A walk around the monastery grounds and cloister (2)

Continuing with the walk around the monastery grounds.......

The College

Casamari College terrace recreation area

College study rooms and the Abbey church

More areas for recreation and sport

                                                   

College gardens

A view of the town of Veroli from the College gardens

Back in the inner courtyard garden of the monastery steps lead
up into the cloister.

The cloister, cloister garden and Chapter House

Outer courtyard garden and gatehouse

It was time to have lunch with wine from the monastery

to try and savour and the kiwi that was given to us. It was ripe and delicious
with honey and yoghurt.

Limoncello

We bought some limoncino/limoncello at Rome airport food hall as we travel only with hand luggage and are unable to bring liquids through x-ray check-in, of course.  I serve it with an espresso as an after-dinner liquore when we have guests.

However, it's not the same as home-made so we made some for the store cupboard. We also put some in smaller bottles to give as gifts to friends and family as they're so generous with their resources and time when we're over in Italy, although they do make their own.

Below are the stages when making limoncello. (As I still have my old scales from England with Imperial measures I had to do some converting)!  This is my Italian family's version.

The thinly-pared skins of 8 unwaxed, preferably organic, lemons are added to a litre of pure alcohol and left for at least one week.

The sugar (325 grammes) is dissolved in a litre of water. When the sugar water is cool, the infused lemon skins and alcohol is added.

The liquid is strained and the liquore bottled.

Italy: visit to a local town

There would hardly be any need for us to leave our Italian village to do some shopping since there are trades people and little shops that meet our everyday needs. Vans selling fruit and vegetables, fish and household goods come around on different days of the week. Also our self sufficient relatives generously share their seasonal produce. We have plenty of our own fruit and this time the bruised windfall apples were collected for a relative's pig and the fruit and vegetable peelings went to the sheep.

However, it's always good to take a break and go to town on market day. We were particularly looking for some ripe lemons to make some limoncello and the ones growing in our relatives' gardens had green skins.

In Sora the stalls are set up in the streets on either side of the river and there are other piazzas dedicated to the fruit and vegetable market. Individuals also bring in produce from their smallholdings so everything is seasonal and fresh.

This time we wandered around Borgo San Rocco and walked into town.

Although Sora lies in the shadow of high mountains the town itself is located in a wide plain with the River Liri running through it. There are areas of wetland and a lakeland reserve. Sora is well known for paper making and wood crafting. A popular method of getting around on the quieter country lanes and narrow streets around town is by bike.

In a side street there's a shop selling organic and Fairtrade produce and we went into the deli and talked to the owner since he also sells products from the local Abbey. Our nephew has a similar deli in our village, but it's always good to talk to other traders about organic food. He had some lemons, but they were still green and didn't look suitable for our purpose.

Then we came across a van selling fruit and vegetables and got the ripe, unwaxed and organic lemons we wanted (from Fondi, which is a town near the coast in a lemon-growing region). (I'll show you what we did with them to make limoncello another time).

We had a coffee before walking back through the streets of San Rocco district - a photographer's delight if you're interested in architectural details. Borgo San Rocco has had some restoration work done over the last year or two, but the ancient character of the buildings remains the same. 

          Looking back through an entrance gate that leads into the main part of the riverside town.

At the end of the street is another piazza and the church of San Rocco.

There are two small windows that enables the outsider to look into the church.

The same window from inside the church.

courtesy Church of San Rocco, Sora leaflet

A window and statue depicting San Rocco (St. Roch) with a dog who offered him bread when the man was an outcast due to a skin disease which he contracted after nursing the sick.  You can read more about San Rocco here.  His feast day is on the 16th August when there are festivals and processions in many parts of the world associated with him including Venice where his body is enclosed in a glass tomb in the church dedicated to him there.  The Borgo of San Rocco in Sora has its own festa on that day. A newly painted fresco on one of the outside walls of the church depicts some scenes from the life of San Rocco and the festival procession as the statue of the saint is taken around the streets.  It's interesting to see this aspect of community life portrayed with people from the community taking part, some in traditional regional costumes.

Piazza San Rocco