Singolare la Corte Pallavicina, un'antica casa nobile, quasi un castello, con un ristorante di altissimo livello accanto al museo del culatello, un tempio della gastronomia italiana. Ci passiamo una giornata, a perlustrare il lungofiume (stiamo proprio sulle rive del Po) e naturalmente ad assaggiare le specialità suine locali.
Ci fa compagnia un pavone che gironzola spensierato nella corte!
Oggi ho chiamato il numero 060606, Comune di Roma, per avere alcune informazioni.
-Buongiorno qui il comune di Roma sono Daniela come posso aiutarla?
-Salve, sono proprietario di un appartamento a Roma ma risiedo all'estero, vorrei verificare la situazione dei miei pagamenti per la Tarsu [tassa per raccolta rifiuti].
-Non spetta a noi, posso passare la pratica al collega dell'AMA [azienda nettezza urbana capitolina] che la richiamerà entro dieci giorni lavorativi.
-OK il mio numero è 0044....
-Ah però non possiamo chiamare l'estero. Non ha un numero italiano?
-No, anche perché siamo in Europa e non c'è più roaming. OK allora chiamo io, mi dica chi chiamare, anche perché vorrei avere le informazioni più rapidamente di dieci giorni lavorativi.
-No non si può, dobbiamo chiamare noi anzi devono chiamare loro dell'AMA, ma non un numero all'estero, altrimenti deve venire allo sportello.
-Posso contattare l'addetto per email?
-No non si può, non siamo abilitati alla corrispondenza email dall'estero.
-Ma io ho un indirizzo Gmail, che differenza fa estero o no?
-No guardi se lei è all'estero le consiglio di andare allo sportello oppure mandare una persona di cui si fida.
-Ah dunque quelli che vivono a Roma li contattate per telefono o email, quelli che vivono all'estero devono prendere l'aereo e venire di persona. Va bene mi arrendo.
-Buona giornata, grazie per avere chiamato il comune di Roma siamo sempre a sua disposizione se ha bisogno di ulteriori informazioni ci chiami pure.
Breakfast with dumplings by Ouyang's wife, he brought them to us yesterday when he visited. Very thin envelope, more like northern China style than the thicker southern Chinese kind.
He is a very traditional Chinese man even though he is only in his forties. He said he got her daughter a job in Chenzhou as a kindergarten teacher but does not want her to go and live far away or have a career. He gives her some extra money each year to compensate for what she's missing. Despite his young age, he has already planned to bequeath some money to his two daughters but all real estate properties to his only son.
Ready to go back to Europe, but first one last espresso in China. My three-year-old niece learned how to operate my Nespresso machine a few days ago and now every time I say out loud I want a cup of coffee she wants to do it!
My niece makes me coffee!
We leave at 7.30 with a Didi car my wife booked night before. It is rush hour so it takes a bit of time to get out of the town. On the way, we meet a funeral procession on the road. Four people are carrying the coffin on shoulders. A long line of mourners follows them and they all wear white cloth on their head. Musicians play trumpets and cymbals. I am curious and interested in the ceremony, though we do not have time to stop and look. Lifang, however, is not amused, she does not like to talk about anything that has to do with death or accidents in the morning, especially early morning, at the start of the day.
On the road to the airport, lots of little street hawkers sell hot dumplings to cars on their way to work in Chenzhou. Maybe commuters or just people going for shopping or business to the big town. Big pots and steam coming out are quite inviting but we just had a substantial breakfast and decide not to stop.
Another fast train to Hong Kong. Lots of people at the station, but fairly disciplined this time, no one is cutting the line, or almost no one.
On the train, I can't help chuckling every time I see, over and over again, this promotional tourist video with a chubby doll in a red dress showing her enthusiasm for the major Chinese tourist sites.
Once in Hong Kong, we have a few hours until our late night flight to London, and decide to make our way to the "Peak". It is not the best day to visit, the visibility leaves a bit to be desired, but still, it's worth the effort. At the top, besides the obvious view, there are lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. Tricky Hong Kong... once you are topside you have to pay another ticket to get to the terrace from which you can enjoy the view, otherwise, you are stuck at the restaurants and the museum!
It is not always easy to get a ticket for the iconic tram at the last minute, but we manage to get a combo pass of some kind that will also allow us entry into a funny wax museum with all kinds of statues of well knows (and some not so well known to us) Hong Kongers from all walks of life.
After which we need to go and pick up our many bags at the hotel we stayed in last time, and traffic is not promising but luckily a trusted Uber driver shows up when we start up our App and we get through the rush hour in no time.
Easy day at home, packing and playing with my niece. She loves to play hide and seek and can do it nonstop for as long as it takes to exhaust me!
Dinner with family, mostly food from my in-laws' farm, pickles, bamboo shoots, dried fish. Mother-in-law has set aside two large bags of the addictive peanuts they grow to take back to Europe.
Tonight I used what was left of my guanciale to make some carbonara, thus taking my culinary proselytism one step forward from the gricia of the other day! My first time eating carbonara with chopsticks!
Again they loved it beyond expectations, much to my satisfaction. We even rang the bell at the neighbors and gave them some. Ai yi (the auntie) later came over to thank and to say they had eaten it and appreciated it a lot! She looked sincere!
At night we go out for a little walk and my wife has a facial massage from a little shop inside the supermarket from which she bought some aloe vera cream. I found a massage machine: a large and supremely comfortable armchair with all kinds of moving parts inside which massage my whole body, from the neck down. However, it was necessary to have a special store card to use it and we did not have one. So my wife's masseuse kindly agreed to use hers for a 25-minute session, I think it was 15 Rmb and we had to insist to reimburse her!
Later at home chat with the neighbors, as well as catching my niece who continues to hide behind the curtains until I catch her! While we are doing this, the tv is always on in the background. Quite often my father-in-law put on serials about the war with Japan. There are quite surreal features. All the actors are very beautiful, without exception, also the hated Japanese. They all wear lots of makeup, and all the men sport perfect shaves. I doubt anyone was so presentable in the heat of war.
