Out and About
Wednesday, May 8
Peppino's Pictures
Co-bunking with my mother had not gone well with my sister Elvira. To remedy this, she was given my deceased uncle Peppino's study as her temporary bedroom. The study sits a half-level down from my aunt Rosetta's flat (where my mom was staying, and where we are spending much of our time). There's a short bit of stairs between her flat and the study, and when Elvira needs to navigate between the study and the flat, these stairs need to be negotiated (there's no bathroom in the study).
As it so happened, Elvira miscalculated on the last of these steps the night before, and had taken a short tumble onto the hard marble floor, twisting her ankle and tweaking her back. Her discomfort was apparent as we make ready for our activities on this, the third day of our visit.
The Staircase Incident
Today my cousin Filomena (Giovanni's wife) offered to take us out to 'fare la spesa' (do shopping) and whatever other tasks needed to be done around town. She graciously drove us around, and we picked up some food, stopped at the liquor store, and tried on a few nightrobes with my mother (my mom had been wanting to shop for some new nightrobes).
Shopping with Filomena
After the morning out shopping in Avellino, we returned to my Zia Rosetta's flat where (of course) there was an excellent multi-course spread of fine lunch food. Elvira and I then then headed out for a bit more local wandering, this time heading up to a well-known regional attraction, the Sanctuary of Montevergine - a sort of retreat / monestary high up, near the summit of nearby Montevergine - the closest and most prominent mountain to the city of Avellino. Needless to say, I immensely enjoyed the near traffic-free blast along the extremely twisty SS374 up Montevergine. Again, Elvira was very tolerant of my spirited DSC-off driving. Even got the back end to come around a touch on some of the hairpins.
Santuario di Montevergine
The sanctuary is a pretty big local and regional attraction - but not on a weekday in May. Today, it was deserted, save for a very noisy class of school children in the main courtyard. Elvira and I had a quick coffee at the sanctuary's cafe, ate some cookies we had while looking down onto the city of Avellino (we could even see Zia Rosetta's house, if you looked closely enough), then headed back down. I had hoped to wander about on the high forested plateau above the sanctuary, but today the road leading to that area was closed for repairs.
Closeup on 3 A. Carpentieri
Back at the family complex, I brought out my drone and gave a demo to Giovanni, son Gian Andrea, and to my aunt and mom. I took some unique pictures and videos that give a different perspective of the place (the buildings and grounds are really quite nice). You can see some of these video clips in the montage video at the end of this trip report (or by going to the
video clips page).
I had dinner with Giovanni, Filomena and Gian Andrea that night. Primarily it was seafood-themed, including a healthy dose of invertebrate offerings. I have never been that fond of seafood that isn't fish, but I perservered anyway. Quality-wise it was very good, and very healthy stuff, to boot.