Puppets and il penguino
So THIS is why we always stayed in Portland in the summer because it is hot as hell everywhere else!!!
June turned the corner to consecutive 95+ degree-days. When people enter our house they say how ”fresh” it is, which in Italian translates to slightly humid and slightly cool, which is true on the first floor, which is the garage and below the garage a cantina, which IS the place to store wine, but otherwise it is a dank basement. The second floor of our house is the living room/dining room/kitchen floor, which is slightly less “fresh” than the garage/cantina floor and by the time you get to the third floor, which is our office and bedroom, it is pretty damn hot!
And not to be too cynical, but if it is 95 degrees outside, anything cooler does feel like an improvement that is until midnight with the mosquitoes feasting on our sweet American blood and the motorcycles (the training wheels for Italian drivers) are whizzing bye at all hours.
The first night we slept here, after a long day of assembling, unpacking and general nesting, we fell into bed telling ourselves “Its not that bad”, listening to the sounds of the town, one of our neighbors calling to her new puppy about every 2 minutes in a loud voice – viene qua! (come here!) while she was doing her house work and plant watering until 1:00 in the morning, then the same loud voiced woman having an intense conversation right under our window until 3:00 a.m., until I could take it no more and stood on the balcony in my underwear and yelled “Signora, per favore!! Silenzio!”. Things have been a little cool since.
John has taken to sleeping in the living room while I tough it out upstairs. We both have more mosquito bits that either of us can remember having. The morning is the best when the heat breaks for a few hours. I keep trying to talk John into moving the mattress to the garage and he keeps eyeballing air conditioners, which the locals affectionately refer to as “il penguino”.
Everyone here tells us that July is the worst and by August it starts to cool off. I think they are just toying with us to keep us from bailing out too soon, but will let you know.
We jumped at the chance to go back to the mountains of Valle Maira, the same place where we spent the early part of June. The German couple, Fritz and Krista Gaebler who run Casa dei Fiori, invited us; they have an annual puppet festival at the end of a seminar/creative retreat taught by two American puppet masters Alex Kahn & Sophia Michahelles from New England. This is their 4th year.
After dinner on Friday night they light the path between Morenesio and the Santuaria d’ Santa Maria - a beautiful walk at any time of day and any day of the year, but this night the group walks with paper mache lanterns they made during the previous week. Before the procession Anna and Roberto, and their entire family prepared dinner. Her mother comes from one of the original families of this town. She speaks Occitone and becomes overwhelmed with emotion to see all of these outsiders take such an interest in her town. They have an incredible house that opens to a cooking and dining area that is closed on three sides, and has a large open terrace where the fourth wall would be. Their terrace has a magnificent view of the Santuaria d’ Santa Maria and seats well over 30 people. The three closed sides of the entrance courtyard are the doors to various apartments and storage rooms, one of which opens to a spacious and beautifully maintained garden, with yet another breathtaking view of the original church and entrance to the town. They served home made foccacia style pizza made with tomato sauce and various calzone one stuffed with vegetables and another with onions, anchovies and raisens. Afterwards Lorenzo, who lives down the street prepares an after dinner drink in two beautifully carved vessels, one is ceramic and one made of wood. They come from the Val d’ Aosta, the northernmost region of Italy. He brings with him various bottles and jars of questionable origin and all likely to contain alcohol; he pours each of the ingredients with much flair and ceremony. He holds one bottle up and calls it water, when it is clearly marked grappa, another he guards closely calling it his mystery ingredient. Brewed coffee is added and candied orange peel, sugar and “water” are carefully added to the rim of the vessel, which is then lit with a match. Each vessel has a place for several straws to be inserted and each of us is handed a straw and we drink in essence a sweet coffee drink with an orange flavor and a nice kick before we grab our lanterns and begin the procession. To cap off the evening, we head to a local bar for music by the Caledonia Blues Band and nonstop dancing. The arrival of a bunch of semi-intoxicated Americans and Germans adds to the already frenetic air in a bar that typically handles about 5 – 10 people on a busy night is busting at the seams. We dance outside in the cool night air under a brilliant sky bright with stars and surrounded by fireflies.
Saturday is the big procession of the puppets that the students have made in the previous week. Each year has a theme that is kept secret from the townsfolk until the night of the festival. This year the puppets tell the story of the Anchovy and how it became a part of the cuisine in this high mountain region. People from all of the surrounding towns arrive to participate in the procession. Due to the size of the puppets at least 4 adults are needed to maneuver a single puppet, plus various supporting characters like dogs, sheep, roosters, and banners signifying the seasons. The procession departs from the staging tent with spring in the lead and at various points along the way the seasons change to summer, fall and winter each taking their turn in the lead and telling part of the story. They are accompanied by a group of accordion musicians playing Occitone music. By the end of the procession everyone is tired from their effort as well as laughing and singing along the way. They return to a feast prepared by the Gaebler family with the help of volunteers along with wine and beer. When eating is finished, the tables are cleared and unlike the evening before, tonight’s dancing is traditional Occitone. Novices get lessons and everyone joins in.
I spent most of the time in the kitchen while John helped moving heavy objects as well as helping in the puppet tent making hands, dogs and anchovy. When the seminar participants heard he was a professional photographer, he found himself giving a few side lessons on photography as well.
Valle Maira is well known for it’s cheese, and we have a friend, Francesco, who has a small wine bar in Barbaresco called la gibbigiana. He asked us to bring back a few wheels of cheese from the town of Elva. This being Italy, and schedules being somewhat….. flexible, we have learned to call and confirm if a place will be open before we begin a long drive. In fact, the cheese place was NOT going to be open, but, as it typically happens here, one of our dancing, puppet and all around crazy young friends, Daniele is the son of the cheese lady, so Monday morning sitting outside our door in the cool shade were three large wheels of cheese marked 1 (fresca), 2(medio), 3 (morbido). Fresh, Medium, Aged. The bill, which came to about 4 Euros a pound was tucked between the wheels with instructions to pay the next time we came to town. I LOVE THIS PLACE!
As we drove off the mountain the temperatures got steadily hotter and by the time we got to Alba the outside temperature gauge in the car read 41 degrees Celsius. Enough is enough! We dropped off the cheese and went in search of an air conditioner, which of course on the hottest day of the year is not the easiest thing to accomplish. After 4 stops without success, John started heading in the direction of the mountains. He figured if he didn’t find and air conditioner between Alba and Cuneo, he would keep going until the temperature dropped! Fortunately, when we stopped at an appliance store on the outskirts of the lovely town of Cerasco, they didn’t exactly have one in the store, but told John if he could wait for a few minutes, they were expecting a truck. It appeared that several people were waiting for the same truck and as it pulled up and began unloading its contents, three petit well dressed women with hand trucks handed out the goodies. They loaded the huge box in the back of our car before John was allowed to pay for it.
Let me just say that John sleeping in the cool bliss of a/c is a far happier version of John than the one without.
Now we head off in different directions, John is going to Germany to pick up our car and me and our friend from New York, Pia we are going on a road trip for about a week. Pia has been to Italy 4 times and has not yet ventured outside of the Piedmont region, so we decided it was time for her branch out! Liguria, Tuscany and Umbria here we come!
Ciao
Donna