Sunday in Panicale

The Collegiata Church of San Michele Arcangelo in Panicale is a massive church in a small village. This is especially interesting as there were at least six other churches in the village or just outside the gates. San Michele has been here since at least 1159. Over the centuries there have been several rebuilds and renovations but the present look seems to date from 1683. Previous photos of the piazza show the huge rear exterior expanse of San Michele.

The bell tower holds an especially musical set of bells which are rung 30 minutes, 15 minutes and just before Mass starts on Sunday. They play a joyous tune then go into the tolls. These bells talk, and there is no sadder sound than the bells tolling for a 
funeral.

I was pleased to see this morning that the chapel of San Pelegrino has finally been repaired and the scaffolding that has been holding the arch up for several years has gone.

There are several notable art works in the church, the Nativity (1519) by Giovanni Battista Caporali is probably the second most important of them. 

This afternoon we finally stirred ourselves to go out. Gelati is a great motivator!

Our very most favourite gelateria is Alisè Cafè at Castiglione del Lago where they make the most divinely smooth gelato. Their flavours are superb and imaginative. Today I had polvere de stelle (star dust) and cassatta siciliana.

Those of you who have followed my blog on past trips to Italy will know that I have striven to taste as many flavours as possible. I am never going to surpass the 2016 total of 89 so I am not doing that this year. But I do still try any new flavours I see.

We did a little sightseeing, mainly looking at the things we love. The sunflowers are just past their best show but will still look attractive for a coulple of weeks more. Eventually they  dry off and go black, and are then harvested. The little flowers are self sown from last year and are of no use (all male plants I believe!!)

Of course we had to look at our "If only we were twenty years younger and had won Tattslotto" country farm house. It would be a beautiful casa colonica, with a view towards Panicale, but it is rapidly falling into disrepair.

We have an upgraded rental car for a week until a smaller one becomes available - the VW Golf is very comfortable and automatic, but small is important when trying to park in Italy.

Tonight there is an opera season prelude in the piazza just outside our back gate. We usually attend the opera performances in Teatro Caporali but we are not going tonight to see Così Fan Tutte by Mozart. We heard the rehearsal last night so will certainly hear it tonight.

Actually we didn't  because we went over to Paciano, another beautiful village over the hill from Panicale. L' Oca Bruciata (The Burnt Goose) is a place we like to visit when we are in Panicale. We had a pizza but it was special; as well as tomato sugo and cheese it had finely cut onion, hot salami and sweet gorgonzola. 

Paciano was very quiet, I think every-one was at L' Oca or at the opera.