Photo: An early, cold but dry start to the day

The proverb “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” is easily adapted to all Italians. For the last two years we have organised a Pansèr ride to finish at our house to try the newly harvested olive oil. Only one slight problem this year, no harvest. After a bumper year last year nature is taking a rest. No matter, we had Jan’s cooking. Jan is very popular with the Pansèrs for her cooking, “cupboard love” as she puts it.

I always design the route so that I can cut it short to be home early to get ready for hungry cyclists. One job was to get the firepit going. Giovanni turned up early to help so he became the ‘Cappo di fuoco’:

So keen to get to Jan’s cooking that a ‘race’ down the drive ended with Marco hitting the paving around the house. His bike stopped, he didn’t. Out the front door and hitting the deck with is face. First aider Paolo to the rescue aided by an ice pack from the kitchen.

Once Marco was patched up we were asked by club President Lorenzo to join them outside for a presentation of a gift and card to say thank you. Anna had made them especially for the occassion:

Then to the serious business of the day. Eating and drinking. One of the reasons Italians seem to like coming to our place is that they get to eat things they don’t normally have. This year was no exception. A Thai green curry was the main attraction. The night before I was official taster. It was quite spicy, maybe too much for them. Jan corrected with yogurt and coconut oil. She need not have worried. It went down a storm. So much so I nearly missed it completeley as people went back for a second, and third go.

For once, our club photographer, Rodolfo, was absent, so his brother Daniele stood in for him. I say stood, he adopted all sorts of strange positions to take the piss out of his brother.

This blog post has been more about food than cycling, but eating is an essential element of our sport.

So is drinking. To add a little extra to the coffees, I had a couple of bottles in my jersey. Varnelli, a local aniseed based liquer and a bottle from the Scottish Malt Whisky Society.

As usual, we had a great time with our Pansèr friends. You don’t have to take our word for it. If you can read Italian then here’s what Paolo thought: https://www.centinarolese.it/casa-angeletti-ottima-cucina-anglo-mediterranea/

You don’t have to read Italian to understand the sentiments in the card they gave us:

Next year will be another taste experience and, hopefully, fresh olive oil.