Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

Another thing that we missed while we were on holiday was the opening of an Estate Agents in the town. It is just around the corner from us and has been opened by a man who previously had a shop in the nearby town of Orciano but as he has a house in San Giorigo decided to move his business here. It is still waiting to have the sign put up over the door but it is already open for business complete with a television screen rolling though the properties on offer. The area around our house becomes ever more interesting and one can spend a lovely evening looking at the newly restored church, cross over to look in the Estate Agent’s window and then walk about 100 metres to the Osteria Casa Mina for  dinner.

While we were on holiday things were happening in San Giorgio. Early in October the official opening of the restored church of Spirito Santo took place. This is the church in front of our house and the restoration has been continuing for a few years. Now all the scaffolding has gone, the brickwork repointed and the inside of the church repaved and repainted. The most important work was to restore the roof and in doing so get rid of all the pigeon droppings that had accumulated over many years. Now all the accesses to the roof have been closed and wires giving low electric shocks have been installed to ensure the pigeons don’t come back to roost in or on the church.

The church has a number of paintings and among them is the “Madonna del Carmine”. This painting shows a naked baby Jesus in his mother’s arms. At the beginning of last century the priest of the town decided that this was indecent and had scored out the offending part of the picture. Changed times means that when the painting has been restored the offending part will be put back.

During the summer a family from Milan comes to stay in San Giorgio. Marco, the son and I met a couple of times a week to practice his English. The English teacher had given him some reading material for the summer holidays. He had a parallel text version of McBeth and Merchant of Venice to read through and to get an understanding of the story. So each lesson he would read some and then summarise the plot in English. The other book he had was an abridged version of  “the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne” I knew of the book but had never read it. Thought it would be a very worthy 19th century novel (published 1850) but not very interesting. The book is set in puritan Boston in the 1640s and in the opening chapter a young women (Hester Prynne) is brought out of prison to stand in front of the citizens of the town. She has a red letter A sewn on her dress. This stands for adultress as she has had a child out of wedlock and refuses to name the father. She will have to continue to wear the sign so she and all the citizens will be reminded of her sin.

We never got the abridged version finished but I was hooked on the opening and so decided to get a copy of the book in order to find out what would happen to her. The book spans 7 years an is really a psychological study of the main characters – Hester, the husband, the child’s father and the child herself. Occasionally the language is rather complex but the book works at lots of levels – a tragic love story, a psychological study of the human condition and an insight into Puritan society in that period. Well worth reading.

At the weekend the local news reported that a women had been murdered in San Lorenzo di Campo, a town about 15 minutes drive away. Talking with some friends on Sunday they told us that the woman, Gabriella Petrolati, 42, was born and grew up in San Giorgio and was now living in San Lorenzo. She had recently left her partner and had started a new relationship. On the evening of the murder she had gone to the home of her previous partner to collect some things and he had murdered her. As she hadn’t returned home the current partner had called the police and when they went to the ex-partner’s home they forced an entry and discovered the body.

It was a very large funeral as even though she was no longer living in San Giorgio most of the 40 somethings in San Giorgio had gone to school with her and the parents are still living here.

On Friday Elizabeth phoned to say that there was a concert on at Fonte Avellana. Its a very ancient monastery in the hills and we had been to a concert there last year which we had both enjoyed. We said we would think about it but at 8.15 that evening faced with an evening of Italian television we decided to go. We decided to follow the route suggested by the TomTom and brought us in over the hills behind the monastry. The roads were narrow and windy and on rounding one bend we had to break as a wild boar was sauntering across the road. Further up we again turned a corner to have a hare scurry across and finally nearing Fonte Avallana we had to stop as two young stags were standing in the middle of the road. We were almost expecting to see white horse with Snow White and her prince coming round the next corner.

Even if the concert had been bad the trip would have been worth while just for the animals. We arrived at the concert only 5 minutes late but had to stand outside as the small church was full. The concert was given by two young pianists who played selections of opera pieces followed by some Strauss etc. Bill and Elizabeth enjoyed it while I was less keen. When it was over we met up with Elizabeth and retired to her place for refreshments.

The Osteria Casa Mina, which opened some months ago, is close to our house. Now that the summer is here they are eating outside in the garden and once a month they have dinner followed by live music. The music begins at 10.00pm and continues until 1.00 am. The garden is not very big and so a small jazz band, man with acoustic guitar would be ideal. However, so far the bands that play here are practicing for the time they play the “big stadiums” and so have amplification suitable for letting the whole village. This means sleeping is difficult as with the heat all windows need to be open. Last Saturday we decided to go to a late show at the cinema instead of having to listen to music we didn’t want to listen to. So we went to see the film “Transformers 3” which was 130 minutes long (130 minutes too long) it did mean we didn’t get home to after midnight and so only had to survive 1 hour of live music.  Next time they have an event i.e. 22nd July we need to decide if we go out, if we go to eat and listen to the band or do we stay at home, get annoyed and discuss denouncing them for noise pollution.

The band last week was “La Banda degli Zulu”. Click here if you want to listen to their music or to sympathize with us.
The next band to play will be the “Blues Quartet” on the 22nd July. Click here if you want a preview of our evening.

On Sunday we had the English class lunch. Pam and John were invited to join as for the last lesson of the year they had played the doctors in a medical role play exercise.

We decided to return to La Palomba in Mondavio where we had had an excellent meal before. Again they didn’t disappoint. The menu was:

Starter:

Antipasto fanatasia dello chef (cold meats, cheeses)

Pasta course:

Tortelloni di robioloa, rucola al pomodoro fresco (tortelloni with soft cheese, rocket, and fresh tomatoes)
Mezze lune ripiene con ricotta al limone (Ricotta stuffed half moon ravioli with lemon sauce)
Tagliatelle al ragu d’anatra (tagliatelle with duck sauce)
(We didn’t have to choose a pasta as  you are expected to try all three. In Italy this is called a Tris. If there are only 2 dishes being served then it is a Bis)

Main Course:

Faraona alle olive verdi in crosta di pane (Guinea Fowl and olive pie)
Tagliata con rucola e pendolini (Sliced sirloin with rocket and cherry tomatoes)
(this was served as a Bis)
(served with roast potatoes and mixed salad)

Dessert:

Tagliata di frutta con gelato (slices of fresh fruit – pineapple, apricot, peach etc. served with 2 flavours of ice cream).

After this marathon of a meal we staggered out of the hotel and some of us drove up to the sports bar in Orciano where we could watch the men’s final of wimbledon on a big screen.

A good result at the restaurant and a good result at Wimbledon

inside the hotel	painting by Albano Aniballi

Erika and Thomas told us about a hotel about 20 minutes drive away. They said it was a very interesting and that there was currently an exhibition of painitings by Albano Aniballi, an artist who was born in San Giorgio.

So, on a beautiful warm, sunny evening we went to the hotel for view of the art following by a drink on the terrace with great views over the Marche countryside. Along with us were Erika, Thomas and 5 of their German friends. A chance I thought to practice my faltering German but fortunately I was saved any embarrassment as all the Germans could speak English.

The Solea Hotel is near the town of Ripe and is owned and managed by a young couple from Milan. They have converted a large,old brick house into a hotel. The thing that is different is that they have made the inside a very modern space. The art exhibition covers the walls of the main public rooms. They have linked up with an art gallery in Senigallia and so have a new exhibition every few months. The problem is knowing which artist is on show. The hotel’s web site does have a section for news and under this it mentions an art exhibition but it is for the summer of 2009. Italians may like to have web sites but they are not very good at updating them. In fact the gallery who exhibits here is the Galleria Gherardi in Senigallia. On their web page they don’t mention the hotel under “links” and don’t even say that the Gallieria Gherardi is in Senigallia.

This year I reached the great 60 and decided to have a family party. We went back to the UK for a couple of days and on the Sunday we had lunch at the Nut Tree Restaurant/Pub at Murcott near Oxford. Not too far to travel for Bill’s family who come from Oxford but slightly further for my family who live in North London. Bill and I met just over 29 years ago and it is the first time the two families had met. There was no particular reason but it had just never happened. With a mix of English/Irish in Bill’s family and Northern Irish/Philippino on my side the day was bound to be a success.

On the day there were 20 adults plus 1 two year old and the day was great. The food and wine were good and everyone enjoyed themselves and each side seemed to like the other. Maybe I’ll repeat the event on my 65th.