Choo Choo Ch'boogie

3rd January 2021

Firstly may I wish both my readers a very happy New Year, with the hopes that 2021 sees them keeping safe and healthy. Right, now I’ve got that out of the way, on to other things.

With the whole of Italy being either zone red (key festive days) or zone orange (the days in between) we found ourselves unwittingly having an illegal breakfast on Monday morning when we went to buy the few things we needed to see us through to New Year’s Eve. In a moment of forgetfulness we turned up at Bar del Borgo for cappuccini and brioche shortly after 9, having failed to find a parking space anywhere within walking distance of Pina, with most if not all the factories still closed for the holidays. It was when we entered BdB and saw all the tables shoved together with a few people waiting at the bar that the penny began to drop, it finally landing with a dull thump when Romina ushered us into the small back room to eat our illicit breakfast. I have to say that my conchiglia was particularly fine; maybe I should always eat them with a side serving of delinquency.

There was not anything of particular note over the next couple of days. The weather went windy and rainy before settling down towards the end of the week. I had five lessons in three days (a first for this down time between Christmas and New Year when my services are not usually required) and we slipped in haircuts each on Wednesday morning, circumventing our standing Friday appointment falling on holiday days. Tuesday afternoon as I was taking the dogs for their post-lunch walk Stephen wondered why the railings on the terrazzo were rattling, discovering a short time afterwards it was due to the awful earthquake in Croatia, which can only make you wonder at the impact for the people at the centre of it, if the effects can be felt so far away.

That brings us to Thursday and New Year’s Eve. The past three years have seen us eating the night away at Hotel Pina, but obviously that was not an option this year. So what exciting things did we line up for ourselves instead? Well, in the morning we went shopping (missing out on the illegal breakfast this time), arriving around 10 o’clock. We had to do a couple of circuits to try to find a parking space, eventually opting to park across the road by Rocco’s, the hairdresser, knowing he wouldn’t mind for special customers. To comply with current regulations, we had a few minutes to wait outside Sigma as only thirty customers (or thereabouts, no one was actually counting) were allowed inside at one time. Where the occupants of all the other cars were is a moot point, but one suspects they were most likely men in the bar. Go figure that one.

From here we stopped off in the village to buy some fresh tortellini for New Year’s Day lunch, to serve in brodo of course, before heading back to LCDDB for a quiet afternoon prior to preparing our special dinner, a comfort food special of the pot roast from Delia’s original Complete Cookery Course book, my copy of which is edging close to being 40 years old. Very good it was too, even if we had, as always, to do a bit of substitution, replacing the unavailable turnip for fennel, in abundant supply and on offer. We opened pleasing bottle of Ciù Ciù to go with it and accompany a spot of TV watching before heading to bed well before midnight saw in 2021. As for New Year’s Day itself, the substantial quantity of tortellini for lunch allowed us to have another picnic tea (see previous blog and Christmas Day) while watching a Sophia Loren film from the fifties, in which lots of dresses with flaring skirts made good use of her cinched waist.

Having celebrated, albeit in muted style, the two festivals of the season, it was time, we thought, to take down the decorations. I know tradition holds that they remain till twelfth night, and here in Italy Epifania is a major holiday, but being of heretical non-conformist stock we thought they had served their purpose. Consequently, we spent yesterday afternoon, packing all the baubles, trifles and ornaments into boxes (new ones Stephen had acquired for this year in an attempt to have a more effective system of storage and which in size and shape were suspiciously like shoe boxes) and dismantling the Christmas tree, leaving the house feeling maybe a little bare but also fresh and uncluttered for the coming year, whatever it may bring.