Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

Lovely weather over the last few days made us decide to to to Rome for a day before the autumn set in. We had, as normal, a great day out with our friend Elizabeth. We followed the well worn routine: coffee and brioche at Fabriano station; train to Rome; coffee and brioche in Rome; visit to a gallery or museum (this time the Capitoline Museums); drink before lunch in front of the Pantheon; lunch; stroll through Rome; train back to Fabriano; dinner at Elizabeths; home. As always a lovely day.

Miss Over was from Genoa was crowned in Pesaro. Meanwhile, Maurizio Pizzagalli, a student from Pesaro was crowned Mister Piu’ Bello d’Italia in the only national male beauty contest. His ambition is not to bring peace to the world but to become an actor. Being unlikely to win the Mister piu’ bello d’Italia competition Bill and I are waiting for the “Mister Over” competition to be announced.

Beauty contests are still big business in Italy. In fact on the 15th September the new Miss Italy was crowned. The selection process had been on television and was stretched over 3 evenings from 9.00p.m. to midnight. It started with 90 contestents which were whittled down each evening.

Two days ago in Pesaro there was another national beauty contest. This was for ladies over 39 years old and was won by Lucia Aliverti, 42, married, mother of 2 from Genoa. 

To give the competition some class the title of the competition is in English. So Mrs Aliverti was crowned “Miss Over 2009”.

Saturday morning had a phone call from a woman friend in Mondavio to ask if we had felt the earthquake. Her doors and windows had rattled. The answer was no. An hour later another woman friend from Cabarnardi asked if we had felt the earthquake. Her floor had moved. Again the answer was no.

Then on the TV we heard that the Marche had been hit by an earthquake at 6.30 in the morning. It was 4.6 on the Richter scale. No damage was done but in some towns near to the epicentre there had been, naturally enough, some panic. However, for us insensitive males in San Giorgio the whole thing was a none event.

The recently elected administration have just issued the first issue of a bi-monthly newsletter called “San Giorgio Informa”. The aim is to keep citizens updated about what the administration has done or is in the process of doing.

The first issue highlights the following:

Joining with Piagge, Barchi and Orciano (the Roveresca Union) to introduce door to door rubbish collection. In September a campaign to educate people on how to divide their rubbish into paper, glass, aluminium etc will begin.

A fruitful meeting with the Piagge Administration in order to integrate their schools.

From the new school year in September the students from the two Intermediate Schools (Scuola media – age 11-13) of Piagge and San Giorgio will have joint classes at San Giorgio.

Final plans and financing in place for resurfacing of roads around the town, including the road to Montecucco (location of a popular local restaurant with dancing).
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The Superenalotto in Italy now has a first prize of “123,000.000” euros. We, like most other Italians, are trying for it. The odds are very high. To play you chose 6 numbers from 1-90. To win you have to pick the correct six numbers. In fact, the last time anyone won was back in January and they won over 80 million euros.

The numbers are drawn three times per week – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  It only costs 50 cents for 1 go. We normally pay for 2 tries and if we win, we will be doing lots of good works.

This is Dante, Mike, Monique and Luke’s dog. Every summer he comes over with them from New York to spend his holidays in San Giorgio. He travels in a doggy bag which they are allowed to take on as cabin luggage. This year, travelling with Air France, they arrived at the airport and were told that “Dante was too fat” and that he would have to travel in the hold. The maximum weight of dog allowed in the cabin is 6 kilos and Dante is “slightly” over. Unable to bear the thought of Dante in the hold they decided to change Airline. They got a flight with Delta Airlines whose policy was – “if he can fit in the bag then he can travel”. All the changes meant that they arrived in Italy later than planned and also in a different town – Pisa instead of Bologna – which meant a 5 hour instead of a 2 hour drive to San Giorgio which meant arriving at 9.00pm instead of 11.00am.

For the return flight in September Dante is avoiding Air France and will be returning with Delta Airlines. In case the airline changes its policy on “animal weights” Dante is going on long daily walks.

Last night outside the town hall the new mayor kept one of his election promises. During the election campaign he had apparently promised that, if he won, he would provide a meal of porchetta (roast pork) and fried fish for all. The main street was closed off and tables set out in the area in front of the town hall. Then at 8.30 the food was served. It was as he promised, porchetta, fried fish with salad and bread. Wine and water was available on each table. It was a popular event and in fact didn’t recognise most of the people. They had arrived from the country areas. After the food there was music and it lasted until 11.00.

We had the food and then made a hasty retreat. We went home the long way, which meant walking down the hill at the back of the house. All the hedges and fields were filled with fireflies. It was magical to walk in the dark, surrounded by these moving points of light. Much better than staying to listen to music at the Town Hall.