Luftballoons

Wednesday 14th May 2025

Today we are having a rest. And we need to do a bit of laundry.

So a trip into the lovely town of Castelraimondo seems a good idea. This is the town where a leg of the Giro d'Italia will end and so the town is preparing itself as are all the villages and towns through which the race will go.

But Castelraimondo is the big time end of a race.

Pink is the theme and Paul even asked someone if it had anything to do with Breast Cancer awareness like the pink test etc. I did not even try to translate that.

A quick trip to Metalica,  yes this is a town, with some very old buildings.

An old building with a sign in English

Back to Sefro for a little walk in preparation for the big dinner tonight,  (another big dinner) and the football (soccer).  We went a little further in the other direction to find more of the stream. We spoke to an old man who knew dad which was nice.

This is the sign to the Palmina restaurant which is now closed. One time we were here, we met the owner who had been a child when his father cut Dad's hair before his big trip to Australia. Along with all the other young men who were leaving. He remembered dad. Very special.

us at the stream

A restaurant which we went to last time in Sefro which is mainly closed but does open occasionally

And then back to the Faustina where we found this leaflet. They are having a big snail dinner. They are called lumaca in Italian. Kind of glad we wont be here on the 30th.

Tonight's dinner was with Carmine and Tiziana who had driven from Rome. Maybe an 8pm dinner.  John and Christina had spent the day in Assisi and were having dinner in Spello.

So it was just the four of us going to a very special restaurant in Castelraimondo called Osteria del Borgo. 

Cute grotto table

My bread

my starter with gf rye bread topped with great cheese, seaweed and anchovy. Heaven. The others had the same but with normal bread.

a normal starter of eggplant . 

Some black truffles to admire

Paul's chicken dish, unbelievably good

the veg

spinach made gf for me was lovely

Carmine's 600g steak

My smaller steak with a cream and truffle sauce, with lots of truffle shaved over the top.

Tiziana and hers

my dessert of panna cotta with pistachio

the non gf dessert looked pretty amazing too

Paul with a very nice glass of sweet wine, maybe muscat

The meal was so good particularly as they advised when we walked in that they had no gf pasta, pizza or bread.  I wonder if they quickly went out and got the bread. But I am definitely not complaining as it was a fantastic meal.

So then it was time to go home except that there was a soccer game on to decide the Italian cup thingy and Gianfranco was watching it at his house and we had said we would go over and watch it with him.  However given the time, we assumed that this would not happen. But of course it did. We went to Gianfranco's to watch the last 15 minutes of the game.  Bologna won!  Our team as we had been to a game in Bologna last time we were here and plus they wear red and blue!!!  Believe it or not.

So home at maybe 1130 and poor Maria Rita was waiting for us to return so she could lock the hotel.  I felt very bad and perhaps we need our own key now that we live here.  Maybe.

Tomorrow we are all going to the Grotta di Frasassi with Gianfranco and Patrizia.Should be fun.