We are settled into our new home and have another Canadian breakfast of porridge, granola and yogurt.
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| Preparing breakfast at the "Ranch" |
Our plans today have us on another roller coaster ride to Scanno, a local 'Banff' with skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer and even a small lake to fish in. We didn't try any fishing but this Great Crested Grebe I spotted as he emerged from a dive seemed to prove there were fish in the lake.
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| Great Crested Grebe with fish appetizer. |
Italian towns are so interesting as they perch on top of rocky outcroppings and hang over cliffs as if defying gravity. Wandering around Scanno emulated a video game where you travel down towering canyons veering left and right, pulling the joy stick up and down, glancing left and right to advance into the next realm. The only difference was the inevitable presence of laundry hanging on clothes lines below many windows.
As we moved into the Central Piazza I noticed pigeons cleaning up after us careless humans. These colourful birds are in ever present existence in cities around the world. I love their iridescent necks that shine in the sun like jewels on a crown.
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| Italian Rock Pigeon. |
We stopped at a veggie/fruit seller to pick up some supplies for our lunch and eventual supper.
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| Linda and Lynne as the hunter gatherers. |
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| Sharing extra long black licorice snakes. |
Hamish and Olive will be delighted to see that GnomeMan has some cousins in Italy.
After some delicious sweets and a coffee we engaged the local shopkeeper in an entertaining game of charades with doodles on paper scrapes, perusing topographical maps, deciphering the sounds of Italian and English with the ultimate goal of setting our directions for a hike along a valley close to Scanno. On our first few meters out of the town we encountered a local 'turkey herder' who was a close cousin to the sheep herders we had met previously.
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| Feeding walnuts to turkeys. |
This farmer was cracking walnuts with a rock and feeding the meat to the turkeys. There was some discussion that he was 'pre-stuffing' the birds with a walnut stuffing for extraordinary flavour.
We had a delightful lunch of bread from a local bakery near our home and cheese from Scanno. Fruit and nuts rounded out the fare.
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| Lunch on the trail. |
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