Bed and Board

This was not so much the year of living dangerously as the week of living vicariously, as we had our second ever visitors. I say second, but actually it was the same ones for a second time as Douglas and Susan, my brother and sister-in-law, showed themselves gluttons for punishment and paid us a return visit.

Fortunately, the weather continued fine with steadily increasing temperatures with no recurrence of the deluge that caused such havoc to our road. We did have one heavy period of rainfall, but as that happened conveniently in the middle of the night leaving us with clear skies again in the morning, it caused no disruption to Douglas and Susan’s plans.

This time they flew into Ancona and hired a car, giving them independence during their stay but causing us a little bit of concern when they seemed to be taking a long time to get here from the airport. When we got a call for help, however, just after midday the reason became clear: finding LCDDB proved too much of a challenge for the lady on their sat nav who didn’t seem to be aware of our particular branch of the local infrastructure, but they had managed to get themselves to outside the church in Monte San Pietrangeli. Stephen, obligingly, zipped up the hill and guided them back, with Douglas driving their hire car tentatively down the now uneven track leading to our house.

They had more luck over the rest of the week, venturing during the next three days to Macerata (horse drawn carriage museum highly recommended), Loreto (lots of shopping opportunities if you are in need of an icon or two) and Porto San Giorgio (lots of shopping opportunities if you are in need of ice cream and new shorts). As for us, we got on with our usual bits and pieces, though we joined forces in the evening fun and entertainment.

On Tuesday night the Webster contingent met Stephen in Mogliano after his dental appointment, it being on his way home, and despite a bit of a numb jaw he was able to share in aperitivi at a bar in the square and pizze at Da Marina al Teatro – a new eatery to us but a definite future destination, serving very acceptable pizze at a reasonable price in an old, brick vaulted dining room. Thursday, we were treated to dinner at L’Enoteca in Fermo, one of our favourite places to dine and which didn’t disappoint, even though it was not yet quite warm enough to eat on the terrazzo overlooking the square.

What did disappoint, however, was Monte San Pietrangeli’s Festa delle Erbe Spontanee, which was so enchanting last year but which, last night, seemed to have undergone a drastic facelift - and not to good effect. Whoever was in charge switched the focus of the events from the town square to the large area below the town wall and in front of the church. What this gained in space was lost in atmosphere and charm, unless you actually like eating dinner in what feels like a car park. Moreover, they had drafted in the soundstage used at the beer festival, just to make sure that the evening’s entertainment, a folk band, could be heard in Rapagnano. We ate and decamped to Pina for a caffè corretto before heading back to LCDDB somewhat earlier than we had anticipated.

We were further disillusioned this morning when we returned to visit the market, where last year we bought several items for the garden as well as our three very stylish – even if we say so ourselves – planters for the terrazzo. Again, this had been shunted from the square to the lower road, but in a puzzling departure there was just one of the meager handful of stalls that actually sold plants, the others being of a crafty bent. Not that this was the only enigma of the morning: parked along three sides of the area directly outside the church were a collection of some thirty vintage cars, which were being studiously ignored by the people congregating on the church steps. That may have been because, like us, they had no idea what the vehicles were doing there, there being no indication as to the reason for their presence. And as for the guided tour by a local botanical professor of the surrounding area, this was something else that had been given an unexpected twist. Last year the interested parties were ferried around the nearby countryside in the Comune’s bus; this year the event was on horseback. Talk about catering to a niche market…

We had hoped that the disappointment with the Festa delle Erbe would be washed away with an evening at Cerreto Medievale, but here again circumstances worked against us. Unfortunately, after struggling manfully round MSP this morning and only managing half his lunchtime pasta, Douglas succumbed to the lurgy taking over his body and had to retire to bed. He was in no fit state to wander round the festa when he resurfaced so Stephen cobbled together a scratch dinner and we settled down to a bit of prime Netflix. It may not have been quite the journey back in time we had anticipated but with Project Runway to watch, at least we were taken to a land even more fantastical.