The Italian Job

Sunday 26th May We were up pretty late today. It was a rainy and cloudy day and Stefania had a big first communion party so she and she and her helpers were very busy setting up the room according to the instructions of the mother of the boy, called Matteo. The theme color was yellow and there were yellow favors and stars everywhere. There was enough confectionery to make a dentist crazy. It was all very beautifully arranged for the party of 55 who would attend in the afternoon. These parties are big events and I suppose that they are as much for the benefit of the parents and their friends as for the first communicant, him or herself. We decided to make ourselves scarce as there was not much we could do. We drove to Megalo to pick up a few things and had a small snack there before driving on in the heavy rain to Sulmona. The town was deserted, not surprisingly due to the weather. A few of the shops selling the famous confetti were open but there were few buyers. we went to ...

Saturday 25th May This morning we had breakfast in house and went up to try to help Stefania early. We managed to secure a couple of jobs, MAC helping Nadia set up the party room and me cutting up vegetables for the food for the party on Sunday. When this was done we were summarily dismissed and told to go out and have an adventure.  So we took off for the surrounding villages first Cugnoli, then Alanno, where we had coffee and a piece of pizza and talked to the owner of the bar/restaurant then on to Nosciano and then Rosciano. We ended up back at the airfield where we talked again to the old gentleman who owns it. On the way home we passed Tiberio, the winery owned by Christiana. Stefania asked us if we would like to go to a movie this evening. It is about a mafia penitenti who was a member of the mafia and was harassed by them and then decided to inform on many of his former ‘colleagues’. This resulted in a huge trial when many mafiosi were convicted. Of course, this...

Friday 24th May Today we did not go anywhere in the morning but were able to help Stefania prepare some of the jams and preserves she sells. She makes jam or marmalade from strawberries, figs and cherries and also bottles tomatoes. These are sold at a local products store in Pescara and are in quite some demand so she has to make the marmalade, pack it into small 150 and 250 gram jars, after which we are able to put small paper discs on the lids, secure them with rubber bands and raffia and then attach labels with the contents and the ‘use by’ date. This job is tedious and Stefania does not enjoy doing it so our presence and assistance does, at least, avoid her having to do a job she does not like. After a nice start to the day, it started to rain at about midday. The good news, though was that Beatrice in her second competition at the horse show in Rome, had managed fourth place in her competition today which must have made up, somewhat, for her disappointment the day before. S...

Thursday 23rd. May Today we were off to Rome for the day, mainly to see Beatrice compete in the International Horse show in the Borghese Gardens.  After a quick up of coffee and some fruit we dressed and were ready for Stefania by 7.30 a.m. We drive into Pescara and parked her car, then Bruno drove us to the train station where we just made the Prontobus to Rome in time. The bus took off and stopped in Chieti Scalo, Torre de Passo and Avezzano on its way into the Tiburtina bus station in Rome. The bus was comfortable and cookies and even espresso was served by the conductor. As the mountains of Abruzzo gave way to the flatter plains of Lazio the weather was fine    and sunny. After we arrived in Rome we took the Metro from Tiburtina to Termini and then changed to the A line to go to Piazza Spagna. The piazza and the adjacent ‘Spanish’ steps were crowded as usual with tourists. Walking onward, we came to the Fontana DI Trevino which was so crowded that one c...

Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd May On Tuesday we took it rather easy and did very little except catch up with blog posting and relaxing at LFMD. Stefania had gone into Pescara in an attempt to meet up with Daniela before she returned to Germany. It was not a good day for her. Despite repeated calls to Daniela and requests for her to meet, Daniela eventually just bade Stefania farewell and said she was off back to Germany. The relationship between Stefania and Daniela is at a low point and it is to be hoped that Daniela will reflect and show some more respect to her parents. We decided to go out at about 5 p.m. to see some of the neighborhood and to try to have dinner out. We found a Michelin starred restaurant called La Bandeira in a village not too far called Civitella Casanova and decided to see if we could have dinner there. The drive there was the usual tortuous windy hilly route made more tricky by the bright setting sun. When we got there we were greeted by a very friend...

This is from Wikipedia, for which many thanks but it needs some serious editing: Padre Pio , also known as  Saint Pio of Pietrelcina  ( Italian :  Pio da Pietrelcina ),  O.F.M. Cap. (25 May 1887 – 23 September 1968), was a  friar ,  priest ,  stigmatist , and  mystic , now venerated as a  saint  in the  Roman Catholic Church . Born  Francesco Forgione , he was given the name of Pius ( Italian :  Pio ) when he joined the  Order of Friars Minor Capuchin . Francesco Forgione was born to Grazio Mario Forgione (1860–1946) and Maria Giuseppa Di Nunzio (1859–1929) on May 25, 1887, in  Pietrelcina , a town in the  southern Italian  region of  Campania .  His parents were peasant farmers.  He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, which stands upon the walls of a castle.  He later served as an  altar server  in this same chapel. He had an older brother, Mi...