22nd May 2000 Norcia and the Piano Grande
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
26
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Norcia,
Italy
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Drove south out of Assisi, on the back road as far as Spello, then joined the SS75 and ran south past Foligno SS53, Trevi (cashmere factory) and Pissignano. Just a few kilometers before Spoleto, turned left (east) and including a four kilometer tunnel, linked up with the SS209 for 15 km North East -the road runs along the bottom of an extremely deep gourge, with three or four small towns/villages both in the gourge, and on the ridges, before turning right, and another 15 km up the middle of a very wide valley, with towering mountains all around, to Norcia. It is on only slightly rising ground, well up the valley, and the town is pretty well flat inside the walls of the old town. Surrounded by light industry and agriculture, with several clusters of new housing. Around one and a half hours for the trip, with 70 km/h being the best we could do on most of the roads, primarily due to truck and buses. The road isn't particularly difficult; neither steep nor excessively windy, and is a good surface. Even the road from Norcia up to Piano Grande isn't difficult, although there are sections without any safety rail or fencing. Amazingly, the entire trip was well sign posted, including distances on occasions, and we only had to make the occasional reference to our road map.
I shouldn't be surprised anymore. I had expected Norcia to be extremely isolated, high in the mountains, and perched on the edge of a mountainous cliff or a hill town. The lessons are coming fast and furious. Only use maps (even when planning your holiday), that have contour lines or that are designed to give an idea of the landform. After the event, it was obvious looking at the map, that you travelled up a narrow gourge, which opened into a long wide valley. It still doesn't indicate that it is fairly well populated. The guidebooks say that the population of Norcia is only 4,500. That contributes to the impression that it is isolated. The reality is a town that probably only houses a thousand or so. Most people live outside the town, and throughout the entire valley, there are small villages and individual houses everywhere. This is probably not a surprise to other Europeans and Americans, but for Australians, our expectation was a region of limited agriculture supporting just a small isolated town; the "Australian" model. Norcia is a very clean, neat town. Maybe only four hundred meters in diameter, surrounded by a wall, with several gates. Only local traffic allowed in, and parking areas outside the walls for buses and cars. Yes, the buses even penetrate here, although most were only serviceing the domestic Italian tourist market. Busloads of Italians buying ten kilos at a time of the sausages and cheeses for which Norcia is famous. Also do a less than brisk trade in Truffles. Lots of them; but at L50,000 for a 200 gm jar, very steep.
The main street, that starts at one gate and ends at the other, on the far side of the wall, and the Piazza (which is in the centre of the town, and through which the main street runs), is the tourist part of town. The Piazza has a few Allamentari, but is primarily made up of the castle and the two churches. The main street, on both sides of the Piazza is lined with Alementari, boutiques, kitchen supply shops etc. Restaurants are in the immediate side streets. We located Granaro del Monte, the restaurant we had been planning on visiting for two years. Ches thought we should book, even though it was midday, and we were going to return at 1.00 pm. As she explained, there only appeared to be a dozen tables outside in the street, and it could get busy. We wandered the streets for an hour, checking out the Piazza. Interesting church that had been built on top of the first floor of a Roman building-probably a temple. On the opposite side is a rather austere castle. Not realy into turrets etc, just a big blockhouse. The dozens of alimentari all have boars heads mounted out front, often two or three per shop, so you can't ignore them. No pandering to English speakers here. Everything is in Italian, and we had no idea what any of the fifty varieties of dried sausages or wheels of cheese were.
We wandered the back lanes, and returned to Granaro del Monte for lunch. The tables set up in the side lane were still empty, however, I had decided years ago that I wanted to sit inside for the atmosphere. The first dining hall on the left was packed. Probably a hundred people at long tables. This must be the room for the coach tourists. Next room almost full with locals, and then the best room. It is the room with the fireplace, adjoining the kitchen. It was full of families, including a "child" that insisted on blowing a whistle on and off throughout the meal. The more relaxed we became; and the Montefalco Rosso made a major contribution here, the less irritating he was. I could have adopted him by the end of the meal. After a quick switch in waiters; when the initial waiter flew into a monologue that he only stopped when he realised our eyes were getting larger and larger and we shrugged our shoulders with "we haven't understood a word you just said". The new waiter had enough English, and the menu had the odd word in English, so we were able to progress. Ches was pondering a dish, when the penny dropped. Farro????, Spelt?????, Spelt is English for Farro, but what is it, and it's being served as Zuppa (soup). ????? that's it!!! It's the grain that David Dale raves about-the Roman legionaires used to carry it in their pouches as the only source of food on campaign. Aparently the only importer/distributor in Australia is in Melbourne. Ches had La Zuppa di Farro-it is a very thick soup and the Farro is a little like Barley (it is actually a very hard wheat). She loved it. I had Le Tagliatelle al Cinghiale, pasta with wild boar sauce-very rich and delicious, the sauce a tomato/pork ragout. Ches then had L'Agnello Arrosto al Tartufo. This was three fantastic lamb cutlets roasted and topped with grated truffles. She is becoming addicted to Italian lamb, and this was sensational. Which also raises the whole question of truffles. Kind of hard to describe the flavour. Earthy like mushrooms, but very subtle, not strong at all. Having said that, there is a depth of flavour. While related to mushrooms, in that they are a tuberous fungus that grows on the roots of trees (primarily oak), and underground, they are as different in flavour to other fungi as porcini is to other mushrooms. I give up. I'm never going to succeed in describing them. What I can say, is that adding a small grating of truffles to the top of any dish, adds at least $15.00 to the cost of the dish. The other thing that confuses about "tartufo", is that they have nothing in common with "tartufi" which is the chocolate icecream, and yet we have seen tartufo liquers. Now, knowing the Italian male penchant for bitter liquers, we are willing to bet that this is not a chocolate liquer, but is alchohol infused with tartufo. I had a dish that is going to torment me either forever, or until I can get a close proximity in my own kitchen. It was the "plate" dish. Il Filetto de Cavatore Tartufato. It consisted of a fillet steak, which was one of the most tender steaks I have ever eaten. The steak was topped with another layer of "meat". We couldn't identify it, and it had that grey colour meat gets when pot-roasted, and it shredded like slowly cooked meat does. Anyway, it was placed on top of the steak, and then the whole parcel encased in a sausage skin. It was then seared all over, and cooked till the steak component was just rare. Served topped with grated tartufo. It was accompanied by half a stuffed mushroom, half a tomato and a slice of zucchini. As we are becoming used to most dishes being served with no vegetables, we had ordered side dishes of mushrooms and potatoes. Now, I have read personal diaries by other travellers, and one in particular, was adamant that Italians are incapable of cooking potatoes. I now confirm that he was correct. We have had them at a number of places, almost always served as small chunks, pan fried or roasted. They cannot serve anything other than soggy slightly burned potatoes. I hereby declare that we will not order potatoes ever again on this trip. The mushrooms were described as Mushrooms sauteed with garlic, olive oil and parsley. I immediately assumed it was the recipe I had found in my Italian cookbooks and had been cooking for the past year or so. It was a poor imitation. I cook it MUCH better!!! The steak/parcel with tartufo was stunning. I was desperate to know how it had been prepared and cooked. The menu had stated that it was a "surprise" dish. When the waiter returned for our desert order, I said to him that I noted on the menu that it said "surprise", not "secret", and could he tell me how it was cooked. English almost broke down at this point. He eventually explained that "surprise" refered to being presented with the plate for having ordered it. He never got the "joke" about "secret", but said that it was all cooked in the kitchen-as opposed to many dishes, which we had noticed that the waiters actually seared on the metal plate above the open fire in the fire place in the restaurant. For desert we shared La Fantasie de Dolcezze. A plate of four cakes and pastries-small delicate serves. An espresso just capped it all off. We had our photograph taken with the waiter, in front of the fire, and all the "plates" hung on the walls. We have decided to do this at all restaurants from now on. Yes, I know.
The restaurant gave us the business card for an alimentary that they recommend. We tracked it down fairly easily. It was the one with fifty Italian housewives buying strings of a hundred sausages and wheels of cheese. We waited until one of the half dozen staff who could speak English could help us. We then bought our string of dried sausages, and large salami type sausage (which on reflection probably cost us about $15.00). I asked Ches if she knew what type it was. Her response was..."pork". Gee Ches, I'm amazed to be buying pork in Norcia. That's like saying it sometimes gets windy in Chicago. We also bought a jar of tartufo salsa-it seems to be a blend of mushrooms, chopped olives and truffles, blended with olive oil. Will take home to Oz. Also bought a bag of Farro to take home.
From Norcia, we drove up Mount Sibillini. While it is somewhat windy, as you would expect in climbing a mountain, there are no hairpin bends. It is just a 15 km drive to get to the top, at 1500 meters. High enough for a small ski lodge and a couple of chalets at the top. On this day, they might have come in to use. It was quite cold, and very misty, with clouds blotting out the rest of the mountain range. Unfortunately, the wildflowers on the Piano Grande are still in their early stages. I had been anticipating a 16 square kilometre plain, covered in wildflowers. There was a distinctive yellow haze to the plain itself, and large sections of the surrounding hills and mountains were hazes of purple, blue and yellow. I stopped to have a closer look at a couple of patches, and noted that the bees are the size of Christmas beetles. Just looking at small patches of wildflowers gives an idea of how spectacular it must be. The huge, perfectly flat plain, is dissected by a deep cutting of a stream. Not sure how it works, being a "karst" plain. Assume that when the snow melts, or it rains, the hills and mountains which completely enclose it funnel all the water onto the plain. There it just percolated down through the middle. If I remember correctly, "kast" is the rubble left behind by glaciers. This means that under the plain, to a huge depth, is rubble rather than solid rock, so water just percolates down, and probably is released through "springs" in the surrounding valleys. I am almost certain, now that we are getting the hang of travelling around this part of Italy , that we will make a trip back here in three weeks time, to see it in full bloom. Could be a long trip back from Lucca, then having re-visited the Piano Grande, continue through the tunnel in the mountain and across to the eastern coast, before heading north to Vicenza. Having had a glimpse of what it could be like in full flower, I don't want to miss the full experience, like I always seem to do when visiting Western Australia and their spring wildflowers (and they have a Norcia as well).
We had a lovely drive back down the mountain and out through the gorge to Spoleto. Back up the highway to Assisi where we stopped at the Cashmere factory we had seen on the way down. Ches was in search of a bargain. A scarf for $90.00, cardigans for $400.00, she left empty handed. Bough supplies and home again. Just some fresh tomatoes on bread for supper.
