Martin Fuggle Downunder

We had a bit of a false start today since the clocks went forward last night and Jenny and I rushed to get to the Bar Centrale by 9.00am (new time) none of the others got there until around 10.00am. This meant that we were late in getting on the road to Fano. It was me who wanted to go to Fano because I have had good memories of Fano having spent two holidays there in the summer, once with the school and once with Jenny and Peter when he was young. However when we got there I was a bit disappointed and it was nothing like I remember. It was much larger and I didn't recognise any of the town at all. I guess it was more than thirty five years since I had been there.
From Fano we wanted to go to a small fish restaurant at Fiorenzuola di Focara called Al Vento di Focara. However when we got there they had no spare tables and we went onto a place called Taverna del Pescatore where we had an expensive lunch which was only OK. By the time we had got to the restaurant and finished the meal it was 5.00pm and pouring with rain.
Nevertheless we headed off to Gradara and Brigitte used her GPS system to get us there but we seemed to go almost all the way back to Pesaro before we finally headed towards Rimini and Gradara. Gradara is a beautiful hill town with a castle at the top of the hill and I expect it has fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. What with the rain and the mist we couldn't see much at all and it would be worth a trip back there sometime when the weather is better - maybe when we rent a car next week.
We drove back to Urbania, had a very light meal and got down to some homework in preparation for the start of next week.

We met Brigitte in the Bar Centrale at around 8.30 and had the usual coffee and danish before we met the others and set off for Urbino about 25 kilometers away.
We arrived at about 10.00, parked just outside of the city wall and walked up the hill into the Piazza della Republica. Brigitte, Jenny and I stopped by the university book shop to buy a decent dictionary and Brigitte bought a book of Italian synonyms before we went into the Palazzo Ducale. The riches in this palace were amazing and we saw the Raphael painting of Ma Donna (not the Madonna) La Muta.
After the Palazzo we went to the market where Jenny bought a necklace and then headed off for lunch. Patrick had found a small osteria in a back street where we had a three course lunch. It was interesting because we have a 'pasta in sacco' with truffles, followed by risotto with porcini, stuffed duck and lamb and coffee with star anise in it. The 'pasta in sacco' is normally eaten only twice per year, at Christmas and Easter. It is made from two types of cheese and flour only, then put in a cloth for twenty four hours and then cooked in a broth for one hour.
After lunch we went out into the rain and looked at the birthplace of Raphael. It was a large house owned by his father Giovanni Santi who was also a painter and Raphael lived there until he was about twelve. The house was well designed and now contains a large number of paintings and sculptures. It was also interesting to see the furniture which was mainly ornate inlaid wood. We then went down Via Mazzini so that Jenny and Brigitte could look at the shops. On the way be bought an umbrella and Jenny and Brigitte each bought a beautiful woollen scarf. We headed down the hill, picked up the car and then drove home to Urbania.
Tomorrow we are doing another trip, this time to Fano and then along the coast to Pesaro and the coast a bit further north before stopping off in Gradara. The weather forecast is not too good but we are looking forward to a good day.

Today was always going to be a busy day since we had lessons as normal in the morning, a trip to Piobbico in the afternoon and then cooking lessons with Guisy.
Barbara took us through comparatives and the usual conversation before we had lunch at home and then met at the bus station to get the bus to Piobbico. Piobbico is about fifteen minutes by bus from Urbania in the hills. Many English, Dutch and Danish have bought places in the country outside of Piobbico which is a pretty village. We waited for Daniela to meet us and show us around the Palazzo Brancaleone and before setting out to the Palazzo we had a coffee and then set off. We walked along the river and up some old streets to the Palazzo. Along the streets were metal things protruding from the walls and it turned out that they were used during the last week in August and first two weeks in September when there was a constant 'festa' in Piobbico and candles were lit along the streets where processions of people took place. We eventually got to the top of the hill and started to look through the Palazzo. It was one of the best maintained that we had seen and was from the 14th Century and built by the Brancaleone family. The collection of costumes was sensational and some of them were worth 1 million Euros each. They were in fantastic condition and made from gold threads and adorned with jewels. The collection consisted of approximately 450 pieces and many of them had been discovered recently behind one set of cupboards which hid a second set of cupboards in which the costumes were found. In addition to the costumes the Palazoo contained many paintings, a collection of stuffed animals from the hills around Piobbico and fossils of huge bears which were found in caves in the local mountains.
We finally got back to Urbania with about 30 minutes to spare before we went to Guisy for cooking lessons. Well - they are not so much cooking lessons as a huge feast with enough to eat and drink to last for the next week. Tonight we made gnocchi, frittata, fish stew, alice marinate, insalate and strawberries. The food was excellent and while Geoff, Jenny and Sooi Lei were preparing the shell fish, prawns and palombo (a local fish from the Adriatic) I spent my time washing fish, salads, kitchen stuff, etc. etc. We sat down to a four course dinner with wine, coffee, grappa, limoncello and lots of discussion with Guisy, Sara and Jo. Sara is sixteen and going to school in Urbino. She is a wonderful girl with a mature attitude and a passion for Freddie Mercury and Queen. She speaks much better English than we speak Italian and a lot of the discussion is us trying to speak Italian and her responding in English. Her sister lives in London and works as an air stewardess with British Airways and is often in Sydney. Sara loves music but a CD in Italy costs around 25 Euros so we said we would send her some music from the CDs that we have at home. We eventually left at around 10.30 in time to get some sleep before meeting Brigitte tomorrow morning and heading off to Urbino.

We were up early today because we got a couple of SMS messages that woke us at around 6:30am. One was from Catherine and the other from UBS Warburg with a tracking number for the direct debits to the UK. Let's hope this resolves the question of where the money for my mother's residential care has gone!
Today was market day and a normal day of lessons. Patrick came round for lunch at the apartment after Jenny and he bought some fish in the market and we then headed off for conversation with Simona and discussed the changes in the way that the Italian family had changed over time and the reasons for the changes. It was based on an interesting article from the Corriere Della Sera in 1999.
Jenny had her hair done and I went to Kikki Rikki to see what messages we had received and apart from the normal spam there was precious little. Jen (from London) was there and we talked about having another dinner with everyone at one of the agriturismo restaurants a little out of town sometime next week. We then bought some food and had dinner at home before doing our homework.

Well it's the first day of spring today and it's snowing heavily with the snow settling on the hills and in the centre of the town. However the forecast for next week is good with temperatures of 20 degrees plus.
The saga of the direct debit for my mother's stuff seems to continue and once more I have been on the phone to UBS Warburg and Colten Care. Colten Care say they have not received any money and UBS claims Westpac sent it on 15th March - one thing I do know is that it hasn't been in my bank account since 23rd February. Anyway I finally got a message from Gerald Baker with a tracking number so tomorrow I will phone the people at Colten Care and let them know what the number is so that their bank can follow it through. I'll be glad when this nonsense is resolved although I think I will be trying to get some recovery of the expenses that I have incurred as a result of this from UBS/Westpac.
We had the normal lessons in the morning and then went to the Palazzo Ducale in Urbania. We were guided around the Palazzo by Luciana and we saw an interesting collection of old and modern ceramics as well as an important collection of early books. We also saw some of the work of current ceramic artists in Urbania including Silvio Biagini who is painting two tiles for us with a scene from Urbania which will include the Palazzo Ducale.
We met a number of the others for a drink at the enoteca and then went onto La Loggia for a meal.

Nothing special today, lessons as usual with conversation in the afternoon with Simona who is fluent in Italian, English and German. She is very good and very helpful and has some useful ways of getting the conversation going.
After class Patrick, Jenny and I went off to Kikki Rikki to use the Internet and I was stunned to find that one of the direct debits from UBS Warburg had still failed to arrive in the UK. It's just amazing that they seem to be so inefficient but it's now causing me considerable embarrassment with the recipient since I keep telling them that it is on its way and then they find that it doesn't get into their bank account. I don't know what more I can do with UBS Warburg - they just seem to be totally incompetent.
We actually saw snow today although it didn't settle. One of the people from the Dante Aligheri group said that it was snowing where they were staying which is just a few kilometres out of Urbania.

This is the start of our second week and the weather has taken a serious turn for the worse. The forecast is for rain and snow and so far it has rained but the snow hasn't arrived yet.
Lessons were as normal and we were joined by Rupert (from Germany) who had been to the school on a number of previous occasions. He is a keen cyclist and does around 120kms per day - not bad for a bloke that is possibly in his sixties! In the afternoon session we watched a film called Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. It won an Oscar for the best foreign film in 1990 and was set in a small village in Sicily. It contained two stories in one. The first about the friendship between a small boy called Toto and Alfredo. The second was a story about the history of the cinema and the two intertwined because Alfredo was the projectionist in the village and Toto, a small boy with a passion for films and desperate to learn as much as he could from his friend Alfredo. It was a beautiful film and very sentimental.
After the film we went back to the apartment where a new washing machine arrived. The plumber had the most amazing thing for getting it up the three flights of steps to the flat. It was a trolley which lifted up each step a device that would be essential in Italy given the number of places that have stone steps often three or for stories high.
We then met Guisy. Sooi Lei, Geoff, Jenny and I had enrolled in the Italian cookery classes and Guisy was our teacher. She drove us to her house where she made fresh pasta, prepared and cooked fresh artichokes, made tiramisu and a meat dish consisting of pork, beef and sausages. We all sat down with her husband and daughter, Sarah, to three courses, wine, limoncello, grappa and coffee and lots of conversation in Italian. It was the first of four lessons and the next one is on Friday when we will prepare fish. We finally got home at around 10.30 and went straight to bed.

Today is a special day in Urbania but unfortunately we are not sure what special day it is! Last night we had trouble sleeping because of the loud music somewhere in Urbania probably near Kikki Rikki. Anyway we met Brigitte in the morning at the Caffe del Teatro, had a coffee and then set off to look at the market stalls which had sprung up everywhere. They were mainly clothing stalls and Jenny bought a few things to take home and a couple of tops.
We tried to get to the Wifi Internet at Kikki Rikki but it is closed on Sundays so we headed home for lunch and a quiet afternoon. The TV was full of the Ferrari win in the Australian Grand Prix and the Six Nations rugby where France beat Scotland convincingly and Wales just got in to beat England. I am not sure when Italy plays Ireland but it will be an important match if Italy are to maintain their position on the ladder.
Shona and Patrick went on a trek in the countryside around Urbania and we would have gone with them except for the fact that it was to take six hours and we needed proper walking shoes and clothes which we didn't have with us. The weather could not have been better for a walk in the country but the forecast for next week is not so good. It seems that we are in for a week of rain, cold weather and maybe snow. If that's the case then we just don't have the right clothes for that sort of weather. North America seems to be in the grip of snow and ice and I hope it doesn't come over here.
I have just completed my homework for next week and it has been mainly covering pronouns which I have found particularly difficult to grasp. I think I am getting the hang of them but it left me wondering what progress I had made during the first week of lessons. Everything is done in Italian and I am certainly able to understand the Scuola Italia teachers much better but that's because they speak so clearly. I can't understand much of the TV but I think I am a lot better in shops and restaurants. If anything I certainly have a lot more confidence to speak Italian and most people seem to be able to understand what I am saying. Conversation still doesn't flow easily and I anm hoping by the end of the four weeks that I will have got to a stage where I am able to understand more of the spoken word and more importantly understand it reliably with a higher degree of accuracy. I am certainly not disappointed with progress but would like to be able to speak more fluently.

We had originally planned to go into Urbino on the 8.30 bus with Richard, however we were a bit tired after the hectic night of food and drink we had with the others last night that we decided to have a quiet day. We went shopping in the morning and bought some food for the weekend at one of the macellerie in Urbania and then had lunch in the sun at the Caffe del Teatro.
We decided to take the bus up the hill to Peglio and planned to have a coffee in the piazza but apart from the views there was nowhere in the piazza where we could sit outside for a coffee and take in the views. We walked around a bit and then decided to walk the five kilometres down the hill back to Urbania. All in all it was a bit disappointing and quite a walk back especially with Jenny still having so much trouble with her ankle. We got back to Piazza San Cristoforo and were glad to have a spremuta di arancia and gelato.
Then back to the apartment where we were able to watch the Six Nations rugby which seems to have taken Italy by storm since they won their first two matches against Scotland and Wales.

Friday morning we spent revising the previous night's homework and I am still having trouble with 'I pronomi combinati' but I think I am finally getting to understand them. The trouble is I don't even understand them when I translate the stuff into English.
In the afternoon we visited the Museo Diocesano di Urbania with Raimondo Rossi, Corinna's father. I didn't realise how significant Urbania was in the past. It used to be know as Casteldurante and was known for the quality of the Maiolica ceramics that were produced. Most museums in the world will have a collection of ceramics from Casteldurante which is now Urbania. The picture at the left shows a small dog with a bone in its mouth and this was a play on the name of one of the earlier cardinals in Urbania whose name was 'Carneossa'!
In the evening we went to the Enoteca for a few wines and then onto Osteria di Cucuo. The evening was amazing and the food was fantastic. Altogether there were ten of us. Richard, Patrick, Geoff, Sooi Lei, Jenny and Martin from the Scuola Italia and Shona, Brigitte, Jen and Elliot from Dante Alighiera. There are two language schools in Urbania and Scuola Italia split from the original one sometime ago and it seems that it's almost world war two between the two schools. Anyway we had a fantastic evening. There was no menu at the restaurant - whatever they had decided to cook for the evening was the menu. Amongst other things we had antipasto with walnuts and pomegranate seeds, rabbit, guinea fowl, wild cherries with homemade ice cream - in fact everything was home made and coupled with the vino della casa we had a great time (not to forget the grappa at the end of the evening).
Unfortunately Richard leaves for London tomorrow and Shona leaves for some skiing in the Dolomites on Monday.