Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

The summer is rapidly coming to an end and the beaches are emptying. Offically it will all end on the 8th September when the bar and cafe at the beach close.

For us the summer started on a high note with Pam’s 60 birthday party. From chilly evenings of early June we moved into a couple of hot and humid weeks passing afternoons on the beach and evenings lying in bed wondering why we hadn’t gone for air conditioning. We had friends to stay. Jeremy and Juliet arrived in their convertible and for the first time in my life I could drive to the beach with the wind flowing through my hair or at least across the scalp. Bill’s nephew Michael, wife Alison and son Connor came for the third year running and for third year running spent their days on the beach.

A hit on the food front this summer was “tomato and watermelon soup” eaten in “Il Giardino” restaurant. Tasty and refreshing all at once. I tried my hand at “Pear and Gorgonzola Risotto” as cooked by Elizabeth of Carbernardi – her version  is still better than mine. And finally made a summer pudding from frozen fruits which was a great success.

Lots of eating out over the summer with Italians (at the restaurant La Bella e La Bestia in Fano with Robera, Francesco, Federica and Roberto where the highligh was Federica and Roberto telling us they were getting married in September and that we were on the guest list); English speakers (the Asentes, the Roscoes, the Cobbs, the Higginsons, the Caseys, the Woods) or Italian/English speaking mixes (Alba, Giancarlo and Michi”, Sanzio and Rosanna providing the Italian side of the table.)

As I always forget to take my camera to dinner I am primarily relying on Alba for the pictures of a couple of pleasant evenings illustrating that a good time was had by all.

On Friday evening we went with Mike, Monique, Luke, Alba, Gian Carlo, Michi, Oriella, Angelo and Viola to a small restaurant near Montefelcino. It is the local restaruant of Oriella and Angelo and serves home made food. Unknown to us Friday night is dancing night.  Apart from dancing it also means that they don’t serve meat as a main course. So we had various grilled vegetables and meats for starters and then we had 3 different pastas. By the time we finished eating the music had started and the dancing had begun. We all sat enjoying the spectacle but decided not to dance apart from Luke and Michi.

They were the only two who seemed to be enjoying themselves as all the other couples appeared to be taking their dancing very seriously or were too busy counting the steps to smile.

The American organisation AAARP is the equivalent of Saga in the UK i.e. aimed at retired couples over 50 and giving advice about money, health etc. In the September issue of its magazine they have looked at some areas of the world worth considering if you want to retire abroad.

Places are assessed on climate, cost of living, health care etc. The Marche was listed as one of the places worth considering particularly the northern part of the Marched. Recently some neighbours were asking us if we knew any people who wanted to buy property in San Giorgio as they would like to get any currently empty houses filled and so make the village more lively. Perhaps the article will have an impact and we will soon have some more Americans as neighbours.

Click here to see the article

Ferragosto is celebrated on the 15th of August. As you know it is currently the day the Catholic Church celebrates the assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. However, as with many Christian festivals the origin is much older and in Roman times it was held to celebrte the cycle of fertility and ripening. The Italian name Ferrogosto comes from the Latin Feriae Augusti – Festivals of the Emperor Augustus.

Today people celebrate by having family dinners or by going for a picnic to the mountains or the seaside. This year we celebrated by inviting Anne of Mondavio’s family for lunch. They were down from Zurich for a few days and so for lunch we had Anne, Sara (daughter), Rod (son in law), Alexander (grandson) and James (Alexander). Despite the oven breaking down just as we started to cook the meat the previous night and having to throw ourselves on the mercy of Mike and Monique’s cooker everything went well – stuffed boned chicken, the pork cooked in milk and the summer pudding for dessert.

After lunch we went to the beach where an English speaking colony was formed – us, Anne’s family, the Asentes, the Roscoes. The weather was perfect, the water lovely and we had a great time.

In the evening we went back to Mike and Monique’s house for even more food and somehow we managed to eat something. It felt like Christmas but with sun.

We have a “passatutto” in our kitchen (picture on the left). When we first arrived we discovered that no self respecting italian kitchen should be without it. Not only do we have it but we also use it when making tomato sauce.  I put cut up the organic tomatoes grown by Bill in his vegetable patch. I put them in a pot and simply add some chopped celery, onion and carrot and then let it all simmer for about 45 minutes. Then using the passatutto (pass everything), basically a hand blender/sieve, I grind the mixture down until I am left with a thickish tomato sauce with all the seeds, skin etc. left behind. If necessary I thicken the mixture, pour it into jars and then boil the jars for 15 minutes. The sauce is then put in the store cupboard for winter use.

Yesterday our friend Alba talked about using a “Bamby” in the kitchen. She was very surprised that we had no idea what she was talking about. “You don’t know what it is?!!!”, she cried. “But every kitchen in Italy has a Bimby!”. So we were taken into the kitchen and shown the Bimby. It is basically a blender/cooker combined. You can make blend soups and heat them at the same time. It can make bread and cakes etc. It is another masterpiece of German design. So if you want to give your kitchen the “italian look” then buy a Bimby. Searching on the web I discovered that in English it is a Thermomix. The Bimby/Thermomix website has all the details on how to use it. However, even with an english name I had never heard of it.

After 4 or 5 weeks without rain we were  hoping that the visit of friends Jeremy and Juliet Higginson would bring us some much needed rain. Unfortunately their track record of bringing bad weather whereever they go failed as they had 8 days of unbroken sunshine. Also during their stay the commune introduced a water ban in which you can only water the garden on Tuesdays and Fridays between 9.00 and 11.00 at night.

However, despite the “Higginson Effect” sounding much more scientific and the fact that there was rain on their last evening with us we think the arrival of the rain may be due to the “Asente effect” as Mike, Monique, Luke and Dante the dog returned for their annual holiday.

We had two days of rain and then the sun came back. However, yesterday the 3rd another depression came our way and at 4.00 this morning everyone was woken up by the most incredible thunderstorm. This was in time for the return of the Roscoes to San Giorgio. So could the rain now be due to the “Roscoe Effect”. Whatever it is we are happy with  or 4 days of sun followed by one day of rain.

The people who sell clothes, jewellry etc on the beach are breaking the law but most italians ignore the law and happily buy things from them. The sellers are in two group: those who walk up and down the beach selling their wares and the others who put a tarpaulin on the sand and spread out their bags, clothes etc. On Thursday there was an argument between one of these sedantary  sellers and a man from San Giorgio who thought the seller was intruding into his space or blocking his view of the sea. The San Giorgio resident left the beach. About an hour later he returned and at that point the coast guards and municipal police came running towards the guys selling on the beach. The guys tried to quickly wrap up their tarpaulin and run away. One escaped but the another seller (not the one who had argued with the San Giorgio resident) was caught but not before the shirt had been ripped from his back. He was taken away and all his goods confiscated. The whole incident was very distasteful particularly when it was realised that the person who had gone and phoned the coastguards to complain about illegal selling is normally happy to buy things from other sellers. The following day the incident was still being discussed and the general feeling was that it was an underhand thing  to have done and something which doesn’t reflect well on the people of San Giorgio.