Jimbledon fortnight.

Jimbledon fortnight ended this morning with the departure of the Wolf-Kirk caravan of camper vans bound for Lucca, Burgundy and finally, in the case of Dave & Sue, a dreary little island off the northern coast of Europe.

For much of the year Pat and I slump in front of the television every evening hoping that Sky Italia will have something entertaining to watch. Apart from Desperate Housewives, Lost and the occasional opera or equestrian event there is rarely anything we would positively choose to see; but torpor leads us to lounge there, nonetheless, watching endless repeats of programmes that didn’t particularly enthrall us when we saw them first time round decades ago in the UK. But in June the television comes in to its own with Wimbledon fortnight which has Pat glued to the screen from noon to dusk - or beyond. I watch fewer matches but enjoy those that I do.

From the fact that we sit in front of the telly every evening, the astute reader will have already gathered that we have no social life. Until that is Jimbledon fortnight arrives at the end of July and the beginning of August. This is composed of three elements: the day-boys return to Montefalcone from their English homes, Dave and Sue come for their annual pilgrimage - we make ours to Burgundy in April - and the comune lays on its summer programme. So this year’s Jimbledon fortnight ran as follows:

Week one: Thursday - to Jane (day-girl) Fineren’s for pizzas. Her elderly neighbour.

Tarsilla, and Tarsilla’s Romanian carer, Michaela were also

there.

Friday - Shona and Tony (day-pupils) came to supper

Saturday - the annual Sardine festival in the Tronelli Gardens. Had a

pleasant time in the company of Jane, Tony and Shona.

Sunday - Tony and Shona took us out to a delicious lunch at a restaurant

just outside Sant’Angelo in Pontano.

Monday - Alan and Sue Renwick (visiting team) came to supper.

Tuesday - went to see Rigoletto (click here for a film of the event) at

Ripatransone with Jane and Gordon (fellow boarder)

Wednesday - the Wolf-Kirk caravan arrived. Pat and Ian joined Dave and

Sue, Pat and me for supper

Week two: Thursday - a rest day.

Friday - painting exhibition in Palazzo Mercuri and Ligabue Tribute

band in the Tronelli Gardens. Tony & Shona eliminated from

Jimbledon and begin their drive back to the UK.

Saturday - Comunanza market, and, in the evening, Ogam, whose music

you’re listening to, in the Tronelli Gardens. The first part of

Ogam’s concert took the legend of the Sibilla as its theme,

recounting episodes of the story and playing music to evoke

them. There are two separate sources for these tales - although

even many Italians think they are alternative names for the same

work - Guerrino detto il Meschino, by Andrea da Barberino (1410)

and Il Paradiso della Regina Sibilla written in French by Antoine

de La Sale in 1420.

Sunday - Pat was shouted at by a lunatic Italian in the woods and all the

way from the castle to Luisa’s bar because Meg had jumped up

at him in the woods. He also came to the house to confront me

about it. Was greeted by Sue, whose total incomprehension of

what he was screaming rather disconcerted him. To the Tronelli

Gardens in the evening with Jane to listen to Lou - D Cage, a

band obviously influenced by John Cage’s work for prepared

piano. Apart from a set of bagpipes, they were an exclusively

percussion outfit. As well as a vibraphone, bongo drums etc.,

they played empty beer kegs, rubber piping, hub-caps etc. As

Dave said, mildly interesting at first, but there is only a

limited number of things you can do banging bits of old metal.

Monday - a rest day. There were very strong winds in the evening causing,

we thought, one shutter to bang although we failed to track it

down. However, today, whilst cleaning out the Albanian flat, Pat

discovered the glass in the flat’s bathroom window had

shattered: presumably it had been the window’s banging about in

the wind which we’d heard. Fortunately, in Italy reglazing a

window is a simple matter. The window is lifted off the spigots

which attach it to the outer frame - no hinges to unscrew - and

the glass slid out of the frame through a slot at the top of the

window. This also makes repainting a window a joy: no trying to

cut in carefully: you simply slide out the glass, paint the frame

and, when it’s dried, slide the glass back in. Normally to reglaze

the window you simply measure the size you need, including

thickness, and go to a glazier who will cut you a piece. This time

things being a little more complicated as the window

incorporated a ventilator, I took the complete window to the

glazier who cut the circle for the replacement ventilator and stuck

it in. And all incredibly cheap - even at the present lousy

exchange rate between the pound and the euro. Jane eliminated

from Jimbledon and drives to Rome to catch flight to England.

Tuesday - Drove to San Severino Marche, an extremely picturesque town in

the Macerata province. Unfortunately, Sue had hurt her foot by

falling over a dog - no it’s NOT funny, don’t you dare laugh -

before they came to stay so we weren’t able to show them round

the town. However, thanks to a passing Italian whom I’d accosted

to ask where there was a restaurant, we had an extremely good

meal at Da Piero’s.

Wednesday - to the Oasi hypermarket at the Battente shipping-centre in Ascoli

to get supplies for Dave & Sue’s journey to Lucca.

Today - the Wolf camper van leaves just ahead of the Kirks’. Accordingly,

Ian & Pat narrowly beat Dave & Sue to win Jimbledon 2009!