaesarAugustus-son ofthe Divine(Julius Caesar) YearXI of theconsulateYearVIof the Tribunician PowerBy decreeof the Senate35 (milesfrom Rome). 

For those of you who read Italian, here is a link to an account of the milestone's discovery by a farmer plowing his field. 

Of course, when Richard and I headed out on our drive, we really didn't know any of this. We just knew we were heading out on another adventure in the Sabina and were just happy to know we would be making wonderful new discoveries...

View of Mompeo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Though Mompeo is the next town over, it has an entirely different feel from that of Salisano. There is something weightier about Mompeo... a sense of sturdiness that pervades this town of 600 inhabitants. 

Salisano across the valley seen from Mompeo's ring road... Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

When we got to Mompeo the main piazza was cluttered with trucks and tables like a morning market was just being cleaned up... I did not take as many pictures as I did in Salisano. Here is one by Giorgio Clementi showing the rampway in front of the main gate.

Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Chiesa della Natività di Santa Maria Santissima courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Richard, with Salisano in thebackground

The main gate of Mompeo

A stemma or coat of arms of the Naro family over the main gate of Mompeo

The history of the Sabina is full of stories of the various local and Roman noble families, particularly the Colonna and the Orsini, who plotted, connived, manouevered, and fought in bloody Byzantine fashion for the control of the Sabina and other parts of Italy. You see the stemme or coats of arms of these noble families carved into the keystones of the main doors to a lot of the palazzi. I knew the stemma of the Orsini and that of the Colonna. But this coat of arms with its triple crescent moons carved on the keystone of the main gate into Mompeo was unfamiliar to me.

It turns out that this stemma belongs to the noble Naro family who in 1646 bought the Castle of Mompeo and rights to its adjoining lands for39,000 scudi (crowns) from theMarquisScipioneCapponi. AtMompeoNarowas the promoterofmajor innovations inurban planning. He totally rebuilt the parish church, la Chiesa della Natività di Santa Maria Santissima andcommissionedsubstantialalterationsto thebaronial palace, including frescoesby artists VincenzoManentiandSalviCastellucci. 
 

It was past noon and we were getting hungry. Though Farfa was not too far off, the roads here wind and loop up and down and around the hills, and therefore distances and the time necessary to travel them can be deceiving, so we decided to get back in the car and head for Farfa for lunch at Da Lupi.   

 

Located in a quiet valley the Carolingian era Abbey of Farfa is truly a magical place. It is one of our favourite spots to visit. The Abbey church is beautiful. The Abbey gift shop, called L'Erboristeria, is an absolute must to see. Not only does it sell beautiful smelling soaps and lotions, herbal essences and cosmetics, biscotti, herbal teas and other products made in monasteries and convents all over Europe, it also sells a great selection of beers, liqueurs and grappas produced by happy monks and nuns in various religious communities as well.

The gate leading to the main entrance of the abbey church

But before anything, we wanted to go for lunch, and if you are in Farfa, you go to Trattoria da Lupi.

We have only gone to Da Lupi in the off season... The place is almost always more or less empty. I can imagine the place is hopping on the weekends and during the summer. I love how they promote the Sabina D.O.P. Olive Oil.

We ordered a nice bottle of Pecorino wine and some acqua frizzante...
 

...and pored over the menu.
 

I have a weakness for truffles. I was needing comfort food so I ordered something I have liked on previous visits, their Fettucine Tartufatte. It was exactly what I needed.

Richard loves his polenta as I mentioned above, and the proof of that is that he ordered polenta with a sausage and mushroom sauce. It came served on this wonderful wooden platter. Unfortunately the steam from the dish blurred he focus. Richard let me try some and it was delicious.

And who doesn't want a nice coffee and something sweet after a nice lunch? The little coffee shot glasses are from a company based in Rome called Moca, which besides coffee and coffee paraphernalia produces and sells things like tea, cocoa, sugar, rice, tapioca, bread and pastries... Their coffee is as delicious as their choice of logo is curious...

At the end of the meal our waiter, I believe he might be one of the proprietors, came by and presented us with a small tin of Sabina D.O.P. Olive Oil! Hooray!

 
By the time we finished our lunch the L'erboristeria and the linen shop were closed for the lunch time siesta. We were in no hurry. We waited outside the shop on a sunny terrace and made some friends with the local cats.

 Even on a grey overcast day the views from here are amazing. We could see the towns of Toffia and Castelnuovo di Farfa in the distance.

 

This old guy wanted attention but did not want to share the picture frame with me.

He wanted his solo shot.

 Quite a lot of cats came over for a visit and a pat. Not to be outdone, this older puppy came over for some attention. The cats and the dog seems to get along well together. The sun was coming out and our meal and the Pecorino made us feel sleepy... Then again, perhaps we were still not 100% jetlag free. Whatever it was, the peace and quiet of Farfa was so relaxing.

  

This old orange and white cat in particular was very happy to see Richard. He kept on coming back for pats. Here is a link to a YouTube Video of the encounter. 

There were of course other cats that demanded our attention, including this beautiful female Tabby.

 



But she had a friend...

...who wanted all of her attention and came to remind her...
 

With some extra time before the shops opened we wandered into the Abbey church...

Interior of Farfa  Abbey courtesy of Vagabondo.net

...just in time to hear the monks singing in an adjoining chapel one of my favourite Gregorian chants, Thomas Aquinas' hymn, "Adoro Te Devote". Here is a link to the YouTube video Richard took. It was truly another magic moment in the Sabina.

Three o'clock rolled around so we headed over to the L'Erboristeria and bought some soap, essential oils, and some Trappist Beer...
 

We then headed to one last store... and if you appreciate good bed linens, the Laboritorio Artigiano Tessile di Gustavo Scipioni is going to be your favourite place to shop in the whole world. 

This photo courtesy of the Laboratorio Artigiano Tessile website

This little shop that has been here in Farfa for three generations produces some of the most amazing bed sheets I have had the pleasure to sleep on. The ones we bought are 50% linen and 50% cotton, although they do sell 100% linen as well as 100 cotton. When you first lay down you think, this linen is going to be too rough to sleep on... then eight hours later you wake up from the best sleep you have ever had in your entire life.

We bought a number of hand towels for souvenirs and Richard splurged on a second set of 50/50 sheets. Our shopping mission accomplished, we went out to the small park adjacent to the monastery and sat on some picnic benches on a slope shaded by olive trees. It was cool, but not cold. Mourning doves were cooing, and other birds trilled and chirruped as we sat and soaked it all in... 

Farfa really is a little bit of heaven on earth. When we have visited it at least it is not overrun with tourists... If ever you needed a place where you could just sit and truly relax, breathe deep and feel the weight of the years roll off your unkinking shoulders, Farfa is truly the place to be.

Sunset over Farfa, courtesy of Paolo Pitoni

We had one last objective for the day. Since our last visit to the Sabina I had been interested in visiting the Olive Oil Museum in Castelnuovo di Farfa.

After taking some last pictures of Richard's tap shoes at Farfa for his tap dancing blog, The Happy Hoofer, we set off for Castelnuovo di Farfa.

Like its name suggests, Castelnuovo di Farfa, or Newcastle of Farfa, was a fortified hill town built above the valley where the Monastery lay. Human habitation in the area goes back to at least ancient Roman republican times. The ruins of a cryptoporticus of a rustic Roman villa can still be seen beneath modern buildings in the town. In the year 817 a church dedicated to Saint Donatus was built atop the foundations of the old villa around which the village of San Donato. 

A short distance from San Donato, a small castle named Agello was built in the early 900s against the wishes of Farfa Abbey. In response the Abbott of Farfa fortified San Donato with castle walls. This fortress was abandoned, however, after a few decades. Recent archaeological surveys conducted by the University of Sheffield have brought to light the nave of the little church in the modern cemetery. In the adjacent medieval cloister can be seen spoglia, or recycled building materials, appropriated from pagan funerary monument and reused in its construction.

Photo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Castelnuovo itself was founded sometime between 1287 and 1312 on the ruins of San Donato and incorporated also the mostly abandoned castle of Agello and another nearby fortess called Cavallaria and also absorbed the sparse rural population that had surrounded a medieval church dedicated to Saints Philip and James in Quinzá. The town remained under the overlordship of the Abbots of Farfa for a number of centuries, although at the beginning of the fifteenth century, at a time of political and military instability it was occupied by some followers of the Orsini.

Street scene in Castelnuovo di Farfa courtesy of Alexxandra Finiti

In 1817 Castelnuovo di Farfa was organized as a commune under the government of Fara Sabina and had 635 inhabitants. By 1853 the population had grown to become 690, 25 of whom lived in the countryside. This population was divided into151 households living in 132 houses. Castelnuovo's parish church was dedicated to St. Nicholas.

Photo of the Castenuovo di Farfa Olive Oil Museum courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

We arrived in Castelnuovo all excited to see the Olive Oil Museum. Sadly our anticipated visit was not to be... Though the museum website indeed indicated that it should be open on Thursday apparently it was bt appointment only and we didn't have one... Oh well, these things happen. We would have to visit some other time... 

Whether the museum is open or not, Castelnuovo di Farfa is indeed a very beautiful hill town and well worth a visit. We spent a good half hour exploring the vie and vicoli of the little town and took a few pictures before we headed back to Casperia. 

Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

 

 

A beautiful window display in Castelnuovo di Farfa

Back in Casperia, Negronis, good wine and a nice hot dinner was waiting for us at Friends Cafe. We may not have been able to see the inside of the Olive Oil Museum, but the fragrant green Sabina D.O.P. olive oil used on the toasty warm bruschette served at Friends comes from a family farm at Castelnuovo di Farfa. As we happily chatted with Stefano and Nicoleta about our day, in between sips of my favourite drink and savouring the crunch of the toast and the lovely green spicyness of the oil that soaked it, all disappointments I may have had faded away. 



Thanks to Alessandra Finiti, Paolo Pitoni, Giorgio Clementi and Richard Rooney for permission to use their photos for this blog.

 

Sabina's Olive Oil Harvest and how it relates to Motorcycles, and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

November 25, 2015, 4:24 am

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It has been a little more than a year since we made our move to Italy. We have experienced the colours, different shades of light, the wild range of temperatures and weather, and an amazing array of food festivals through all of Sabina’s four seasons. Last winter we experienced the culinary and community joys of our first Casperia Christmas. We even made our own home-made Nativity Scene complete with a macaroni roofed stable. 

Gluing the pasta "tiles" on the cardboard roof

The finished roof after a paint job and some moss added

The finished project.

We have foraged for and cooked with asparagi selvatici (wild asparagus), 

The start of a wild asparagus frittata!

...ortica (stinging nettle), and lupoli—known in the local dialect as vitapia (wild hop tips) in Spring. 

A bowl full of vitapia. These can be used like wild asparagus

We have survived the hottest Summer temperatures—a humid40+ degrees—I have ever experienced in my life by exploring and frolicking in the tree shaded, cool, refreshing waters of Sabina’s spectacular Farfa River Gorge. 

40 degrees? What 40 degrees?

This Autumn, we had an amazing hands on experience helping our friend Pino with his olive harvest. We gathered olives from trees that we can see in the valley below our window.

Pino's olives with Casperia in the background

This was a first for us, and would have been an unforgettable experience in and of itself, except this was made all the more precious when Pino turned up at our door and handed us a litre tin of emerald green peppery Sabine oil that came from the olives we picked!  

I find it very hard to put in words the feelings these experiences evoked in us.  First of all, we were participating in a harvest that goes back about 2700 years here in Italy. The ancient Phoenicians and Greeks spread olive cultivation and different olive varietals throughout their colonies in Sicily, Sardegna and mainland Italy. 

Traces of olive oil were found inside a ceramic flask—now in the Boston Museum—found in Poggio Sommavilla, a Sabine settlement site a 30 minute drive west-southwest of Casperia. 

The Flask of Poggio Sommavilla

The flask, which is inscribed with Sabine writing has been carbon dated to the  7th century BCE so at least olive oil appreciation, and likely olive oil production, goes back that far here in Sabina. 

However last year, 2014, was a disaster for olives and olive oil production here in Central Italy. This was brought on by a perfect storm of strange weather patterns. A freezing cold spring interfered with proper pollination. This was followed by a scalding summer that caused much of the fruit to drop. What olives survived these conditions were first battered by hail storms in autumn and any that remained suffered an unusually strong attack by the olive fly.  

A friend of ours here in Casperia, Johnny Madge, is an olive oil expert who offers exceedingly popular Olive Oil Tours in Sabina. At the time of this writing, TripAdvisor rates his Olive Oil Tours #17 of 160 Food and Drink activities in the Rome area. Johnny has a very acute sense of smell and palate. 

He is the only Englishman to participate on a tasting panel for Slow Food's Extravergini Olive Oil Guide. According to Johnny, even oils made from early harvest olives from award winning producers in higher altitudes—usually untouched by the olive fly—had problems in 2014. Imagine having a palate so acute that you could identify the flavour of fly worm in expensive oil! Luckily, most of us are not so gifted.

So as the summer of 2015 progressed we watched the weather and the olive trees around us with some anxiety, wondering if last year's pattern would repeat itself. I remember checking the branches of the olive trees we would pass by on our daily walks in the country looking for evidence of pollination, then small fruit. Each stage of the process seemed like a miracle. Every so often we would ask people we knew who had olives how things were going, and people would answer philosophically, "Quest'anno ci sono olive... Speriamo bene." This year there are olives. Let's hope for the best.

As autumn progressed we could see the olives on the branches begin to change colour as they matured. Some turned almost a reddish colour. 

Others turned purply black. There are at least nine varieties of olives grown in Sabina that can be used in the Sabina D.O.P designated olive oil. These are Carboncella, Leccino, Raja, Frantoio, Olivastrone, Moraiolo, Olivago, Salviana and Rosciola. Each one of these olives produces a different tasting oil. Some varieties have a more fruity or grassy flavour, while others are more bitter or peppery. Most olive growers here in Sabina have a number of different varieties of olives in their orchards so from farm to farm, each producer with have a unique tasting blend depending what olives the grower has.

I recently bought an interesting book on olive growing called Coltivare l'Olivo by Pierluigi Villa. 

One thing I learned reading this very interesting book is that certain olive cultivars have to be cross pollinated by pollen from other varieties. For instance, if you were to plant a new field of olives here in central Italy where there is a tendency for the wind to blow from north to south, especially in the pollinating season, that from a mix of local varietals that you would plant a line or two of Moraiolo olive trees on the north end as they are self compatible, that is, they don't require pollen from other trees. The Pendolino olive cultivar is often planted among a mix of other olives as it not only produces good olives for oil but also produces a lot of pollen that will help neighbouring trees produce a good crop of olives.   

Four different shaped leaves from four Umbrian cultivars

Many of the people here can recognise which variety of olive it is from the form of the tree, even the shape and colour of the leaves.

We were once given a demonstration of this by a friend who makes olive oil in Orvieto but I can't remember how to tell what from what. In Umbria, the four varieties they were using were Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccino and I think Monaco.

The weekend before we actually got to help pick olives with our friend Pino, we had actually been invited to come help pick at our friend Giuseppe's property which is located 22 minutes drive south of us in the frazione, or sub-village, of San Valentino in the town of Poggio Mirteto. Sadly, a combination of circumstances, including a very late night return from the October 31st annual Stregate della Torre festival in the village of Catino the evening before we were to pick, prevented us from helping with Giuseppe's harvest. Hopefully next year. I bring up Giuseppe because he is a historian and a writer. He is currently working on a comprehensive tourism guide for Sabina which I can't wait to see published and read. 

What is really exciting though is that Giuseppe has just published an amazing book that links Sabine olive oil with many of the key events associated with the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. It is a tongue in cheek history, very much in the spirit of a British book called 1066 And All That, which was an all time favourite of mine. Giuseppe wrote the book in Italian first and then rewrote the book in English. Giuseppe, whose family hails from Poggio Mirteto was actually born and raised in Malawi in Africa. 

I had a lot of fun first reading the Italian version, then going through Giuseppe's final English draft helping him tweak it here and there, and to come up with the English language title: Sabine Divine Nectar - the Hidden History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and the World's first Oil Crisis. I also was very honoured to be asked to write the introduction to the English version of the book which follows below:

Thousands of years ago the ancient Roman’s ruled an empire that spanned three continents that entirely engulfed the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean, to the point that Rome referred to it smugly as Mare Nostrum, “Our Sea”. Over 1500 years after the collapse of the Western Empire, Rome’s imperial shadow still looms large in our modern imagination. We stand in awe of Rome’s architectural, engineering and other technological achievements, not to mention ancient Rome’s artistic, intellectual, literary and legal legacy. Any way you look at it, Rome’s influence on Western culture is immeasurable, and like the City of the Seven Hills itself, eternal.

    So you may wonder, why Rome? Why of all the towns and cultures that once flourished on the Italian peninsula did Rome come to dominate? What motivated and sustained her people and their leaders? What inspired them to fight, conquer and eventually rule their immense intercontinental empire? And then why, after being so brilliantly successful for so many centuries, did Rome falter and eventually fail? Read this book and find out the shocking truth. It was all about oil. 

    Oil you say? Yes oil. But this oil that fuelled the mighty Roman state with her conquering legions that campaigned to the ends of the known world was no ordinary oil, but olive oil. More specifically, it was olive oil pressed from the mythic fruit harvested from the silver green olive groves in the happy arcadian paradise known as Sabina.

    Sabina, you ask? Yes, you have probably never heard about Sabina. Located in the hills to the northeast of the Eternal City it still is Rome’s most carefully guarded secret, and it is all because of her precious oil, Sabina’s divine nectar—ancient Rome and modern Italy’s supreme and sublime condiment. 

   There is nothing quite like it. Sad but true,it can only be produced in one place in the world, and on this bitter fact hangs the entire story of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Why did Rome’s long march to world conquest begin with the conquest of Sabina, and what was the reason behind Rome’s frenzy for territorial expansion? How did the hero Horatius keep at bay an entire Etruscan army at the Sublician Bridge? Why were the Carthaginians so desperate to conquer Rome? What was the real reason behind Rome’s obsession with bloody gladiatorial games, and what is the sinister secret behind the assassination of Julius Caesar?  

    Read this book and all will be revealed. A precious green gold liquid link connects every major character and event in ancient Roman history. Edward Gibbon and every  eminent ancient Roman scholar before and since got the history all wrong. Or did they? Wait, maybe they too were guardians of a secret!  

James C. Johnstone

Sabina: A Stunning Land - My Secret Italy

Giuseppe's book will be available for sale in the next few days, right in time for Christmas! The cost, as far as I know, will be 12 Euros. It is a great little read and would make a wonderful souvenir gift for any visitor to Sabina and would be a perfect companion to any olive oil event or tour you might take here.

So with all the anxiety and anticipation of the 2015 olive harvest, combined with my reading Giuseppe's new book, and the fact that we had missed an opportunity to pick olives with Giuseppe's family in Poggio Mirteto, we were thrilled to find out that a friend of ours, Pino, was picking olives in the valley below Casperia on a piece of property in full view of our west-facing apartment window.

Casperia, framed by olive trees in the valley below

We set out with our friends, Helen and Ritchie, in search of Pino in the valley below. We headed down using a rocky trail that connects Casperia's parking lot to the valley below. It is a route we like to take on a lot of our walks, especially in Spring, when there are lots of opportunity to forage for wild asparagus, wild hop tips, stinging nettles, mentuccia, and other wild herbs. During the summer, it was one of our favourite places to visit in the dark of night in search of fireflies, called lucciole in Italian.

Helen, Ritchie and Richard with his bag for sticks we would gather on the way home to use as kindling. Winter is coming!

We got down to the bottom of the valley but when we got there it was unclear which way we should turn to find the olive grove where Pino was working. It seemed so clear from our apartment window, but once we got to the valley floor we lost sight of all the landmarks we could see from above.

We went across one field where we could see people harvesting but it was not Pino, but Massimo Petrucci, the owner of our local Conad Grocery Store, his brother and their families harvesting their own olives. Pino! Where are you? We called him on his cell, but even then it was a bit difficult to find him. But find him we did. He had been working for more than an hour and had already filled a number of plastic boxes with beautiful green, purple and black olives.

It is probably fair to say that Pino Pirelli is one of the hardest working men in Casperia. Besides being our volunteer dance teacher (more on that later in another post later), by merit of his owning one of the few tractor vehicles that can negotiate the stone stairs inside the castle walls Pino not only works three mornings a week helping collect Casperia's garbage and recycling, but when you need to move furniture, transport a large purchase of groceries, move building materials, buy a load of firewood for your cantina or haul away junk, Pino is one of a few people you can go to, so he's a very busy guy. 

Pino comes from Montenero Sabino, a hill town to the south of us across the Via Salaria. His family has olive orchards still in Montenero and his brother looks after harvesting those. The olives that Pino harvests here in Casperia are not actually his own but are owned by our butcher Armando Sileri. Armando is too busy with his Macelleria to be able to harvest his own olives so he has worked out a deal whereby Pino harvests his olives, hauls them to the frantoio (oil press) for crushing and gets a share of the resulting oil. Win/win! 

Pino explains the harvesting technique and gets Richard, Helen and Ritchie to help remove large twigs from the tela or net.

Pino explained to us how the harvesting techniques have changed in his lifetime. When Pino was a youngster, the olive harvest was all done by hand. The people gathering the olives would have a large wicker basket strapped to their chest and pull the olives from the branches, often while standing on ladders, and drop them into their baskets. Nowadays the olive harvest starts earlier than traditionally. This is largely due to an effort to avoid the olive fly getting to the ripe fruit. When Pino was a school boy, Christmas holidays were not so much holidays but time for the young folk of the village to spend all their time helping their parents with the harvest. As the harvest was done with bare hands, the winter cold made the work sometimes painful.

Later, a sort of hand rake was invented that speed up the process and allowed people working in the cold to wear gloves if they wanted. Nowadays small landholders use an extendable mechanical rake called an asta. Instead of using wicker baskets, where possible, nets called tela are spread around the tree being harvested and the asta makes the olives drop into the net which is then gathered up much like a fish net to facilitate the dumping of the olives into the 25kilo size plastic boxes. Of course larger estates that have land that allows it sometimes use larger mechanical harvesters but as far as I know they are not used here in Sabina. 

Before the olives are dumped into the boxes large twigs and any other extraneous objects that have fallen with the olives are picked through and discarded. 

In the adjoining olive orchard to the north, the Petrucci family were hard at work at their harvest. Richard and I took a moment to take a short break to go over and say hello. The ground was littered with olive filled plastic boxes. On our way toward where we could see Massimo using his mechanical rake to drop this olives into the tela, we heard someone calling our names off to the right. We looked up the slope and there we saw Massimo and Irene's daughter Valeria enjoying a rest with her cousin Daniele. Daniele is a regular with his brother Federico and their mother at our dance lessons and Valeria comes every now and again too.

We said hello, talked for a bit, and then went over to see the adults hard at work among the trees. 

Massimo demonstrates how the mechanical rake moves as his brother looks on...

The mechanical rake called the asta if powered by electricity which is generated from the harvester's car or tractor battery therefore it is a bit noisy when you use an asta but it sure speeds up the work. In year's past, when we visited Casperia, we would often ask Massimo if we could purchase some of his local oil. Conad is a national chain and sadly only national brands are usually sold there, but we wanted the good stuff. Massimo's oil is dark green, powerful, peppery... beautiful on a bruschetta, a salad, or on fresh grilled meat. It was great to finally see where that oil which we have enjoyed over the years has its origins.

Everyone was busy at work, except for Daniele and Valeria, so we said our ciaos and headed back to where Pino, Helen and Ritchie were hard at work. Richard asked if he could try out the asta. You have to be careful when you do this work and remember to look down when you move your feet across the tela otherwise you will step on and damage the olives. 

After a few minutes of Richard raking through the branches Pino looked at Richard with a big smile took back the asta and teased him saying, "Richard, you are a great dancer, but out here, you need a little practice." 

Richard laughed and handed Pino back the rake. He and I hand picked olives while Helen and Ritchie did quality control making sure no twigs went into the plastic boxes. 

Every so often we would help Pino move the tele to a new tree where the process would start all over again. Sometimes, when the tree being harvested was on a steeper slope we would help hold the nets so that the dropping olives would not roll outside the net.

I am not sure exactly how long we spent helping in the harvest but at some point in the early afternoon Pino said it was time for him to quit for the day.  

Richard and I asked Pino if he was going to pick more olives the next day. He said he was, so we said we'd be happy to come again and help in the morning.

The next morning we had no trouble finding Pino. He was already hard at work filling boxes from the olive filled tele.

We helped Pino move the empty tele to the next tree where he started raking the branches in long smooth motions. 

Armando's trees were in need of a good pruning. Pino explained that it was very important to be careful with the asta as the tines could break if they got caught among the thicker branches. 

Richard and I took turns holding the net when needed. I did a lot of hand picking inside the tree where the asta could not reach and Richard worked cleaning out the twigs from the olives and helping Pino transfer the olives from the tele to the plastic boxes.

Pino rakes olives from the branches with Casperia in the background

Richard with his "Here's a big one off the bucket list look"

One more box full

Almost ready to go home

Shortly after noon Pino indicated he was finished. It was time to go home for lunch. Richard and I were ready for a nice leisurely walk back home but Pino said, no, that we should all go home in his tractor. Tractor? We couldn't believe it. It was like being kids again, except with older bones and joints... I wasn't very graceful getting in the back—Richard rode up in the front with Pino—but it sure was a wonderful ride. I swear I saw a number of people do double takes as they saw us ride into town. What a hoot! It was so fun. 

Pino drove us right up to the Porta Romana where we hopped off and walked up the basalt and limestone cobbled steps back to home. What a day! I can't wait to do this next year.

A couple of nights later there was a knock on our door. It was Pino. In his hands he had two litre tins of the olive oil made from the olives we helped harvest, one for us and one for Helen and Ritchie. Thank you Pino. Grazie di cuore! 

Later that night we toasted bread on the fire and tasted Pino's oil... our oil, for the first time. The colour was an intense green and it had a fresh fruity aroma. I don't know which of the nine Sabina cultivars were included in the blend but the flavour was bold, intense, grassy, with a beautiful bitter pepperiness at the finish.  Just how we like it. Assolutamente strepitoso. 

But wait! There is more. Our hands-on harvest experience over, we had one more event related to Sabine Olive Oil on our bucket list. This was a motorcycle tour of Sabina featuring visits to a number of Frantoi, olive oil mills in the nearby town of Montebuono, and some historic sites in the neighbouring hill town of Cottanello.

This tour was organised by our friend Fiorenzo Francioli who works for the town of Montebuono, the Pro Loco of Montebuono, and a local motorcycle club called the Sabinacci. If you have been following this blog you will be familiar with Fiorenzo and his work in Montebuono from this blogpost that I wrote a number of years back. 

Fiorenzo guiding us on our first tour of Montebuono and Fianello

Fiorenzo and I at Fianello some years back

Fiorenzo has been organising this tour for a while. Though neither of us can drive motorcycles, ever since we found out about it, both Richard and I have been intrigued with the idea of going on this tour. We had thought that we would find a way to go last year but the event was cancelled due to the fact that there was no olive oil.







This year, not only was there olive oil, but the promotional information for the tour indicated that for those not yet cool enough to be able to drive a motorcycle, that coming along by car was okay as well. When we found out this, we called our friends Helen and Ritchie to see if they were interested and they were so on November 9th of this year, bright and early, we took the winding road to Montebuono.

It was a beautiful sunny day by the time when we arrived.

The plan was for everybody to meet at the small parcheggio outside Montebuono's town walls. There was already a crowd of people in the parking lot when we arrived. We were not sure which way the group would be leaving when we headed out so we parked along the edge in the parking lot, got out and went to the registration table to pay and have breakfast. The entire tour which lasted from 9am to 3pm, and included visits to two olive oil mills, guided tours of two historic sites, breakfast, lunch, and a complimentary little bottle of freshly pressed Sabina DOP olive oil from Montebuono cost only TEN EURO!!! 

Each participant got one of these

The complimentary breakfast

Oh my!

We found Fiorenzo in the midst of the growing crowd and went over to say hello. We had not seen each other since September of 2014. It was so good to see him. 

As we waited for everyone to arrive, we milled through the crowd, taking pictures. We met four Japanese women from Collevecchio coming on the tour. They were travelling by car too so we were not alone.

Ritchie and Richard hamming it up, striking a pose... It would be a little more convincing if they actually had a motorbike

At about 9:30 Fiorenzo made a formal welcome to everyone, explained the day's schedule, laid out some ground rules, and then we were off...

We followed the long line of motorcyclists to our first destination, an olive mill in Montebuono called "Olio Sapora" di Daniela di Mario. Group movement was very well organised. At each intersection, one of the members of the Sabinacci would stop their bike and direct traffic.

When we arrived at Olio Sapora, work was in full swing. The place was a hive of activity. Not only did they have to cope with 130 visitors on motorcycles, but there we dozens of local producers with their trucks and three-wheel api dropping off their olives or picking up their oil. The frantoio was on a hill facing the Tiber valley with an amazing view of Monte Soratte. 

With everything going on, it would have been impossible to have a properly guided tour of the mill. The line of operation, however, was pretty clear. People would arrive with their olives, presumably at a pre-appointed time, dump them in a large hopper, from which the olives would be carried into the mill on a conveyor belt, washed, leaves and twigs extracted, then crushed in various stages and pressed into oil. The smell of the freshly pressed oil was intoxicating. There was a large fire in a camino (fireplace) on one side of the mill where bread was being toasted for bruschette.  

There was a huge line up at the table where the toasted bread, fresh off the coals, was drizzled with freshly pressed fragrant green olive oil and lightly salted. Forget the lineups for free samples at CostCo. People were circling like sharks waiting their turn for a precious slice of oil soaked toast. It was well worth the wait. In the first 30 minutes of this amazing tour, I got my 10 euro's worth! Yum! 

But then someone started handing our plastic glasses of farm-made red wine! This tour was getting off to an excellent start. Cin cin!

As we drank our wine in the crowd of bikers an elderly contadino drove up with his ape, pronounced ah-pay, the three wheeled mini truck so ubiquitous here in the countryside, whose name means "bee". He patiently manoeuvered through the milling bikers and proceeded to load up his ape with his freshly pressed oil.

When it came time for him to leave he just backed up into the crowd, people moved, and with a friendly push from one of the bikers, the old contadino was off with his precious oil.

As we got ready to head off to our next destination I went into the mill for one last look at the fragrant liquid gold, Giuseppe's "Divine Nectar" streaming out of the press. No wonder the ancient Romans were crazy about Sabina... not just for their women, but for this precious green gold liquid so central to the life of every Italian, and that of all Mediterranean people. Maybe Giuseppe's book is not so tongue-in-cheek after all!

It was time to head off. Different clubs took last minute group photos in front of the olives, and then Vroooom! Vroooom! 

We were off to Cottanello to see the ruins if its ancient Roman villa. Cottanello is one of Sabina's most imposing hill towns. Situated high on a hill at the entrance to a strategic pass leading to the Rieti valley, Cottanello has had a turbulent history.

The villa we were about to visit was owned by Aurelia Cotta's family. Aurelia Cotta was the mother of Julius Caesar. Richard and I had visited the villa, along with the Hermitage of San Cataldo and the Cottanello marble quarry a few years back with our friends Fern and Ina from Canada, Heidi from Norway, Alessandra from Rome, Marco from Ponzano and Irina from Cottanello. 

Montage of Cottanello images courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

It was a marvellous excursion guided by Monica Volpi from the Cottanello town office crowned by an unforgettable luxurious long lunch at La Foresteria in the same town. As we had taken the tour before, and it was crowded, Richard and I left the group in the good hands of Luigi, the town guide, and we went off by ourself to reacquaint ourselves with our favourite mosaics in the villa.

Luigi, the expert and very patient guide from the town of Cottanello

The cock and the hen mosaic on the threshold of a private room... The square holes held the door post mechanism

The Villa of Cottanello is well worth a visit. For more information on the history of the villa and the archeological excavations, please follow this link. Guided visits of the villa, the Hermitage of San Cataldo and the Cottanello marble quarry can be arranged through the Cottanello town office. 

Originally, the plan was to visit the Hermitage of San Cataldo as well as the villa but we were getting behind schedule and people's tummy were starting to rumble as loud as motorcycle engines so it was agreed that we would skip the hermitage and head to our next Frantoio where lunch was waiting for us.

The Frantoio Minicucci Cairo in Montebuono, just a couple of hundred metres beyond the famous medieval frescoed church of San Pietro ad Centum Murum (well worth the visit which you can arrange with the Montebuono town office) was even larger than the mill we visited in the morning and seemed even busier. Half the parking lot was taken up with picnic tables for our lunch. So what would have seemingly been a chaos of producers arriving with their olives and leaving with their precious oil was exacerbated but no one seemed to lose patience...

The impatient ones were those waiting for the BBQ to fire up and for lunch to be served. All that history, culture, and olive oil education makes a person mighty hungry!

Sausage being made ready for the BBQ

Thankfully the was the opportunity to buy cheese at a stand operated by a Water Buffalo cheese producer in Magliano Sabino. The name of the caseificio was Perle degli Angeli, Pearls of the Angels.

They were handing out samples of their wares: Bufala mozzarella, bufala ricotta, smoked bufala mozzarella, bufala yoghurt, etc. All of them were delicious so we bought a bit of each. The samples sort of held us over until lunch was ready. A tantalising smell of cooking sausage and bruschetta wafted over the entire group from the BBQ a couple of metres away. Coals dropped from the burning logs in the hopper at the back of the BBQ were carefully raked from the back across a metal base over which metal roasting frames held the roasting sausages and toasting bread.

We all held our tickets in our hand, waiting for our turn to pick up our lunch. By the time food was served I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of what we ate. It was delicious, but not photographed.

After lunch we took a tour of the mill and followed the course of the olive from delivery, to washing, crushing, and the extruding of oil. With lunch over, the smell of BBQ was replaced with the heady enticing smell of fresh crushed olives.

The oil we had tasted on our bruschette was so good that we all bought a number of litre tins of it.  The oil famine of 2014 is over. Lets hope that from 2015 onward, the feast will continue.

What an amazing couple of weeks this has been. October and November really have been spent in great anticipation of this year's olive harvest. Olives and olive oil are the heart of mediterranean culture. When there are no olives, it is like the heart goes into palpitations from stress. 

A few weeks ago, we took some friends to one of my favourite places on the planet. We went to visit the Great Olive Tree of Canneto in Fara in Sabina. This amazing tree is somewhere around 2000 years old... It is likely older than Christianity, and older than the Roman Empire... L'Ulivone di Canneto, as it is called in Italian, has seen the rise and fall of many Mediterranean powers. For close to and possibly over 2000 years it has given and continues to give life. How many people have sat in its shade? How many thousands of people have enjoyed oil produced by its fruit? Sabines, Romans, Byzantines, Lombards. Franks (Charlemagne passed close by enroute to his coronation when he took the road from Farfa to Rome in 800), maybe even Arabs as they laid siege to and destroyed Farfa Abbey in 890s. By some great miracle this tree has survived into the 21st century. If humankind can pull a rabbit out of the hat and stop global warming, it might survive another 1000 or so years. Who knows. I sure hope we do. Either way, it is an amazing tree that exudes wonderful energy. One day I would like to buy oil from the owners knowing that somewhere in the tin or bottle is oil from this tree's fruit. Now where is that copy of Giuseppe's book?

OLIVE OIL FROM SABINA - The Green Gold of 2015 is Fresh, Green, Grassy, Peppery, Pleasantly Bitter, absolutely Delicious and Available at a Store Near You!

December 22, 2015, 3:52 pm

≫ Next: SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 19 - ALESSANDRA'S COTTANELLO - March 23, 2013

≪ Previous: Sabina's Olive Oil Harvest and how it relates to Motorcycles, and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

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This is a follow-up from my previous post on Sabina's olive oil harvest of 2015. Since our forays out into the oliveti in the valley below Casperia to help our friend Pino, we have had a number of opportunities to taste and buy excellent oil from the region. 

Remember, last year's olive harvest in central Italy was a complete disaster. Up until a couple of months ago, we have had to get by with oil from elsewhere, and that usually came in bottles with labels that read "100% oil from the EU". It was olive oil, but it was not of the quality we were used to from our time here in Sabina. When you read our friend Giuseppe Bizzaro's tongue in cheek history of the rise and fall of ancient Rome and its connection to ancient Rome's desperate obsession with Sabine olive oil, you will find stories that echo our sense of disappointment and depression having to go without Sabine olive oil for so long. 

At this point, however, we have in our possession the largest amount of olive oil we have ever had at one time, all from different producers in Sabina. We have amazing oil from Montebuono, Farfa, Cantalupo, and a number of different oils from Casperia.   

Many of you who are reading this post have likely read, or at least heard of, the book called "Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil" by Tom Mueller, and if you haven't read the book, you have likely read similarly themed articles in magazines and newspapers about the terrible olive oil fraud scandals here in Italy and elsewhere. Remember though, that these inferior, sometimes doctored oils are brought to you by big name producers that foist their fake product on an interested but uneducated public via grocery stores and supermarket, all over the world.

It is a whole other experience though to face a producer across a table at a country fair and look him in the eye as you taste his oil and then buy product directly from him. This is what we did last weekend at the annual winter Fiera at Farfa Abbey.

  

We have been friends on Facebook for a while now, known each other through our mutual love of Sabina and our love of photography, but had never had the chance to meet face to face. 

In the spring I had stumbled upon Fabrizio Mei's farm during a visit to Farfa Abbey. I had noticed some signs up advertising fresh cherries and was surprised to find that the beautiful red cherries being advertised were from Mr. Mei's farm. 

Anyway, when Richard and I visited the Winter Fair at Farfa, there was Fabrizio with a table just inside the Abbey grounds selling not only his oil but some of his honey as well. His oil, which he advertises as "the only olive oil from Farfa," was exquisite. It had all the qualities we look for in a Sabine olive oil: fresh, golden green, peppery, with a lovely bitter tingle in the throat aftertaste, evidence of a healthy high polyphenol count. So of course, we bought a tin and expanded our growing collection. 

I think I wrote about this in some previous posts. In past years, when we were visiting Casperia for short visits, we were shocked to find that local Sabine oil didn't seem to be available at the local Conad supermarket. Here we were in the heart of Sabina D.O.P. country, with signs at major intersections proclaiming Casperia as the home of Sabina D.O.P. and the only shopping outlet available to people without a car didn't carry Sabine olive oil. 

  

We of course found out later that all we had to do is ask Massimo, the owner of the local franchise, and he would be able to sell us some of his own oil. We also found out later that the G.S. Market in neighbouring Cantalupo sells some spectacular oils, some made in Casperia and others in Cantalupo, but for the first couple of visits here the only good local oil we were able to source was through Massimo at Casperia's Conad. 

The good news is that there are lots of opportunities to buy very good oil here in Sabina. And for those visitors who are interested in experiencing this local delight, here are some sources we can heartily recommend.

In Casperia: 
        Conad Supermarket
        Via Roma, 7
        02041 Casperia (RI) 

       This little market is our go to place for every day shopping. They have a great deli counter and fruit and vegetable stand. The owners and staff are very friendly and have been instrumental in expanding our culinary horizons while living here in Italy. As of this year Massimo has started selling his delicious olive oil in bottles. Look for the squat 500ml bottles labelled as Sabinae Naturalia Extra Vergine d'Oliva. The labelling is a bit confusing as it is actually for an oil from Poggio Nativo to the south of us, but it is indeed Massimo's delicious oil from Casperia. If you cannot find them on the shelf, ask one of the staff working behind the deli counter. If you are interested in buying larger amounts, the oil can be bought in larger tins as well. It is sometimes a good idea to ask ahead for the larger sizes as they are not always in the store. 

        Ortofrutta di Sara e Paolo
        Via Tomassoli, 20
         02041 Casperia (RI)
         Tel: 329 232 5996

        In May of 2015, I wrote a post in my blog about this great little shop located on the main street linking Casperia's Porta Romana with Piazza del Comune. Since its opening, we have enjoyed buying delicious organic produce, both fruit and vegetables, at Paolo and Sara's shop. 

Right now we are in citrus season and we have used their organic lemons and clementines to make Limoncello and Clemoncello, and their lemons to make our famous herbed salt. I'll write more on that in another post. 

     Sara and Paolo's shop is usually only open on Friday's, Saturdays and Sundays and their hours fluctuate from season to season. Here is a link to their facebook page which will give you up to date hours. Remember, most shops here close for the afternoon lunch and siesta between 13:00 and 16:00, sometimes as late as 16:30 and reopen in the late afternoon. Paolo and Sara have two different types of organic Sabine olive oil pressed from different cultivars of olives harvested from their oliveto below Monte Caprignano. These can be bought in tins of various sizes. The one we particularly like is the one labelled "Luma Frutti Antichi".

In Cantalupo:

       G.S. Market
       Km 21.400 SS 313
       02040 Cantalupo in Sabina (RI)

    The G.S. supermarket located below and to the west of Cantalupo's historic centre on the Via Ternana, also known as SS 313, is a great place to shop if you have access to a car. It is larger than the Conad in Casperia so there is a wider variety of things to buy. I wrote a post on Amadeo, the owner and the market's chief butcher, and his prize chianina bull Scirocco a number of years ago. Amadeo lives on a beautiful farm a kilometre or so south of the market, close to the recently restored Church of Sant'Adamo. Besides raising cows, sheep and goats, he also has extensive olive groves around his farm. The Galena and Sant'Adamo brand olive oil for sale at the G.S. Market is his. We have tried both in past years and they are wonderful oils. This year so far we have had a couple of bottles of the Galena, and it is spectacular. Besides these two oils from Cantalupo, the G.S. Market also sells an oil from Casperia labelled "Casperia". How simple is that? All of these oils are available in a number of sizes, from 750ml bottles to three litre tins.

       Azienda Agricola Biologica Settimi Dante
       Vocabolo Fonte Taverna 57/B
       02040 Cantalupo in Sabina (RI)
       Tel: 347 456 5660
       E-mail: dantesettimik@gmail.com 

       


If you have ever had the pleasure of staying in Casperia's signature B&B, La Torreta, you will most likely have tasted this delicious oil. 

Dante Settimi, the producer, is the owner's son-in-law. Dante's delicious oil is used in the meals served at this historic B&B and is also used in their very popular cooking classes. Dante's oliveto is located just west of Casperia in neighbouring Cantalupo and is certified organic. His oil is a full flavoured blend made from mostly the Carboncella cultivar with some Leccino and Frantoio as well. Dante also grows organic produce. Here is a little vimeo video to give you an idea of what his property looks like.

At Farfa:
      Olio Mei
      via di Porta Montopoli, 31
      02032 Fara in Sabina (RI)
      Tel: 0765 277156
      Web: www.oliomei.it
      E-mail: info@oliomei.com
This Sabine olive oil touts itself as the only olive oil from Farfa. 

If Fabrizio says so, it must be true. Beyond the history and the caché though, I can assure you that Fabrizio Mei's oil is delicious. It has all the wonderful freshness, fruit, tickley pepper and pleasant bitterness typical of the better oils of the region. If you are visiting the Imperial Abbey of Farfa and are looking for a delicious souvenir of your visit, a bottle or tin of Olio Mei is a perfect solution. Remember to swing by in cherry season for some truly spectacular cherries!    

In Montebuono:
      Frantoio Oleario Minicucci Cairo SRL
     1, Via Sargnano, 2

   02040 Montebuono (RI)
   Tel:0765 607059
   Fax: 0765-609021

     Web: http://www.frantoiominicucci.com.spazioweb.it/

      I wrote about this frantoio in my previous post. It was one of two modern, very clean and busy operations we visited during our very informative and memorable motorcycle olive oil and culture tour hosted by the Pro Loco of Montebuono and the Sabinacci Motorcycle Club in November of 2015. 

It was here that we ended our tour with a BBQ lunch and bought two litre tins of the golden green fragrant oil produced at this mill. Olive growers come from as far away as Casperia and possibly farther to mill their olives here. It is one of a select number of olive mills licensed to mill organic olive oil. Our friends Sara and Paolo take their organic olives to be milled here. If you are planning a tour of the Montebuono area and have made arrangements with the Comune to have a tour of the historic San Pietro ad Muricentum Church with its breathtaking frescoes, this frantoio is a hop, skip and a jump further along the road leading to the church from the town centre.

      Olio Sapora
      Azienda Agricola D. Di Mario
      Via S. Andrea, 7
      02040 Montebuono (RI)
      Tel: 0765-607663
      E-mail: oliosapora@libero.it
      Web: http://www.oliosapora.com/

         I wrote about this modern, clean, and very busy frantoio in my earlier post as well. It was the first olive mill we visited during our memorable "Andar per Olio e per Cultura in Motocicletta" motorcycle tour of the area around Montebuono and Cottanello. It was here that we enjoyed our first taste of this year's freshly pressed olive oil on a piping hot bruschetta. 

This frantoio sells their own certified organic extra virgin olive oil in three size options: bottles of 500 and 750ml and in five litre tins. The oil is uniquely fruity and comes from a blend of four cultivars: Moraiolo, Leccino, Frantoio and the local favourite, Carboncella, which adds a pleasant light bitter element to the oil. Remember, if you are looking for not only a delicious but a healthy extra virgin olive oil, that it is this bitter, almost peppery flavour of the high polyphenol content that you should be looking for.

In Poggio Mirteto:
       E Non Solo Carne
      via Giacomo Matteotti, 23
      02047 Poggio Mirteto (RI)
      Tel: 0765 22197

      The name of this very highly regarded butcher shop situated one floor above Poggio Mirteto's popular La Chianina Restaurant means, "And Not Only Meat", and it's true. This remarkable little store is a dream for the buon gustaio. First of all, yes! Their meat is truly excellent, from their fresh beef, veal, pork, and lamb to their sausages and cured meats. 

Recently we were treated to one of their specialties. This is a beautiful herb and olive oil dressed pork loin wrapped in a long bread loaf, most likely a baguette, then wrapped in pancetta, and tied up in string. You roast it on a baking pan covered in parchment paper at 180 C for 60 minutes turning it over after 30 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes or so before slicing and serving. Mamma mia! My mouth is watering just writing this. This store also sells all sorts of artisanal pasta, polenta, jams, marmalades, compotes, lentils, farro, cheeses, as well as an amazing sourdough bread produced from a 90 year-old starter!

      

They also sell though delicious Sabina D.O.P. Olive Oil produced by the Sabina D.O.P. Consortium in tins of various sizes as well as some bottled Sabine olive oil from select individual producers. There are so many amazing things in this store make sure you have enough cash on you or your credit card handy as you will walk out with more than you intended when you went in. Here is a link to their Facebook Page.  

      Ecofattorie Sabine
      Via Ternana, 2
      02047 Poggio Mirteto (RI)
      Tel: 0765.26016
      E-mail: info@ecofattorie.it
      Web: http://www.ecofattorie.it/index.html

At the other end of Poggio Mirteto, more to the west and closer to the Tiber River and the Poggio Mirteto Scalo railway station, you will find another gourmet's paradise, Ecofattorie Sabine cooperative. We have been going to Ecofattorie Sabine for 10 years now. They have excellent local cheeses--the first time I tried their ricotta al forno I thought I had died and gone to heaven--salumi, local organic meat, pasta, and the best rye bread you will sink a tooth into this side of the Tiber. They also sell honey, marmalades, jams and wine. We recently visited their newly expanded operations and were very impressed with what we saw, tasted and bought. 

Ecofattorie Sabine offers two different extra-virgin olive oils: "Capofarfa", which is fruity, sweet, traditionally pressed in the ancient family mill, and "Podere Moricelli", which is medium fruity, from handpicked organic olives, traditionally milled.

In Torri in Sabina:
     Colle Magrini
     Vocabolo Carpinete, 30/B
     02049 Torri in Sabina (RI)
     Tel: 076562381
     Web: www.collemagrini.it 
         E-mail: info@collemagrini.it

       This producer in Torri makes oil of extremely high quality pressed in a modern clean mill. Their oil is a blend of three types of olives: Frantoio, Leccino and Carboncella and comes highly recommended by our friend and internationally renowned olive oil expert, Johnny Madge.

There are a number of other producers which should be featured and will be soon. In the meantime, I would like to announce that the English language version of my friend Giuseppe Bizzaro's book on the history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and its connection to Sabina's olive oil is now printed and will be for sale in a number of places including Osteria Vigna and La Torretta B&B in Casperia. I will add other information as it becomes available. Be on the lookout for this title: Sabine Divine Nectar: The Hidden History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and the World's First Oil Crisis.

The Italian language version, which is named Delizia Sabina, Maledizione Romana: Il Ruolo Nascosto dell'Olio d'Olive Sabina nel Destino dell'Impero Romano is available in a number of places in Sabina including E Non Solo Carne at Poggio Mirteto.

For those of you wishing to explore further the wonderful world of Sabine olive oil, there are a number of options including Johnny Madge's highly rated Olive Oil Tours, as well as the recently reopened Sabine Olive Oil Museum at Castelnuovo di Farfa. 

An antique olive press

I recently had the opportunity to visit the museum after a special reopening ceremony a few weeks back and I was very impressed with the antique olive presses and other related paraphernalia. 

There are some interesting art and musical exhibits as well. 

This exhibit concerns music created by the sound of dropping olive oil

This revolving olive tree actually creates an eerie type of music

So far the museum is only open on weekends and other days by special appointment. 

This olive crushing stone wheel was once powered by mules or donkeys who were much stronger than the average Canadian

If you were planning to visit the museum, a good idea would be to combine it with a visit to Farfa Abbey. Nearby Castlenuovo di Farfa is the ancient church of San Donato built on the site of an old fortress. The ancient Roman spoglia incorporated into the church's walls are interesting. 

   

SABINA TRAVELOGUE 2013 PART 19 - ALESSANDRA'S COTTANELLO - March 23, 2013

January 12, 2016, 10:23 am

≫ Next: Un Pommeriggio con Pino alla ricerca degli Mitici Asparagi Selvatici della Sabina - A Guest Post by Richard Rooney

≪ Previous: OLIVE OIL FROM SABINA - The Green Gold of 2015 is Fresh, Green, Grassy, Peppery, Pleasantly Bitter, absolutely Delicious and Available at a Store Near You!

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The Sabine hilltown of Cottanello as seen from L'Eremo di San Cataldo, courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

In late March of 2013 a dear friend from high school and university years, Fern, came to visit us in Casperia with a friend of hers from Norway, Heidi. Richard and I were staying at Il Sogno, with Ina, a friend of our friend Candace, so Fern and Heidi shared a room at  the beautiful La Torretta B&B just down the road from us. 

Heidi, Fern and Ina hit it off really well and actually spent a lot of time together. They travelled to Poggio Mirteto and to Farfa Abbey with the help of the staff from La Torretta (we were without a rent-a-car at the time). 

The one time we actually got to go on an excursion all together was thanks to our friend Alessandra Finiti who arranged with staff from the Comune of Cottanello, Alessandra's old home town, for a tour of the local attractions there.

This collage of images from the excavations at Cottanello's Roman Villa courtesy of Alessandra Finiti.

Cottanello sits on a spur of a hill guarding a mountain pass that connects the Bassa Sabina, or the Sabina of the Tiber, with the Rieti Valley. The name Cottanello derives from an ancient Roman family name, Cotta, the Aurelii Cottae were an important branch of gens Aurelia who claimed descent from King Numa Pompilius. Prominent personalities from this family served Rome in political and military life from the third century BC to the first century A.D.

After their conquest of the Sabina, the Romans subdivided the land into farms and villas. Many of Rome's patrician and senatorial families had villas in Sabina. The Aurelii Cottae, Julius Caesar's wife's family, owned a large villa complex on the south facing slopes below the present day village known today as Collesecco, which translates as "Dry Hill". This Villa, which over the past decades has been excavated and maintained by the comune of Cottanello, was our first destination in our specially arranged itinerary.

View of the Cotta mausoleum on the Via Appia Antica south of Rome courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

There were five of us needing a ride from Casperia to Cottanello and Alessandra's car could not fit all of us. In the end we were able to get a ride for half of the group from Franco Angelelli, the owner of Gusto Al Borgo. 

Depending on who is behind the wheel, Italian or Canadian, the drive from Casperia to Collesecco can take from 14 to 20 minutes. Franco had us at our destination in no time.  

We all piled out of the car and headed down through the field past a ruined farm house to the villa site.

L. to R. Me, Ina and Richard heading toward the villa ruins

This farmhouse which sit directly above and behind the villa excavation site is for sale. It very likely sits atop more buried villa ruins as only part of the villa has been excavated. 

The villa was discovered in the late 1960s during agricultural work. Intermittent excavations were carried out by volunteers from Cottanello's Pro Loco under the supervision of the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome. 

Layout of the Villa Excavation from Cottanello town website

Over the decades a large section of the ruins were uncovered revealing a working agricultural villa which, however, had a number of rooms with richly mosaic covered floors. 

Mosaics at Cottanello's Roman Villa - Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

In one section of the villa fragments of massive terracotta dolia, or storage jars, were uncovered. The discovery of the words M. Cottae stamped on one of the jar rims furnished proof that this villa was indeed the country farm of the illustrious Cotta family.   

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

At the villa gate, our group was met by Monica Volpe, our guide from Cottanello's town office. She escorted us inside the roofed enclosure and gave our group an overview of the history of the villa, then took us through the villa complex room by room explaining each location. Our group was mixed, Italian, Canadian, Russian and Norwegian. I ended up interpreting, as best as I could, Monica's Italian for the non-Italian speakers in the group.

When Monica arrived I noticed that she carried with her a plastic spray bottle full of water. I wondered what it was for. We soon found out.       

Something that was not readily apparent at first, because of an accumulation of dust, was the fact that most of the floors we were walking on were covered with intricate mosaic designs. Even after we noticed them, the mosaics seemed to be muted work in black and white. 

Some of them indeed were, but here and there when Monica crouched down and sprayed a section with the water in her bottle, vivid colours would spring to life from beneath the dust. 

There were not only black and white, but rich reds and browns, ochres and grey blues. There were not only intricate geometric patterns in repetition but also whimsical portraits of human faces, little birds, as well as floral and leaf designs.

Monica getting ready to work her magic

One of the villa tabbies sneaking up behind Heidi

All the while Monica guided us through the various rooms, corridors, the atrium and peristyle of the villa two semi-feral tabby cats, possibly the hired guardians of the villa site, accompanied us.

Alessandra tried her hand with Monica's spray bottle. This site was very small but we were just gobsmacked by the richness in the decoration of the rooms. Here and there the original plaster still stuck to the opus reticulatum walls, some with the reds and black of fresco colours still evident. 

One of the villa cats comes to listen to Alessandra and Monica's conversation about the mosaic

We got shown so many amazing things during the visit. One fascinating element were the square holes on either side of the thresholds in which at one point either metal or wooden blocks with sockets for doors once had been. 

Photo courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

One of these thresholds had a very interesting mosaic, that of a cock chasing after a hen. If I remember the explanation correctly, it seems that the meaning of this mosaic was that the room behind the door was the master bedroom.

Another fascinating feature of the villa was the cryptoporticus, a large storage vault, that ran beneath the villa.

It was likely in this extensive underground chamber that the fragments of the terracotta dolia with the M. Cottae stamp were discovered.

It was almost time to leave the villa and head off to our next stop on our Cottanello itinerary, the Hermitage of San Cataldo, but the sun was so nice and warm that we couldn't resist sitting down on the stone walls with the cats and enjoy the Sabine sunshine for a few moments before we headed back up the hill.

I love this picture of Alessandra and the cats... I think they were priming her for getting some tabbies of her own...

Our friend Fern getting in a pat before we had to leave

Just as we were about to leave for the Hermitage Monica presented each of us with a pamphlet on the villa excavations produced by the town of Cottanello. We posed happily together: Italians, Canadians, Russians and Norwegians, for a formal group shot before we headed back to the cars. 

L. to R. Marco, Irina, Heidi, Richard, Ina, Alessandra, me, and Fern

For the next leg of our journey we split into two cars, Alessandra's and Marco's, and drove the seven minute windy uphill road to the carpark outside the walled town of Cottanello. 

From the Cottanello's car park to the Hermitage was a five minute walk... according to Google Maps, but I remember it taking a little longer.

Five minutes away from civilisation seems a bit close for a hermitage. In actual fact, up until 1888 when the current road linking Bassa Sabina and Rieti was built, the original access to the hermitage was not from the road below as it is today, but from a treacherous goat path which descended along the shear rock slopes toward the hermitage from the mountain above. 

Photo of me, Ina, Fern, Richard and Heidi courtesy of Alessandra Finiti

Thankfully, we took the modern easy route. If you are driving from the Bassa Sabina over the pass behind Cottanello toward the Rieti valley many motorists might not even notice the hermitage or stop to think about what it is if they do. 

Perched in a cleft among the granite rock of the cliffs, L'Eremo di San Cataldo has stood guard over Cottanello for over a thousand years. Built originally by Benedictine monks preaching in the area, the hermitage is dedicated to Saint Cataldus, an Irish monk who lived during the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Cataldus, while returning to Ireland from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was shipwrecked near Taranto in Puglia. 

The holiness of the shipwrecked Irish monk prompted the local population to beg him to be their bishop. He eventually became Archbishop of Taranto, dying there around the year 685. Apparently San Cataldo is invoked for protection agains plague, drought and storms.

Why the hermitage is dedicated to this transplanted Irish saint is not certain. Legend has it that the saint took refuge in the hermitage to escape during the Arian persecution but there is no historical confirmation to corroborate this hypothesis. Though the official patron saint of Cottanello is Saint Andrew, the people of Cottanello have a particular fondness for San Cataldo whose feast day is celebrated on May 10th.

Inside the hermitage's small chapel are housed the most ancient Byzantine-style frescoes of Sabina. Particularly beautiful is the age-old painting of The Redeemer and other beautiful paintings from the fifteenth century that depict the Madonna and Child with saints and bishops. The fresco of The Redeemer dates from the ninth to tenth century and shows a seated Jesus in the act of blessing flanked by the apostles and saints. 

This fresco, with its Franciscan Tau cross painted on Jesus's right leg in the late 1200s during a time when Saint Francis evangelised in the area, lay forgotten and hidden from view under a more recent layer of fresco and would have remained hidden if not for a strange twist in history. 

In 1944, during the last months of the war in Italy, a rear guard of young German sappers were charged with the destruction of the road connecting the Bassa Sabina and Rieti in order to slow the advance of Allied forces who were hot on the heals of the retreating Nazi and Fascist government troops. The point where the sappers were laying their mines was a bridge directly below the hermitage. If everything went according to plan the road would indeed have been cut but the bombs would have destroyed Cottanello's beloved hermitage as well. By some miracle—the weeping townspeople were all on their knees watching and praying—the blast did not go as planned. Some of the bombs exploded, but when the dust cleared the astonished people of Cottanello saw their hermitage intact. The only damage to the chapel was where the shock of the blast knocked off a layer of newer fresco revealing the precious older fresco beneath. 

In a corner of the same wall is the fresco of the Virgin that dates back to 1443. Some assert that the face of the baby Jesus is reminiscent of the appearance of Saint Francis.

Heidi admires a rustic altar made of the famous local red Cottanello marble

The views of Cottanello from the hermitage were stunning. We took lots of pictures of both inside the hermitage chapel and of the beautiful surrounding countryside. My stomach clock though was telling me it was time for lunch. History always makes me hungry. Luckily for all of us, a spectacular meal had been arranged for the group at La Foresteria, Cottanello's premier restaurant.

Alessandra is obviously very happy with the tour so far...

Monica and Alessandra led our hungry group back down the road toward Cottanello.

On the way Alessandra led us on a small detour during which she showed us Cottanello's old communal laundry.

I love the atmosphere of these old laundries. It feels almost as if you can hear the echoes of the laughter of the women who once gathered, worked and gossipped there still ringing off the walls. Unfortunately, Casperia's old communal laundry just outside the centro storico has been closed for a number of decades and is now being used as the pro loco's office, but a number of communal laundries are still functioning in the countryside around the paese. Every so often, when Richard and I have been out walking in the countryside foraging we have come across ladies of the older generation still using them. 

Marco, Richard and Fern in front of La Foresteria look ready for lunch!

Though it might have been a bit early for Italians to dine al fresco, there were Canadians, a Norwegian and a Russian in the group. To our great joy our Italian friends agreed to dine outside. La Foresteria has a wonderful large terrazzo. 

Cin cin! L to R: Richard, Fern, Alessandra, Marco, Irina, Heidi, me, Monica. Thanks for the photo, Ina!

We were all relaxed and happy and ready to eat and drink. As soon as our table was set, out came large blue bottles of sparkling and still water. La Foresteria's home-made red wine was absolutely stunning! This was my first clue that this was going to be one the the best and most memorable meals of my life. What follows is an excerpt from my TripAdvisor review of the restaurant. You will find the full review with pictures posted June 18, 2013. You can't miss the title: “The first words out of our mouthes were "O.M.G.!"

O.M.G.!

O.M.G. indeed!

In March a number of friends were staying with us for a week in Casperia, a small hill town outside Rome that we like to visit. It was the last full day for two of our friends, one from Canada, and one from Norway, and a friend from Rome had arranged a special excursion for us to the neighbouring hill town of Cottanello. We had just finished a fascinating visit at an archeological dig of an ancient Roman villa, followed by a tour of the cliffside hermitage of San Cataldo when our host guided our happy but weary feet to La Foresteria. We were mostly Canadians and Norwegians so when we saw a table open in the outside patio we asked to eat there. On the patio, surrounded by an amazing view of the Sabine hills and listening to birds singing their spring love songs, we were treated to what has to be one of the best meals of my life... Stringozzi is the traditional hand made pasta in Sabina. After a nice plate of local Sabine antipasti, out comes a plate of stringozzi, but stringozzi like we have never tasted before. Instead of a hearty red sauce, this pasta was dressed simply with a mix of garlic infused Sabina D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, red chili (peperoncino) flakes, and a mix of pecorino and parmigiano cheese. Quite literally there was a chorus of "O.M.G.!" when we tasted it.

Stringozzi Piccante alla Cottanellese a.k.a. Stringozzi O.M.G.

Then followed a traditional meat course with arrosticini (lamb skewers), pork cutlets and grilled sausage.

Everything was done to perfection, but it gets better. Roberto, the owner, makes his own red wine from local grapes. It was so delicious we begged to buy bottles of it after. It was poured from a keg into empty water bottles, but we got our wine all the same. 

What a day! Cottanello is way outside the regular range of tourists visiting Rome. It has none of the tourist infrastructure that places like Tuscany or the Veneto boasts. What it does have is fascinating, small scale local attractions explained to you by proud local town staff and a restaurant, that if it were closer to Rome would have lines out the door every night. As it is, it is a jewel of a restaurant enjoyed by the 800 inhabitants of Cottanello and visitors lucky enough to stumble across it. If you go there, ask for Stringozzi alla Cottanellese or Stringozzi Picante. And if you can't remember that, ask for what the Canadian group had. I can't wait to go back for a visit.

With full and very happy bellies we headed out for the next stage of our Cottanello odyssey. This was a car trip up a narrow country road, the old road that linked Bassa Sabina and the Rieti valley before the modern road was built in the 1880s, followed by hike. At a turn in the road there was a small car park and an unpaved mountain road leading off to our right. We parked the cars and got out. There was absolutely nothing to indicate that this fork in the road was important... that the mountain path we were about to take led to one of central Italy's most important quarries.

During the Renaissance, massive rough-hewn columns of so-called Cottanello Marble were quarried in this location, then dragged down the mountain all the way to Stimigliano on the Tiber. From there they were barged and ferried down to Rome where today they adorn, among other prominent baroque churches, Saint Peter's Basilica, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale and Sant'Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona. 

Like the mosaics at the villa in the valley below, the beautiful marbled reds and browns of the Cottanello Marble are not so readily visible unless the stone is wet, or has been freshly broken.

Monica took us to a section of the quarry where there was a rough cut pillar abandoned by 17th century workers. Who knows why... Perhaps there was a crack or the colour pattern was off. As far as Roman stone pillars go it was not huge... nothing like the massive red granite pillars brought from Egypt for the Pantheon, but you have to marvel that people back then could and did quarry and move stones this big on the slopes of a mountain and were able to transport them by the existing roads down to the Tiber and then load it on a boat to take to Rome.

Monica explained that the pillars were carved into shape as much as possible at the quarry to make the pieces of stone more portable.

Cottanello Marble is not a true marble. It is rather a multicoloured marled limestone. It was discovered by the Romans in the first century BC. Quarrying of the rock by the Romans was in full swing by the third century AD around which time a number of quarries were in operation in the two and a half kilometre stretch between modern day Cottanello and the hamlet of Castiglione.

Cottanello slab image courtesy of Wikipedia

In Roman times it was used mostly to make wall veneer panels and for floor tiles for public buildings and villas scattered in the surrounding area. Evidence of its use was found at the Cotta family villa at Collesecco but Cottanello marble was also found as far away as the villa of Lucullus in Terracina, 76 kilometres southeast of Rome, where it was used in some of the floors.

One of the best preserved ancient Roman artefacts in Cottanello marble, a beautifully preserved 3rd century AD columned basin, was sold for US$266,500 in June of 2009 by Christies Auction.

Cottanello marble basin sold in 2009 by Christies auction

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the quarries, seven in all, remained closed and abandoned for a long time. The value of Cottanello marble was rediscovered in the 17th century when it was used extensively to create columns, altars and altar railings in many churches throughout Lazio and Umbria. It is in fact one of the most popular materials used in Roman Baroque churches.

If you have visited Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome you might have noticed quite a lot of Cottanello marble there. Gian Lorenzo Bernini used Cottanello marble for the 44 massive columns with which he framed the side altars there. Who knows, the workers who abandoned the pillar were most likely quarrying material for one of Bernini's projects.

Cottanello Marble used in Bernini's Tomb of Pope alexander VII in St. Peter's Basilica

On the way back down the hill to the cars each of us kept and eye out for a small piece of red Cottanello marble to keep as a memento of our visit. But our tour of Cottanello was not finished. We slowly drove back down the hill toward Cottanello where we said our thanks and goodbye to Monica before heading into the centro storico for a final piccola passeggiata. 

We wandered though the winding vie and vicoli of Cottanello marvelling again at how each of these hill towns has a different feel, a different atmosphere. Here and there pieces of ancient Roman and medieval marble decorated the walls of some of the principle buildings.

Also evident here and there were decorative pieces of Cottanello marble. 

We saw it used in arches, as a keystone, in door frames, as a threshold, and even worked in among the stone cobbles we were walking on. As we rounded the corner we saw a barber shop open for business. Richard couldn't resist. We all had fun taking photos and videos of Richard getting a hair cut and beard trimmed by Benito "Benito like Mussolini," the affable barber... 

As you can see, Richard got the full treatment from Benito. He gave Richard a haircut, trimmed his beard and moustache. He trimmed his eyebrows, and even his nose hairs, and at the end of it all would not accept any money in payment! What a sweet guy!

The sun was slowly descending toward Monte Soratte with promises of yet another stunning Sabine sunset. Happy, and still very full from our wonderful lunch at La Foresteria, we headed down towards the town gate and the parcheggio taking even more photos as we went. 

Near the town gate are two windows with a panoramic view of the Sabine hills and the valley below. According to Alessandra, when she was a young girl, she used to climb up and sit in one of these windows and daydream. As we paused for a moment beside the windows Alessandra climbed up onto the rose-coloured stone frame, assuming the position she had taken so many times as a child. As Alessandra looked out of the window to the view below I imagined just how filled with nostalgia she must be at that moment. Cottanello holds so many powerful memories for her... And thanks to our wonderful day with Alessandra and Monica it does for us as well. 

I would like to thank Heidi Økern, Ina Dennekamp, Fern Braein Teleglow, and Alessandra Finiti for their kind permission to use of their images throughout this post.

For more information (in Italian) on the Villa Romana in Collesecco near Cottanello, please check out these two websites:

http://www.comunecottanello.it/cottanello_000011.htm

http://cottanello.isma.cnr.it/

Here are also English language links for the Roman Villa, the Hermitage of San Cataldo, and the Cottanello Marble Quarry. 

If you are interested in a guided tour of any of Cottanello's historic attractions, this link will give you access to contact numbers for Monica and Alessio at the Cottanello Tourism Office. 

...and that is the end of my tale!

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Un Pommeriggio con Pino alla ricerca degli Mitici Asparagi Selvatici della Sabina - A Guest Post by Richard Rooney

March 29, 2016, 3:47 pm

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Our pal Pino

Today I had one of those days that after living in Italy in a small hilltop town for over a year and a half stood out as one of the best. I went asparagus hunting! 

In 2012, we discovered, or should I say, we were introduced to Asparagi selvatici, Italy's wild asparagus, by our friend Fiorenzo Francioli from Montebuono.  Before he found me my first sprig, I had looked at all of these nonni and nonne happily ambling along the country roads we were driving on who were carrying home bag loads of wild asparagus... And I couldn't even find my first sprig.  I don't know why, but I was obsessed with finding it.

Our first wild asparagus sprig in 2012 found for us in Montebuono by our friend Fiorenzo

After that first green sprig I was totally hooked.  Every spring James and I would walk in the countryside picking up the odd piece here and there, but still nothing could compare to what the locals were getting.  

Back in the days when I was happy to find two sprigs on the road to Santa Maria in Legarano

I have to admit, there were times I almost wanted to stick my head out our rental car window and grab a bag of it from some poor contadina! It was just a thought, but seriously, I was tempted. 

We first really connected with our friend, Pino Perilli a couple of years ago at the Sagra del Frittello (Deep Fried Cauliflower Festival) in Roccantica.  He was dancing with his wife Donatella, and James and I were mesmerised by how beautifully they danced.  



They danced the two step, the fox trot, the tango, you name it they knew it and danced it well. 

They have something here called Ballo di Gruppo... 




It's the Italian version of line dancing—to me a lot sexier than our Western boot scoot dancing! I got up to give it a try, and Pino taught me a dance in two minutes. 

Even Sponge Bob Square Pants does Ballo di Gruppo

He is an amazing teacher: patient, steady, and very clear on instruction. Anyway, the dancing is a whole other story. Hopefully I can write about that in the near future.

Back to wild asparagus hunting—and it is a hunt... Spring is here, and lately we have been seeing photos on Facebook of Pino with wadges of wild asparagus... huge bunches of it.  As much as I admired his bounty of the green treasure—so delicious—I must say I was a bit envious.

The other day while I was sick in bed, Pino phoned and said he was coming over.. that he had to drop something off.  Ten minutes later he was at our door with a huge bouquet of asparagus, telling me to share half with our good friends Helen and Ritchie Dakin.

We were so grateful, because if you have not had the immense pleasure, the taste wild asparagus is like nothing like any store-bought asparagus you have ever had before. There are different kinds. Some a little more bitter, some sweeter. Chopped up and sautéed with eggs, tossed in pasta, or mixed in with a delicate risotto, anything... It is an earthy, sweet taste that exalts any dish. Highly prized by cooks and buongustai all over Italy, if you try to buy it in the markets, you pay a pretty penny.

Wild asparagus at 39 Euros a kilogram at a vegetable store in Poggio Mirteto

I then asked Pino if he wouldn't mind if I came with him on one of his hunts, and he said, "Certo!"No problem!  I promised not to tell anyone about his secret places. He just laughed and said "Va bene, va bene!"

So today was our day. I thought that we would be walking to where we would be foraging but it was about a twenty minute tractor ride out in the countryside, which I absolutely loved.  There is something about riding on a tractor that brings back wonderful memories of being on the farm in Saskatchewan and riding one with my Uncle Bill during the harvest. It made me feel like I was 10 years old again.

We arrived at our destination, parked the tractor in an olive grove at the base of a hill, then climbed through the grove up into the wild. Pino explained that if I was foraging where there was dense growth, for safety's sake, before I picked any asparagus, that I should poke around a bit with a stick... In case there were any serpenti—poisonous snakes!  Springtime is apparently the time you should really watch out for them, so I had a bastone—big stick—to fight off the vipers. 

I asked Pino, "What about you?" but he said no. They flee when they see him... And if they're not fast enough, he picks them up and takes a bite out of them!
  

So, for the next two and a half hours, we traversed a hill with some paths, but also a lot of dense growth...  As Pino said, "Quando si sporca, si trova!" It's when you get dirty—meaning hiking in dense growth—that you find them.

Pino has eyes like a falcon.  He could spot a piece of asparagus a block away.  We went our separate ways for a while, and I actually was doing pretty good, and thought, wow, I've actually got a few here. 

About half an hour later, I met up with him, saying, "Hey! I've got a few!" He said, "Me too, just a few." In his hand, he was holding about 100 pieces ! 

Pino's bunch on the left, mine on the right

Near the end of our hike, he would say, "Richard, look there, there's one. Richard, look over there, there's another one!  I was really being trained by the Master!  

I was getting a little tired, and very very thirsty—I can't believe I hadn't thought to bring water. Finally, we headed back down the hill and soon we were back on Pino's tractor, riding happily through the beauty of the Sabine countryside back to Casperia. Pino drove us right up into town, through the Porta Romana. As Pino's tractor rumbled up the steps heading toward Via Massari I turned and looked across the valley to where we had been foraging and breathed in the amazingly clean air. I felt blessed and so lucky. At Via Massari I hopped off the tractor, thanked Pino, then turned and wearily made my way up Casperia's stone steps to Via Latini to show James my fistful of heaven.  

Tonight, James is cooking freshly made Stringozzi with sausage and pancetta, and, oh, of course, asparagus !

Thank you Pino, il Re degli Asparagi, for showing us so many things here in Casperia: dancing, olive picking, and asparagus hunting. It is hard to put into words but these are gifts to me, and I am so grateful...

We are so lucky to be here, and so glad that we embarked on this journey of moving to Italy and having these very simple, but amazing  experiences!

Boared in Orvieto - Posted on Facebook - Painted in Vancouver - Framed in Casperia: THE STORY BEHIND A PORTRAIT

May 19, 2016, 3:10 pm

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This is a slightly different post than usual as it has to do with a piece of art that I bought during a recent visit to Vancouver. This portrait of my partner and I has its origin in a selfie, one of many we took around midnight during New Year 2016 celebrations in Orvieto... 

...but it ultimately does have a Casperia connection. 

My partner and I were in Orvieto for the last couple of days of 2015, staying at a friend's tower house in the town's lovely medieval quarter. We had cooked and eaten at home, a simple but hearty panful of mezze maniche all'Amatriciana downed with a couple of bottles of good Orvieto Classico white wine. We wanted to see how Italians celebrated New Year's Eve so we decided to take a bottle of prosecco and a couple of plastic glasses up to the piazza in front of Orvieto's Duomo. 

Winter nights in Orvieto can be bone-chillingly damp and cold so we bundled up as best we could and headed out towards the cathedral. Eating, as you can imagine, is a big part of any Italian celebration, and the streets of Orvieto were emptier than we expected, probably because people were still at home, lingering over their Cenone, the traditional "Big Supper" Italians eat at Capodanno... Or maybe everyone was napping after their lentils. 

Anyway, we got to the piazza in front of Orvieto's spectacular gothic cathedral and waited for the crowds to gather. At first, the only other people in the piazza was a small group of teenagers on the cathedral steps and, across the way, a half a dozen camouflaged soldiers armed with machine guns—a regular siting now in front of all major churches and tourist attractions here in Italy since Daesh has threatened the country. 

About 10 minutes to midnight, the piazza began to fill up. It was mostly a young crowd, and we were a little unnerved to find that, though there had been a clear directive banning the use of the traditional fire crackers due to heightened security concerns, not only did a lot of people have fire crackers and fireworks, but some of the more rambunctious were lighting them and tossing them in the direction of the machine gun-toting guards. I have to say that this raised my anxiety level a little. It felt a little like being on an amusement park ride that was more frightening than amusing, and I wanted off. 

But of course we stayed, and nothing happened. Midnight rolled around and all of Orvieto's bells started tolling. There were firecrackers and fireworks going off everywhere. We opened our bottle of prosecco, two Canadians in an Italian raucous crowd, and toasted the new year.   

On our way back to our friend's house in the medieval quarter we took a couple of selfies. We were happy, tired, un po' ubriaco—a little drunk, giddy, and acting more than a little bit goofy, and that shows in the pictures.

A few days later when we were back in Casperia I posted all my Orvieto pictures on Facebook and then I basically forgot about them for a while.

Flash forward to February of 2016...  I started noticing posts on Facebook by a friend of mine, an ex-co-worker from the Gourmet Warehouse, named Jean Smith. I always loved working with Jean. She was a fascinating character... a published author, a singer in a two piece indie rock band that has been around since the 80s called Mecca Normal and, as I found out later, a very accomplished artist.

Jean began posting a series of portraits of women in various head gear called "The Hat Series", offering what I thought to be rather Modiglianiesque painters for $100US plus shipping. 

I was totally blown away by the paintings and by Jean's newly revealed talent.  I of course "liked" these postings and started adding comments to the ones I particularly liked.

This turned into a conversation with Jean on Facebook and at one point I asked her if she ever did commissions. It was truly a hypothetical question. Though I knew she was selling these portraits from among the paintings she had on hand for $100US, I knew that a commissioned portrait would and should cost way more. A commissioned portrait was a luxury that I knew we really couldn't afford at the moment, but it was an idea I thought would be fun to entertain sometime in the future. 

So the next day I opened Facebook and, lo and behold, I found this image posted on my timeline.
  

I was flabbergasted and at the same time chuffed as hell. If I remember correctly, my reaction to Jean's post was a series of OMG! OMG! OMG!s probably followed by a Wow!

I just couldn't believe it. Jean had gone through my timeline and found one of the goofy selfies that I had taken back in Orvieto on New Year's Eve. Richard and I had stopped under a stuffed boar's head on Via del Duomo near where it intersects Corso Cavour, mugged it up and took a selfie. I really doubt that I would have chosen such a photo myself for a commissioned portrait but, after the fact, I couldn't imagine a more perfect image. 

I actually found the Facebook interchange between Jean and I. Here it is:

A few weeks later I was back in Vancouver. I return for a month every six months to teach ESL to Japanese students. On weekends I operate my "History Walks in Vancouver", a series of walking tours I escort through a number of Vancouver's historic neighbourhoods, mostly in my old neighbourhood, Strathcona, in Vancouver's old East End, but also in Grandview, the West End and Mount Pleasant. Jean and I had arranged to meet on Commercial Drive after I finished a tour of Grandview. We found a bench on the NW corner of Commercial and Second Avenue and sat down an chatted for a while, catching up. Then finally she reached inside her bag and there was the picture.

It was such a thrill to have the piece of art in my hands. Jean told me that when she posted a photo of the painting that someone else had actually wanted to buy it. I thought that was funny but I guess that means that means that the painting stands on its own as a piece of art. For me though, it is very personal. It make me smile every time I look at it. It brings back not only the memories of that crazy, noisy, ubriaco Italian New Year's in Umbria, but also very fond memories of my times working together with Jean. 

It was so exciting to see Jean's portrait art taking off and to know that when she becomes very rich and famous from her artwork that I can point to this picture and say that this was one of her very first commissioned portraits and to be able to tell its story.

Here is a link to Jean Smith's Art website, and you will be able to see a large number of Jean's portraits in this YouTube video. She has a lot of her 11x14 portraits, some with hats, and some without, for sale still. If you are not on Facebook and are interested in purchasing her artwork or discussing commissioning a piece, here is her contact information. 

By late March I was back in Casperia, just in time to celebrate my 60th birthday. For a number of weeks Jean's portrait of Richard and I and the wild boar rested on the mantle piece. It needed a frame but we didn't know what to do. We knew we could buy ready made frames at the Ikea in Porto di Roma but I didn't really like that idea. We knew there was an art shop that did frames on the main piazza in Poggio Mirteto but we wondered about the expense. More than anything we wanted the frame to be unique, special... something that was worthy of the art.

And then I remembered our friend Massimo Romani. We have known Massimetto, as his friends call him, ever since we started coming to Casperia in 2009. A stonemason, roofer and a general handyman, we hired Massimetto shortly after we moved here to build two stone flower beds outside our front door. One of the biggest things we missed about our house in Vancouver was having a garden, and Massimetto was able to not only build us two beautiful raised beds from stones that Richard and I had collected from the valley floor, but was also able to attach a number of terracotta pots to the wall outside our house. 

 

As you can see, he did an amazing job and the price he charged us was very reasonable considering the time the job took and the level of craftsmanship involved. Anyway, recently Massimetto has returned to a long time love, that of wood working. Between contracts doing roofing, building stone walls or repairing patios Massimetto has been holed up in his workshop in the family cantina off Via San Rocco working on a number of carpentry and furniture restoration projects as well as having fun building wooden lamp bases out of stumps and even constructing scale model Japanese junks out of scrap wood and toothpicks. Like his stone and masonry work, Massimetto takes immense pride in his woodworking projects. Recently I asked Massimetto to restore and antique wooden tray I bought for 15 euros at the rigattiere or second hand/junk shop in Forano. I wish I had taken a before picture so you could see the difference. The tray, which measures about a metre long and and about 60 centimetres wide was constructed from a single piece of oak and was so dried out, worm eaten and cracked that Richard questioned me buying it. One of the long edges was almost cracked right off, had a piece of wood missing and had been repaired with a metal staple. There was another crack starting on the other side. When I first bought it I thought I would clean it up and revarnish it myself, but I decided I wanted the job well done, and I could think of no one better to look after this project than Massimo. 

Here above you can see the perfectly restored tray. There is no evidence of the earlier damage at all. He even found a piece of matching wood to replace the piece missing near one of the corners. The tray has a place of honour on our dining room table where it is used mostly as a fruit bowl.

So yes, we asked Massimo to look after the framing of Jean's painting. I dropped the portrait off at Massimetto's workshop and after a day or two, this is what I picked up... a beautiful hand made frame that has been burned an amber brown to match some of the colours in the painting. He added a darker stained trim along the edge. The effect is similar to having a frame with a proper mat. He even added a touch of whimsey by adding antique furniture tacks on each corner.  I couldn't have been more delighted.

These two pictures were taken in Massimetto's workshop. The one above shows the painting laid flat on the Romani family summer dining table in the cantina, and the one below, of course, shows Jean Smith's portrait held by the artisan that framed it so beautifully.

Today, Jean's portrait of the two tipsy Canadians based on a selfie taken under a wild boar's head on Via del Duomo in Orvieto after midnight on New Year's Day 2016 hangs proudly over our mantle in our house here in Casperia.  So there you have it, the story behind the portrait.

SABINA'S TALENTED YOUNG FILM MAKERS FLAUNT POGGIO CATINO'S DARK SIDE in "LA DAMA" and "LA BELVA"

July 24, 2016, 1:02 pm

≫ Next: カスペーリアに戻ってきた。SIAMO TORNATI A CASPERIA - A Guest Post in Japanese by my Friend Yuki Saito

≪ Previous: Boared in Orvieto - Posted on Facebook - Painted in Vancouver - Framed in Casperia: THE STORY BEHIND A PORTRAIT

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Photo of Catino and its Lombard tower - Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

With its two castle ruins and an impressive Lombard-era watch tower that dominates this section of the Tiber Valley, there is probably not a more evocative hill town in the Bassa Sabina than Poggio Catino. Our love affair with this jewel of a town began in March of 2012 with our first visit there. We had the great fortune to be taken on a walking tour of the town with renowned photographer Giorgio Clementi. If you are interested to read my original post concerning our visit with Giorgio, here is the link.

Since our original escorted history walk with Giorgio we have had the pleasure of  visiting Poggio Catino many times, and no matter how often I visit, my original fascination with and appreciation for the town has never diminished... 

But is not just the town's look that is enchanting... I have to say it is the town's "view" and the delicious things that you can eat and drink while you enjoy Poggio Catino's view of the Tiber Valley that make this town so special. 

Bar C’è, besides serving some of the best food in the region—I had the best fish I have ever eaten in my life outside of Japan here—and very generous drinks, has perhaps the best panoramic view of the Tiber valley of any restaurant in the Bassa Sabina. When there is no Orata (gilt-head sea bream) or Tuna on the menu I always opt for their pasta all'Amatriciana, a traditional Sabine recipe. Bar C’è's pizza is also amazing... I would have to say that some of my happiest moments here in Italy have been made while I have been eating and drinking with friends here. 

View of Catino\s Castle and pentagonal Lombard watchtower - Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Yes, Poggio Catino and sleepy smaller Catino—the older original section of town perched on vertiginous edge of a limestone karst formation cliff—seem idyllic to the eye of the casual visitor. However, there is a bloody dark history that courses like a forgotten, ancient, underground river through the stones beneath the breathtaking views and tasty offerings of the bar.

Aperitivo time at Bar C’è Catino

 Not 100 paces from my favourite place to drink an Aperol Spritz is the main gate of Catino. Just inside the gate is a large door that leads to a room in which a grizzly assassination took place. The bloody remains of Pierluigi di Sant'Eustachio, the hated Duke of Poggio Catino, who was hacked to pieces by his unhappy subjects in that room, were displayed for weeks in a metal cage just outside the gate in a spot on the wall in plain view from where now stands the client-filled bar.  

But even more famous than this grizzly historical event is the mystery of La Dama Bianca—the White Lady... a female skeleton discovered in 1933, chained to a wall and sealed up in a stone chamber in Poggio Catino's Palazzo Olgiati.

    

La Dama Bianca is a true enigma. No historical records concerning this event have been found. Various theories as to who this unfortunate person was exist, but no one knows for sure... Was she a Colonna prirtransoner or hostage held and then cruelly killed by their enemies the Orsini who ruled Poggio Catino between 1484 and 1525? Or was she an inconvenient wife or mistress of some ruthless castelan? Whoever she was, La Dama Bianca's skeletal remains, her iron chains, the terracotta oil lamp and water jug that were walled in with her and even a section of the castle walls that surrounded her were carefully removed and transferred to the Museum of Criminology in Rome. She is the first display to welcome you after you have paid your 2 euro entrance fee.

Scriptwriter Manuelle Grilli, Director Manuel Montanari, and actor Geronimo Brengola

In 2014, a young filmmaker and director from Poggio Catino named Manuel Montenari, with the support of the Comune of Poggio Catino and the collaboration of the local youth committee, created a short historical drama, a fictional account of the mystery, called La Dama.

The script for the film was written by Manuele Grilli. Our friend, Giorgio Clementi, worked as Director of Photography, while the editing was handled by the film's Executive Producer, Fabrizio Fazio. 

Director Manuel Montanari and Directory of Photography, Giorgio Clementi hard at work - Photo courtesy of Manuele Grilli

This film offers one of the explanations of the who, when and why of the Dama Bianca. The story takes place during a time when the Colonna and Orsini, two bitter rivals among the leading noble houses of renaissance Italy, were involved in a prolonged bloody feud. A beautiful young Colonna noblewoman held captive by the Orsini ruler of Poggio Catino falls prey to the jealousy of the ambitious mistress of the Castelan when the Castelan falls in love with the victim. The short was filmed in several locations in and around Poggio Catino and Catino using local amateur actors.

The film was launched in Poggio Catino on August 15, 2014. The success of this first film sparked interest in making another historical short film based on an even bloodier, and this time well-documented, dark episode in the history of Poggio Catino: the story of the rise and fall of La Belva—The Beast, in English—the tyrannical Pierluigi di Sant'Eustachio, or—as he demanded to be known—Aeloisius Secundus Dux Catini. 

Mock up of the promotional poster for La Belva - Courtesy of Manuele Grilli

As you can guess by the title, Pierluigi di Sant'Eustachio was in no way a sympathetic character. It is said that he came to rule the castles and lands of Poggio Catino, Catino and Tancia through the murder of his father, followed by the murder of one brother and the imprisonment of another. Once he had established his absolute rule over his territory, he exercised his power to the extreme, confiscating the lands and goods of his richer vassals at whim, and forcefully kidnapping and having his way with any woman or girl in his territory that he took a fancy to. There was no resisting him. Those that tried to stand up to him were beaten up, imprisoned, or often outright killed. Things got so bad that eventually a large part of the population of his lands fled across his borders to Poggio Mirteto and other neighbouring towns to save themselves.

A scene from La Belva filmed at Sant'Agostino Church - Courtesy Giorgio Clementi

I first found out about this second film project by chance in October 2014. A friend of mine and I were taking a walk around Poggio Catino trying to build up an appetite for a lovely pasta lunch at Bar C'è. We were exploring an area of Poggio Catino's old castle, looking for the spot where La Dama Bianca had been discovered, when we bumped into Manuele Grilli, just outside the Comune office. This was a happy coincidence for a number of reasons as we discovered, through talking about La Dama, that not only did we have a number of friends and acquaintances in common, including Giorgio Clementi and Manuel Montanari, but that Manuele had been another key collaborator in the La Dama project, as he had written the screenplay.

Manuele Grilli, showing us the section of the Castle wall where the Dama Bianca was found in 1933

Manuele very kindly took my friend and I on a tour through the Comune offices, which in fact is what is left of the noble residence inside the old castle. Among the sumptuously frescoed and decorated rooms there were many that had been used as a film set for La Dama, some that were even still being used to store a number of the props from the filming.

Ceramic props for La Dama

Manuele and I exchanged contact information and "friended" each other on Facebook. In subsequent messages he told me about the upcoming second film project. I told him that I would be interested in writing something about the film for my blog... Then Manuele asked me if I might be interested in a small part of the cast.

Of course I was intrigued with the idea. It was a lovely gesture on Manuele's part, but I didn't really think too much about it until May of this year when—out of the blue—I received a message from Manuele asking if I was still interested in being involved. 

Article in Il Messagero newspaper about the filming of La Belva 4 may 2016

Well how could I pass up an opportunity like this? Long story short, what I thought would be an "extra" part, turned out to be a speaking part... Due to a scheduling conflict, the original person who had agreed to play my role had to duck out... Instead of a native Italian speaker, a Canadian with a very questionable Italian accent, took the role of a father whose young daughter was taken away forcibly by La Belva's evil henchmen, because, "Il Conte ha bisogno di donne questa sera!"

It felt a little strange parachuting into the cast towards the latter part of the filming, but everyone was very welcoming... It turns out that many in the cast were friends of friends, so I was not a totally unknown commodity. Everyone was friendly.

I participated in an afternoon of rehearsals in which I met the people who I would be doing my scenes with: Daniela Schiavona, who played the role of my lovely wife, 

Hamming it up in a selfie with my lovely "wife" Daniela

Sofia Placidi, who played the role of my beautiful, and therefore ultimately unfortunate daughter,

Me and my "daughter" Sofia on set on the last day of filming at the church of Sant'Agostino - Courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

and Michele Manili, who played La Belva's most evil evilhenchman. 

Michele Manili,  a.k.a. Guardia X, at right - Photo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

It sure was an eye opener being on set. Putting together a production like this takes an awful lot of work, patience, and especially time. There is a lot of waiting around...

By the time I got involved in the filming, most of the scenes had already been shot in the previous weeks. The three scenes that I was involved with were filmed just outside the castle walls in Poggio Catino, and down in the countryside below the hill town beside the venerable Chiesa di Sant'Agostino. 

The speaking scene that I did was filmed, along with a number of others, at night in the dark, in and around the Poggio Catino's castle walls. We all met in the comune office where we each changed into our costumes and then went for make up. 

The talent, busy, and very patient Romina Rosati, our mapeup artist at work

I can't remember when we actually got started filming that evening, but we finished somewhere between three thirty and four in the morning. My scene was filmed nearer the end. 

A to H, my speaking scene, in which my daughter is kidnapped at knife-point - Courtesy of Manuele Grilli

In it two of La Belva's evil henchmen come to our house to take our daughter for a night with the Duke. My three short lines in Italian were:

"Vi prego! Dove la portate? Lasciatela stare!" 

Which  translates:

"I beg you. Where are you taking her? Leave her be!"

To this, Michele, the evil Guardia X draws a knife, pushes me to the ground, and hisses his response: 

"Il Conte ha bisogno di donne questa sera, e ringrazia il cielo che non ti uccida." 

Which  translates:

"The Count needs women tonight, and thank heaven that he does not kill you."

"...E ringrazia il cielo che non ti uccida!"

I don't know how many takes it took. Of course I screwed up my lines a number of times, and there was once or twice where Michele couldn't help laughing... Maybe it was my Canadian accent. Anyway, it was an experience.

I second scene I was involved in was when our daughter returns bruised, disheveled and in a terrible daze the morning after being raped by the duke. The camera was on a rolling track following Sofia as she stumbled barefoot toward Daniela and I. Sofia is so badly traumatised that she does not seem to recognise us. I take hold of her shoulders, look into her eyes and gently shake her while Daniela throws a shawl over Sofia's shoulders.

Photo courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

It was very interesting to see this scene through the camera after it was filmed. It is one thing to be an actor in the scene and see all the rest of the crew, the camera and camera man, the director, other actors in the background when you act the scene, and then when you see it as it was filmed, the framing, of course changes everything.

The director consults his notes

The last day of filming took place beside the grey stone walls of a country church called Sant'Agostino. A number of scenes were filmed there. The one I was involved in showed my family joining a number of other people leaving Poggio Catino for safety in Poggio Mirteto. 

Another scene involved a group of what was left of the leading citizens of Poggio Catino discussing what to do about the terrible situation. Two of them Ludovico and Manfredo agree to make one last ditch effort to reason with the Duke. Each of these men in turn is murdered... 

Photo of Ludovico's drowning courtesy of Giorgio Clementi

Ludovico is drowned in a butt of his own wine, and Manfredo is chocked to death while being force fed by one of La Belva's guards. 

Another key scene filmed that day involved the invitation of three of the remaining townspeople to dinner with the Duke. 

Giorgio Clementi takes some still shots during the scene when the three townspeople are invited to a poisoned dinner

On the menu for these three special guests were poisoned snails and mushrooms. The Duke had caught wind that there was a plot to assassinate him when the plotters were betrayed by an eavesdropping innkeeper. 
   

The plotters' plans are overheard by the evil innkeeper, a friend of the Duke

There are so many plot twists in this story, it is mind-boggling. I won't go any further into the details but suffice it to say, the betrayed plotters are forewarned and survive this attempt on their lives and, 

A toast! Snails anyone? How about those mushrooms, a special treat from my friend, the innkeeper?

...with their help, La Belva gets what he deserves in the end. I still can't believe that so much of this story, the bloodiest bits anyway, occurred just a hundred paces from my favourite place for an aperitivo... You just don't know, do you?

If the stones of this castle wall could talk...

All in all, this was a wonderful experience for me. I so appreciate being included in this amazing project. Thank you Manuele Grilli (Director), Giorgio Clementi (Director of Photography), Fabrizio Fazio (Executive Producer and Cameraman), and all the cast and crew. You guys are the greatest! 

At the wrap party

I can't wait to see the launch of this film. It will premiere on August 15th, 2016 in Poggio Catino's main piazza. There will be DVDs with English language subtitles for sale... and a special menu of snails and mushrooms! 

Scherzo! Just kidding!  

The official promotional trailer (with English subtitles) for the film is now out! 

Click this LINK to see the TRAILER.   

I am ready for my close up

I hear rumours that there is a third film in the works... I wonder if they need an extra...

Note: I would like to thank Manuele Grilli and the cast and crew, particularly Giorgio Clementi for the use of many of the photos included in this post.

カスペーリアに戻ってきた。SIAMO TORNATI A CASPERIA - A Guest Post in Japanese by my Friend Yuki Saito

December 7, 2016, 12:50 pm

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①SIAMO TORNATI A CASPERIA...

カスペーリアに戻ってきた。二度目は一度目よりも素晴らしかった。こんもりとした丘に建つ町がどんどん大きくなる。私たちはカスペーリアとの久しぶりの再会を車の後部座席から果たした。思いもよらない出会いがあり、私たち二人はその時自家用車に相乗りさせてもらっていたのだった。

ポッジョミレット駅でバスを待っていると、西洋人の家族が時刻表を見に来た。会釈を交わすと、自然と会話が始まった。向こうは何かピンと来たようで「カスペーリアに行くの？」と聞いてくる。そうですと頷くと車で一緒に送って行ってあげると申し出てくれた。親切である。次回はバスで来たいからと時刻表を確認しに来たそうだ。小学生の男の子と、野球帽が似合っているお母さんと運転手はおじいさん。カスペーリアで留守番をしているお父さんを加えた四人でカスペーリアにのんびりと長期滞在しているという。拙い英語で色々話しをする。窓の外はサビーナの緑が豊かに広がっている。石造りの古い家がぽつんぽつんと建っている。

普段ロンドンに住んでいるという彼らは、日本にも来たことがあり、日本のことがとても好きなようだ。「東京都と京都に行きました」「私もイギリスには是非行ってみたいと思っているんです。きっと行きます。また日本に来て下さいね」

カスペーリアへの道すがら、思いがけなく日英の交流が進んだ。この様な出会いは旅人の心を励ましてくれるし、滞在中サビーナの地の様々な人からこういった友愛の情を感じることが出来た様に思う。

流れる車窓の景色を横目で見ながら、私は再びこの地を訪れることが出来た喜びに胸を踊らせていた。そしてこの地と縁を持つことが出来た不思議さを感じていた。

②James Johnstoneさんとの再会

城壁で降ろしてもらい一家と再会を誓い、私達はカスペーリアの門をくぐった。起伏に溢れるカスペーリアは階段の町だ。車も入ることは出来ない。歯をくいしばりキャリーケースを運ぶ。昔はロバが運搬用の労働力として使われていたそうだ。不便に思われるかもしれないし、現に重い荷物を運ぶのは大変労力のいる作業だった。しかしこの難儀に思われるところが、カスペーリアのの素晴らしさを生み出しているのかもしれない。この町に排気ガスの臭いは無いし、ねこたちは気ままに散歩している。

階段をしばらく昇り、息を切らし、Osteria Vignaのテラス席に目をやると、素敵な笑顔が私達を待っていてくれた。このブログの執筆者であるJames Johnstoneさんとの再会である。まさかVignaで待っていてくれるとは思ってもいないことで、とても嬉しい驚きだった。今回のカスペーリアでの滞在では、ジェームズさんに本当にお世話になった。当人を前に賛辞を書き連ねるのは不粋であろうから、本当に素敵な人で感謝、感謝である、とだけここに記させていただこう。ジェームズさんありがとう。　　

Vignaのスプマンテで乾杯し、一息付く。晴れた日、Vignaのテラス席でこのお酒を飲むと、スプマンテはこの様に味わうべきお酒なのかもしれないなと思われてくる。乾いた喉が炭酸で心地よく刺激され、体をめぐり、イタリアの空に溶けだして行くようだ。グラスを傾けながらJamesさんにサビーナ地方を楽しむ為の様々な情報を教わった。

まず最も旅行者が注意しなければならないことは移動手段である。自分たちで車を運転し、移動出来るのが一番望ましいだろう。隣町を行くことを考えた場合でも、徒歩ではかなり時間がかかり現実的ではないし(特に夏の厳しい日差しの下では)、バスの本数がとても少ないからだ。海外でのレンタカーは私達には敷居が高く感じられ、今回は主にバスでの移動となった。バスは主に、住民の方々の通勤用に走っている様で、また乗ってみて分かったが、曲がりくねった道が多く、運転は大変だろう。バスの本数が少ないのも致し方ないのかもしれない。その分観光地化されていないイタリアを楽しめる。

ウェルカムスプマンテを飲み終えると、ジェームズさんがご自宅での昼食に誘ってくれた。思えば朝食を食べたきりである。願ったり叶ったりの申し出に快諾し、Vignaを後にした。

③ジェームズさんとの昼食、そして買い出し

ジェームズさんの案内でカスペーリアの階段を上がる。カスペーリアの階段の幅はそれ程広くない。ロバサイズである。町の人とすれ違う時に距離が近くなり、自然と挨拶の言葉が口に出る。町を歩くと色々な人と親しくなっていけそうである。滞在中、窓から顔を出した女性に話しかけられ、会話が始まったこともある。

素敵な小さな赤い花が壁を飾っているジェイムズさんのお家に到着した。そこには私達二人を歓迎してくれた新しい友達が待っていてくれた。スモーキーである。スモーキーはジェイムズさんが長年大事にされているねこだ。本当に可愛い。日本にいても、スモーキーはどうしているかなと思い出すほどだ。

さて昼食である。特に印象に残ったのはトマトだ。イタリアのトマトは色が鮮やかで、その味もまた鮮烈である。そのトマトを焼いたパンに載せるクロスティーニは、あるだけどんどん食べてしまいそうであった。美味しいものには自然と手が伸びてしまう。ジェームズさんに伺ったところ、今食べているトマトより10倍もおいしいトマトがあるという。ジェームズさんのお家にはこの後何度もお邪魔させていただいき。心のこもったおもてなしをいただいた。深く感謝しています。

宿に戻った。楽しみにしていたアリメンターリ、食料品店に私達は向かうことにした。

コナッドは広かった。日本でPietre di Aspraのロベルトさんとフランチェスカさんにメールで教えていただいた時に勝手な想像をしていた。もっともっと小じんまりとしたお店だと思っていたのだ。しかしそれは大きな間違いだった。食料品だけではなく、生活雑貨も一通り揃っているお店で、カスペーリアの毎日には欠かせないお店なのかもしれない。料理器具や歯ブラシ、ペットのエサ、色々なものが売っていた。

Conad マーケットの入口は銀行の左側に見えます

日本のスーパーと比べると、お店の照明は少し暗かったが、働いている人の表情は何倍も明るい。ほとんどが常連客なのだろうか、お店の方と楽しそうに話しながら買い物をしている。私達も日本から覚えてきたイタリア語でお店の方に話しかけ、サラミ、トマト、オリーブ、オレンジ、卵を購入出来た。オリーブは様々な種類のものを少しずつ入れてもらった。Un po' un po' un po'! 店員さんの笑顔とともに、少しという意味のun po'という単語を忘れることはないだろう。この地方を旅してみたい方は簡単なイタリア語をいくつか頭に入れるか、旅の指差し帳の様な会話フレーズが載った本を持って行くとこをお勧めする。買い物や食事をするたびに、新しいイタリア語を覚えていける。英語だけで会話をするよりも、下手でも良いからイタリア語でも話しかける方が良い。明らかに心を開いた表情を見せてくれるからだ。滞在がより魅力的なものになるだろう。

翌日の朝食の材料も購入出来たことだし、宿へとゆっくり向かった。

　
④ジェームズさんとの夕食

帰り道に夕立にあった。幸いにしてあまり濡れることなく宿についた。少し気温が下がり、過ごしやすくなった。後で聞いたところ、久しぶりの雨だったようだ。　

イタリアでは雨にあたった花嫁には幸運が訪れるという。私はイタリアで雨にあうと、自身の結婚式を思い出す。縁あって私達は二月にカスペーリアで結婚式を挙げたのである。その日も雨が降った。記念写真をカメラマンのルイージさんと撮りながら、Vignaに向かった。その時にジェイムズさんと初めて出会ったのだ。確かに雨にあたった花嫁には幸運が訪れるのかもしれない。

ジェームズさんのお家に着いた。テラス席で白ワインとオリーブで乾杯する。スモーキーも夜風にあたれて気持ちが良さそうだ。夕方から夜になる、ほんの短い間が私は好きだ。昼間の活動の充実感と、これからの夜への期待感が白ワインによって解け合わさっていくようである。日本での生活のテンポとは違うゆったりとしたリズムに乗って、夕食の準備が進んでいく。パンツァネッラとインゲン豆の炒め物、そして野生のアスパラガスのパスタがテーブルに並ぶ。ジェームズさんの作る料理は最高だ。野生のアスパラガスを初めて口にした。一般的なアスパラガスよりもかなり細く、つくしのようである。料理の味をとても豊かにしてくれた。パスタの形も初めて口にするもので、味がよく乗り、軽く、食が非常に進んだ。イタリアを旅すると、食材が豊富で美味しいものに囲まれてしまうから、ウェストが少しきつくなる。だがそれは幸せな時間を過ごした結果なのだから良いではないか、と思う。そして満腹でもう食べることが出来ない自分の胃の小ささを少しうらむのだ。

会話も弾み、満ち足りた気分で頬を緩ませていると、ジェームズさんが食後酒を出してくれた。今回のカスペーリアでの滞在における収穫の一つは、食後酒を知ったことかもしれない。この楽しみを私は今まで知らなかった。

色鮮やかな瓶が机を飾った。オレンジ、緑にビンサント。グラッパの様なお酒を想像していたが違った。アルコール分は強いが、オレンジはほんのり甘く、緑色のお酒は薬草、ハーブの味、ビンサントもとても口にあった。胃がきゅっと締まり、食事に素敵な幕を降ろすことが出来た。

スモーキーに挨拶をして、ジェームズさんの家を後にする。カスペーリアの夜は本当に静かだ。夜中にふと目を覚まし、窓を開けると月がとても美しかった。

第一日目完（二日目に続く）

[美味しい朝食］

カスペーリアの朝。とても良い目覚めだった。窓から顔を出して深呼吸する。空気が本当に美味しいことが分かる。木や草、お花、まわりの緑のにおいがして、元気になる。体から力が沸き上がってくるのを感じた。

昨日コナッドで購入した食材で簡単な朝ご飯を作った。Pietre di Aspraにはキッチンと調理器具、オリーブオイルなどの調味料が備えられていて、滞在中楽しく料理が出来た。

メニューはパンとトマトのサラダ、オムレツ、オリーブ。特にオムレツの卵の味は瞠目に値するものだった。卵の黄身はまるで梅の実の様にゴロンゴロンと立派でしっかりしていた。お皿に盛ったオムレツからはいかにも美味しそうな香りがし、とても濃厚な味がした。卵一つでイタリアの豊かさを感じられた様だった。ごちそうさまをし、食材に感謝をした。カスペーリアでの二日目がはじまった。

［ルイージさんとの再会］

今回の滞在の楽しみの一つは、ルイージさんとの再会だった。ルイージさんは、私達の結婚式の写真を撮影してくれたカスペーリアに住んでいるカメラマンの方である。少し固くなってしまっている私達を、明るい人柄でリラックスさせてくれたルイージさん。

おかげで結婚式当日はとても楽しく、和やかな雰囲気で撮影が出来たのだった。アルバムの撮影が、結婚式でのとても大事な思い出の一つとなった。

日本からのお土産を手に、ルイージさんのスタジオを訪ねることにした。カスペーリアの門を出て、教会の横の道を少し上ったところにルイージさんの素敵なスタジオはある。



結婚式当日、撮影が完了すると、私達の出発に間に合う様に走ってスタジオに戻り、アルバムの作成作業を眠らずにしてくれたのだった。ルイージさんありがとう。

結婚式以来の再会に少し胸を高鳴らせてスタジオに入ると、ルイージさんと弟のピノさん達がとても温かく迎えてくれた。お土産に持参した麦酒もとても気に入ってくれた様だった。お返しにとカスペーリアの写真をいただいた。今、額に入れて自分たちの部屋に飾る準備をしているところだ。

スタジオにいる皆は、私達がサビーナ地方を楽しめているか、どんなところに行ってみたいのかを、とても気に掛けてくれている様だった。ファルファ修道院に行ってみたいと伝えると、バス会社の友人に電話してくれたり、時刻表を熱心に調べてくれ、大きな助けとなった。（ファルファ修道院へは三日目に訪れる。）

四日目の夕方に今回の記念に写真を撮ってもらう約束をし、スタジオを後にした。

Roccantica この写真は、Giorgio Clementi様の親切な許可を得て使用されています

［ロッカンティーカ散策と素晴らしい夕食］

Vignaで昼食を食べ、カスペーリアの周りを散歩した後、ジェームズさんとロッカンティーカへ向かった。町を散策し、トラットリア・デル・コンパーレで夕食をいただく計画である。

カスペーリアはこんもりとした丘に出来た町であり、一方ロッカンティーカは山の斜面に沿って出来た町である。カスペーリアからロッカンティーカは目視出来る。お互い隣町として意識しながら様々な時代を生き、そうした日々の痕跡を色々な場所に残してきたのではないだろうか。

ロッカンティーカの町の入り口に着いた。斜面に沿って出来ているので入り口は一合目といった感じだ。

奥の方に時計台がある。その下の碑は第二次大戦で犠牲になったロッカンティーカの方々の慰霊の碑だそうだ。行きの飛行機でヴィットリオ・デ・シーカ監督の『ひまわり』（『l Girasoli』）を見たこともあり、思うものも深かった。



しばらく階段を上がって行くと、ロッカンティーカの教会があった。鐘の音色は教会によって様々だそうだ。イタリアの人々は町の教会の鐘の音が聞こえる範囲が自分たちの地域だと感じるそうである。教会の存在がイタリアの人々の心の中でどの様な存在であるか、少し理解出来た気がした。小さな頃から慣れ親しんだ鐘の音はその町で育った人にとって自分を形作ってきた特別なものの一つなのかもしれない。『ジョンの魂』というジョンレノンのアルバムは鐘の音から始まったことを思い出した。東京という都会で生まれ育った私に、そういったものはあるだろうか。

サビーナ地方を旅することで、より自分自身を省みていきたいと思った。東京に住むと世界中の多種多様なものを食べたり、見たりすることが出来る。しかし、どこか自分自身が漂流している様な感覚を持つこともある。サビーナ地方の人々は自分自身の地域の人々やものと、とても温かく結ばれているように思う。イタリアの方々の生活から学ぶことはとても多いと感じた。

夕日に照らされた美しいロッカンティーカの町を楽しく歩き、Trattoria del Compare に到着した。ここでの食事はトリップアドバイザーに詳しいレビューを記した。

↓レビュー

［ロッカンティーカは楽しい街です。
西に傾く太陽がほおずき色に家々を染める、その中を私たちは人々が積み重ねてきた日々を感じ、陽気な足取りで会話に花を咲かせ、Trattoria del Compareに向かいました。

お店の方々にとても温かな歓迎を受け、席に座り、キリッと冷えた白ワインで喉の乾きを癒やせば、食事への準備は万端です。

アンティパストは四皿、プリモピアットはラビオリ、

チコリのコントルノとセコンドピアットは豚骨付き肉。皆で思い出に残る食事が出来ました。



シェフのサルヴァトーレさんの立ち姿や表情からは料理への誇りと情熱を感じ、そこにイタリア語で言う”bello”を見た様に思います。またサルヴァトーレさんがおっしゃっていた“Solo sale”という印象に残った言葉があります。塩だけという意味だと思いますが、私には塩だけではない、目には見えない何かが、サルヴァトーレさんの料理にはあると思いました。素晴らしい食材と、焼き加減や切り方、長年培ってきた料理の知識、そして最後にふりかける“Solo sale”が一体となり、Trattoria del Compareの料理は私の心を打つのだと思います。一皿一皿はシンプルであるがしかし、どこまでも豊穣、複雑、深遠です。口にするとそこにイタリアの人々が何世紀にも渡り耕してきた大地への畏敬と豊かさを感じることが出来たように思います。
人参は確かに人参の味がしました。しかし、その味は今まで経験したことのない鮮やかさをもって私に迫ってきました。またラビオリはどこか懐かしい子ども時代を思い出す味がしました。
私はそこで日本のお米に思いを馳せました。ラビオリと米はもちろん違うものですが、そこに人々を育んでいく何かを感じたのかもしれません。何度も食べ、自分の中に沁み込ませていきたい味でした。
食事が終わると、サビーナにはもう夜の帳が下り、宿に戻った私たちの傷一つない完璧な一日は完結しました。
今、日本で現地の地図を広げ、次の旅の計画を立てています。もちろんロッカンティーカには、大きな印を付けるつもりです。］



私達は最高の夕食をいただくことが出来た。オーナーのサルバトーレさんに挨拶をしカスペーリアに戻る。美味しい食事をありがとうございました。

夜のVignaとその前の広場では多くの人が夜風を楽しみ、楽しげな雰囲気で会話をしていた。ここで一日の締めくくりにグラッパを飲んだ。日本には町に広場をもうける伝統がないので、この様な雰囲気は新鮮でとても居心地が良かった。自分の住んでいるところにも、少し足を止め休憩したり、知人と出会い話せる場所があれば、どんなに楽しいことだろう。ついに明日はファルファ修道院へ行く日である。バスに乗っての遠出だ。明日の予定を相談しながら、帰路についた。

（二日目完）

(1)ポッジョミレット

頭をしっかり前に向け、手すりをぎゅっと掴む。視線は次々に訪れるカーブを追う。道は蛇の様にぐにゃぐにゃと曲がり、車内はさながら軽いジェットコースターの様だった。

しかしサイドミラーに写る女性運転手さんの表情は真剣かつ自信にあふれ。私達は安心してバスの揺れに身を委ねることが出来た。

三日目の朝、私達はポッジョミレットに向かうバスに乗っていた。カスペーリアからバスでポッジョミレットに行き、そこでバスを乗り換え、ファルファ修道院へ向かうのである。

イタリアでバスに乗るのは初めてのことで、車窓から見えるサビーナ地方も美しく、快適とは言えないものの、車中はとても楽しかった。ジェームズさんがファルファ修道院の歴史を教えてくれ、貴重な勉強になった。カール大帝もファルファ修道院を訪れたことがあり、玉座が置かれた場所が残っているという。運転手さんの確かなハンドルさばきで、ポッジョミレットには三十分ほどで到着した。

ポッジョミレットはこの辺りでは一番大きな町で毎週市場が開かれているそうだ。ファルファ修道院へのバスにはまだ時間があるので、町を散策し昼食をいただくことにした。ジェームズさんの案内で散策をスタートした。この町は道も広く車も目立つ、お店も多いし、とても賑やかだ。

蛇行続きの隘路を走ってきて到着した町のようには思われない。侵略者から身を守る為に、この様な所に町を建設したのだという。

昔は、水を得たり、生活必需品を運び入れるのも大変だったのではないだろうか。今では多くのねこ達が町の各所でお昼寝をしており、平和そのものだ。何軒かのお店に入り、オリーブオイルとお塩、サビーナ地方の地図と歴史の本を購入した。オリーブオイルはお土産として非常に喜ばれた。八百屋さんの店先を覗くと、見たことも無いほどに色の濃い野菜が、所狭しと並んでいた。色や形、大きさがとても野性的で食べたらさぞかし美味しいだろうと思う。イタリアの太陽に映える強烈な色彩だった。ここでは食事と幸せは同義に違いないという思いが日々確かになる。

ポッジョミレットではのんびりしたイタリアの人々の日常の空気、時間の流れを感じることが出来たと思う。健全で堅実、爽やかな街という印象を持った。ジェームズさん行きつけのピザ屋さんで昼食を摂ることにした。ファルファ修道院への腹ごしらえである。お店に入ると、ショーケースの中に様々な種類のピザやお惣菜が並び、どれも魅力的だった。

私は丁度焼き上がったモッツァレラと生ハム、トマト等が載っているものにした。

パン自身に深みのある味わいがあり、揚げ物もぱくぱくと平らげた。とても美味しかった。ジェームズさんの御蔭で滞在中は美味しいものを沢山食べることが出来た。腹ごしらえも済み、バス停までジェイムズさんに案内していただいた。ジェイムズさんとはこのバス停でしばしのお別れだ。ファルファ修道院に向かうバスが来た。

(2)ファルファ修道院

到着すると、修道院も周囲のお店も扉を固く閉ざしていた。丁度お昼休みの時間だったのである。人も全く出歩いておらず、建物の中でじっと静かに休息をしているようだ。日光と日陰のコントラストが強烈で、じりじりと日差しが周囲を焼く音が聞こえる様だった。

通りの向こうから犬が一匹一心不乱に走ってきたが、私達のことなどまるで見えていないかの様にどこかへ走り去ってしまった。太陽も真上で動かず、時間が止まってしまった様な、ジョルジョ・デ・キリコの絵に似た不思議な感覚をもった。

シエスタの時間を初めて体験したが、この様な強烈な太陽の下では、休息するという選択肢を採らざるをえないのだろうなという印象をもった。



この日差しの下で活動するのは、肉体にとってかなり過酷なことだと思う。開館時間まで貴重な時間を過ごすことが出来た。



ファルファ修道院に入れる時間が来た。ガイドの方と一緒に修道院を見学する。ガイドはイタリア語で進んだ。特に印象に残ったのは写本だった。修道士さんたちが一生懸命写した本は、挿絵や文字の一つ一つがとても美しかった。教会に行くと聞いていた通りにカール大帝が座った場所があった。また大きな油絵も見応えがあった。



もっとじっくり見学をしたかったのだが、帰りのバスが迫ってきていた。ガイドの方や修道院の方にお礼を言い、足早に停留所に向かった。バスを待ちながら、ぼーっとファルファの風景を眺める。すると「夏草や兵どもが夢の後」という芭蕉の句が思い出された。

空が少し暗くなり、ぽつりぽつりと小粒の雨が降ってきた。バスに乗ると雨は雹に変わり、フロントガラスを激しく叩いた。

帰りは行きとは違う道でカスペーリアを目指す。電車の乗り継ぎもうまくいき、無事カスペーリアに戻ることが出来た。ファルファ修道院には是非また行こうと思う。

"SO... WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO HERE?"

October 25, 2017, 4:46 pm

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We have been living here in Casperia, a small, rustic hill town nestled in the Colli Sabini about an hour's drive NNE of Rome, for a little more than three years now. The story of how we first found and fell in love with Casperia has been recounted in previous posts. Suffice it to say, we are very happy here and more and more Casperia... Sabina... Italy, feels like home.

It is not that these three years haven't been without their challenges and moments of frustration: astronomical—by Canadian standards anyway—utility bills, the hoops you have to jump through caused by Italian bureaucracy, learning to live without regular access to a car and the challenges of hill town internet, not to mention the trials of learning Italian later in life... but these have all been a small price to pay for the life we enjoy here.

Though we will always be stranieri, at this point we feel pretty well an integral part of the community here. Our determination to speak and improve our Italian and our commitment to involve ourselves in the daily life of the town has paid off in ways we could only have imagined before we moved here. And there is not a day that goes by without us turning to one another and commenting on how lucky we are to have found Casperia, and to have ultimately moved here.

Casperia has become a bit of a tourist destination over the past decades. First La Torretta B&B and then Sunflower Retreats has brought many foreign visitors to this town, and many, like us, fall in love with Casperia and Sabina and end up coming back again and again. 

Every so often we bump into some first time visitors wandering through the town or enjoying an Aperol Spritz or a glass of Prosecco at the Osteria Vigna and when they find that we actually live in Casperia during the ensuing conversation inevitably this question arises: "So what do you actually do here?"

The first response, at least for me, that comes is, "Well, we live here..."

We get up in the morning, have our coffee and breakfast, feed and water the cat—these days Smokey demands to drink running water from one of three taps—turn on the TV to watch RAI news, give Smokey his first brushing of the morning... and it goes from there. 

Usually in the morning I go for a 45 to 60-minute power walk up and down the stone stairs of the town. Sometimes we take the nine o'clock Cotral bus to the neighbouring town of Roccantica and have a workout at the gym there. To get back to Casperia we take the Terni-bound Troaini bus which gets us back into Casperia by 12:30 leaving us a half an hour to shop for food at the Conad Grocery Store or Armando's butcher shop, just outside the Porta Romana.

Sometimes we stop at Osteria Vigna or at Al Solito Posto for a pre-pranzoaperitivo. 

When we get home, we make lunch. These days we are trying to eat healthier so if we are going to have a meal with pasta we usually have it at lunch time. Here in Italy, most people don't start lunch until about one, but some people eat later. Outside of Italy, when you think about having a pasta meal it usually involves a red tomato-based sauce or a meat ragù, sometimes a basil pesto. But since moving to Casperia our eyes have been opened to endless pasta possibilities. Italians use a lot of greens in their pasta. The other day when we were helping with some friends' olive harvest we were served a delicious plate of fettuccine tossed with sautéed Tuscan black cabbage and toasted almonds. Yesterday, I made orecchiette di grano arso which I dressed with broccoletti and sausage meat. I chopped up parboiled and drained broccoletti and mixed it in with sautéed sausage meat which I seasoned with a clove of garlic, peperoncino chili flakes, some crushed anchovies, a bit of chicken stock and white wine. It is one of my favourite fall dishes.

Here in Casperia the grocery store, the tabaccaio, the butcher, and the other small shops close from about 1 to 4:30 or 5pm. During the summer months, especially, when it gets oppressively hot outside, this is the perfect time for a siesta, the mid-afternoon nap. Around 5pm the shops reopen and the town springs back to life again. Depending on what we have on and how we are feeling, sometimes we head down to Al Solito Posto or Osteria Vigna for an aperitivo and to catch up with friends. 

I usually drink prosecco or have a glass of crisp pecorino or vermentino, but in the summer months I enjoy the odd Aperol Spritz... When the weather cools down though I love to have a Negroni, that super alcoholic sunset-coloured blend of one third gin, one third Campari and one third red vermouth served on the rocks with a slice of orange. Heaven in a glass!

And then there is dinner... and after dinner, time with Smokey on the couch watching Italian TV—good, bad or mediocre—it's all a free Italian lesson. And so it goes...

But that is really not what it is all about... there is more, of course. Things we have learned here, things that we have experienced, that we have made a part of our life here which we do in their proper season, that make life here truly special. Let me describe what we did on a recent day here.

I have written in older posts about our love of foraging. Even before we moved here we had learned about the spring hunt for asparagi selvatici, the very prized wild asparagus. In the three springs that we have lived here we have gone on many a country walk on the look for these delicious green sprigs... and thankfully, over the years that we have foraged for wild asparagus, we have become better at it. Not as good as the locals, mind you, but much better than before.

Our friend Pino with a huge bunch of wild asparagus. Click link above for the story

Over the years we have learned to recognise and harvest a number of other wild greens, herbs and tree fruit. Out in the fields around Casperia you can find rughetta selvatica (wild arugula), mentastro verde (spearmint), caccialepre (common brighteyes), grespino (sow thistle), menta romana (Roman mint), mentuccia (lesser calamint), farinello (lamb's quarters), purcacchia (purslane), ortica (stinging nettle), piscialetto (dandelion), luppoli (wild hops), vitappie (clematis tips), and alloro (bay laurel). If you search Casperia's castle walls you will even find capperi (caper bushes).  

But of all the wild greens out in the campi, the one that we have been interested in, after wild asparagus, is cicoria—wild chicory. I have always liked cicoria, but Richard is absolutely nuts about it. 


About a month after moving to Casperia, one the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving 2014, Richard and I were out for a walk in the country the town along Via Valle Tassignana. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day and we were walking along at a good pace when, all of a sudden, Richard noticed two women out in the fields.

"I bet they are collecting cicoria!" he said and made a beeline for the women. And Richard was right. When I caught up with him he was already having an animated conversation with a lovely woman named Marisa. 

She explained that the field was not theirs but that they had been given permission by the owner to forage for the chicory. According to Marisa, there were two types of cicoria that they were collecting. Marisa and her friend had sacks of them. To my untrained eye, they both looked a lot like large dandelions. When I mentioned this, Marisa pointed out that cicoria too had a flower, but instead of yellow, that it was a beautiful pale blue. Richard was in seventh heaven. I could just imagine us heading out the next day on our own cicoria hunt but it took three more years before that would happen.

Earlier this month we were at a memorial lunch for a friend at Il Terebinto, a great agriturismo located atop the ruins of an ancient Roman Villa 2 kilometres south of us in Paranzano on Via Roma. This is the former location of Gusto al Borgo, the legendary agriturismo and cooking school where in March of 2009 Richard, Candace and I toasted our pact to "grab life by the balls"... a turning point in all our lives because it was in that moment in that place that I think our fate was sealed and that we were destined to ultimately move to Casperia. 

It was a touching memorial and a lovely lunch made even more special because during a pause in the programme Richard and I took a little walk through the grounds with our friend Rosanna who is a forager per eccellenza. Rosanna taught us how to properly identify cicoria and also showed us another dandelion-like wild green called caccialepre, known in English as Common Brighteyes.

Rosanna with a sample of caccialepre

Finally, thanks to Rosanna, we felt confident in our ability to safely forage for cicoria. 

A week or so after our impromptu lesson, on a bright shiny day when we had nothing else planned, Richard and I set out on a mission... a double mission actually. We packed a couple of heavy-duty shopping bags, some smaller plastic bags and a pair of serrated kitchen knives and descended into the valley below Casperia on the hunt for twigs and small dead branches to use for kindling and to look for cicoria. We headed out the Porta Reatina, Casperia's back door, and walked along Via Valle Tassignana toward the spot where we encountered Marisa and her friend three years before. 

The valley is very lush. Scrub and bushes, including some sizeable bay laurel trees clutter the ditches on either side of the road and the local people repeatedly cut this back, often leaving what has been trimmed lying dry alongside our path. Very soon we have our two large shopping bags full of kindling. See soon turned our attention to looking for cicoria and other things to harvest alongside the road. Every couple of metres there were stray walnuts which have fallen on to the road from the trees above. I gathered about two dozen walnuts and threw them into the large shopping bags for sorting later.

     
We passed by the fields where we met Marisa and her friend years ago. Though we knew that we could find cicoria in abundance in the fields we did not know the owner and therefore limited ourselves to harvesting what we could access along the sides of the roads, outside of what was obviously private property. Though we don't know many of the people who live outside Casperia's walls, many people recognise us and know who we are and where we come from. The last thing we want is to be inconsiderate neighbours and give Canadians a bad name here.

At a certain point we found one of the many marked hiking trails that crisscross Casperia's hills and valleys. We followed a trail which we thought would take us west toward Montefiolo and Via Roma but at a certain point the path became impassable and we had to abandon our path. We got lost a couple of times, but we didn't care. We were on an adventure and it was a gorgeous day out. Here and there there were pungent patches of mentuccia and different varieties of fragrant mint.

At one point, while following a trail that skirted a wooded hill, we came across a corbezzolo tree. Corbezzolo produce beautiful fruit which are bright red when ripe called tree strawberries in English. Here in Italy people use them to make jam but we collected what we could to put in alcohol to make a digestivo.

We passed a number of unoccupied farm houses and saw a lot of beautiful melograno (pomegranate) trees but only admired them. Again, here in Casperia, we are the only Canadians and therefore represent Canada. We took some pictures but left the fruit.

Eventually we were able to make our way to Via Roma and followed the road around Montefiolo toward the hamlet of Paranzano. In a small triangle of land around a sign advertising Sunflower Retreats we found a good patch of cicoria and filled half a bag. We then proceeded south toward the San Vito crossroad where there is a large triangular patch of open grass and there we hit the mother load. There was cicoria everywhere.

In no time at all we had enough wild greens for at least two dinners. We couldn't wait to get home and clean and prepare the cicoria for cooking. 

When we got back to Casperia we carefully removed any dead or yellow leaves from the cicoria and soaked them in a big pot full of cool water. I gave the cicoria a good rinse, turning the purple veined green mass over and over in the cold water which I changed a number of times to clean off any dirt that might have been attached to the chicory. When you leave cicoria in cold water, after a half an hour or so, the leaves arch back towards the roots and form a ball. This cam make it a bit difficult when you get to the point where you are removing the roots but for me it also is a confirmation that the plants we harvested are indeed chicory.

We came across some plants that were a bit rough, almost raspy to the touch and I decided to err on the side of caution and tossed them. Later I found out that these were sow thistle, called grespino in Italian, and would have been totally edible but at the time I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. Next time I will know though.

Finally, when all the leaves had been properly clean and prepared, i boiled them in salted water until they were tender. I then drained off the hot water and doused the cooked greens in cold water them squeezed them dry. At this point you can freeze any excess cicoria in freezer bags for later use. My next step was to drizzle some olive oil in a fry pan over medium heat. I them added minced garlic and peperoncino chili flakes then tossed in the cicoria and sautéed it for a couple of minutes. I know it is not traditional in our area but I added two anchovies to the frypan and mashed them into the greens. I then splashed some white wine in the pan and let that cook down until there was no liquid left. Just before serving I sprinkled on some salt, drizzled on some Sabina DOP extra virgin olive oil and added a squeeze of lemon juice and served the cicoria with some sausages which Richard had grilled in the fireplace and a couple of slices of tomato... healthy and delicious.

And that is an example of what we do here!

Remember, when you are hiking out in the countryside please do not litter. And if you have an extra bag and come across some discarded glass or plastic bottles, cigarette packs and other ephemera, why not pick it up and dispose of it in the recycling and the garbage when you get back home? It feels good!

If you are interested in learning about harvesting wild greens and edible weeds, there are lots of books out there and resources on the internet. Be very careful about what you harvest and eat. If you are not sure that you have harvested an edible plant, don't risk it. Toss it in the compost, or, if you have time, consult an expert.

Here are two links that I liked:

Eat The Invaders

Eat The Weeds 

So, now that we have learned how to hunt for wild chicory, what next? 

Our friend Marco who is a writer and lives near Monte Soratte is always posting these great pictures of the wild mushrooms he harvests on his hillside property... I know that there are courses here that you can take that will teach you what is safe to harvest. Then again, we could always go for a walk in the forest with Marco. 

Marco's Wild Mushrooms - Photo courtesy of Marco Tarquinio Vello