A few events

With the house shipment over, we are more able to travel about and do things. Last weekend, we drove an hour from here up into the Apennine mountains. This mountain range is small compared to the Alps, but is still impressive with 9,000-foot peaks, a number of ski areas, and a whole lot of marble mines. I've decided marble is to Italy like wood is to the U.S. Everything here is made of marble: floors, tables, window sills, base boards, countertops, sinks, tubs. In fact, Jim pointed out to me the other day that our driveway is made from crushed bits of marble! Marble isn't used structurally, like wood is in American homes, but it is used ornamentally everywhere. It is particularly common in this area because of the Carrara marble mines just south of us. (Remember the opening chase scene in the James Bond movie Quantum Solace? That's shot in the Carrara marble mines.) Our hike took us above the mines and the tree zone, and we walked an empty trail, most of which was on a stone road that could have only been built by the Romans, who also liked this area for its marble. We hiked to a pass where we had beautiful views of the Mediterranean below.

We also recently went to a concert in Lucca. Each summer the beautiful walled city of Lucca hosts a locally famous concert series. This year's lineup included Burt Bacharach, Dave Mathews Band, James Taylor, John Fogarty, and others. We decided to go see Moby, who's electronically produced music is a favorite of ours; it always seems to find its way into our slide and video shows. We were curious what the Lucca concert scene would be like, and we were interested in seeing how Moby's electronic music would be performed live. The concert scene was wonderful with a small crowd of about 2,000 in the immense, tree-lined Piazza Napoleone, which could have handled 10,000. It was beautiful star-filled night, and Moby come on the stage with his all-female band, except a token male drummer. In addition to the drummer and a bass player, he was supported by two violinists, who looked like young graduates of Juilliard's, and two awesome female vocalists who more than made up for Moby's very average voice. They played dance music for two hours, and the crowd obliged.

Our most recent outing was last Thursday. Neighbors who are interested in helping us learn Italian invited us to a dinner at an agriturismo. Agriturismos are Italian farms that offer accommodation and food. If you've never heard of agriturismos and you come to Italy, you must check them out. They range from rustic to rather elegant, and they can be wonderful places to stay at an excellent value. Most of them are working farms and many of them are wine producers, like the agriturismo that we went to for dinner. We joined about 30 people who are members of a dinner club for this six-course, five-hour meal, which included three varieties of the owner's wine. As much as we enjoyed the food and wine, Jim and I enjoyed listening to the lively discussions at the table. At one point, after a particularly long heated discussion, Jim turned to our neighbor Sonia and asked what they were talking about. He was sure it was politics or religion because of the passion around the discussion. No, Sonia said calmly, they are discussing how big the pieces of meat should be in a ragu sauce. Of course!