Pandemic Diaries - Italian Interlude 10 October 2022 - Stroncone

10 October 2022 – Stroncone

 

There were two places we visited in the pastels class that we didn’t visit during the watercolor class, so there’s only one date for Stroncone.  I have trouble with the name, because I’ve visited the town of Scontrone in Abruzzo previously.  Stroncone, Scontrone, it became confusing!

 

Stroncone is in Umbria, and is very close to Terni, where La Romita is located.  It’s a very Medieval town, with walls and huge gates around the original city, and winding cobblestone streets forming a labyrinth of a town.  Some newer houses have been built on the outskirts of the town, some abutting the old city walls, but not a lot has changed since this town was built in the 12^th century.  Well, other than indoor plumbing, electricity, television, and glass in the windows.  But the exteriors are pretty much unchanged.

 

The town is on top of one hill, but surrounded by a serious of other hills so that each dead-end street or plaza seemed to look out on the surrounding valley and the hills beyond.  It really was a beautiful location, though I would guess it made farming really difficult back in more agrarian times.

Most of us walked around the town, getting lost and retracing our steps.  Two friends and I, our usual little group, wandered around and eventually found a couple of old churches dating back four to six hundred years.  Not too old when the town walls and many buildings are about eight hundred years old, some possibly even older.

 

Because this was a small town on a hill top, there was very little greenery in the town itself.  No parks full of trees, though a few of the piazzas had maybe two or three trees, but nothing very large.  However, nearly every house had potted plants surrounding their patios or entrances, creating small personal gardens.  Some even had ivy or other climbing plants growing up walls and over balcony doors.  It really was pretty, seeing all these flowers and greenery around each home.

 

In our wanderings, we somehow kept running into two city workers who were sweeping the streets and picking up small trash.  These two men were dressed in orange, and they did their best to answer our questions.  But we didn’t speak much Italian, and they didn’t speak much English.  However, they were very friendly and did their best to be helpful.  By our third time bumping into them, we were greeting each other like old friends!  They also helped us figure out where we were on our ambiguous map, pointed out those old churches, and let us take their photos (as well as taking photos of us).

Really, these two were the highlight of our trip to Stroncone!

 

It was a small town, though, and we soon walked through most of it.  There was a nice park outside the giant front gate to the city, and a nice café, a good spot for cappuccino and a bit of crostata (jammy fruit tart), plus that entitles one to use of the restroom.  I went back to the park and drew the front gate plus the series of doorways comprising the entrance to the city.  I realized that while the door to the front gate was probably close the 20 feet tall, there was a normal human-sized door built into the huge wood and metal door built for Gigantor. 

 

We have no idea why there were red and blue flags scattered around the city.  It didn’t seem that the town was large enough for more than one neighborhood.  And we saw no signs for any special events or festivals.  But the flags made for pops of color on the walls of greys and beiges, so, sure, why not.

 

It really was nice to visit a town that was there for the people of the town, without anything touristy.  It was a great little place, especially with our two city worker guys!

 

I need to add what happened that evening, because this set a new trend for me, or maybe a new way to celebrate an old holiday.  Most of the people in the class wanted to go shopping in Terni in the evening, followed by a dinner at some local restaurant.  But four of us really didn’t want to do that, so we stayed at La Romita and had a very nice dinner of steak Florentine, and pasta with black truffles, my favorite.  (The chefs at La Romita make wonderful home-style Italian meals, the food was always fabulous!)

 

Well, after dinner the cooks would sometimes bring out a bottle of “medicine,” better known as bitters.  Plus a bottle of limoncello, that wonderful lemon-centric sweet alcoholic drink.  Edmund explained that this limoncello was made by our breakfast chef, and that she uses a special thick-rind lemon also known as a citron. 

 

A lightbulb went off for me!  I knew it was Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles.  It’s a harvest festival, and there’s a symbolic lulov (certain specific plant branches) and a citron (in Hebrew, etrog) representing the harvest.  Since it was Sukkot, and limoncello is made of citron, suddenly, in my slightly tipsy state, it seemed that wow, limoncello must be the way to celebrate Sukkot in Italy!  And of course I poured myself a second small glass.

 

So I have now a new tradition, limoncello for Sukkot!  Isn’t this how new traditions are born?  Someone figures out a connection between the holiday and some food or symbol, and voila, it makes sense to eat/drink/use that food or item for this holiday.

 

Drink up!