Roma

A queue always attracts some interest, more so if your English maybe, and so when I was in Rome i was intrigued to see a queue outside a restaurant on the way to Campo Dei Fiori. This was around 6.30pm so not at traditional eating times.

Eventually someone came out and they had a piece of fried baccala in a brown paper wrap. Fantastic. Street food is achingly hip at the moment but this is old school. Luscious big flakes of rehydrated salted cod in a crisp batter.

Ah Roma. Ti amo.  

Sunset 9-1-14

This was the sunset earlier this evening. You can just about make out fog in the foreground which has covered the valley for the last couple of days whilst here at Casa Margherita we have been bathing in the winter sun.

I dropped down into the valley this morning and the temperature was a brisk 1°c and I bumped into a neighbuor who said he was going to come up this afternoon to get out of the fog and get some light.

After a few days of this the air quality also drops and you can see the fog is tinged a brown colour which in the main is wood smoke as burning wood is the primary form of heating and I would wager that this year less gas and electric are being used for heating and more wood burnt.

The fine art of selling

Or maybe that should be the fine feeling of selling.

Selling as most people know is a real skill which most of us do not possess but wish we did. As I am not blessed with this ability then I just need to plug away in my own inimitable way.

When this works and I make a sale then the feeling is fantastic. So I was extremely pleased when I visited a shop in Rome the other day and they placed a good sized order for my olive oil which here in Italy we have re-labeled as Paterno which is the name of the hill where our house and grove is found. Check out the website at www.oliopaterno.it

And it came to pass….

Polystyrene nativity figures in Trevi. Ho ho ho it must be Christmas.

Finished

At last we have finished picking. A day short of two months, over 700 trees picked and more than 5,500 kilos of olives, we have finally reached the end.

 The last few days there has been a constant mist in the valley which has made picking wet and very unpleasant but today we had some sunshine to finish with.

There are many words that I can't use to describe how we feel but as they say here we are 'cotto' - cooked. In fact we are cottisimo.

Roll on Christmas.

The day of the century

 Today is the day of the century.



                                                                11.12.13

Adopt an Olive Tree this Christmas

Find out more at http://www.casa-margherita.com