Gubbio

March 20, 2011--I am making headway on these blogs!! Good job, Suzanne.

Last September we all went to Gubbio. Larry and I had originally gone there when we came here to go to school. However, it was pouring rain and we only had about an hour to look around. Instead, we stood under an awning and watched the rain bounce up about 2 feet! Larry took his mom to visit when I had my broken ankle so this was really mine and little Larry's first visit.

It is a beautiful area and was very green while we were there.





Here is Larry being silly!
















A look at the castle.















Just thought this was a nice building.















This was truly a photo op with the stairs and the colorful leaves.


















A double arch.


















Larry son getting his hand bitten off!
















This arch is a little more rustic.













This is a tram that was even more scary than it looks! First they helped me get on....















then we are both on board.

















This is the view from the tram.














Larry son having fun!













We saw this inside an old church, but I have no idea what they are.



















These ruins are just outside of Gubbio.

How Did Your Garden Grow??

March 19, 2011--I've been asked to give an update about our garden from last year. You may remember I had a blog about the things we had growing. So--here it is!







Two years ago while in Pesaro with our friends, Frank and Judy, we spotted a flowering bush that Larry really liked. Later, while walking up the hill from Belforte we saw a similar plant in someone's yard. Larry asked what it was called and they told us that it was a wild hibiscus plant. They also had one in their back yard that wasn't doing well and they gave it to us. Here it is the following year.














Our son, Larry, planted the corn seeds that we had brought back from the states last year. I'm sure I've mentioned that our soil is not very rich so we never know what we will get. He was able to pick about 20 ears of corn, but they were all very small. Here is one of the bigger ones!






We planted several varieties of peppers last year. Our jalapenos did not do as well as the year before and the seranos never grew at all. We did have some anaheims and Larry son made chile rellenos from them. He also planted the "hottest peppers in the world and here he is cutting them--note the gloves?













Here he is after his first taste!! See the pain? He then went on to make the world's hottest Top Ramen! Oh, the pepper is from Bangledesh and is called "baht jolokia."






Our tomatoes almost always do well. This is our second attempt at growing watermelons. Here is a tomato next to our watermelon the end of August.










Here is the watermelon about 5 weeks later. To give you an idea--the cutting board that it's on is 10 x 14 inches!












We decided to enhance our soil with a "little" cow potty! Larry had the pleasant job of moving it around!









At the end of October we harvested olives from our four trees. This was the first year we got olives from all 4 trees--a whole bowl full!












Here they are after being prepared and placed in a brine.










Finally--I am attempting to grow yams! We found the yams in Rome back at the end of October and we made them for Thanksgiving. I cut 1/3 off of the bottom of the four yams and put them in water. Two of the pieces got mushy and had to be thrown out. The other two got roots on them and started getting eyes. The one you see here has grown several slips--two are planted and two are in water awaiting roots. Another slip is still growing. The second piece has grown several eyes, but the slips just don't seem to grow.



ADDED BONUS!! Hint, hint--the color is a clue!

Most of you who have known me for more than 2 seconds know that I don't eat vegetables! Especially if they're green. It's a true and sad fact. Recently I have been making an effort to incorporate more veggies into my diet. Thanks to http://www.greenlitebites.com/ I have tried two recipes that I am going to share with you.

The first is a green smoothie that I drink a few times a week. Our blender is not the most powerful and it takes about 15 minutes to finish the smoothie.



These are the ingredients:
















This is how it looks while trying to puree the spinach with the yogurt. All I can say is "YUCK."









Again, I say--yuck!
















I like to freeze the bananas to help make it cold without using ice.











Here is a shot of it blending.
















It's finished--and soooooo green!
















Here it is in my insulated water bottle--it makes about 14 ounces.
















And yes--I am drinking it! I promise you that you can not taste the spinach! It tastes mostly like a banana smoothie. You can also add lots of other fruits, too.







Next up is a green cake! Luckily I made this for St. Patrick's Day so it wasn't too weird seeing it!



The special ingredients:


















I had to cook the apples to use since we can rarely find applesauce. Next is a banana and then spinach!










After it is pureed you add it to a dry cake mix.














Looks kind of pretty, huh?










I decided to give it a taste! I was more than surpised to find out it tasted just like cake batter does when normal people make it!











Just need to add a few sprinkles to make it prettier.















The finished product. It tastes like a cross between banana bread and zucchini bread to me. It was very sweet and again--no taste of spinach!










One piece of this cake has 4 Weight Watcher Plus points and about 1/2 cup of spinach!
Can we say "Good job, Suzanne!"??

La Camminata Longa (The long walk)

March 14, 2011--I'm still playing catch-up so these photos are from an event that happened on the first of August, 2010!

Every year, at the beginning of August, Belforte celebrates "La Madonna delle Neve." This is a feast day (Aug 5) celebrating the day it snowed in Rome in 352 AD. There is always a "camminata" from Belforte to the church in Campo. This year we went along for the walk.

Everyone meets up in the piazza at about 8:00 in the morning. The kids are very excited because they get the opportunity to ride on donkeys! There were also horse back riders and a few vehicles, but for the most part we were on foot.

At this point, I had been walking everyday and, in fact, had been walking on the exact same path so felt that I was raring to go. The road makes a loop and I always took a left at the fork of the loop which allowed me to go up the less steep side and down the steeper side. Unfortunately, there was rain a few days before which made that part of the loop too muddy so our walk went up the very steep grade of the loop! There was a point when I wished I could ride on a donkey!









Hanging out in the piazza.











Starting to head out across the bridge (see me in red on the left??)









Our neighbor, Pamela, with Eduardo on the donkey and Fillipo in her arms.
















We're going slightly downhill.











I love this picture!













Now we're going uphill again! You can see that the crowds have thinned out!












Giacomo finally decided it was worth riding on a donkey! He'd refused up until this point.












Larry enjoying the breakfast served.













Yes, we walked all the way to the top of this hill! And further!












After lunch they played games. Including tug-of-war! Here is one of the women's teams. Giacomo's mom, Lauren, is at the end. She is from Florida, but lives here in Belforte with her Italian husband, Federico, and two kids.










They held mass (after another walk--this time all down hill!) in this very small church in Campo. Most of us stood outside.










At the end there was a procession with a painting of Mary being carried while we said the Hail Mary.









It was an enjoyable, but long day. We got home at around 5:00! BTW, "longa" is dialect for lunga for those in the know!