Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

We go to the cinema quite often. Sometimes I think we are forced to go by what is on Italian TV. Recently talent shows for childen have become popular on prime time television e.g. io Canto. Precocious kids singing songs about love and and heartache pushes one into going out.

At our last visit to the cinema we became owners of a “Cinecard”. The card costs 26 euros – 1 euro activation fee and 25 euros to be used for buying cinema tickets. The card will be valid until the end of August and can be recharged at anytime. The big advantage is that the cost of a cinema ticket with the card is only 5 euros as against the normal price of 7.50. An additional benefit is 10% of the sweets and drinks.

We first used the card to go and see “Wolfman”. Its an old fashion gothic horror film but much less horrible than some of the children from “io canto”. 

When guests come for dinner in San gioirgo they usually arrive with a gift – particularly if it is their first visit. Often it is a cake or pastries or spumante which has to be eaten or drunk after dinner. So on Saturday night Roberta, Federica and partners Francesco and Roberto arrived for an “English family meal”. Federica had heard a programme on Italian radio about the wonders of english cooking and “shepherd’s pie” in particular. So I had agreed to make a dinner of shepherd’s pie followed by apple crumble and custard.

 They were more than generous with their gifts as they brought a white wine which we drank before dinner. They also brought a Torta di Fano (a almond and custard tart)which was eaten after the apple crumble.

Federica and Roberto also very kindly brought flowers – a basket of primulas. In Italy flowers always come beautifully and often simply wrapped. So a small plastic pot with a small plant gets transformed with some coloured paper and a beautifully tied ribbon into something special.  So we didn’t just get 6 pots of primulas but a basket crammed full of colour and freshness. 

Gifts of flowers have their season – if it had been in November it would have been cyclamens, in December it would have been a poinsettia but now in February it is primulas. These are now on the kitchen windowsill and after the long cold, wet winter they are a real sign of spring.

San Giorgio doesn’t have many shops. However, we are well served with grocery shops – Angela’s across the street, Luanna’s up the road, and a small Conad supermarket towards the garage.

Further afield we are spoilt for choice – Auchan a French chain and so the only place to get creme fraiche, A&O an Italian chain who have a good wine selection including Australian wine if one tires of Italian wine, Eurospin another Italian chain who, according to a regular customer from San Giorgio, is really great for paper products. The same source let us know that the best sausages in San Giorgo are in Luanna’s on a Tuesday when a local producer brings them in fresh.

 Finally, there is our favourite supermarket the IperCoop. Growing up in Northern Ireland one of the first things I learned was my mums’s “divi number” (9604551) which had to be quoted everytime you were sent to the local coop. In the UK the status of the Coop fell with competition from Sainsbury’s etc. But here in Italy the Coop is alive and well and known for the quality of its food. The “divi” has been replaced the “Sociocard” which is much more useful as remembering numbers and codes becomes more difficult. For sometime we had thought about getting a card but stopped when we discovered you had to pay 25 euros for it. Then we noticed some special offers in the store for members only and thought that it wouldn’t take too long to recoup our 25 euros.

So Bill is now a member. Apart from some special offers you also, but only at certain times of the year, get a point for every euro spent. The last collecting period went from November to January. We had over 500 points at the end of January and so last week we in 500 points and got 10% off the bill. We will soon have covered the 25 euro outlay and heading into profit. 

This is our dentist, Mr Maleki. He is German but married an Italian and so lives and works just outside Fano. He moved to a new surgery last year and it has all the latest equipment. Both he and his staff are vey friendly and everyone arriving is treated as a friend. They always phone the day before to make sure you haven’t forgotten the appointment. The choice of magazines in the waiting room are the latest copies of Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest and Autos – no 2 year old copies of Cosmopolitan or Punch here. 

Bill has got nicer teeth than me. However, everytime we go for a check-up they seem to find a problem with his teeth. Yesterday Bill finished his latest treatment – a couple of caps – and is now well on his way to having a perfect set of teeth. According to the dentist some more treatment will be needed in the future and then the Holywood smile will be complete.

Before we paid Mr Maleki came out to say goodbye and to thank us for being such good patients – always on time, always pleasant to speak to etc. We really appreciated his comments as they are all true. However, it didn’t make paying the bill any sweeter.

When we go to the cinema it is normally to the Giometti cinema on the outskirits of Fano. It is a modern multi-screen cinema with all the latest fims – Avatar, Tra le Nuvole (Up in the air), Sherlock Holmes etc. Comfortable seats, good sound, 3-D etc.

Talking to some friends recently they mentioned the Masetti cinema. First time we had heard of it. Checked on the internet and it is obviously the “art house” cinema of Fano. It was currently showing the Jessica Hausner’s  film Lourdes which had premiered at the Venice Film Festival. 

The cinema is in a side street of Fano and so it was not surprising we hadn’t seen it before.  The screening room is like the inside of a village hall in England with a stage at one end. In this case the screen is at the back of the stage. However, the sound was good and the seats not too uncomfortable.

The film itself was interesting if a bit long. Its about a handicapped girl who can’t move her legs or hands. At Lourdes she suddenly starts to move her hands and then begins to walk. Is it a miracle? The film leaves it for the viewer to decide but whatever your view the ending is very  sad. Time out gave it 4 stars. For me it was a 3 star mover as although I found it interesting and touching it was also too long and slow. A view shared perhaps by the person behind us who began snoring during the film.
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Went to Fano to buy Anne’s train tickets and they accepted all credit and debit cards. However, Anne wanted to get some money using her English debit card. So we went to the “Banca della Suasa”, which she normally uses but this time got the message that money couldn’t be withdrawn. So we went to the BNL bank which has always worked before. Tried the machine outside which appeared to be working normally but after putting in the pin, the amount etc. it came back with the message that it couldn’t make a connection. Beginning to think that the Italian banking system had collapsed we went into the bank to see if they knew of any problems. Ominously the ATM machine inside the bank had a large piece of paper over it. We asked if there were any problems with the machines or with Italian banking systems. The assistant went to the “out of use” ATM, pulled off the paper, asked Anne to try and this time the system worked perfectly. We tried and failed to get clarification as to why the “in use” machine dosn’t work and the “out of use” machine does work. Instead we got a smile, a handshake and walked to the door. We went for a coffee.

Yesterday tried to book some tickets online from Pesaro to Zurich for Anne who is planning a visit to her daughter in Switzerland. Eventually sorted out the trains she wants and proceded with the booking process and began to pay. The process fell at the payment stage as my credit card security number wasn’t accepted. Decided to try again in case I had put in the wrong number. Repeated the process with the same result. So decided to try with Bill’s Visa card. Failed again but when trying for the fourth time Bill had a phone call from Visa to say there was a problem – request for authorisation of payment but we had no tickets. Proceded to phone Trenitalia who assured us that the request for the money had been made by them and approved by Visa but that they would not be claiming the money as no tickets had been purchased. They said that for online purchases Trenitalia only accept Italian credit cards. So we’re off to Fano this morning to buy the tickets hoping they accept non-Italian credit cards over the counter.

Needless to say there’s nothing about the change of policy on the Trenitalia website.

At the weekend Germana, one of my English students, went on a day trip to Milan. They went to see an Edward Hopper exhibition. Apparently it was a lovely sunny day and the exhibition was great. The return trip was not so great. The snow on the motorway after Bologna meant that they arrived back in Fano at 4.30a.m. A marathon trip.

The worst part of the journey was from Rimini to Fano as I also heard of people taking 6 hours to go between Cattolica and Fano – a journey which normally takes an hour.

On Sunday snow arrived in the Marche. The picture is the scene first thing on Monday morning. With the snow on Monday came the sun and it was a glorious day. Blue skies, pure white snow and children tobogganing – a perfect winter’s day

However, on the motorways the scene during the night had been less than perfect. Two friends Alfredo and Rina, had been in Bologna at the weekend. There was no snow in Bologna when they left at 4.00. But as they approached the Marche they encountered snow on the motorway. The situation steadily got worse with long queues of traffic following accidents and cars sliding in the snow. Many people were forced to spend the night in service areas. Alfredo and Rina managed to keep going and finally got home at 2.00 in the moring. 10 hours for a journey that normally takes 2. 

The weather over the last few weeks had been miserable – cold, grey, wet and even some snow. Unfortunately the forecast for the next week is little better  as it will remain cold for at least the next week. This, of course, is no surprise for locals who say that the last three days of January are the coldest of the year and they are called “I giorni della merla” or “days of the blackbird”.

Legend has it that the blackbird was originally white with an orange beak. During the coldest days of the year he would sit on top of the chimney. However, one day his efforts at keeping warm ended in disaster and he fell down the chimney and ended up black but still with his orange beak. And so he has remained.