Our dear friend Adele

Another divina commedia italiana is our dear friend Adele who is officially 77 but 30 in her heart.
She is a kind of herself.
She is living in Rome but has a property in the campagna near to our place, with a small "house" on it which is rather 4 stone walls with some windows. Nevertheless she is living there from time to time and enjoying it so much. She is a messy and unorganised person but also extremely positive, kind, giving and intelligent. She had a life full of work and living in different places which has not always been easy but she is the kind of person thanking God when she fell out of the cherry tree because she has only broken her leg and nothing worse.
She is just lovely.
So one day last week we went to Rome to bring her tomato plants that she has grown on her balcony to the campagna. She would drive with a friend of her. When we arrived she was everything but ready, collecting things she needed in different sorts of bags, heating water for tea which she later forgot and talking all the time. She overturned her drying rack full of clothes and put her food from the fridge and freezer in different backs. Then she missed the keys. Where are the keys? We searched everywhere and couldn't find. Until she finally grabbed into her bra and found them there, telling me it would be a good place for me too to store things.
So we put all the plants into our car, followed by some bags and even more stuff Adele pulled out of her cellar, being watched by an old neighbour who was standing on his balcony with a facial expression that could only mean disgust for this scenery. Finally we could start, following the car of her friend Antonietta who was driving Adele.
Instead of taking the shortest way to the highway of of Rome, she drove directly into the center of the city which is even for experienced driver not an easy cup of coffee. Seemingly arbitrary they drove through the city until they finally picked up a woman standing at the street and waving.
In the end we got to Sabina and to her place which was full of weeds since she hadn't been there since March.

We promised to help her later with the cleaning of the land and returned in the afternoon. We made a place for the plants and then sat down. She offered us her special chocolate cake and cookies which I could not eat because it was neither vegan nor gluten free. So she just opened the cookies, scratched out the (vegan and gluten free) inside and gave it to me, forcing me to eat like only an italian woman can (Mangia, MANGIA!).

A few days later we went there again, seeing that no plant has been planted so far. So we put on our working clothes, said hello to the neighbours who - knowing Adele - congratulated us for our corraggio and started planting.

Adele later prepared us food on a dangerous hotplate (because she has run out of gas) which she told us  NOT to touch under no circumstances. A table was set in the sun, covered with an old-fashioned tablecloth, we heard old italian music from a cassette recorder, she collected forks and spoons from everywhere in the house, and - when we were already sitting to eat a lovely soup out of rice and potatoes - she cut some roses to put them on the table. Telling stories all the time of course.
The simple food, the music, the sunshine and the light, the garden around us in the middle of the countryside, and this old but so lively italian woman telling stories - it's a scene you have to experience yourself. It's Italy at it's best.

 The pomodori waiting to be planted...

 Finished:

 Lovely Adele: