We spent Thanksgiving Day olive picking. We picked three of our friends' 100 olive trees, leaving the rest for the pros, and got a long lunch and bottle of extra virgin oil for our labor.
But first some hill rolling....
They use a battery powered shaking devise that was very effective. The olives rain down by the dozen and land on nets, which are then emptied into crates.
Luca...a friend from Felix's class.
Working on the the nets, a very ancient gathering tradition.
They have a variety of trees that produce different color olives. They are all mixed together for the pressing to make the olive oil. In this region, the olives are used only for oil. The edible olives are found more in the south of Italy.
If there was any question about whether you can get a turkey in Italy, here is the answer. Just order one up from the local butcher. We kind of miscalculated the size we would need. Eight kilos sounded so small, but translates to almost 18 pounds. Oops. It was the biggest we've ever cooked.
No cans of pumpkin pie filling here. Nina and Felix and Lulu made a really amazing one from real pumpkin and without condensed milk, which cannot be found here.
Luckily it just fit in our oven...
Turned out to be a very yummy bird. We had 14 Italians over to eat it, but our photographer forgot to take pictures once they started arriving. They thought it was a very "exotic" dinner.
We often take Chili to run around in front of this amazing little church up the hill from our house. It is thought to have been a pagan temple originally. It is circular, not like Christian churches. It was probably retro-fitted for Christianity.
We often see what Felix calls a fairy tale sunset.
Our house is right behind those cyprus trees on the left. But his land belongs to the monastery just out of view to the right.
The local street musician gets in the spirit. His reportoire is pretty limited, but he always seems to enjoy himself.
A low fog in the plain below Perugia.
They had to go and put a carousel in the center. Needless to say it is hard to keep the kids off it.
A giant mortadella.
We went off to the countryside near Assisi for a couple days this weekend. Monday and Tuesday were a national holiday here. So they loaded up the teddies...
All were happy to be back in the countryside.
Felix is a donkey whisperer for sure.
One of the coolest things about Assisi is the 2,030 year old Roman temple to Minerva. She was (is) the goddess of medicine, science, the arts and war. The facade is original, but the interior has been reconstructed.
We drove over to some Tuscan hot springs in San Casciano di Bagni. They have a very chic spa resort, or you can soak with the locals here. Brrr! It was freezing getting there ...
The water was steaming hot!
Afterward a dramatic cloud formation.
Buona notte, San Casciano.
We'll soon be off to Geneva, Paris and Toulouse for Christmas...all are very excited.
felix why don't you email me this stuff
ReplyDelete-Arjuna