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| Looking down the Argentina Valley from Montalto |
A rest day today, not that we really need one apart from our legs, which are becoming a little tired with all the walking! I took the opportunity to get some work out of the way, then in the afternoon we felt we needed to get out, so we walked up through the town and along a farm track to yet another church in the middle of nowhere. Some amazing terracing for olives on the way – the land here is steeper than 45° - so the walls are substantially taller than the terraces are wide. In this one olive orchard, there would be 5 kilometres of terraces, no doubt all stacked by hand over decades or longer.
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| Festa di Madonna dell’Aquasanta |
Today was the Festa di Madonna dell’Aquasanta, and that involved Mass at the church across the valley, another here in Montalto, a procession to the valley church, a picnic, another Mass there, a procession back, a brass band, and a final mass and some food and drink after. Not all of this was to our taste, so we read books instead! However in the later afternoon the bells on the church went mad again, and we could hear the band approaching so went down and watched the Madonna statue being carried into the church. It’s been a tough day with the bells. We have never been anywhere with bells so loud, and they have been going on and off all day, plus of course the usual three times per hour. Amazingly Karen has proved capable of sleeping through them, despite the sound being the equivalent of a jumbo jet at 10 paces.
