A perfect summer lazy day

After nine busy days of being a tourist, today was the beginning of being a traveller and living a relaxed life in Italy - for 2016 - and that is exactly what we did.

Kel went for a morning walk but I pottered around in the garden enjoying the typical summer plants seen in Italy. Petunias and geraniums make excellent pot plants and hanging baskets and the oleanders love this climate. 

Two years ago I discovered a creamy yellow oleander in Rome and subsequently tried to buy one for our Italian garden but it is not available in Australia. I will just have to enjoy the one here for the next ten weeks. Isn't it gorgeous?

At 5pm today it was 34 deg. C so a perfect day for me. We had lunch on the terrace enjoying some of our favourite lunch foods.

Later in the afternoon we went to one of the good gelateria near us, La Pergola at Olmini. For those of you keen to know about the gelati, today I had ricotta and caramelised fig and bianco kiss. That makes ten flavours eaten this year, five of them new ones.

More food pictures! Our evening meal enjoyed outside once again... melon and prosciutto followed by spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Umbria ...the Green Heart

Our first glimpse of Lago Trasimeno 2016. This year the country is much greener, thanks to a wet winter and spring.

How lovely it is to be welcomed back to Panicale. How nice to walk into the piazza and see familiar faces. It is no wonder we are so enraptured with this beautiful village and its people.

Thanks to extreme generosity we have a lovely home to call home for the next ten weeks.

This year's Lancia Ypsilon has a little more power than last year's model and is happier going up hills!

We finished the day with an Aperol Spritz at Aldo's Bar Gallo.

Trained all day!

Monday was a transition day, most of it spent travelling. In the morning we wandering about Alberobello admiring and photographing still more trulli then at noon the shuttle bus took us to the train station where our less than perfect train trips began. Our slow train to Bari was 35 minutes late but we took that in our stride. 

After a pizza late lunch on the platform in Bari, we boarded our Inter City train to Rome where unfortunately the seating was six-seater compartments rather than the usual coach layout. We all squeezed in and then we discovered that the air conditioning wasn't working. After about two hours the conductor said we could move so things got better then. The sunset was spectacular despite the dirty windows.

We arrived back in Rome at 10.30 pm and headed straight to the Rimini Hotel . This was the view from our window.

All in a day's travel, and it did give us reason to bond with the young man in our compartment. Thanks to him, our cases went up on the racks with ease. Kel has found one advantage of getting older is that young men offer to lift the cases for him!

Buon Ricordo and Michelin Stars in Alberobello

The highlight today was our long lunch at the restaurant 'Il Poeta Contadino' in Alberobello. Some of you will know that we collect plates from Buon Ricordo restaurants - not stolen but given when you order the speciality of the house. These restaurants are often also Michelin awarded so the food is exceptional, in fact the whole experience is pretty special. 
For this today, we thank daughter Cate for her Christmas gift towards our lunch.

The Munaro glass chandeliers were huge!

This delicate potato, mushroom & truffle soup was an 'extra', not something we ordered but, as it was once put to us, 'a gift from the kitchen'.

Six different speciality breads with local oil.

Kel's first course was a rabbit pasta. Unfortunately they gave us the English menu so we only have a vague idea. This was described as rabbit bolognaise but that does not work for us. This might look like a small serve but I can assure you that the plate was a huge diamond shape and the serve more than adequate.

My first course was a zucchini flower and ricotta filled flower shaped ravioli with a butter sauce, prosciutto and truffle shavings.

A fillet of beef with an olive sauce.

This is the dish of the house - rolled & stuffed sea bass with clams and calamari in a superb broth.

Kel was drinking a 2013 Primitivo red and I had prosecco and sparkling mineral water. 

I chose a chocolate pudding with a soft orange filling and Kel settled for a second glass of wine. What a surprise when along came a plate of petit-fours with nine different sweet treats. Many were almond based as they are a local speciality.

As well as a delicious meal, very attentive service and a fine dining experience, we have another plate to add to our collection ... a Buon Ricordo indeed.

A visit to Locorotondo

Locorotondo is only a six minute train trip from Alberobello but walking wasn't an option according to our hostess, she looked horrified at the idea, so it was back to the FSE train for us.

The historic centre of Locorotondo is another village that has been awarded the title of ' a most beautiful village in Italy' and it certainly is. Picture perfect with distinctive white houses and more pot plants and flowers than you could imagine, the streets are paved in travertine and spotlessly clean. Naturally it has many visitors but their presence is not catered for with souvenirs, more like photo opportunities and great restaurants.

There is the usual collection of interesting churches with long histories and views to impress but the main feature is the 'cummerse', a narrow rectangular town house with a pointed gabled roof. These are quite different to the trulli. In the countryside surrunding Locorotondo there are little outcrops that seem to combine the two styles.

The weather forecast was not good so we had our spray jackets and umbrellas in our zaino - that is your new Italian word for the day! About 1 pm as we were watching a wedding the rain came down and we headed into the first lunch spot we could find. ' Al Vecchio Arco' is one of those family run places where there is no menu and you take what's on offer for the day. We shared what was brought to our table and it was all delicious.

When we came out again the streets were running with water. As we waded back to the station we were grateful for the umbrellas and tried not to think about the sodden shoes.

Procession of the statue of the Madonna del Carmine in Alberobello

Today, 16th July, is the festival in honour of the Madonna of the Carmine or Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 
At Alberobello they celebrate in a big way as they have a Carmine church. At 6.30 this evening they processed the statue of the Madonna around the town and then had an outdoor Mass in the piazza beside the church. There had been five earlier services at the church.
Music for the procession and for the civic celebration after the Mass was provided by a concert brass band numbering more than thirty people. The band came from the City of Lizzano.