It’s March. It’s 3:00 in the afternoon and it’s snowing. Crap. I’m so ready for the Springtime that Seattle is having right now! Enough of this COLD!
My Seattle neighbors called the other day to tell me how much they’re enjoying looking out to the flowers blooming in my yard. Flowers? What flowers? It’s still winter [...]

“Excuse me. Where are the eggs?” On my first grocery shopping trip last June, I searched all over the refrigerator section of the store to find the eggs. Where were they?! I finally asked, and was directed to the shelf across from the cereal, below the scotch tape and coffee maker parts, next to the [...]

It’s been great fun to get to know the group of women from the schools here. Now and then, when a few of us are available, we’ll go out for aperitivi.
Here, from left to right, are:

Keryn, from Australia
Ashley, originally from the U.S. (but recently London)
Anna, from Iceland. Now her parents are in Norway.
Monica, from England
Meltem, [...]

When I rounded the corner and saw the wall of red and cream damask patterns, I skipped both a breath and a heart beat. These are the textiles I came for. These are the fabrics I prowl and lurk for at the antique fairs.
“The Thread of Dreams – Il Filo dei Sogni” is a show at [...]

Snow predicted for Sunday? They’ve got to be kidding. Please tell me they’re kidding. With a predicted low of 32 degrees and a high of 37, snow is certainly possible.
In the meantime, my neighbors in Seattle called to tell me how warm the Spring is and how beautiful the flowers are in my yard.

I harkened back to my German roots today and cooked sausage in a kraut of red cabbage, beets and onions. I could post a photo, but it really is just a mass of purple-brown and doesn’t look like much. But it tasted good. It shouldn’t seem odd for me to cook such a thing. Half [...]

Dinner the night before was followed by a long lunch the next day. Renata and Angelo, who live in a town within walking distance from Sanremo, were having some friends over on Sunday and I was invited to come along. So gracious! It’s a real treasure to have people open their doors and ask me [...]

It’s a natural for friends to gather for food and conversation. This is worldwide, but I find that the Italians do it well and do it often.
Last weekend, in Sanremo, seven of us got together for dinner around the table: my landlady, Sandra, and her husband, Mauro, and their friend, Sandro (all of whom I [...]

It’s an old time, secret family recipe and I took an oath not to reveal the ingredients, but I can show a couple of photos and give just a sketchy description.

Essentially, you cut up a rabbit, brown the chunks, simmer them in all the right liquids* with all the right seasonings* ’til the meat is [...]

In reading my blog posts about what I’m eating here, I hope that you’ll realize how much broader the Italian culinary range is than the stereotypical American concept of “Italian Food”. There is SO much more than pizza, spaghetti, lasagna and ravioli. “Fettucine Alfredo” is a figment of the American imagination, and I’ve been told emphatically, [...]

That’s a question I’m asked frequently, and I didn’t know the answer!
So I finally looked it up to compare Seattle with Milano:
SEATTLE:
Population: 602,000 (2009, from the City of Seattle web site).
MILANO:
Population: 1,300,000
Milano urban area is fifth largest in the European Union with an estimated population of 4,300,000 million. The CITY of Milano is the capital of the region [...]

Having swooned at the sunny, blue sky and t-shirt day along the seaside path in Sanremo three weeks ago, and having made new friends in town there, (and being up-to-my-ears in Winter in Milano), last weekend I went back to Sanremo for another dose of Springtime.
The train route goes up over mountains, and we rode [...]

How many people travel to Italy and include construction shots in their set of “vacation photos”? When I went to see an apartment being remodeled I didn’t realize how fascinating it would be. (Then I thought of my family members and friends that would also be interested and I started shooting photos.)
This apartment, or condo, [...]

One thing about being invited into people’s homes is the chance to have them bring things out to show me, such as old photos. In my recent visit to Sanremo, I got to see a few photos from “Young Life in Italy” from the mid-60s to mid-70s.
Old photos are always informative and amusing. (And I [...]

Nicoletta rode over the overpass at the same time I did and then began to move ahead. I called out, “Excuse me. I have a question.” She slowed a bit, I pulled up alongside of her and we rode the rest of the way together, talking. “Why are there no other women cyclists?” I mentioned [...]

We got together to celebrate Anaïs’s 24th birthday with traditional Milanese apperitivi at an “art bar” in town. Several of us women from Italian classes get together outside of class for chats, bike rides and travel. Anaïs is one of them.
She’s from Cannes, France, and 3 of her friends drove over, (bringing her kitty with [...]

Saturday. Clear blue skies. About 50 degrees. Yes!
I headed down the canal on my bike, but decided on a change of scenery and followed the path I learned about from Angelo, my surprise tour guide in mid-January. The one lane road wound though small towns and rice fields. I found my way back to the [...]

Hmm. I might find me a cute, little Italian. All the right curves and straight lines. Just my size. Fits into tight places. Agile and responsive. Yah. Sounds good to me!
(I don’t know what YOU were thinking. I was talking about a CAR!)
Before I came here, I sold my Honda CR-V and figured I’d get [...]

There’s just something about having my bedroom window on the ground level, facing the street. At about 5:30 in the morning the recycling truck pulls up and parks in front of my window. They roll the glass-sorting bins holding a building’s-worth of bottles up to the truck and dump them with an alarming clatter. Imagine [...]

I’m pouting. Tuesday morning and it’s 34 degrees outside. Sunday morning I was riding a bike along the sea, wearing a light t-shirt with blue sky overhead and sun on my face. Temperatures were in the 60s, which felt fresh and warm enough to remember the glory of warmer days.
After the dark, cold, wet days [...]