We arrived back home the next afternoon to a greeting from some cousins who arrived whilst we were gone. They have a beautiful baby so the next week was taken up with baby- sitting and checking out the latest wildflowers and trees that had erupted with fruit during our absence.
We finally get the call to pick up our fabled visas, we gaze at them as if they are slabs of gold but we've never had anyone every ask to look at them! The trip there without a car took all day but we came back triumphant and had pizzas to celebrate.
And then we celebrated again by going up to a rifugio or refuge high up in the mountains with a restaurant which had good reviews. To get there was a half an hour walk by the river and then two ski lifts up to the restaurant. After the first lift, there was a bar where we indulged in a Radler beer, which is like a shandy but with grapefruit. Then we took the next lift up. The views were spectacular, the ski lift looking down upon dizzying heights. Lunch was Canederli (mountain ravioli) filled with potato and porcini with a mirtilli sauce, (tiny blueberries). Walking back we discovered the newest wildflowers - autumn crocus, pale purple flowers on white stems with no leaves. Apple and plum trees are everywhere, laden with fruit.
I order curtains for our apartment. The ones I took down were at least twenty years old and polyester. I found a beautiful online stall that has delicate linen ones, deers for the kitchen and two toned ones for the bathroom. I found lovely edging for my little bedside lights that I've painted red and have fun putting everything together. And we collect the tiny little apples that fall and I've been making strudel, domestic goddess that I am atm.
One night we are taken up into the mountains for a traditional dinner. Home made prosciutto and cheeses with jams, gnocchi with gorgonzola and mirtilli sauce. We have a couple of weeks walking and cooking homemade meals and then we’re off again. This time to our cousin’s home in Alghero, Sardinia via Modena.
MODENA.
We stopped in Modena so we could catch an early flight the next day. And of course, in Modena you have to go to the market to see what’s available seasonally. And I’m not disappointed because it’s mushroom season and there’s a new mushroom that I haven’t seen before - ovuli, they look like wrapped chestnuts. I wish I could try them. Porcinis are in season, as are the striped eggplants, different autumn varieties of lettuce and the late summer tomatoes.
Then we dine on pizza. I have the friarielli, a bitter green with sausage and then for the famous gelato there where the put warm chocolate in the bottom of the cone. Italy, you know how to feed the soul as well as the stomach.
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