ALL GOOD THINGS The year 2023 ended not long ago and with it, we marked a decimal milestone. A little over ten years ago, we decided to leave the country in which we had lived our lives, to launch into an unknown future in a different culture, becoming foreigners living in Italy. In this fortunate instance, positive expectations have worked out just fine. Baring the always unforeseen, we are so pleased with the experience so far, we plan to remain immigrant residents in this provincial town in Central Italy that we love. In the process of uprooting ourselves, the idea surfaced to start a journal to keep track of what were bound to be significant changes over a relatively short period of time. And so it was, Gelatojournal was started. In addition to providing a memory bank for us, the other collateral benefit we hoped it might achieve if we made it available on-line, was to keep family and friends informed without endless repetition of similar separate communications. What surprised us was the consequence of the wide outreach of information posted on-line. Before long, we began receiving messages from people we had never met, situated in a wide variety of locations world-wide, inquiring about aspects of our experience. It seems our quest to reinvent ourselves in later life was also striking a resonant chord with some other people. Over the years of posting Gelatojournal, we have had communication with an assortment of interesting people. With some, it was a pleasant but brief interaction. Some other communication became more interactive for years, exploring the concerns of others as they asked themselves if they might also risk the expatriate adventure. And then, some people we had exchanged thoughts with actually came to Ascoli for a visit, and we were able to connect faces with emails. Over time, a few Americans also came to Ascoli to live in search of new experiences unique to them, just as we had. Ten-year periods of time bring changes. Now, unambiguously considered ‘senior citizens’, the last ten years have brought a few changes along the way. Some externally imposed such as pandemics in which we were fortunate to avoid direct participation. Although chronologically...
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OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW The ice in the holiday skating rink that has been installed in Ascoli’s Piazza Arrengo is slowly starting to melt. The weather has turned colder so it will take longer for the ice to change from solid, back to liquid. The amplified sound of American Christmas Carols, that suggested some sense of rhythm to the skaters, is now gone replaced by the shouts of workmen undoing Christmas. The wooden sales stalls in the imaginative guise of Christmas Market chalets that stood just beyond the rink, are now stacked in a disassembled pile awaiting the forklift to load them onto trucks until next Christmas preparation. Although an increasingly secular society, Italy carries the distinct imprint of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church on its calendar. Dig a little too deep and you might find less resurgence of religious fervor but more of a reluctance to give up State approved days off from work. According to church tradition, the liturgical preparation for the Christmas miraculous birth does not officially begin until the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin on 8 December. However, in keeping with the increasingly apparent secular overtones of this special season, as in other places where the observance of consumerism occurs, it seems each year, Christmas displays start showing up earlier. However, to our great relief, Christmas Creep isn’t as apparent here as it is in the U.S. where encroachment on Labor Day in September may be already happening. Each year, the festive decorations in the major squares and principal byways in Ascoli seem to go up a little earlier as well. To boost communal morale, the local authorities are reported to have spent a not insignificant amount of funds on new decorations this year, to good effect. And then, Christmas becomes Christmas Past with the Feast of Epiphany on 6 January recalling the tradition of the Wise Men bearing gifts. It seems from the day of Christmas to Epiphany forms the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. There is also a nod here to some pagan roots with the arrival of the Good Witch, the Befana at Epiphany bringing gifts...
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It has been a while since our last post and we have just finished a busy summer. First, we want you to know we continue to be fine. The rate at which time passes seems, somehow, to have speed up and it is now already early Autumn in Italy. During the summer season recently past, we returned for the seventh year to a rented place on the sand on the shore of the Adriatic Sea. This is a fortunately reoccurring, refreshing and rejuvenating experience that has the side benefit of avoiding the inundations of summer mass tourism in many places in this wonderful country. We have tranquility during the summer season and, as full time residents, make our pilgrimages to important cultural places in a more peaceful off-season. This is literally, the best of both worlds. People are what it means to be in human society. Among the joys of experience on the shore over the years has been sharing the experience with other more recently arrived expatiates from the U.S., but also getting to know Italian families. There is a continuity for us in becoming acquainted with Italian families enjoying the shore with their maturing children. Each year as we return to the shore, we marvel at how much these children have grown, season-to-season. Over time, a small group of Americans has settled in Ascoli. As in any groupings of associations, while continuing to enjoy a larger circle of expatriates and Italians, it seems a smaller circle have become a little closer. Somehow there may be some combination of similarity of temperament, what we collectively value in life and a considerate and respectful caring regard for each other that helps to cement an emotional bond. Being around each other is just ‘easy’. It may be inevitable as we become closer to others in friendship, we have an opportunity to not only share in their joys, but also become aware of their health struggles and sorrows. An effect this has had on us is to reinforce not taking for granted all that has become vitally important and sustaining in our lives. In the background, the COVID disruptive impact on the patterns of all our lives resulted in...
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BEACH TO THANKSGIVING TABLE It has been some time since our last Blog entry. A lack of interest and desire to share thoughts has not been a factor. Now going on ten years since our arrival in Ascoli to take up residence, our conviction this was the right thing for us to do remains unwavering. It seems the accumulated perceptions of the course of looming world events has left us unclear how to make much sense of it all. Rest assured, we are not going into a recitation of the multiple sources of concern and anxiety that touch on too many of our lives. Most of us are already too aware of that onslaught. At core, what we wanted to do in starting out in a new exploration by coming to Italy, continues to be stimulating and rewarding. That was not an easy decision particularly in this late stage of our lives. A problem for me is to be unavoidably aware of the multiple challenges we all are currently facing while giving an accurate, positive reflection of our experience here in Ascoli. Remaining positive in this reporting without sounding like a Pollyanna, is not something I’m sure I know how to do very well. But I’m going to give it a try. When we last wrote, we were anticipating a positive summer experience. High in that expectation was not only returning for a sixth time to a concession on the sand beach of the Adriatic Sea, but cultural life in Ascoli seemed to be also regaining some of its vitality. We weren’t disappointed in our experience of summer particularly since the refreshing outdoor sun and warm breezes added a sense of security to small gatherings of our Italian and Expat friends. The social isolation that the COVID environment involved had long since gotten old. Those familiar with this Blog recall we enjoy a dedicated, entire summer season, rental space on the Adriatic shore sand furnished with a small table and its sun umbrella plus two reclining lounges. The places on the sand are organized by regulated spacing distances that afford some health recommended distancing comfort, plus a bit of privacy. This season, a small grouping of five spaces, divided...
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SIGNS OF SUMMER When I sat down to begin to write this blog entry, it was officially the first day of summer, the Summer Solstice. But here in Central Italy, as far are we are concerned, the calendar pronouncement was running late this year. It has been, from our experience, mid-Summer for nearly a month. In a repeat of last year, we went through a protracted late winter with chilly, damp days and intermittent showers, until into mid-May. There was a brief period of encouraging warmth around the first official day of Spring in April, but then late winter reasserted itself awhile longer. And then, in short order in mid-May, we went from jackets to mid-summer, shirt sleeves. For those of us living here in Ascoli Piceno, on the flat flood plain of the river Tronto, even with the western edge of Ascoli inserting itself into the foothills of the Sibillini Mountains, we were spared any serious accumulation of winter snow. We had a day or two of winter snow flurries which soon melted and was never a serious factor in getting around. However, some of the higher slopes around us were snow covered for most of the winter. It made a pleasant, distant backdrop when Cesare, our new canine family member, had me out in the morning sunshine, for my walks. At our stage of life, we are not into winter sports, so we have been content to remain close to the hearth this winter. If I ever had any enthusiasm to drive on winter, potentially snow-covered, two-lane mountain roads, I have lost it. When we replaced our car several years ago, we decided on a single set of warm weather tires kept on the car all year round. We have a set of snow chains in the trunk to be legal if stopped and inspected by the authorities between the middle of October to the middle of April. But the chains have never been out of the package. Of course, a contributing factor is in this part of Central Italy and the lower altitude where we live, winters are less severe than further north or in the nearby mountains. Even with that consideration, part of the...
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EXPRESSIVENESS – A postscript to our holiday post Those who may have read the most recent entry to this Blog will have discovered there has been an addition to our household – a now almost eleven-month-old male canine who has been named, ‘Cesare’. His breed is Havanese, we understand to be a several centuries old derivative of the Bichon lineage and the national dog of Cuba. Cesare is characterized as a ‘small breed’ canine at an adult weight of 13 lbs. (6 Kilos). However, that compact and solid little body incorporates a very large and exuberantly, warm personality. It is approaching two months since he has become part of our lives. What our instincts told us to hope for, has happened in short order. A very strong emotional bond has formed between us. Which leads me to ask, what has made this process develop so quickly and affirmatively? An obvious factor is the transparent, immediate honesty with which this little creature expresses emotion. There is nothing subtle or restrained in the way in which he conveys how he feels being in our company. That furry appendage at the south end of his little body oscillates with such furry that his whole back end gyrates back and forth. He seems to project a contrast to some contemporary human behavior patterns involving more constrained emotional expressions in relationship encounters – to appear detached, cool. The distresses of prolonged anxiety involved in trying to live through a pandemic have not helped lubricate comfortable human interaction. By that standard, this little being is decidedly uncool or restrained by apprehension; emotional detachment seems to not be part of his makeup. On better days, I attempt to muster resources to get into a more tranquil emotional state. But in this, admittedly, the early stages of the process of acclimating to another being of a different species, the unqualified positivity being communicated to us by this creature, is reinforcing our resources for positivity and sense of optimism. He is helping generate an atmosphere of positive joy and exuberance with being alive – interacting with with caring others. In the daily walks he takes me on, I can’t help smiling watching that joyful ‘prance’ his little legs...
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THE NEW YEAR COMES TO ASCOLI The passage of time in our lives, seems punctuated by rituals. Currently, the ritual observance in Italy is Epiphany. Traditionally, it is the Christian observance of the Twelfth Day of the Christmas story when the Three Wise Men are said to have appeared bringing gifts of homage to the Christ Child. In Italy on this day, the Witch Bafana comes bringing gifts to good children and coal to those of us who have been naughty. Of course, the evaluation of ‘naughty’ depends, to a great extent, on how our various explorations and experiments in the course of our existence, are viewed by others. In most households, immediately after Epiphany, if they hadn’t done so already, the Christmas decorations will be coming down and being packed away for another year. In the piazzas, the decorations go dark and the skating rink in front of the Cathedral of Ascoli will be allowed to melt and then be dismantled. The Christmas music on loudspeakers will go silent again until next December 8th. Fortunately, Ascoli was far more brightly decorated this year compared to last, as a few of the included photos illustrate. However festive, the shadow of the COVID scourge is not far from everyone’s awareness. Last year, the COVID menace virtually shut down anything resembling holiday joy and festivity. This season, we had a few welcomed social events among our vaccinated Expat and Italian friends. It was on a smaller scale and more carefully orchestrated than in pre-COVID times but still, a very welcome change from last year’s depressing sense of isolation. The latest in the series of viral mutations, is proving to be far more virulent worldwide. The basis for some evidence of less severe consequences of infections traceable to this latest strain are yet to be fully understood, at least as of this writing. We are pleased to report both we and our friends remain healthy so far. We are trying to take precautions to keep it that way. This year, the system of a digital “Green Pass”, for those with evidence of having been fully vaccinated or having recovered from the virus, is permitting...
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ASCOLI SUMMER IMAGES REAPEAR Looking for options for summer relaxation and rejuvenation during a pandemic can be a daunting task. We are fortunate in many ways. Among them, we remain healthy, and most all our closest friends and associates take vaccination and other public health measures seriously. Then we are retired and not compelled to immerse ourselves into groups. And from an environmental perspective, in this special corner of Italy we have come to call home, it is a generally self-sufficient place with modest population density. But in the case of Ascoli Piceno, a less than overwhelming population density does not dampen a deep sense of vibrant, common community. The overall atmosphere here generates a sense of larger connectivity. For the entire COVID-19 Summer of 2021, we returned to a place of comfort and solace. For five years, we have been renting a spot on the nearby sandy shore of the Adriatic Sea. Once again, we returned to the same commercial concession on the water that provides a dedicated space with a small table, a sun umbrella and two lounges. Our dedicated spot is less than fifty feet from the water’s edge. Each allocated spot is organized into a grid pattern with ample distance of separation. And then there is the sunshine and the clean, salt-air breeze coming to us from across the Adriatic. Our sense is immersing ourselves into a refreshing, health-filled sanctuary. It is an environment where perceptions of pandemic dread can be set aside, at least for a while. Over the now more than eight years Ascoli has come to be called ‘home’, a few other expatiates of similar persuasion in wanting to expand their lives, have come here. Fortunately, this is not a ‘ghettoized’ group but people who share our enthusiasm for this culture that has been kind in welcoming us. These are a group of outward looking people rather than retreating inward seeking only the familiar. A few of our fellow expatriates have also decided to enjoy the Adriatic shore at this same concession. It has worked out that we have a small cluster of nearby spots that provide an opportunity for us to talk with each other as well as having pleasant...
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PRIMAVERA IN VIAGGIO IN ITALIA – Springtime on the road in Italy With the relaxing of travel restrictions, we celebrated a wedding anniversary and Spring, on the road. There seems to be something perverse in human nature when told you cannot do something – it only increases your desire to do it. The impact of the COVID-19 viral epidemic on all our lives has been beyond anything we could have imagined. Considering the depth of tragedy this malady has brought into so many lives, it seems inappropriate to have been so discontented with lockdowns, social distancing, and the cancelling of stimulating experiences that serve to broaden life. But we confess, as gratified as we are to be living in this exceptional provincial Italian town, having our movements restricted seems to have only sharpened our appetite to travel and expand our experiences of Italy. But, we finally got an opening. We have been enjoying the expansive benefit of immersion into the daily life of a culture different from the one in which we were nurtured, by actually living in this community of others. A significant additional benefit in living here is the increased range and ease of our travel possibilities. Now, we can plan any number of shorter, focused, exploratory excursions, to experience places not generally accessible on a whirlwind itinerary. All in the same time zone we are already acclimated to. What previously required a grueling full day of travel and left us exhausted to reach exciting places, is now just a pleasant several hour drive through the beautiful Italian countryside. Added to that, we can choose the timing to optimize the uniqueness of the seasons and the greatest benefit of all, to be able to avoid the crowds inherent in mass tourism. Nonessential movement restrictions between Italian Regions had only recently been lifted. In fact, not long ago, nonessential travel outside our local community could result in a monetary fine. Last Fall, we had changed our around town car for something more suited to travelling on the road. We initially took advantage of that new resource and made a trip to the south of Italy. That experience only whetted our appetite for more. Then the travel...
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COVID AND WINTER “Now is the winter of our discontent . . .”. This opening phrase of Shakespeare’s Richard III may encapsulate the present mood for many of us – Our most recent Blog entry was last Fall after a return from a trip in the south of Italy by car. We commented at the time it had been fortunate we had made the trip when we did because on our return, COVID imposed restrictions tightened up. Restrictions have remained in force ever since, with some minor variations. We are still under a 10:00 PM curfew and the variations involve how widely we can travel and how much we have to rely solely on restaurant ‘take-out’ for dining when not home prepared. In the not-too-distant past, there were coming together rituals we could participate in to bring some brightness into the encroaching gloom of Fall and Winter. But not so this year. An invisible scourge has descended on all of us and a succession of setbacks seem part of a path out of this viral malady. Finding resilience in the face of anxiety is taxing. Against this reality, an early perception of our elected new home has still remained with us. Because Ascoli is somewhat self contained, the perception of a heightened sense of community solidarity has made an impression on us. But over the past year, so many public manifestations of that solidarity have been cancelled to avoid becoming COVID super spreader events. For the first time in over sixty years, the signature Ascolani Summer Quintana Medieval Festival was cancelled. Then Christmas and New Year observances were very much subdued as has been the Carnevale festivities, all without the typical opulent decorations in the piazzas and tightly packed coming together of people enjoying themselves. The regular and readily accessible cultural performance events have also been cancelled. The joy of sharing a protracted meal together with a group of friends around a common table is now also just a memory. Ascoli is subdued. We are relieved to say we continue to be well and safe as are our expat and Italian friends. But we do what we can and look for something to get our minds off the...
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