Road Trip, the second.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, and now that Jacopo finally bought himself a car that goes forward when he steps on the gas -- that is -- instead of backward like the BMW was doing-- I mentioned to him yesterday my want to visit a certain medieval town near Rome called "Calcata" that I has heard many a fine thing about.

The beauty of Road-trips is that they never really go as expected. Not when they are done right, anyway. And Jacopo, though proclaiming to know how to arrive perfectly missed the exit by a long shot (I pointed this out to him as soon as I saw an exit sign with a very clear "Calcata 15" pointing to an off ramp). Ten minutes later he admitted he had possibly gone too far.

At this point however we are seeing signs for a "Castel Sant'Elia". Now, being as my last name is Elia -- I had to see this place. Jacopo mentions that it is "un posto stupendo" excitedly and asks if i'd like to change course and visit Calcuta afterwards. So now we're going to Castel Sant'Elia. It's another medieval town but the beauty of this one isn't so much the town as it is the Basilica -- which is hidden down in a dry valley beneath the town. And it's really fricken old. Jacopo -- back in his "photographer" days came here often to photograph weddings. Which is why he knows the spot to begin with.

And this is the jump off point of many-a-lame-joke made thereafter about where we are going to have our wedding and reception. No, we're not engaged.

So we go down to the basilica and it's closed and locked -- but the cemetary is open. I have a sort of macabre interest in cemetaries -- not because i'm into death but because it's a place where you have the dead and the living together in one spot -- one crowded spot. But there is something particularly interesting (or maybe you'd say -- creepy) about Italian cemetaries. Two things, actually. One -- there is a photo accompanying every gravestone. This becomes significantly more disturbing on the tombstones of children. Second -- there are fresh, brightly colored, real flowers on 99.9% of gravestones. Even the older ones.

People really don't like to forget here.

I've been back to my grandmothers gravestone once. And my greatgrandfather and grandfather are buried in my grandmothers china cabinet (seriously -- both were cremated and she placed their ashes there -- right next to the dining room table, it's a puerto-rican thing...). Point is though -- it struck me that the memory of the dead here is always that close -- always that alive.

After a long and really fruitless search for a nice, boisterious, rustic restaurant we ended up at "Borgo di Sutri" which is a beautiful hotel/restaurant but at the moment was completely empty. It was expensive, and it was odd being in such a large, luxurious, empty space but the food was all presented beautifully and we ate well. Jacopo even ordered a plate of assorted "salumi" and I ate some. Some vegetarian I am.

Finally we made it to Calcata and immediately regretted not having gone straight there --- we immediately found three great restaurant possibilities (we're going back soon, of course). But the most impressive part of Calcata is the actual placement of the town itsself. So basically you've got this valley -- wide, deep valley and in the middle of it youve got this cylindrical, steep plateau jutting up with a town carved into it -- out of the rock -- seriously. Look.



So we sat in the corners of this town for an hour or so, looking off at the valley and soaking up the sun of one of the more beautiful days of the new season we've had so far. And we dreamed up our next trip here. There is a trail in the valley below, which we will do in the morning and then come back up to a artsy restaurant that has been carved into the Tufa stone in a cave-like labyrinth. We'll be taking the motorino in.

An hour later we went to Ikea and I bought a few new things for my room. A good (but very tipical) end for my Saturday. But it's nice to know that these places are no longer a trans-atlantic plane ride away. There's so much right here i've yet to see.
And I guess that's one of the reasons i'm sticking around.