For over a week now we have been checking to see
If we’ll ever get a taste of Paté di Pomodori Secchi.

Produced only by Delizie Umbre, so far as we know,
A jar of the treat waits for the unobservant to show.

Our joking phrase speaks to a common occurrence:
The sympathetic affection of one mind for another.

As when a giggle of school girls pass us by en masse,
We both know the very same words make us laugh.

While we relaxed at La Portella, without ever dancing I might add, the plan was hatched to marshal the troops for an assault on the Anfiteatro Romano.

Different recollections ensued, as that is want to happen more and more as we age. Yet closer at hand, both agreed we would take the road usually not taken.

Before getting started with the rest of our morning,
I invite U to detour into Spoleto, An Open Museum.

Since this is Wednesday: breakout of the itinerary:

0:00 – 0:39 Italia, Land of Wonder

0:40 – 1:00. Spoleto, A Montage

1:00 – 2:05. Introduction: An Open Air Museum

2:06 – 2:29. Quick History Sketch

2:30 – 4:58. Phases of Rebirth: An Interpretive History

4:59 – 6:45. The Exhibition: Sculpture in the City

6:45 – 8:35. Festival of Two Worlds

8:35 – x:yx. Return to Sculpture in the City (break out to follow)

Note: as always in such cases, time slots are approximate.

To get to the setting of this post, whose vista I forgot to shoot and now must photoshop, there are two ascents of the hill to the Rocca: 1) the old-fashioned way, i.e., you earn it each step of the way; 2) the alternative route, tunneled through stone.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the same option applies for this post: 1) link to already made “Happy in Spoleto bar La Portella at Giro Della Rocca” Fan Video; 2) imagine our stationary position close to the top at a favorite hot spot.

Last evening on the terrazzo,
With chips and an apperitivo,
Reb notices a day well spent
Is made by keeping to a plan.

So what’s tomorrow’s itinerary?
She joshes to provoke a reply.
Of options that come to mind,
A third one wins hands down.

So before getting into the video any deeper, I have to see if I can find that old old story (our epic quest for the Golden Fleece–aka, here we go round and round and round the spot on the map, looking for the elliptical Anfiteatro).

So unless I just missed it in my drive-by read of the 2014 blog, the story isn’t likely to be found on carriage-returner. That places it securely in Emails Abroad, our Blurb book, at rest back home in a stack on the living-room floor.

When our Italian friends were here last week, I made certain to show off our very own Teatro Romano without thinking all that much about it. Days later, upon a bit more reflection, I told Rebecca that I may have oversold the attraction: to have the remains of a Roman theatre in an Italian town probably would be like showing off a pig patch in Georgia. Still, it strikes me as pretty neat (even if, at this moment in the trip, I only have a meta pic).

Now, the point of that whole story is to tell U another one. While we’re moving along the mechanized walkway, which goes uphill faster than these old legs have been known to carry us, I was forced one day to stop along the way (transfixed by the images on one of the town’s video displays, which keep the tourists entertained in the course of their day). The meta pic here is even worse:

Imagine an architect’s hand drawing plans on the screen. Wonder, as I do, what is going on with the restoration of these “ruined ruins” that still hold a prominent spot on every Tourist Map of Spoleto. In an early post on this blog, or maybe in Emails Abroad (a companion volume), I told the story of the day we spent in search of lost times. Looking ahead, I hope to dig deeper.