Welcome to all my Lovely Loyal and New Followers
“The bins have gone! I knew it would happen, these silly new door to door plastic bin collection systems are spreading through the communities like an itchy rash!” My man groans. We had driven, as we have been doing for years, to ditch our rubbish in the big roadside bins. But the community that still had the bins, had finally succumbed to this idiotic new system. So, I decide to go to the Town Hall and enquire about getting the silly little plastic coded bins to put outside our door. As usual, I fail to get what I want, as I should have gone on Thursday or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to a refuse site on the outskirts of town! Nothing is straight forward or simplistic in Italy.
Georgio Fiano’s village cat.
Photo J Finnigan
Back in the relaxing environment of Laura’s Alimentare/bar in Fiano, we enjoy our morning coffee and watch Giorgio the big village male cat licking his chops outside the door, and waiting for a ungaurded moment when he can dash in. He will have already visited the local butcher on his way here and downed a view stomach fulls of meaty bits. Laura shouts ‘Giorgio’ in a mock angry voice as he sneaks in between a customer’s legs and makes for the gap between the counters. He has the desired effect though, as Laura encourages him back out rattling a box of cat biscuits to a bowl that has a permanent place outside the door. We all know that he would rather be up under the glass of the delicatessen counter where all the meats and cheeses are. Then we see Laura sneaking back out with a hand full of ham!
Our lovely Thanks Giving host, Judy Witts Francini.
Photo J Finnigan
Fast forward to last Saturday evening when our social life went up a notch, as we joined our lovely host Judy Witts Francini, http://www.devinacucina.com, and new friends, for our very first Thanks Giving Supper, at Ristorante Latini near Certaldo. Visit http://www.ristorantelatini.com Of course, the traditional fare is stuffed Turkey with all the trimmings, however, we were really delighted when Chiara served up specially prepared and fabulous vegetarian dishes to myself and my man. The food just kept coming and the wine bottles kept refilling themselves. We were even given a doggy bag full of the vegi stuffing mix, which I have frozen to use at Christmas! We were so impressed with the food we are going to pop back for lunch this week, and the next, and the next…… Thank you again to Judy and Chiara as we know they spent two days preparing the feast for a understandibly packed restaurant.
Back at the villa, you may recall that we discovered a lemon tree full of fruit, at the end of the orange grove. Well, it seems that our local contadino (country worker) had expected to harvest them for the landlady, and found them gone. She sent me an email you see, to make sure they had not been stolen by hunters, so I confessed to having picked them. We always pick the oranges and she hadn’t complained before. We had to snigger though, when we first arrived here, the same contadino secretly sneaked into our garden and took a huge quantity of Mimosa flowers from our tree. It was only when I cornered him, that he confessed to it. So one in the eye to him!
Silvio rising to the occasion again.
AFP Photo/Tiziana
And finally, what has the handsome Silvio Berlusconi been up to? Would you believe it? SB is proposing a new currency to tackle the economic crisis! This is not to replace the Euro, but to exist alongside, thus restoring its monetary sovereignty. SB announced his idea on “No Tax Day” which took place last Saturday. I have no idea what the day actually achieved, but then we are constantly scratching our heads in wonderment here in Italy and carrying on regardless. The notion of rejecting the Euro has become very popular in Italy, so SB is definitely re-building his popularity. Our ladies’ man rises to the occasion yet again!
Well, enough of that. I have a big work load this week so must crack on. Buon Lavoro to you all.
Do drop me a line, and below is a direct link for an excellent Christmas present for you readers.
Ciao June x
You can also visit http://www.amazon.com and http://www.amazon.eu to view ‘My Father, The Assassin by J W Finnigan
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