Una Casa Abruzzese, and Two Aussies - Wider Perspectives

15 March to 5 April, 2021 - Bomba (and surrounds) - (Italy)


Welcome to installment four of our life in Italy blog. If you haven't read numbers 1-3, remember they are listed here in reverse order - if you want to read them in order, scroll on down...

Our Casa Abruzzese is feeling more and more like home, and every day Bomba feels a tiny bit more like it is our village. Unfortunately, though, the Italian language is taking a lot longer to sync in to our beings than we would like.

Don't get me wrong, we are far from hopeless; with the right local, the patient soul who empathically rephrases a sentence to give us a chance, with that scenario we leave encouraged and reassured. We know that we need to plough on through any embarrassment at not being 100% correct. Being understood in a foreign language is not an intellectual exercise; it is an emotional and social endeavour. Get the words out there, mix them around a bit, and hope you are understood. Listen to the answers, and don't interpret hints, suggestions, and corrections as personal criticisms. Do it more and more, and every time you'll be better.

Not all our interactions are that encouraging, though. When you are on the spot with a frustrated official, the Italian words seem to recede. The police doing a random "where are you driving to in times of Covid" check, or an attempted phone query with a business. When Domenico comes to the door to finalise my residency application. First, I blurt out a mish-mash of Spanish, English, and wrong Italian. Throw in a couple of made up words that I convince myself must be comprehensible, and I gesture something as if trying to communicate in sign anguage or interpretive dance. As the frustration comes in, the interaction deteriorates to me smiling and them nodding at the foreigner who doesn't know Italian. I don't want to resort to my translater, but I know they have lost any inclination to persist with me. Confidence drained, leaving the interaction, that's when the correct perfect Italian sentence comes to mind. If only I had opened with that!

Much of our language development revolves around food and drink. Home improvements is adding in other areas. When helping the builder, and things don't go right, some choice phrases are let loose. Maybe, though, my head has enough nouns in it for now? I don't know why I can spend a day, with a native Italian, doing heavy duty modifications to our home, and can't remember the word for screw at the end!

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Bringing in our Heater
When you have narrow medieval streets to negotiate, it's handy to know the right people.


Taking Delivery
Last few metres, by hand.


Serious Tools Needed
When you end up drilling through 60+ cm of stone, you want the right tool for the job.


Our New Heater in Action
We got a pellet stove delivered to help us survive the last straggling days of winter.

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We discussed, at one point, how many Italian words could mean just about anything. Pecorino could be a type of cheese, a cut of meat, a swear word, a variety of wine, or a pasta shape. What about scamorza? (For reference, the latter is a soft cheese, sometimes smoked, similar to mozarella; Pecorino turns out to be two of them - it is both a hard cheese and a white wine - it could definitely work as an expletive, too.)

So now, my ramblings are turning to thoughts of food and drink. Here are some recent pics from our own kitchen. Well, Jo's kitchen, in reality. Given our limited utensil resources, and the very constrained workspaces of the room, she prepares some incredible meals.

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Sciscilli con Le Cozze
Cozze are mussels, and scisilli are "dumplings" that are essentially balls of cheese and breadcrumbs, bound with egg. Another delicious locally inspired dish.


Home Made Pasta
We have not been bothered to set up the pasta appliance, so Jo just continues to roll out sheets and cut it in to strips, tagliatelle.


More Traditional Fare, another Seafood Dish
Jo continues to churn out amazing dishes from local recipe books and online sources. Recipes, to her, are suggestions, but the flavours, of course, will strongly reflect the original intent. Seafood is fresh, and common.

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Wine has, of course, been plentiful and cheap. We find ourselves getting a few regulars, with one or two new bottles, in each re-stock. Our main regulars are a Montelpuciano bottled 2 km or so down the road, which is our upmarket red. It sells for almost 3 euros per bottle in the supermarket. Our general reds are another montelpuciano at €2.79, and a similarly priced sangiovese. They sound so pricey, until you realise they actually come in the economy size of 1.5 litres.

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Bottle of Local Wine - Economy Size

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If anyone cares to know what Italian music we are listening to, three songs in particular are on our high rotation list. The first 2 are current, and the third is from many years ago.

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A few months before leaving our home in Richmond, the council began to implement changes, where-by residents would be expected to separate their recycling in to 2 different bins. Primarily, this was to isolate glass from the rest. This led to our large recycling bins being collected on alternate weeks. It soon became apparent that, in these regards, Australians are pretty clueless. First, people could not seem to follow an alternating calendar (yellow bin one week, purple next). Even when the street was full of yellow bins, we would invariably see someone wheeling out their purple bin and not notice they were doing the opposite of everyone else. Seriously, though, the worst aspect was the furore all this caused. Discussion groups, and petititions. GET OVER YOURSELVES, residents of the City of Yarra. People whining about it being too hard; not knowing what went in which bin; not knowing which week it was; bins too small; bins too big. Out little commune issues a calendar.

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Rubbish Collection Calendar

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We have 5 rubbish bins. Brown is organic and gets collected twice per week. Yellow is plastics and metals - Thursdays. Green for the glass, blue for cardboard and paper, collected on alternating Saturdays. Non recyclables are to be thrown in the grey bin, collected every second week. And the list of includes and excludes is not trivial. The bins are not large, and everyone seems able to deal with it.

The last few weeks has seen us snoop in to a few places in the region. All were, generally, in the realm of where we were going for other things, but it was really nice to feel a bit like a tourist.

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Nearby Roccascalegna
The Castello Roccascalegna, overlooking the Medieval old town.


Looking Down from Colledimezzo
Negotiating the entry and exit ramps from the motorway below requires practice and attention to signage. Coming from Bomba to Colledimezzo requires going through the lower tunnel, exiting, crossing the motorway three times on the winding upper road before coming back through the higher tunnel.


Pietraferrazzana
Another nearby village, Pietraferrazzana.


Spring Comes
Blossoms abound when we walk the trails of Abruzzo. This lovely scene was captured close to home, on the way to the nearby village of Sambuceto.


Traboccho
Trabocchi are like stilt fishing houses. The long poles support nets which are lowered in to the Adriatic. The coast along here is dotted with many of these structures.

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Last week, we received the clearest evidence that we are becoming members of the Bomba community. While walking in the hills, a couple of k's from town, on the road back we waved at the approaching car, as we always do. The car stopped, and the lady driving waved us over. I have really only met her once, when she delivered a package to our house a number of weeks ago. Our post lady. Window down, she handed us an electronic signature pad and pen, along with a registered parcel. She was apologising that she was unable to leave it at our house - we were obviously out on this great walk at the time. Indeed, we are Bombese!

I want to wrap up this entry at Easter. As people of faith, Easter obviously holds a lot of significance for us. Attending church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday was penciled in for us, a few weeks ago already. Although the regular street celebrations were curtailed due to covid restrictions, the square did get an Easter Tree.

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Bomba Piazza "Easter Tree"
A week out from Easter, a number of families came together in the town square. Olive branches were placed in a large drum, and decorated, primarily with eggs. This remained for about a fortnight.


Jo's Home-Made Hot Cross Buns
I was disappointed to find that these do not really exist in Italy - unless your wife is clever enough to make them.

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Bells Announce the Good New of Easter
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Bells Announce the Good New of Easter

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Choir Warming their Vocal Chords on Easter Sunday
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Choir Warming their Vocal Chords on Easter Sunday

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Next installment - our first real room transformation - stay tuned!