Late morning D and I found Paul sitting outside L’Angolo Bar with a group of men talking about anything and everything.

Two hours, three croissants and cappuccinos later, we needed to start our day before stores close for siesta at 1 PM. 

As we walked back up the hill to our place, Paul went into the bank, we stocked up on yogurts, milk, water and unrefrigerated eggs at the local market, and I popped into the local flower/gift shop which was proudly guarded by the friendliest black poodle who tried desperately to jump into my arms as I browsed the store. 

Today’s waste pick up was the “indifferenziato” category but upon arriving back at the house Paul noticed that bin was missing. Our neighbor helped us find it — way down the street. Now we know our bins may not be left in the place where they are picked up. Or maybe the waste removal person doesn’t know that someone lives at the flat now and randomly tossed the bin upon emptying it?

In an attempt to get more errands done before everything shut down for siesta, we quickly hopped in car to reach the hardware store, the pharmacy and supermarket (at the last stop it was like a game show trying to grab what we could at the market before closing.)

The hardware store was an experience. It was larger than I expected and had every tool you could imagine plus air conditioning units, inflatable pools, and more. Thankfully Paul was able to converse with the helpful storekeeper and brought photos of what we needed, so she helped us find the correct replacement bulbs, a door lock core and an adapter for the washing machine. When we told her we needed latex gloves, instead of selling us a box of 100 she asked how many we needed. I was confused assuming we would be buying a whole box. As we only needed a few pairs, she took the time to select 4 pairs of medium and large-sized gloves, bagging them separately and labeling the bags with an M and L for us. So sweet! Paul will return there tomorrow to get spare keys made. 

While the rest of the people in the region took siesta, we focused on cleaning our laundry room. Paul did the bulk of the cleaning to spare me the grossness behind the washing machine. It’s a small room located under a set of stairs which reminds me of Harry Potters bedroom. It’s big enough for the washing machine and several shelves, the vacuum cleaner, a laundry basket or two, and not much else. We deep cleaned the machine and ran two empty loads before throwing in the first of several loads. We have two weeks of D’s laundry to do so hopefully the machine will hold up!

This afternoon the boys moved a large blue wardrobe and the base of a convertible chair/bed into the cantina until we can figure out how to do large item or bulk trash pickup. The cantina is the size of a single car garage but the door is only wide enough for a Vespa or motorcycle. We’re using it as storage space for now and our friend’s motorcycle is parked there as well. 

After siesta we went back down the hill to Piumanera, a small bar/cafe run by Tiziana and her husband Mimo. Paul had met Tiziana on a prior trip and we caught up with her and her friend Marinella over three cantaloupe-flavored granitas. 

We promised D he could keep an acoustic guitar at the house, so off to Drums & Music in nearby Ceprano we went. Tiziana was excited to hear about the pending guitar purchase and asked if D could play to help lull customers in for a spritz. 

For dinner we went to the town of Roccasecca to dine at La Magnolia, a restaurant we’ve eaten at previously. We lost the blog post on our visit to Pico (and Roccasecca) from 2022, and we typically refer to past posts to remind us of what we’ve eaten, where we’ve visited, etc. But we don’t need the post from 2022 to remind us of what we ate — it was that good.

The chef has won numerous awards, including a best pizza award from a global competition in Vegas, and an award for their spaghetti carbonara. Tonight we had spaghetti carbonara (it was soooo good), an antipasto platter, and three pizzas: fig and prosciutto, amatriciana and magnola which had two cheeses and prosciutto crudo. 

We ended the night being serenaded by D with his new guitar while hanging our first load of laundry on the line off the terrace. 11:30pm is not optimal laundry drying time but we’re doing the best we can and enjoying every minute of it.