I wanted to see the flowering of Lentils at Castelluccio di Norcia on Thursday, June 29th, but since the road was still closed, I had to postpone it on Sunday, July 2nd.
We could not go with our own car but the Norcia’s Municipality was organizing shuttles to accompain tourists to the flowering site both Saturday and Sunday.
On Thursday, as it was holiday in Rome being St. Peter and Paul, I set out to go to see the magnificent fireworks at Piazza del Popolo which then were really magnificent with the synchronization of classical music and pyrotechnic games.
The next day I left from Rome to Tuscany and drove to Borgo Giusto a village as a hotel in the province of Lucca and slept in my grandfather house.
On Saturday afternoon I descended to Spello in Umbria. When I arrived in the evening I instantly enjoyed the relaxation of the umbrian hills sleeping at 500 meters over Spello! It is definitely worth staying at the B&B Pekko where Tiziana and her husband welcome me immediately with kindness.
They recommended me where to eat in the village of Spello and so I just found myself eating truffle pasta! yeahhh Very good truffle and typical cold meat.
Then on Sundays I drove to Norcia, which is one hour far from Spello and arrived at the meeting point,the newly constructed multifunctional center Boeri. (Infact they are still working on it, but the inauguration was there on Friday)
And by 11.30 we left with the shuttles for Castelluccio, with many different people … a woman from Piedmont, Romans, Lombards, Chinese!
The flourishing of the lentils was absolutely beautiful, although is not even on its best, the seeds were planted with delay this year, because of the earthquake last October that destroyed all the town of Castelluccio, so now the town is abandoned, no one can live there.
Anyway, there were a lot of people, including the locals called Castellucciani, who organised a little camper beside the red area, to feed the tourists and sell the famous lentils.
So the economy lives again, the area is getting alive again!
Thanks to Proloco of Norcia for organizing the shuttles, the road is still in a bad way, but you still can pass in an alternate way, escorted by the civil protection that opens and closes the piece of road that has suffered more damage.
