Lest you think all is troublesome here, quite the contrary.
Our neighbors across the street are absolute gems.
I always admired their house and the lovely flowers they have growing up the front and on the second floor balcony. I wondered if they would be nice and the answer to my question was a resounding "yes!" They are absolutely wonderful people.
We started talking because of the street cats outside. Having a cat of their own, they, along with us, feed the ferals. (You can visit my other blog, "gattitudeblog.blogspot.com"
Then, after nearly a year of feeding the kitties outside, and inside our covered cortile, we got "nei guai"...in trouble. Another neighbor down the block, who is not well liked by anyone, had the nerve to call the police about the cats being fed. (Not only our neighbors across the street but also another woman further down the block feeds them, too) Yes indeed, nothing like having the police at your door, especially when YOU are the foreigner. He could have just spoken to us. The police?
It was right around Christmas too, and we were in the planning stages of getting as many cats neutered/spayed as possible. Our neighbors came over bearing gifts for Natale and while we chatted they told us not to worry, nobody likes the guy who called the cops anyway. I said I thought we were singled out because we are stranieri (foreigners) and that is when my friend said "Sono una straniera"...I am a foreigner. I had no idea, her Italian is perfect. Turns out she is from Bulgaria but married an Italian man and she has been here for over 16 years.
We told them our plan for the cats, and she offered to be our driver. It is a LONG walk to the veterinarian, so this offer was very welcome. And when she did drive us she told the vet about our run in with the law. HE then spoke to the mayor....(!!) and when we picked up the cat, he told us that the mayor said to go ahead and feed the cats in the courtyard. No one could tell us what to do on our own property.
Throughout the winter and bad weather, she was there to take us to the vet.
One time, when picking up one of the cats, she asked if she could take a small detour. Certo! She drove to where she and her husband lived before, in a more modern type apartment building, but down the road from an ancient church. The church had been abandoned years ago and groups of teens gather there now, drinking and smoking and leaving garbage. That won't last much longer, though, because the town is getting ready to rehab the site and make it into a museum/tourist attraction.
The road itself was lovely, lined with large trees and overlooking a hill with a view of the mountains to the west. I misunderstood what she had said, I thought she needed to briefly visit someone she knew. What she did want to do was pick some herbs!!! It is common here to see people foraging - I hardly can identify anything...I am from Brooklyn, after all, but there are edible herbs (bay leaf, parsley, rosemary, chives) and vegetables such as onions and asparagus. There are probably lots more, but I don't have a clue.
After a year of Covid restrictions, she said she wanted to take me to see a part of this town I had never seen before. We had the good luck to get a string of lovely days in March with warm temperatures and sunshine. She took me to the lake! It is a manmade lake that has been there more than a dozen years or so and it is a bird sanctuary.
The roads leading to the lake got narrower and in some parts were dirt. We passed a place where she told me they buy their olive oil in bulk. You can actually watch them making the oil. These hills are covered in olive groves all around us so I am not sure what makes this particular place their special favorite.
We got to a spot to park and walked on a bridge over the lake. Then we moved to another part, up a dirt road and parked again. We walked up to where there is a small "falls" and my friend pointed out to me the almond trees, the wild asparagus, bay leaves. The mimosas were blooming bright yellow and there were some violets, too.
Once back in town (which is just a 5 minute drive although it seems far away) she ran into her house, told me "aspetta!" wait! and came back shortly with a couple of small frozen packages of wild asparagus she had already prepared. I made a pasta casserole using it. Having had fiddleheads in the past, I would say they tasted like fiddleheads...very earthy and delicious!
She and her husband went to the lake again recently and brought us back some more asparagus...which I washed and trimmed and cut just as she had done, and stored it in my freezer. I can't wait to use it! This city girl has never eaten something that just....haha...grows...it sounds so funny to say.
It was a wonderful adventure for me. I cherish their friendship and can't believe how lucky we were to have such sweet, thoughtful people right across the street!
