Text 37394, 69 rader
Skriven 2010-05-05 08:22:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 96
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On our way north we passed the original Travertine quarry,
and Lilli very much wanted to take a look. Drove around
until we found an open gate, so I suggested we park nearby
and walk in. An impressive old pit, and one wondered how the
ancients had managed (of course it wasn't so deep then -
millions of tons must have been mined out of there in the
last couple millennia -, and labor was cheap). We poked
around a bit without being challenged; but when Lilli whipped
out her camera, some guy came out of the woodwork and
started expostulating in rapid indignant Italian, the
upshot being, from what I could follow, that we were free to
wander about as much as we wanted, but we knew where we
could stuff that camera. She put the camera away. Nicely.
Not up my bottom or his.

Continuing our route, we passed little towns, farms selling
vini sfusi, strawberry vendors (E3 a flat), and the like.
I suppose we could have done the brutal route of autostrada
to Via Salaria, but for some reason we didn't.

Our next stop was about halfway up to S. Lorenzo, our
destination. Sant'Antonio Romano boasts a 13c castle, which
is kind of interesting, and a nice old church. Free parking,
too! Photos may be somewhere on the Internet.

After a few wrong turnings (it's not just that Gregory was a
better navigator than I, but I can't read those tiny blue
signs until we're almost upon them), we finally came to
Jim and Silvia's. Jim came to Rome on a Goog many decades
ago and met Silvia, who was a university student, and they
got married, and Jim stayed, becoming one of RAI's stable
of intellectuals and other useless folk, and Silvia ended
up chair of the psychology department at her university.
Now they're happily ensconced in a country place near Fara
Sabina and a city place in Trastevere. Life is good.

The villa was pretty much the same as I remembered from 5
or more years ago, despite a couple of hard winters and a
nearby earthquake at L'Aquila not long ago. Some cracking,
and a rosemary tree whose trunk had split, but that's
about it. Lovely place.

Jim and I jabbered on with musician gossip, and Silvia and
Lilli talked about whatever intelligent women talk about.
It's a different language, so I wouldn't know.

Silvia, known for her expert cucina casalinga, made us a
splendid supper of spaghetti marinara and scalloppine di
tacchino ai funghi, followed by fresh strawberries and a
bought but quite good tartufo. Their house red tasted
pretty much the same as all the vini sfusi we'd experienced
and were about to experience on this trip.

We slept well after all the good wine and good conversation;
it was represented to us that the mountain air makes people
conk out, and it wasn't our fault that we didn't arise until
well after our planned departure time. It was too late to go
up to Umbria for the day, so we just poked around the nearby
village of S. Lorenzo a bit. It's a typical hill settlement,
with a neat though mostly disused 11c. church, one of the
older original structure churches around, still opened, I
believe, for ceremonial occasions; great views and pure air.

The Via Salaria is scenic, pretty easy driving until one
gets close to the city.

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