More catching up

19 sett.
I took a road trip Monday to Visso to pick up some more of the best Pecorino cheese from these parts and since I needed said road trip in the mountains, I took a bunch of back roads and had a blast. 1st you see the nearby town of Castignano which is on the way towards our mountains to the west. I then went by the bigger of the 2 neighborhood ski slopes in the region and this one appears a bit larger than the one I visited last winter when there was absolutely noooo snow. I then spotted a little white line on the map which turned out to be a gravel road over the mountains peaking out at 1780 meters..... a short cut!!! Well.. in a z4, this might not have been a wise choice, but luckily, I made it up the little windy road you see in the pic in 1st gear most of the way and avoided holes in my gas tank, etc. I arrived in Visso at 12:34 expecting my little cheese shop to be closed at 12:30 but fortunatemente, they stayed open until 1:15. I bought 3 wheels of Pecorino cheese in preparation for our tasting weekends in October called Pecorino, Pecorino, Pecorino, which will also include the wine of that name. I then found a little agriturismo off the beaten track for lunch and talked with the owner about different breeds of tourists and why americans were yet to discover the Marche (to their loss). Lake Filastra is quite beautiful and might be compared to one of our little lakes like Jacomo in KC, but it is the largest in the Marche with beautiful tourquoise water and noone using it. The canyon below the dam looks right out of the rocky mountains as do the mountains themselves.
I next went to a monastery with a large park and explored its environs (pix later) before finishing in Macerata, a town and province north of Ascoli which I wanted to visit and explore. I was exhausted after and headed back to Nascondiglio di Bacco for a bit of light reading..
In the last week, I have finished the last Harry Potter book, the hobbit, and 1.5 books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy... sounds like I need some work, huh?
Tonight there is a lecture on local olive oils at Borgo Miriam, our nearest village which I will attend and I hope to update my blog later with more pix etc. (soon!, maybe even today).. Ciao. dds PS the dog is guarding a little pasture with sheep near the mountain pass