Before our next tour site, we stopped for an espresso—very important—in
Anagni (Scroll down for details of Southern Lazio up to this point). Then we
clambered into Vanessa's Alfa Romeo and went south to the next town, Veroli. This
region is super ancient, dating around the 12th Century B.C.. We met
our next guide, Lorenza.
She walked us through the Criptoportico in Veroli
underneath the town hall and the museum. This is a must see for checking out
archeological digs. I’ve since checked the web for photos of this Criptoportico,
but none of the photos match mine. I think we were taken to a deeper part. I
have a thing about wanting to touch the stones and marble in ruins. She
permitted us to touch these two thousand year old stones. Shiver of delight.
There’s also a beautifully preserved Roman stone calendar
posted on a town wall. It has January, February, and March. Lorenza explained
that each day tells the Roman citizen what subjects were permitted for
discussion (politics, spiritual matters, community issues, and free discussion
days). Talk about Big brother!
We stopped for a traditional lunch at Trattoria Sora Loci
with Chef Carlo Fiorini coming to
our tableside for a visit while we ate. This was Izzy’s first experience with
Gnocchi (nyo-kee). For the next three weeks she ate it almost every day. When
she got home she made it with sweet potatoes, and apparently it was good.
Next stop; Isola Liri to look at the waterfalls, It’s kind
of cool how the river split around this island. We just stopped long enough to
hop out of the car for some photos and a little blurb on local history.
Then off to Sora for a tour of the San Domenico Abbey with Giuliano Fabi. This is a really pretty church. The interior is as simple as
the exterior… all beige stones and beige marble floors.
Giuliano pointed out
all of the recycled stone used from ancient Roman cemeteries and crumbled
buildings. Even the pillars used recycled stones. The most interesting were the
soldiers tombstones placed randomly along the walls both inside and out.
We
walked bypassed the steps that led up to the alter and went down to the crypt.
I loved the soft ambiance with all of the arches. I could’ve stayed down there
for an hour just soaking in the peacefulness. But no, back up to the real
world.
Vanessa explained that Sora is Cicero’s birthplace (though it wasn't called Sora way back then). The two
rivers that merge here are written about by Cicero’s brother. There is some
story about a woman with braided hair being tossed in the river… I think she was a nun. Vanessa says she got her head cut off like Cicero... that's just gross. When we left the church interior we were taken around
to the back of the church to see the oldest part of the structure. I pointed to
several rows of stones out on the back lawn that looked like they may have been
pillars. “What was here?” I asked. Giuliano and Vanessa looked at each other
and shrugged their shoulders. “They’re just old stones,” he answered. For some
reason this made us laugh. Just some ancient ruins. No biggie, they’re
everywhere.
Off to Campoli Appennino to visit Sulpizio Tartufi. We drove
through the countryside for a bit and pulled into the driveway of a truffle
farm. Truffles! Meet Spillo the truffle hunter. Spillo is specially trained to
sniff out truffles, and we are here for the beginning of the black truffle’s
season. White truffle season is over. We followed Marco down to the hillside for a demonstration of how his Spillo
digs for truffles.
We were accompanied by two little boys who divided their
time between encouraging Spillo to work and playing games on the cell phone.
The neighboring German Sheppards followed the chain-link fence to bark at Spillo,
who completely ignored them. I noticed Spillo sneeze several times. Then he
took off running through the grass at mach five, apparently uninterested in
truffle hunting.
Marco was completely frustrated with playful Spillo. He
threatened, offered rewards, begged, to no avail. Spillo would dig for about
three seconds and run off again. We were dying laughing. Marco wasn’t. I
finally suggested maybe Spillo’s sniffer wasn’t operating today. I mentioned the
sneezing fit earlier. With Marco’s help a fig sized black truffle was
unearthed. Marco told Vanessa that Spillo would be working overtime in the
weeks to come to get him ready for her next tour group. She just laughed.
They have a little shop where they sell truffle infused
olive oil and various truffle related treats. A tray was brought out for us to
sample cheese, candy, and pickled un-ripe peaches (weird, but good).
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