Christmas in Narni, Italy

We have stayed in an agriturismo bed and breakfast that is a farm up in the mountains about an hour north of Rome.  It is a working farm with all kinds of animals.  They have a lovely swimming pool for their summer guests, but it was too cold to swim this time of year.  We woke up to a nice continental breakfast and afterwards went exploring around the farm. 

We saw Mr and Mrs Claus. (AKA President and sister Waddoups)

Then we drove over by a town called Tierini where we saw the beautiful water falls called cascata  delle Marmore.  On our way there we saw Santa galloping down the street on his horse.

It took us all by surprise, and we wondered if he had fallen out of his sleigh on his way back to he North Pole.

The falls were quite amazing.  They are the largest man made waterfalls in the world.  They were built by the ancient Romans in 271 BC.  To get rid of some marshy lands that were causing malaria, the canal was built to divert the river over the cliffs and down to the Nero river below.  It is amazing that it was designed and built way before Christ was born.  Google "Cascata delle Marmore" for more historical information.  It's quite interesting.

After our walk to th falls, we went back to our bed and breakfast for an Italian Christmas feast; the likes of which you can not believe.  We had at least 9 courses.  I tried to take a picture every time I had a different plate of food.  Here we all are before th food arrived, when we could each still smile and look comfortable.

The pits were from three olives that were so yummy.  From top and around clockwise, some sort of deep fried artichoke bits, a spinach filled pastry, something like an Italian cheese quesadea.

I hadn't finished the artichoke things but then came a deep fried rice and cheese ball, ( really yummy)  a ba on wrapped roasted potato with sage, and to the far left was some sort of yummy liver, not sure whose.

Fantastic tortellini soup.

I forgot to take a picture of the bolognese lasagne, which came next.  Believe me when I say, "it was fantastic!"

Green beans, turkey and potato carrot mix

Then we had shredded pork, which I forgot to take a picture of, I was so happy to eat it, and then came this big slice of fatted pork that I gave to Paul because I was starting to get full and we were't close to being done yet.

Next was roasted potatoes and lamb!  Wow, it was incredible!

Th we had fruit.  These mandarin oranges were really good.  All from this farm.

Next comes the first course of dolce (sweets).  A traditional Christmas cake called panatone.  It's kind of dry and not very good.  Every one gets at least ten for Christmas and they take the ones they receive and give them to other relatives and friends.  This is the Italian version of fruit cake. The chocolate and white candy below were alright.

The traditional dessert to end the feast is Tiramisu, but it's made with coffee, so we declined and they brought out this cold custard dish that was very tasty and we all were happy to see dinner end.

What a meal though.  I think we ate for about 3 hours!  

We all returned to our rooms and called kids and family.  It was a memorable Christmas.  We all missed family and would have preferred to be with them, but this was a really nice day being that we were in Italy and not able to be with family.   

The owner of the agriturismo is in the middle.  Here we are just as we were about to leave on Thursday.