Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

This year San Giorgio had a lovely Christmas tree and it will soon be gone. It may be the first and final year. Apparently the tree had been growing in someone’s garden and they wanted to get rid of it. They got rid of the tree and the village got a lovely tree. To buy the tree would have cost a couple of thousand euros and so next year there may be no tree.

On the way back to Italy we stopped in Mulhouse for the night. Alfredo, one of my English students, had said it had a beautiful centre. Driving into the centre we were looking out for hotel signs. We saw one for an Ibis Hotel and checking our Tom Tom we saw that the Ibis was listed and was only 650 metres away.

We arrived in front of the hotel, there was a parking space and we went in and got a room. They also had a garage which was “easy to find” – from the front of the hotel go first right, then right again and right again. We followed instructions and ended up back in front of  the hotel. We failed the second time but on the third time round we saw the entrance to the Ibis car park.  Ironic that the most difficult part of the day’s travelling was at the end.

Our room was small, comfortable, clean. The shower was hot. The hotel staff recommended a good restaurant as their hotel was closed and the breakfast in the morning was fresh and abundant. Cost 55 euros for the room, 15 for breakfast and 6 for parking. Worth the price for being near the centre of a town which on a wet January night seemed very pretty and worth going back to.

This year San Giorgio has put a Christmas tree up in front of the town hall. It has a crib underneath. In fact in doing this San Giorgio is following national trends. On many news programmes they are asking people whether they are going for a traditional crib or a tree. Most people are opting for both.

Let’s hope the tree in San Giorgio has more success than the tree in the main shopping arcade in Naples. The evening after it was put up it was stolen and found dumped in an alley. In fact this happens most years and the papers interpret the theft as something carried out by the mafia to let the authorities know that they can still act outside the law with impunity. The rest of Italy’s response is “what do you expect in Naples”.

The night after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the lights of San Giorgio were switched on. They look much better in real life.

Now all is ready for the Christmas Market on the 20th December. Hopefully, it will be better than the market at Pergola which consisted of 6 stalls and a few lights. There was no music and it made one think how useful a Salvation Army band can be at helping create an ambience of Christmas.

Our market should be better as I have been told they will be using artifical snow to help create the Christmas atmosphere.

We to go to see the exhibition of masterpieces from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts which is currently on show at Rimini. Our “exhibition going companion Elizabeth” joined us for the day.

We took the autostrada towards Rimini and as is our custom stopped off at a service station for a capuccino and a brioche. We then bypassed the turn off for Rimini as we had decided to visit the recently opened Ikea at the Rimini North Junction. You will not be surprised to discover that it is like all other Ikeas. When we moved out 3 years ago our nearest Ikea was in Bologna. Now, here in San Giorgio,  we lie equidistant from the Ikea at Rimini and the Ikea at Ancona. The only difference between the two is that in the Ancona Ikea you walk clockwise around the shop and in Rimini you walk anticlockwise. We proceded to stroll anticlockwise and ended up buying a glass bowl and some lamp shades. Elizabeth opted for some candles.

From Ikea we drove into Rimini and parked the car near the exhibition. However, as it was now noon we first proceded to a cafe for  pre lunch prosecco and then went searching for a nice restaurant. The first restaurant we came across had the less than impressive name of “Picnic”. But it turned out to very good and managed to eat a first and second course.

This took us up to 2.30 and we then went to the exhibition at the Castel Sismondo. On show are 65 masterpieces of the European painting from the 16th to the 20th century. It was excellent and well worth the 10 euros entrance fee. It was excellent. There were so many great paintings it was difficult to choose favourites but I particularly liked the painting by Govanni BattistaMoroni an Toulouse Lautrec.

After the exhibition there was time for a cup of coffee and then the autostrada home.

Went to see the film 2012 on Sunday evening. Have never seen so many people in a cinema in Italy and have never been to such a bad film in Italy. One friend who had decided not to go said that seeing the trailer on tv with scenes of city collapsing meant one had seen the film. She was right.

We were shocked to discover that the film shows the Queen of England and her corgis taking shelter in the arks being built to save the rich of the world, while the Prime Minister of Italy decides to stay and die with his people. This confirmed our view that the film had lost touch with reality.

On Saturday evening we went with Thomas and Erica to the preview of an art exhibition in Cartoceto. Every year there is a festival to celebrate the olive harvest and for 11 years an exhibiton of work from local artists  has been part of the event. Thomas was exhibiting some of his recent work.

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On the way to the opera (25th Oct.) Elizabeth asked if we had heard about the earthquake. She went on to explain that while out shopping she had heard some women talking about a terrible earthquake. Asked what was happening she was told that there was going to be a major earthquake in the Marche on the 27th Oct. An expert who had predicted an earthquake at Aquila earlier in the year was saying that it was the turn of the Marche. He didn’t know the exact time it would strike but certainly the date was correct. Once home Elizabeth searched on the internet and found information on a blog.

The day came and went and no earthquake. It had all been a hoax put out on the internet and the pages were blocked. The expert, who had not predicted the quake, said that it was impossible to predict quakes with accuracy and one could only talk about increased risk.

Sunday we went to Jesi to see a production of “La Traviata”. As you can see the opera house in Jesi is very traditional with rows of boxes around the stage. We were second tier up and to the side but the view wasn’t too bad.  Bill and Elizabeth, who paid more, sat in the front of the box and I, paying less, had to sit behind them. So for me it was a restricted view but having the box means you can stretch your legs during the performance and can even talk without disturbing anyone else.

We enjoyed the performance even if some of the acting was wooden and the singer playing Violetta was more convincing while dying of consumption than playing the part of a high class, flirting courtesan. All the singers started off unsteadily but got better as the evening progressed and the final death scene was, we all agreed, very moving.

The performance had started at 4.00 and finished at 6.30. So plenty of time to drive to a restaurant and finish the day with a good meal.