Lights, camera ...

I have, and quite recently too, promised that reading the blog won’t take up too much of your time only to witter on at length. However, this one really won’t take up too much time, and to make sure I keep my promise on this occasion I better get on with things, in an edited highlights sort of fashion…

Although Stephen spent two or three afternoons combatting the mould in the eastern wing of the house, which has been a little virulent this year for some reason, we still found time for other things. On Wednesday we took a trip to Civitanova for a spot of Christmas shopping, stopping off at Cuore Adriatico on the way to the main drag to get a couple of essentials from Iper (i.e. coffee and Parmegiano). This gave us the opportunity to appreciate the centre’s festive decorations, especially the large, glittering heart in the centre of the main area, which Stephen couldn’t resist walking through.

In Civitanova proper we did a quick scoot round, ticking off our shopping list in, what was for us, record time though others may still wonder what we can find to dither over. We then took a pausa for a quick check of the town’s Christmas decorations, which caused a social media sensation last year when someone remarked on their phallic quality. The Comune had obviously taken the publicity to heart and removed the lights from the leaves and the bulbous tops of the palm trees, with only the trunks being lit up. However, illuminating a couple of bushes either side of the trunks may not, in hindsight, have been such a good idea. To calm us down we headed to Caffè Galleria for aperitivo, which comes a worthy second to Totò in our top ten of places to sample a tasty bite.

We had a somewhat less successful shopping expedition yesterday afternoon when we popped into MSP for its Christmas mercatini, as advertised on Facebook. It was due to start at 3pm so we gave it half-an-hour to get going, but we were not really surprised to find things a bit haphazard. The photo exhibition was decidedly dark and there was no sign of the promised Babbo Natale, while a group of Scouts started erecting their Pesca di Natale stall (a sort of tombola using fish – not real ones, of course) while we were wandering the square. We did, however, track down a couple of purchasing opportunities, so it was not a completely fruitless journey, despite having to settle for caffè in Pina, there being not the slightest whiff of the promised vin brulè. Maybe we were just too early…

We were also a tad early today when we turned up at Matilda, the chalet in Porto San Giorgio where last year the Carellis held their Christmas dinner for a select group of associates, and where this year they were holding a Christmas lunch for the same select group. Actually, ‘early’ is a moot point, as we actually arrived at the time we were told, 12.40, only to find the Carellis waiting outside the restaurant in the December sunshine for their other guests to arrive and to be told that they had given a time thirty minutes earlier than the actual one as the others were always late. And indeed they were, it being gone 1pm before we went into Matilda and almost 1.30 before everyone was assembled and the food began to arrive.

Fortunately for us, if not for the owners, the chalet was far from busy, which meant that the over abundance of courses arrived with little delay, and I was even able to eat a few of them. I passed on the more creepy crawly seafood, but had enough fish to keep me happy while Stephen manfully picked up the slack from my abstinence. The meal wrapped up just shy of four hours after we’d parked on the lungamare, which by Italian standards is the culinary equivalent of speed dating. This allowed us to be home in time to walk Bella and Harry while there were still some vestiges of daylight and plenty of time to lounge on the settee watching RuPaul’s Drag Race – always a perfect way to end a day.