where people really live

right now we're in macerato, a town about an hour away from david and claudia's, where gretchen, alex, and i decided to come for the day. david and claudia are a couple about gretchen's age whom she met in portland and quickly befriended, eventually leading to an invite to come live with them in italy for a whopping 9 months. gretchen then ever-so-kindly extended an invite to us, and thus we are here in the provence of le marche spending a leisurely week at their cute little house outside of the town of san ginesio. i told them upon arrival that i felt odd just staying without doing something in exchange (as in digging ditches, hauling bricks, etc.) and in fact that feeling hasn't fully gone away. the area looks very similar to tuscany, though with more farms and less woods, and it seems with more people who're here to work, not to escape and start over. david took us on a crazy little drive around the countryside, stopping in one town to experience a local polenta/fall festival (apparently polenta festivals are really big in italy), another for views, and others just to see. wonderfully i was able to upload pictures onto gretchen's computer then onto my memory stick, so here are some recent ones to give you a gist!