L'Anno Nuovo

The New Year has started well. The last time I tried to drive to Bracciano to Irena and Mo's house I did so without a map and without a plan. As a result it took about 6 hours to get there. This time I took the wise counsel of Via Michelin and made it there in about 3h30 - a huge improvement but meaning that I was there well ahead of time. Poor Irena and Mo who had planned a morning a casa! We had a very relaxing lunch then started getting sorted for the party in the evening.
By about 9 everyone had arrived - a full complement of 4 kids, 2 dogs, and 9 adults - and we soon tucked into the Morrocan food that Irena and Mo had prepared. At midnight the champagne flowed and we went into the garden to watch the fireworks from the castle (as made famous by TomKat in November). After midnight in Italy you are supposed to eat lentils as they signify money for the following year. Traditionally these are consumed with Zampone - the skin of a pigs trotter into which the grissly bits that are too yack for sausages are stuffed. We therefore bypassed the zampone, but I trust that this will not affect the power of the lentils - my finances are such that I ate mounds of them in the hope that there was something in it. It cant hurt right?
At midnight I also tried to send messages to friends and family around the world - but the Telecom Italia Mobile network was not up to much and I am not sure how many messages actually went through. A quick round of charades and a chat meant that we hit the sack around 4...
New Years Day dawned bright, and seemed the perfect setting for the pajama-clad Oprah marathon! Lunch was leftovers from the night before followed by more lounging around - the perfect way to spend New Year! In the evening we ventured out of the house (no longer in pjs) and headed to Trevignano on the other side of the lake for dinner and the most delicious chocolate and biscotti cake.
The morning of the 2nd started as New Year's Day had - drinking coffee and chatting. Then Irena, Mo and I went up to Bracciano village to have a look around, and another coffee before I set off back to Marche. Huge thanks to both of them for not batting an eyelid when I invited myself over!
The new route to and from Bracciano (new to me at least) is failsafe - essentially a straight drive all the way. There are some amazing views as the road twists through the Umbrian countryside up into the mountains, but possibly my favourite bit is once you hit the SS77, the other side of Foligno. Here the road ceases to be just a superstrada and becomes the centre of commerce for potatoes and onions. I was reminded of the sign that I saw in Ljubljana which campaigned for potatoes and onions to be recognised as an independent dish - if ever the society needed to do any shopping, they could hit the SS77 outside Tolentino for all their requirements. I did not stop to buy anything. Partly because I don't really eat many potatoes and have no idea what I would do with a bag the size of the ones that they were selling and partly because I could not possibly choose between the many tractors that were parked touting their wares. So I drove onto home.