Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

This picture of a man cleaning the beach is something we do not see very often on the free beach at Torrette. 

These, unfortunately, are what we often see on the beach at torrette.

Most italians who smoke on the beach lack any sense of “senso civico” and stub the cigarette butt into the sand. The result, according to a recent survey, is that 27% of rubbish collected on the beach is cigarette butts. It takes up to five years for the butt to degrade and in the meantime 320-350 tons of nicotine from the butts are passed into the environment.

After months of trialling the layout of a roundabout in San Giorigo the final product is in place.  San Giorgio’s roundabout is in the very fashionable colours “terracotta and yellow”. It is very simple and seems to function. It even copes with the large tractors and combine harvesters on the roads during the current harvest period. However, in the middle of the roundabout there is a plastic tube which currently appears to have no function. One assumes it will be for a light and hopefully not for a fountain.

The day England played Slovakia (or was it Slovenia) we decided to have a football party at home. We spent a lovely morning on the beach and then  myself, Bill, Jane (Bill’s sister) and Mick (Bill’s brother-in-law) left the beach at 3.00 to get home in time for the match at 4.00. We had invited John and Pam Roscoe and their friends Stewart and Norma to watch the game. Unknown to us Rai (the national television channel) were not showing the afternoon games and so, not having Sky, we had to organise a plan B. We decided to drive to Mondavio and watch the match in a bar. We then discovered that no bars in Mondavio have Sky. They all have Mediaset Premium (owned by Mr Berlusconi) and the match was only on sky.  They suggested the main bar in Orciano. So we drove there only to be disappointed but we were told of another bar out of town that might have it. By chance we had parked the car in front of the “shop that sells Superenalotto tickets” and as we reached the car our neighbour Carlo came out telling us that England was leading 1.0. We told him we were looking for a bar with sky and he said it was available in the “back room” of this shop. It was news to me that the place is in fact a Bookies and there at the back of the shop next to the toilets was Sky tv. Not the most salubrious of places, the screen was small and high up in the corner but at least we saw the game.

The England-Germany game on Sunday was also in the afternoon and so again was not on Rai. In the morning we left Jane and Mick at the beach and returned to spend a quiet day at home and deciding not to bother looking for another bar with Sky. At 5.00 we returned to the beach to pick up Jane and Mick. Before going onto the beach we stopped at the beach bar bar for a coffee. Having just finished our coffee we saw Carlo approach but before we could offer him a coffee he turned into the bar’s office/first aid area. We started to walk towards the beach and passed Carlo just as he came out of the office. 2-1 for Germany he said. “How do you know?”, we asked. “Its here on the TV”, he replied. There in the “office” was sky TV showing the England match.

After Italy’s exit from the World Cup I thought of putting a picture of the defeated  team on the blog. However, when I searched google for images using the keywords: Italy World Cup  I got the pictures of victory celebrations from 4 years ago. They seemed even more poignant than the photos of defeat in the papers today. Needless to say the team were torn to shreds by journalists and politicians. One journalist described how watching the game made him feel that he wanted his mum beside him so that when the whole thing became to much he could hide his face in his mum’s lap. One politican said that the team should be returning home in business class instead of first class but added that if a trans-Africa railway was available then they should be sent home on that.

A week of torrid weather predicted as an anticyclone arrives from Africa bringing hot (80 degrees) humid weather. So its time to head for the beach.

Rumours that there were lots of jellyfish around proved true and young kids got great delight creating piles of dead or dying jellyfish. Apparently they are the common moon jellyfish which does not sting. In fact it does sting but the stings cannot penetrate the human skin but this fact doesn’t make the thought of swimming any more pleasant.

Will beach sellers become a thing of the past? Last year there were an incredible number of people selling bags, sunglasses etc on the beach. Last week in Jesolo, near Venice, a woman was fined 1000 euros for buying a fake bag on the beach. Closer to home a couple of ladies were fined 250 each for buying fake prada bags. Some authorities say they are declaring war on the itinerant sellers on the beach. Fining the customer rather than the seller appears to be an effective way to stop the practice. In fact on Friday only one person came round selling things at Torette beach. However, whether a few highly publicised fines can stop italians on the beach buying fake Channel sunglassess or cheap prada handbags is very doubtful.

The commune has recently put a couple of park benches round by the castle wall. Now it is possible to take a short break under the “spreading mulberry tree”. So far two benches have appeared. Others are awaited.

Last year when we were in England we bought a bird feeder to hang in the olive tree outside the back door. For a long time it hung there unused. We just assumed Italian birds were stupid or as a friend said “if you spend your life being shot at by hunters then using a bird feeder isn’t a wise move”.

However, the local birds have now discoverd the feeder particularly the blue tits and  we can’t keep up with the feeding. They empty the seed feeder in a day. We started by watching them from inside the kitchen but now they treat us as part of the furniture and feed happily while we are having a coffee on the terrace.

 Needless to say we have the Alpha male bird who pushes the other birds off when he wants to feed. We also have the fussy feeders who pick out the seeds they like and throw the rest (mostly sunflower seeds) on the ground for other birds to pick up or to sprout in our new lawn.

One down side is that more cats seem to be coming around. Obviously word has got out that there may be some easy pickings.

On Thursday we went with Elizabeth from Cabernardi to Corciano near Perugia. The aim of the trip was two-fold. Elizabeth wanted to look at beds and wardobes in a store called “Mondo Convenienza” and also to buy a replacement paddle for her bread making machine. The “Mondo Convenienza” store was very large with about 50 fitted out bedrooms showing their range of furniture. On top of this there were areas devoted to kitchens, bathrooms and living rooms. There was something for everyone’s taste and Elizabeth, with her impeccable taste in friends and furniture, saw some things she liked. After the trek around the store we went to a the nearby town of Magione where, according to Elizabeth’s researches, bread making paddles were available. Expecting another emporium we discovered a corner store but a corner shop with a bag full of bread making paddles. Elizabeth paid 8 euros for two paddles and we set off for lunch.

Fortunately we were only a few kilometres from Lake Trasimeno and it was a beautiful, sunny day. We saw in a guide that there was a restauant in San Feliciano on the lake. This restaurant was closed but there was another near by. We had a simple lunch. A selection of antipasti based on fish from the lake (smoked eel on a ricotta base, bruschetta with carp’s roe, perch with parmesan, crayfish with herb dressing) and a bottle of local white wine. We finished with an ice-cream and coffee. A delicious lunch in a beautiful setting.

After this we were able to face the drive back to Cabernardi where Elizabeth rustled up a bottle of chilled prosecco followed by a simple repast of Pear and Gorgonzola risotto (delicious), salad and cheese but no home made bread as yet.

The latest edition of “San Giorgio Informa” has just been published. Among the news items are the following:

Theatre Group: a new theatre project called “A scena aperta” is being started. It is being financed by the Province and is aimed at the people between 16 and 36 years old. The theatre group has to write and perform a play.

Refuse collection: the project to collect refuse on a “door to door” basis is going ahead. This will mean an increase in the “refuse collecting tax”. Although no tax increase is welcome there is some justification for the raise. First there has been an increase in the cost of disposing of rubbish in the local dump and the ecotax (a tax for causing pollution or damage to the environment).  Secondly there is an urgent need for San Giorgio to increase the percentage of refuse recycled. Currently only 7% of the refuse is separated into plastic, glass etc. By 2011 this, under EU rules, has to increase to 60% otherwise the comune will have to pay even higher “ecotax” and also receive less funding from central government. Obviously this will then have an impact on the other services the comune can offer.

The comune has produced a booklet with some statistics about San Giorgio for year ending 2009. The current population is 1441. When we first came to San Giorgio we were told the population was about 1300.

The figures clearly show that based on births and deaths San Giorgio is a shrinking community. However, because immigration has exceeded emigration the population has increased.