Monday, 5 October
It was nice to sleep in this morning. The bed is warm and comfortable. I enjoyed some coffee and read the online newspaper, yesterday’s edition because of the time difference. I was in no hurry since I was planning to make my first stop this morning at the nearby grocery which opened at 8:30. After a shower I took a short stroll to Antica Bottega Lavanga. I was in search of some laundry detergent, some body wash and some food to keep in the refrigerator. Looking around I added some local cheese, some olives, a jar of artichoke hearts and of course some dark chocolate. Google translate helped me both with the labels and speaking with the cashier. The apartment hostess has left two packages of pasta from her farm. I looked for some spaghetti sauce in the market, I should have known better, only the makings for sauce. I will have to be creative if I want to cook some pasta.
After figuring out the controls on the washing machine, I was able to do a load of laundry, It is a beautiful sunny day about 70. I headed out and up. Today’s plan was to spend the day walking around to get oriented so I could find the churches, offices, neighborhoods later on. The day did not go as planned, Since I have plenty of time to explore, I followed the main street in town through what looks like the newer section.
Along the road was a sign to the cemetery. Great, that was not on my map and I had planned a visit sometime, so it was a mile long walk uphill. The sign outside the cemetery notes that the path was constructed in 1880. The cemetery has two plaques outside that translate to “In our world there is peace, love, equality, light.” and “In your world there is struggle, hatred, pride, darkness.”
Instead of getting my bearings for the rest of the week, I spent the morning looking for relatives. Don’t worry, there aren’t many cemetery photos here. I will create a separate album with them. The cemetery had an older section with graves in the ground, surrounded by family mausoleums. It looks like almost all the recent burials are in colombario, large block-wall structures with numerous loculi (individual wall-compartments or niche slots built into a multi-story structure to hold a casket) stacked resembling an “apartment building” for caskets (or urns). As I headed for the exit, I came across another section with an older colombario. I will have to make a second visit to finish looking through that section.
Making a loop on my way back, it was up, up some more to the Church of Santa Maria, the highest point in Anzi, the church dates from 1526. The church was locked and I did not head over to the nearby observatory.
It was after noon and I was getting hungry and it looked like the main restaurant in town, Ristorante Pizzeria IRIS, was the closest. The waiter told me that pizza was not available for lunch so I had to suffer through ravioli and baccala. Both were delicious and since I spent the morning mountain climbing, I was not too worried about the calories. WIth very limited dining options in town, this will probably be a frequent stop.
I found my way back to the apartment, hung clothes to dry and tried to find the municipal office. Not wanting to be a pest on Monday morning, my idea was to visit in the afternoon. A woman was outside cleaning and told me the office is only open in the morning. I was looking for an expresso at one of the little places that was open last night but everything was buttoned up tight. The southern Italian equivalent of the siesta is called il riposo. It usually runs daily from about 1:00 PM or 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM or 5:00 PM. Looks like I will have to plan around that.
Back to the apartment, cleaning up photos, reading news, and updating the blog. A video call with Dolora and now I have to see if I am awake and hungry at 7:30 or 8:00. There is a. new pizzeria nearby but think the hours are only eight to midnight.
Try as I might, at 7:30 I decided to eat some dinner, cheese, olives and some artichoke hearts. Dinner after eight still seems late, maybe later as I reset my internal clock. Tomorrow I hope to have breakfast and coffee at the bakery, it is closed on Mondays. From there a short trip to the municipal office to see if I am able to get a certified copy of my grandfather’s birth record.
Dolora has pointed out to me that the videos do not work in the website album so here are direct links. I will go back to yesterday and add video links for the mass and the bands at the festival.
Pamorama One – From Near Cappella di Santa Maria
Panorama Two – From the Town Square