by Maureen | Feb 26, 2010 | Featured Articles, Incredible Locations, Journal, Photos, Sanremo
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 through a landscape of fresh snow in Ronco.
Saturday gave us some early sunshine, followed quickly by an absolute drenching rainfall, requiring a quick, sopping-wet dash into the “bar” (as they call the coffee shops) for a caffé with the locals, also in out of the rain. There was a stormy sky out over the Ligurian Sea, some crashing waves and my favorite sound of stones tumbling in the surf.
After the coffee was down (3 sips if you stretch it out), and the rain had subsided, the stroll through town continued.
“Attenti al cane.” Beware of the dog.
I’ve seen these signs in other small towns at stores selling fresh meat (beef, sheep, goat, pork, poultry and rabbit, bagged and fresh), skimmed and partly-skimmed milk and seed oils. (I’d love to get my hands on a set of these signs to bring home with me. Better than a Prada handbag.)
This is a concrete, pre-fab, railway storage shed from the 1920s. It’s roughly 12′ x 9′. I hadn’t noticed them before, but after seeing this one, I later noticed a few of them along the train tracks heading back to Milano. Isn’t there something Japanese in style about it? I’d like one of these for my garden tools and supplies.
Saturday evening was spent laughing and eating with a group of seven.
Sunday morning dawned bright and brilliant blue, exactly what I had hoped for! The old train track route has been converted to a long, seaside, walking/bike path which links towns for many kilometers in the region of Liguria. On such an early-Spring Sunday, the path was filled with families, couples, old folks pushing other old folks in wheelchairs and cyclists in their decorated racing jerseys. Everyone was out moving under the sun and fresh, salty air.
There’s something psychologically uplifting about blue sky and palm trees…
The sky has been so GRAY in Milano for so long! It’s been a “heavy” winter and a blue sky like this is a balm for the soul!
by Maureen | Feb 15, 2010 | Cheese, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, People, Photos
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 them) to spend her birthday weekend. There were 10 of us together around the table, representing 5 countries: 4 French, 1 Portuguese, 1 Turkish, 2 Italian, 2 American, ranging in age from 24 to 40-ish… and me. The language changed depending on the speaker and the listener.
The Milanese apperitivi tradition allows you to go to just about any restaurant in town, buy one drink for 7 – 9 euro and eat as much as you want from the buffet of appetizers: pizza and foccacia squares, bruschetta, pasta, french fries (!), sliced meats, cheeses, risotto, mini-tarts. A better apperitivi offering will include such things as steamed mussels, veggie sticks, interesting salads, and other foods that are lower carb and more artfully prepared.
After our apperitivi, several of us went out for dinner at 11:30 p.m. to a Mexican restaurant, while the others went to the disco.
by Maureen | Feb 13, 2010 | Canals, Cheese, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Photos, Shopping & Markets
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 same old “cascina” (large, formerly-fortified farm) that Angelo had shown me. The farm store had been closed that time before, and though they were closed again, a young woman came out of the house and welcomed me into the shop.
“What do you recommend?”, I asked her. She pointed out all of their own farm-produced foods and I selected fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella, brown rice and salami. What could be better?!
I found a way to secure the little bundle on my bike and continued my ride. There was a woman on a pink scooter. A lawn hosting 4 peacocks. An old tile roof warming 3 black cats. 1 Woman on a bike. Swelling buds on the trees. And a stop to say “hello” to Padre Pio at his shrine in Zibido San Giacomo. What a day!
Gauging the position of the sun and the remaining daylight and warmth, I went as far as Noviglio then turned around to head north back to home.
The very first thing upon coming in the door was to open the ricotta and mozzarella and have a taste. OH…MY! That fresh ricotta was better than most ice cream. I simply got myself a spoon and started eating it. Wow. Delicious. And the salami was good, too.
I’m really liking this. Go for a bike ride and, not far out of the city, pick up home grown rice and fresh ricotta cheese. (This is so unlike my previous life experience.)
by Maureen | Feb 1, 2010 | Bologna, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Journal, People, Photos, Shopping & Markets
Years ago, a girlfriend of mine from Seattle traveled and stayed with Marcello and Raffaella Tori of BluOne Cooking Tours in Bologna. When my girlfriend, Carri, returned home to Seattle, she kept talking with great fondness about the couple, their big hearts, and the wonderful time spent with them.
For 15 years, Marcello and Raffaella have been offering small, guided culinary tours customized for food lovers, home cooks and pro chefs. Talk about a foodie’s delight! They are based in Bologna, but also lead their cooking adventures in Emilia Romagna, Umbria, Le Marche, Piemonte and other regions of Italy.
The other day when I decided to go to Bologna for the weekend, I got in touch with Marcello and Raffaella and asked if we could meet for even a few minutes. I didn’t want to disturb their weekend plans, but wanted to at least get a photo of them to send to Carri. We e-mailed back and forth a few times and chatted by phone to make arrangements.
I showed up at their home yesterday at 5:00, (a half hour later than we had planned). They opened their door, greeted me with big hellos and sat me down at their kitchen table for tea and freshly baked apple tart (which perfumed the house). We talked for a couple of hours, and laughed and shared ideas about a hundred different things. When it was time for me to dash back into town to catch my train home, we exchanged hugs, kisses and vows to share a long, delicious dinner next time.
I walked away with new friends in my life.
If you’re looking for a more interesting vacation in Italy, something memorable that takes you into the homes and hearts of people, I can’t think of a dearer couple to lead your way. Through food and fun, Marcello and Raffaella will create a never-to-be-forgotten time in your life.
Marcello & Raffaella Tori
Bluone – Cooking Tours in Italy
Via Parigi, 11 40121 Bologna – Italy
Phone +39 051 263546
Fax +39 051 267774
Web: www.bluone.com
E-Mail: info@bluone.com
by Maureen | Feb 1, 2010 | Bologna, Cheese, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Graphics, Incredible Locations, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos, Shopping & Markets
As a designer and artist, being here in Italy is a pilgrimage to the home of all the motifs, patterns and visual elements I’ve studied and heard of all my life. At times I’m overwhelmed, excited by the visually lush surroundings.
The storefronts and shop windows are delicious with their old-world signage and embellishments.
This is a contemporary storefront for a high-end clothing store. All of the furnishings are made of corrugated box stock, as well as the “chandeliers” at the ceiling.
THIS is the place to buy Bolognese classic foods! The meats! The cheeses! The 40 euro ($60) 8 ounce bottles of balsamic vinegar! Mmm.
by Maureen | Feb 1, 2010 | Bergamo, Cheese, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Introspection, Journal, Meals, People, Photos
From my journal entry, 23 January. Bergamo.
Bergamo is beautiful and reminds me of San Gimignano in Tuscany. I’m on in the “Alta Cittá”, the high city up on the hill within the old fortress walls. Towers, stone, weathered doors, cobbles. I’m sitting in a little trattoria, “Trattoria 3 Torri”, the restaurant of the 3 towers.
I was standing outside looking at the menu, and the proprietor, Casimiro, came to the door and smiled out at me. A smile goes a long way with me; to be in a foreign country and have someone reach out in that small way seals my decision of where to eat, shop, explore. A geniune smile is the universal entree to first connection.
I’m sitting under vaulted stone ceilings eating a lovely polenta with sausage and porcini mushrooms with a hint of gravy. The sun is shining in onto my table, the first time I’ve seen and felt it in ages (more than a month?). As others enter the restaurant, he gives them a menu in their “madre lingua”, mother tongue. He gave me the menu in Italian. (That’s a compliment.)
It’s now 2:00 p.m. Midday is a good time to have my main meal, come in and get warm sitting next to the heater with the sun in my eyes. And January is a perfect time to be exploring these places that would attract the tourists. It’s quiet and uncrowded. It’s much more relaxing.
My heart and head are SO pulled by this history that reaches back to 1400 and further. To touch surfaces touched for centuries, to stride stone ways that have been stepped upon for so long. We simply do not have such history in the U.S. We do not have the remaining evidence to lay our hands on. Perhaps one day I might become inured to this, but at this point it makes me gasp repeatedly in disbelief. I cannot conceive of what I’m in the presence of.
The visual and physical richness here charges me. It excites me.
Trattoria 3 Torri • Cittá Alta, Bergamo
Piazza Mercato del Fieno, 7/a • Tel: 035-244474
Facebook: Trattoria Tre Torri
by Maureen | Jan 20, 2010 | Discoveries, Food!, Journal, Shopping & Markets
I guess this blog site might be a turn-off to vegetarians. Sorry about that. I’m living in Italy. Not just meat, but RAW meat on the menu… and I eat it all. Shavings of raw lard. Ground up who-knows-what. Slices right off the moldy leg bone.
Bring it on.
by Maureen | Jan 17, 2010 | Cheese, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Journal, Meals, Quips
This could easily be the next big thing. The new, chic food. All it would take is some hip New York restaurant to put it on the menu and spread the word. Or a Guru T.V. Show Chef to rave about it: The All-American Grilled Mortadella Burger.
You could cut a half inch thick slab of Mortadella into burger sized rounds, put those pieces on the grill with some wood chips for a little smokiness, then cook ’em hot ’til those little cubes of fat are translucent and dripping onto the coals. Flip those slabs and cook ’em some more.
You could go “classic” burger, with a white bun, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, ketchup and yellow mustard. Or elevate the burger to gourmet on an artisan bun with some perfect Italian cheese, spicy/sweet mustard from the Trentino-Alto Adige region and a slice of tomato. Arugula instead of lettuce?
I usually see Mortadella as a sausage over 8 inches wide, scattered with lovely little cubes of fat throughout the ground “meat”. Peppercorns and pistachios are here and there throughout. Don’t call it “baloney”, although that’s the closest equivalent in the U.S.
Mortadella has origins in the town of Bologna and has been made for hundreds of years by very resourceful pig farmers unwilling to waste any part of the animal. Hmm. What does that say about what ends up inside the sausage casing? Do we want to know? Salt, peppercorns, seasonings, wine and pistachios are added to the 7:3 ratio of pork to fat. The Mortadella is cooked, then cooled.
For further information, check out this site: lifeinitaly.com
by Maureen | Jan 15, 2010 | Discoveries, Featured Articles, Food!, Graffiti & Street Art, Introspection, Journal, Photo of the Day, Photos
Walking past the bus stop, this ad stopped me in my tracks. McDonald’s. (A stranger in few parts of the world.) The assurance of 100% Italian Meat. The seared map of Italy on the big Mac meat patty. “When you eat our meat, it’s a whole other story, all Italian.
Here’s a link to their website.
As long as we’re on the subject of McDonald’s… When I was traveling around Toscana – Tuscany – a year and a half ago with 17 college students, there were two guys in the group, ages 19-20ish. I remember how relieved they were when we’d see a McDonald’s. “Finally! Food I can recognize!”, one of the guys exclaimed. What?! He didn’t recognize pizza, spaghetti or lasagne? He was in Italy, for God’s sake. This is the land of good food, and he was overjoyed at the sight of the golden arches!
While we were walking around Rome, we encountered one of those sidewalk-chalk-artists, redrawing a Botticelli painting on the asphalt. He must have been tired of answering “Where’s the ____ ?” questions, because he had these responses, with arrows, on the pavement next to him. I like his last answer: “So… you travel to a new country, famous all over the world for its food and wine, and you want to eat at McDonald’s…”
