Another look back while it’s pretty quiet here as I work on the next book – this time some old photos of when Roger and I were staying in Fossa while in our twenties. We didn’t have too much money so often in the afternoons we’d simply go for long walks around the village and surrounding hillsides, all the way up to Castle Ocre’s ruins perched on the mountaintop or down along the meandering, quiet lanes to the valley below.
It was glorious, autumn Abruzzo weather, that time of year there’s a hint of coolness to the air but still some of summer’s warmth. On one walk we happened across a couple of old apple trees growing wild by the roadside and, as you can see, they were abundant with fruit. I tied my shirt into a makeshift bag and Roger picked a few apples and passed them to me. (He had to climb a tree at one stage!)
This was before phone cameras and these three shots were it (to conserve film). Ha! (I’m glad the outskirts of Fossa made it into the background above the tree.) When I later got some rolls of film developed in L’Aquila, it was the first time in my life I haven’t had to spell my surname for a shop assistant. It sounds funny but it was such an amazing feeling of belonging in a place you have ties to, even if you weren’t born there, another aspect of Italian-Australian life, I guess! Buona giornata. Zoe x
PS. I didn’t bite into one of those little apples until I’d carried them all the way back to the kitchen of the Fossa house and, well… they certainly were quite tart! 👀😄
Zoë Boccabella 