Wednesday
sees a rather pleasing amount of money land in the bank, house sale complete!
All is done. Thank god as the budget was looking rather unhealthy! Butter is
back on the menu. We all head to Roccaverano, (is this place at the top of the
world? Thankfully we didn’t go in Onzo) for a plate of meats and a cheeseboard
and a bottle of the local red. Very gentle pleasurable evening. Everyone
extremely content.
Thursday
A
quick, quiet drink together at the Nazionale turns into a rather more prolonged
affair than anticipated as every single mad local that we have met decides to
come and say hello. This is not a brief English ‘sorry to disturb’ hello, this
is a “sit down, put drinks on the tab, refuse to shut up about self and never
leave” type of hello. Jon seems alright with this. I, however, go from being
amused, to becoming gradually more frustrated, before finally arriving at the
simmering rage only usually associated with stubbed toes and long distance
calls at a fiver a minute to customer services peopled by complete idiots (Santander
in Bangalore are you listening?). This
of course only amuses Jon more, which of course results in me becoming silently
apoplectic. Hours and I mean hours later, we finally get some alone time, by
which time we’ve both been in the bar far too long, if you know what I mean, and
our cosy intimate quiet drink is nothing but gobbledegook. Ah well. Such is
life. Epic rage. Jon still smiling to think of it. It took me about 48 hours to
calm down. I feel strong sympathy for Mount Etna.
Jon
has invested in a tin hat for any further eruptions (cheap at the local market
though). A wise purchase I feel. Medic, medic……
The
weekend…
We are
leaving on Sunday and Onzo preparations have gone into overdrive. He is spruced
up, re-packed, supplies are on board, we are good to go! We’ve even managed to
buy some more gas and a back up bottle of anti-freeze/coolant. The gas wasn’t
too problematic, but there is a whole dark world of mystery surrounding
coolant. Can you mix it? Do you have to drain it first? Will it really form a
globulous mass and clag up your radiator if you get it wrong? Does it really
improve performance? Does any of it really matter?? Does anybody actually know
any of these things??? Apparently not. Even google is stumped. Eventually we form
our own master plan and decide to consult local Fiat aficionados and try and
purchase the Fiat recommended stuff after we’ve showed them what we’ve already
got. Amazingly this plan is successful despite me asking for “anti-ice cream”
at first. Sigh.
Mother
has just cooked up an amazing final meal and tonight sees the ‘Sagra delle
Nociole’ taking place in Cortemilia which involves celebrating all things nutty
(we’ll fit right in!) and a huge fireworks display at midnight which we hope to
take in from the top of Perletto, a fitting finale to our stay here. This
festival lasts for two weeks, two weeks!! How many holidays do the Italians
need??! Can’t say I blame them though, it’s meltingly hot and nigh on
impossible to function. Hence for us tomorrow it’s down to the coast to Savona,
to the cool of the Med, playing in the sea and sand between the toes, very
excited!
A
parting shot of us outside the Nazionale; goodbye and thanks to all the staff (Slime
1 has been promoted to lovely bar owner numero uno) and a shot of mother outside the church, bye bye Ma, thanks for
your wonderful hospitality and a lovely time x
