DAY 98

Monday 17 October 2011

Rising late we had scrambled eggs for breakfast (thank you, good kitchen and refrigerator), then dashed out to get supplies before the shops closed for afternoon "siesta" time or that night's dinner at "our place" with Colleen and Lisa. The custom-cut pork chops came from the nearby butcher, who, Colleen later told us, was so respected people came from as far away as Rome to buy from him. After an expensive trip to the PO (postcards home cost $2.15 each!) Dian went out on the hillside to prospect for "ancient artifacts" (castoff glass shards).

 

Dinner was a smash, with the pork chops covered with rosemary (picked just outside our door), cous cous and a corn and fresh red and yellow peppers combo. Dessert was a special treat, vanilla ice cream with a chocolate sauce made from one of the See's candy bars Dian's parents had sent from San Pedro. We all ate on decorated place mats Nicole created out of plain paper that afternoon. As Colleen and Lisa arrived Nicole and Dian brought smiles with their duet of the new song, "Food and Love."

Lisa had to leave a bit early for her Italian pronunciation class, but the rest of us shared a special wine Colleen brought and talked on about our lives, getting to know each other a bit better. The wine was from Castello Monte Vibiano, a nearby winery we had originally passed on for a tour, until Colleen filled us in on some background, and we were hooked. Run by friends of hers who were for centuries the ruling family of the area, in operation since . . . well, let's just say if Jesus had changed water into this wine, it would've already been a quarter of a millenium old!