In with the new

5th January 2025

The clear but cold weather that started last week continued for most of this one, finally ending when rain arrived on Friday afternoon. It lasted until evening, and whilst temperatures rose a little for a while, the weekend has again been cold, but cloudier and just that little bit on the grey side.

As for how the week has gone here at LCDDB, I’d say pretty well all in all. Tuesday, of course, was New Year’s Eve as well as our shopping day: I’ll let you decide which we consider more important. The town square was fairly quiet when we went for breakfast, with no queue at the Post Office, where I posted a couple of cards, and an air of calm in Pina. That was the first of three visits this week as we treated ourselves on both Wednesday morning (having overlooked getting in a nice pastry for breakfast on the first of the year) and Sunday (too many hot chocolates necessitating a trip to Conad for milk).

As for the shopping, that again needed trips to both Conad and Coal, the latter mainly to get some pork from Pia. Unlike last week, when everyone was eating fish for Christmas Eve and we were served straight away, this week meat was obviously on the menu for New Year. Not only had we to join the crowd around her counter but also, unheard of in Pia’s domain, to take a numbered ticket for our turn (usually she knows by eye whose next).

Our meat (at Stephen’s request, pork cooked with onions and cream, the return after many years of an old favourite from Ramsbottom days) was, of course, for New Year’s Day as we said goodbye to 2024 at CarloCarla. As we had expected, it was a very civilised affair, with one table of 10, including well-behaved children, one of four and three tables of two, including Giordano of the ferramenta and his wife, so we had someone to chat with over the welcoming Prosecco. We ate at a leisurely pace, finishing off with coffees just before midnight, which meant we could raise a glass of spumante, share New Year wishes and be home for half past twelve. Perfect.

Apart from Stephen’s special meal (in need of a little tweaking as ever with British recipes – pork loin instead of tenderloin, and yes, there is a big difference, and mascarpone mixed with milk instead of double cream), which was a success especially as I eventually opened the bottle of Mumm champagne Stephen gave me on Valentine’s Day 2022, and breakfast at Pina (see above), it was a pleasantly relaxing and uneventful day. We thought My Big Fat Greek Wedding would be a cool thing to watch after it being talked about on one of the film podcasts I listen to. No doubt it would have been, only while the two sequels were available to stream on Amazon Prime, the original and best wasn’t.

What to do instead? Book a hotel and train tickets for two nights in Bologna at the end of March, what else. We had considered Rome, but when we thought about the faff of getting there and how busy it would be, especially given Pope Francis’ Giubileo, we decided we would leave walking through that door to expunge all our sins to another time and indulge ourselves in Bologna instead, given that while Stephen visits it regularly and I have been twice for the Madre Lingua school, we haven’t both been there at the same time. We can have a couple of days exploring together and seeing some of the things that he has never had time for, and sort out our spring wardrobe at Scout into the bargain – not that that was a key consideration.

Thursday saw Stephen back at work, but just for the one day as there were a couple of things to check up or chase up or both. He was expecting to be on his own, but the boss turned in too so he had a friend to play with. It wasn’t till he got home, though, that the real crisis of the day happened when he couldn’t find his phone. He searched his bags; it wasn’t there. He searched the bedroom and dressing room; it wasn’t there. He took a torch out to the car to see if it had fallen into one of the wells or under a seat; it wasn’t there. He took the torch with him back to the top of the road to see if it had fallen out when he collected the recycling bin on his way home; it wasn’t there.

He was, by this time, getting a little desperate while I was trying to be supportive from the sidelines. That might sound less than helpful, but we have been here before – and sure enough, “It’s here!” he called after he’d galumphed into the bedroom. “Where was it?” I asked as he came out with it in his hand. “On top of the cabinet,” he replied, looking at me accusingly – because, naturally, it was all my fault that he wasn’t able to see a dark phone on top of a low, pale eggshell blue unit with the now fully functioning ceiling light turned on.

Being home again on Friday, Stephen began taking down the decorations. He started with the outside lights before the forecast rain came (see above), it not being a good idea to store them wet. Some of the smaller bits and pieces followed in the afternoon, and then the others over the next couple of days, leaving the house, depending on your viewpoint, either barren and bare or spick and span. I am leaning a little to the latter as it means I can set to with the duster again without any obstructions.

A word missing over the past month or so has been Fermo, but that was rectified yesterday afternoon with a stroll through the centre taking in the Christmas market and all things Aladdin, which is this year’s theme, before the obligatory tour of the presepi. I have to say we might have been a tad disappointed this year, not that there was a drop in standard overall but there seemed a lack of the more, shall we say, original interpretations – though the one with the impressionistic use of a variety of polished stones was impressive.

We hung around long enough for darkness to fall, to fully appreciate the atmosphere of the square but also because an event, La Lampada di Aladino, was slated to begin at five o’clock. For some reason, Stephen was convinced that it involved a big blue genie and was very disappointed when it turned out to be a puppet show – a very wordy one too, given the average age of the audience who probably would have been more engaged with a bit more slapstick. It didn’t help, either, that a glass globe looking very much like a crystal ball was situated front and centre of the puppet theatre, obscuring the view and to what purpose, who knows. Perhaps it’s a twist we’re not aware of.

Five minutes delighted us long enough, and as there was the last of the panettone and the last of the hot chocolate (see above) calling us home, we didn’t linger. Besides, I had my afternoon’s purchases to unpack. We had stopped off at Girasole on the way to get two or three essentials from L’Erbolario (shaving foam, lip salve, patchouli cologne) and popped into Intimissimi where I bought two pairs of tartan flannel pyjamas (one dark blue, the other scarlet) in their buy one get one free sale, so I’ll still be nice a cosy on the cold winter nights even without a hit of cocoa.