I awake with a start.

The air is punctuated by the sounds of insistent dogs, trying desperately to alert someone… anyone, I think. But no one is listening. Suddenly, a single chime from the bell tower, and they are silenced.

Then the bells begin their lovely little tune, albeit slightly off key. They could stand a calibration. This sets the dogs off again. And just after, a shot rings out. And I realize that it’s le cacciatore, hard at work on a Sunday morning. Illusions – shattered.

Well, at least the view is fabulous!

As it’s domenica (Sunday) and almost everything is chiusa, we wander down to the little tiny alimentari in the little tiny borgo, where Roselle is the game proprietress, welcoming all of us stranieri to her little haven. She charms us with her warm smile, her slow Italian that we can pretty much understand, and of course, il cibo – the oasis in the food desert on this bleak Sunday. We choose the produce that looks the freshest among the lot: zucchine and the usual suspects in Italian cooking – onions, garlic, capers, and her locally produced olive oil, which she proudly presents to us in an emptied plastic soda bottle.

We also meet a couple of the other longer-term temporary residents – one from Sweden, the other an American who’s been living in Paris. The latter is Teresa, who promptly invites us to her place for a drink, but we have already made plans with a couple of the permanent resident locals to come to us for a quick visit, so it’s decided that Teresa will just join us.

Then back to the casa for a quick nap before Teresa comes for a drink, and we hear from the other friends that they cannot make it. So we extend drinks into dinner, which we make up on the spot: Tagliatelle con pomodori, cipolle e aglio di olio. And a side of zucchine with more garlic. Teresa contributes her amazing and very addictive salad to the dinner – the freshest cicoria, with her candied fennel and a light, tasty dressing. And more wine ensues.

We find that we have much in common, not the least of which is that she also is a vegetarian, and also wants to move to Italy and teach veggie / vegan cooking lessons! We decide it’s Il Destino that we’ve met and we decide we must make plans  to support each other’s visions!