Saturday 22 October 2011
"Goodbye Summer!" Colleen called out as we put away the patio furniture and Charles helped the pool man, Luciano cover the pool. Many hands made light work so by noon we were in the car and on our way to the flea market in the neighboring town of Tavernelle. Alas, the arrival of the winter tourist season had caused the flea market to end, and so we drove on to Panecale. The architect who restored Tom and Colleen's glass factory and made it into the stunning villa we were occupying, and other sweet suites, had graciously offered his childhood home to them during the renovation. Having left behind a couple of items, we entered and were overwhelmed with the feeling that this abode had been "frozen in time." As we exited we could see the shimmering water of Lake Trasimeno below.
We had a wonderful lunch of wild boar, mushroom crepes, shrimps and clams in chick pea soup, and a trio of bruschettes all around that was sensational, all prepared and served by Colleen's friend, Max. He looked a bit like a whirling dervish but then after a half liter of good wine things do seem to whirl.
We popped into the local church which was from approximately 1525 (Roman numerals on a plaque) and when we entered we were in total darkness. Lisa put € .10 in a slot and all at once the hand of God or whatever caused the whole place to light up, all at once, for a short time. It was quite a dramatic effect and we had to do it once more, this time with our cameras ready. Lisa called it our "10 cent miracle."
Upon our return to L'Antiqua Vetreria in Piegaro we helped to clear out the rooms of bathroom and kitchen things that the guests had left. This job was actually quite fun and made us feel like we were dividing up the spoils -- which we were. Nicole even got two pairs of brand new Sketchers out of Colleen and Lisa's generous sharing of the booty. We had a quick nap in preparation for the evening concert at 8 PM.
When Lisa came knocking, we were all spiffed up for the FREE dinner and concert across the street at the glass factory. We were very interested to see what the Perugia Blues Foundation would serve up, and they didn't disappoint. We were served wine by a tuxedo clad waiter as we entered and then had olive tapenade bruschetta and gnocchi in truffle sauce followed by tiramisu. Then we headed down to the underground level of the museum, a three-story arch-vaulted brick room where chairs had been set up for the capacity crowd (mostly non-Italian visitors) and listened to a brother/sister act called Black Sheep Duo. They performed songs from the American songbook beautifully, with the brother on white Fender Stratocaster and the sister on vocals.
Afterwords, Lisa helped us plan our itinerary for trips to Rome, Florence and Venice over a cup of coffee and when she left we called Dian's family on Google Voice to share the day's adventures. When the expression, "It's an embarrassment of riches" flew from Dian's mouth, she amended it to say, "It's riches."
"Goodbye Summer!" Colleen called out as we put away the patio furniture and Charles helped the pool man, Luciano cover the pool. Many hands made light work so by noon we were in the car and on our way to the flea market in the neighboring town of Tavernelle. Alas, the arrival of the winter tourist season had caused the flea market to end, and so we drove on to Panecale. The architect who restored Tom and Colleen's glass factory and made it into the stunning villa we were occupying, and other sweet suites, had graciously offered his childhood home to them during the renovation. Having left behind a couple of items, we entered and were overwhelmed with the feeling that this abode had been "frozen in time." As we exited we could see the shimmering water of Lake Trasimeno below.
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| Can't Stop Me Colleen, Charles, Nicole, Dian, in Umbrian hill country |
We had a wonderful lunch of wild boar, mushroom crepes, shrimps and clams in chick pea soup, and a trio of bruschettes all around that was sensational, all prepared and served by Colleen's friend, Max. He looked a bit like a whirling dervish but then after a half liter of good wine things do seem to whirl.
We popped into the local church which was from approximately 1525 (Roman numerals on a plaque) and when we entered we were in total darkness. Lisa put € .10 in a slot and all at once the hand of God or whatever caused the whole place to light up, all at once, for a short time. It was quite a dramatic effect and we had to do it once more, this time with our cameras ready. Lisa called it our "10 cent miracle."
 |
| Fruit-laden altar |
When Lisa came knocking, we were all spiffed up for the FREE dinner and concert across the street at the glass factory. We were very interested to see what the Perugia Blues Foundation would serve up, and they didn't disappoint. We were served wine by a tuxedo clad waiter as we entered and then had olive tapenade bruschetta and gnocchi in truffle sauce followed by tiramisu. Then we headed down to the underground level of the museum, a three-story arch-vaulted brick room where chairs had been set up for the capacity crowd (mostly non-Italian visitors) and listened to a brother/sister act called Black Sheep Duo. They performed songs from the American songbook beautifully, with the brother on white Fender Stratocaster and the sister on vocals.
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| Performance in a nearly-1000-yr-old glass factory |
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