24 Nov On the road to Serra San Bruno

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMXS-njYV5M]

The last time Uncle Bruno visited Sant’Andrea, the trip up the mountains to the old monastery in Serra San Bruno took more than 3 hours. There was no paved road — only a bumpy dirt path better suited for dune buggies than toy cars. Must have been lots of fun with Poppy in the car.

Nowadays, the trip takes about 25 minutes — if you don’t get lost like we did. One wrong turn and you could wind up far away real fast. We stopped an old lady who was scrunched in her hatchback to avoid the large tree branches see was carrying to a mountaintop village. Surprisingly (kidding here), she wore a black dress and black scarf. The branches reached from her dashboard to several feet out the back of her open trunk. Lumberjacks in the area leave leftovers on the side of the road as fuel for locals to fire up their chimneys.

Uncle Albert regularly visits the this area of the mountains to forage for wild mushrooms. (For the record, I tasted several. I didn’t know the pasta was going to be filled with them, and I couldn’t turn them down. I think it’s testament to Uncle Al’s cooking skills or the land’s special cultivating ability, or both, that I kept them down. Don’t anyone get any ideas!)