Festa della Repubblica

The Festa della Repubblica is celebrated on the second day of June, and it commemorates the institutional referendum of 1946 when (by universal suffrage) the Italian population was called to decide what form of government (monarchy or republic) to give to the country after World War II and the fall of Fascism.

After 85 years of monarchy, with 12,717,923 votes for and 10,719,284 votes against, Italy became a Republic, and the monarchs of the House of Savoy were deposed and exiled. This is one of the most important Italian public holidays which, like July 14 in France and July 4 in the USA, celebrates the birth of the nation. A grand military parade is held in central Rome.

The Castello Part 2

The restaurant we went to was near and named for a local castello. In the last post was a video as we drove up the mountain towards it. Here are some photos of it.

The castello

The other side

sign - look at the date!

The Tower

Some shots of the inside tomorrow!

The Castello

Yesterday's meal

Yesterday the whole family went out to eat at this restaurant
in S. Lucia del Mela.
It's up in the mountains. Beautiful location.

The whole restaurant was set up for banquets. Must be a busy time.
We were seated on the left side of this room.
There was a huge room upstairs.
A very nice place.

Of course I didn't think to start taking photos of
the food until after the antipasto course.
The next course was this delicious shrimp risotto.
The food was served by the wait staff. They
brought around platters of food and served everyone.

Then we were served pappardelle in a Marsala wine
sauce with mushrooms. It was very good.

Next was the first meat course. This they brought out on plates,
one plate for 2 people. On it were spiedini, sausage, lamp chops and lemons.
This meat was grilled. Delish!

The next meat course was agnello al forno (baked lamb)
with potatoes and carrots.

This was the wine we drank along with water and coke.

After a bit they brought us fruit cups and
then some of us got cake, which I didn't care for.

Then coffee and amaro.
We were all so stuffed! It was a great day even though
We had to miss the Formula One race.

Cherry Dessert

I got a half of a kilo of cherries at the mercato on Wednesday. What was i going to do with them??? So I cleaned and pitted them and put them in a small pot with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and let them boil for a few minutes.
I mixed up an all purpose cake batter.

1 1/4 c flour
1 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 c oil, I used light in flavor olive oil
3/4 c milk

Mix together in one large bowl. Then add the cherry mixture. Pour in a baking pan. It will be thin. Bake at 350F/160C for about a half hour. Enjoy!

Note: I would have added a tsp of almond extract but I didn't have any!

It's really good. You can exclude the cherries and add 2 tsp of lemon zest for a lemony dessert.

Pears

This is a shot of the tree in our yard. Pears are coming. I don't like them but I like to see things growing. The fig tree has figs and the grape vine is doing fine!! I'm a poet!! But we won't be eating any of these because we will be gone by the time they ripen.... Oh well!

Car Wash!

One of the business ideas we had before we came here was to build a car wash. Frank's family said that would never work here. Then a few months ago this place was being built.
It's a car wash! There is a huge one in Barcellona P.G. and it is always full!

Vacuums
I love that building in the background.
It must have been a beauty in it's day.

Automatic washer. Notice the parked car...
barely enough room to get by.

Self service washing

These are the coins that operate the machines.
On the sides they look like keys.
The name of the car wash is Atlantic, hmmmm.