Italian observations
In the past few days we have left the mountains more-or-less behind and now are moving through undulating hills. Some of the hills still show their affinity to the Alps, (or the Dolomites), and suddenly start spiraling upwards in fairly spectacular fashion.
The hills are dressed in a variety of garb – this is rural Italy and so the only towns we come across are old towns sitting atop a high vantage point or clinging precariously to the side of a hill. The hills themselves are either heavily forested, or where the land has been cleared, the ubiquitous vineyards are set out in orderly rows – the vines producing bunches of luscious grapes out of a bed of impossibly-dry soil.
The earth is scorched by this sun which beats down from a deep blue sky – temperatures hovering in the sub-40’s. It is hot and dry!
Other fields are filled with acres of sunflowers waiting to be harvested. They are a sad sight. From the glorious blaze of yellow that they were a week ago, now all are blackened drooping heads, bent away from the sun as if admitting defeat. Other fields are full of sun-dried maize or sweet corn. Completely dried: stalk, leaves and cob. Acres of what looks like a disaster. We presume they are harvested for some purpose, but it escapes us.
As we pass through small hill-top towns there is rarely a soul to be seen. We often remark that it looks as if the Plague has struck an area; houses are shuttered tight against the heat of the day and the streets are usually deserted.
Signs of life are more evident early in the morning or after dark, when small cafes spill out into the streets and alleys with tables and chairs for their late-to-bed customers.We have yet to fully understand the Italian way of life, particularly in these hot summer months. Shops close from 12.30 to 3.30pm, and then close again at 6.0pm. We are not sure what hours the ordinary working man keeps, but we have yet to see any road maintenance going on during these hallowed hours. Plenty of equipment fills blocked-off lanes, but we have yet to see anybody operating it. When we arrived at this little town today, Rach went off in search of a supermarket and ice – for an ailing refrigerator. She came back later with the news that in this place the supermarket closes from 12.30 to 4.45pm for lunch! In fairness, it will be open until 8.0pm! It is evident that the siesta is taken very seriously in Italy.
But the countryside and towns still hold our interest. The towns all have a rather ‘scruffy’ look to them. New or old, maintenance seems to be low on the list of priorities, and the roads, apart from the splendid (tolled) motor-ways, suffer from the same lack of TLC. So we bump, jostle, wind and climb our way through this land, trying not to make judgmental comparisons with France, Holland and Germany. And the towns continue to be interesting, and the van parks continue to very adequate – and cheap.
Seeing these old towns up close is still holds my interest, and the countryside with its bounty of fruit will stay in my memory for all time.
What is more, some of these old towns have great pizzaarinas!
The kids continue to have a ball no matter where we are. Recently we were parked next to a small memorial park which had many large pine trees – which dropped impressively large pine cones. It did not take them long before discovering the pine nuts inside, and not long after, a local advised them as to which trees had the best nuts. Imagine the hive of activity as all hunted down the cones and then extracted the nuts.
Lightly sautéed, they later made a delicious topping for our dinner salad;
At a later park, pine trees again provided the means to a good activity. The kids made rakes from tree branches (already dead!) and gathered up large piles of needles. These they first fashioned into the walls of a house with bedrooms for all. Tiring of this they then raked all the needles into a circular wall. Then they dumped our tarpaulin in the middle and with a frenzy of activity, poured water into their swimming pool. It worked really well and all were able to have a good cooling dip in it.
Of such things are good memories made.
Tags: Food, Observations, Transport, Travel, Weather, Tag Index
kiwijoe
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
[…] We’re lacking in the photo department again….if you’d like some pictures, Grandpa put up screeds from our first week in Italy on his recent blogpost here. […]