A HOT TIME IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT

Last night was the first night of the annual Medieval festa in nearby ROTECASTELLO . A hard, driving rain earlier in the day had us concerned, but things cleared up and cooled off, making it a perfect night to enjoy or favorite little medieval hamlet, Rotecastello.

Of course I don't have the whole story, but here's what I do know: Rotecastello was refused permission to use the town hall's kitchen to prepare food this year! Maybe I'll find out more in the coming days, but whatever the problem, the kitchen just didn't make the cut. This must have come as a last minute shock to everyone, because a meeting was scheduled for Monday night...posters finally went up on Wednesday, and tonight dinner was served in a new, very creative way.

Because this is Italy, we all know that there's always a way to get around a problem....a way to be right on the edge of the law, or maybe just to bend the law, stretch the law, just a little, to get what you want. Thanks goodness those in charge of the Rotecastello festa are old hands at this sort of thing. Once they were told they couldn't use the kitchen in the town hall, they said "Okay, we're going to have a dinner meeting for the members of our club, THE FRIENDS OF ROTECASTELLO. "Sure, that's fine", responded the powers that be. See how easy that was?

And so, tonight dinner was prepared in the large town forno...a set menu this year rather than the ala carte menu of previous years (and the norm for most sagras). Although the crowd was smaller due to the late promotion, and possibly weather, everything went smoothly. Instead of queuing up at a booth to place your order, you now simply stop at a table, fill out your 'membership' form, are given a numbered membership card, and voila! you're good to go.

We love going to the festa every night because we get to visit with friends who don' t live in Rotecastello full-time. Many, many people live and work elsewhere, yet return to Rotecastello for the month of August. Over the years we've made quite a few friends, and it's always fun catching up. Last night we had a table full of people..some like us live here full time, others were friends and family members on holiday, still others were people who own homes in Rotecastello, here for their annual holiday.

After dinner we walked down to the small piazza to hear the entertainment for the night...a local rock back called zero50dieci...which translates into 05010, the postal code! We were all pleasantly surprised by how good they were! They started off with a Pink Floyd cover, then did a mix of both English language and Italian rock songs. We started to get up to leave at one point, then they launched into "Bohemian Rhapsody", so we sat back down to listen to what turned into a great Queen tribute.

Tonight's entertainment will be string music, accompanied by singing. Sunday will be the medieval procession, and on Monday another band will perform, but I don't know what type of music they play. More YouTube videos will follow! You can find the complete program for the four day festa HERE .