by Maureen | Mar 8, 2010 | Introspection, Journal, People, Photos
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, from Turkey
- Megan, from the U.S.
Later on, “Alex” and Anais arrived, both from France (seen at left, in the lower picture).
Community is created in many ways. I would recommend to anyone moving to a country with a different language, ATTEND A LANGUAGE SCHOOL UPON ARRIVAL! Classes provide social connection and language with which to step out into the community. It makes all the difference in the world.
by Maureen | Mar 1, 2010 | Cheese, Featured Articles, Food!, Incredible Locations, Journal, Meals, People, Photos, Sanremo
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 to join them in their homes.
By a little before one o’clock, 8 people had clustered in the kitchen and around the dining table. Renata and Angelo had been cooking all day for us and piled the table high:
- Genovese focaccia – plain, with oil.
- Sardenara – Ligurian specialty focaccia with tomato sauce,
anchovies, olives, oregano and garlic.
- Carciofi Impanati Friti – breaded, deep-fried, small young artichokes.
- Maiale Cicioli – breaded, deep-fried pieces of pig fat.
- Patate – little baby potatoes, roasted with olive oil.
- Polenta Taragna Concia – a regional style of polenta with ground buckwheat and 1 kilo of cheese. It cooked over the stove in a copper kettle for more than an hour, with a motorized stirring paddle to mix it and keep it from sticking.
- T-Bone Steaks – the thickest t-bones I’ve ever seen were grilled outside ’til rare. The meat was cut away from the bone, then sliced and served.
The sweets at the end of the meal included:
- Bugie – (which means “lies”) crispy, fried, sugar-dusted twists of dough.
- Nutella-topped sweet buns
- Baked Pears – Angelo got up from the table several hours into the afternoon and prepared baked pears by crushing amaretto cookies, mixing them with chocolate and liqueur, and pouring this blend onto the pears before quick baking.
The food went around. The home-bottled chianti, extra-proof, flowed, as did the conversation. I understood most of it and jumped in when I had something to add. Though I had shot photos of Renata in the kitchen when I first arrived (feeling comfortable since we’d had dinner together the night before), I kept my camera tucked away for the first couple hours of the meal. These people didn’t know me and I didn’t want to be rude.
To lubricate the conversation, we had begun with the chianti, then moved on to champagne, grappa, rum and caffé. Time was passing and everyone was loosening up. I was treated to a display of classic Italian hand gestures, mannerisms and animated speech. So theatrical, you would have thought it had been scripted. Eventually, my camera came back out and I had fun snagging images as the hours ticked by.
The first part of the day had been blue-sky serene, the kind of day that brings the crowds to the Ligurian* seaside. As we passed the afternoon in lively discussion at the table, the sky had darkened, a wind picked up and waves were crashing at Renata and Angelo’s bulkhead. It was time to go home at close to 7:00.
*Liguria is the “Italian Riviera”, that northern region of Italy that includes Cinque Terre at its southeastern end and arcs from there northwesterly to France.
by Maureen | Feb 28, 2010 | Food!, Incredible Locations, Journal, Meals, People, Photos, Sanremo
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 had spent the weekend with two weeks earlier), plus two friends of theirs, Renata and Angelo, and another friend of Sandro’s, Livio. Everyone came with food in hand, and we had a lively time.
Below, left to right: Livio, Angelo, Mauro, Renata, Sandra, Sandro.
We started with some salame that Livio had made. (Yes. Those are chunks of fat.) I had made a loaf of mixed-grain Irish Soda Bread that we ate with it.
Sandro had cooked a fabulous mix of seafood, including mussels, shrimp, squid, pescatrice (that funny, deep-water fish with the “lure” hanging off the front of its head), and tiny 3 inch fillets of a local, sand-versus-mud fish. There was just a tad of hot pepper oil in this dish which added a touch of zing.
Renata had baked a fresh tart, beautiful with apple wedges emerging from the deep gold, dense, pound cake. This was pretty darned good with some of the array of gelato that Sandra and Mauro had picked up at the town’s best Gelateria. We ate and talked for close to three hours. (Yes. All in Italian.)
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 26, 2010 | Featured Articles, Incredible Locations, Journal, People, Photos, Sanremo
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 like the character provided by the deterioration.)
by Maureen | Feb 25, 2010 | Canals, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Journal, People, Photos
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 that I see only 1 woman per 200 or 300 cyclists.
(Just recently I wrote about this in the “Rolling Ciao” post.)
She said that they don’t like to get tired or sweaty, and that they don’t like to go out unless the weather is warmer.
It was such a surprise and a treat to see her, and we enjoyed the chat along the way. Nicoletta is also an independent consultant, and therefore, has a flexible time schedule. And she lives close by. I gave her my card and we may ride now and then in the afternoons together.
She just came back from a bike tour out of Rome in January and will forward the bike touring information to me. An Italian road tour is sounding very good to me these days.
It pleases me that I can just be riding along, and have such a wonderful encounter out-of-the-blue. Those moments are the real high points of my being here, and they’re the simplest.
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 8, 2010 | Featured Articles, Incredible Locations, Journal, Menton, Monte-Carlo Monaco, People, Photos
The “pinch me” part. Along our drive I had been seeing “travel-guide Italy”, scenic, seaside towns, cliffside old buildings, palm trees, polished hotels and trattorias. The statues, the weathered stone and white columns were brilliant against the blue sky we had been given, and were just the sights that make people book a vacation. Incredible. It was all here.
We drove west along the Ligurian Sea route, through Bordighera and Ventimiglia to the border town of Menton, France. We got out and strolled the seaside walk, the streetside markets, the town squares. I heard French all around me but forgot to switch to “Merci”.
Most of the details on this yellow building are painted. Can you tell which shutters are real?
We continued on to Monaco and the Casino Monte-Carlo…
by Maureen | Feb 8, 2010 | Incredible Locations, Journal, People, Photos, Sanremo
There’s no way I could have CONCEIVED of this weekend! Talk about “living on a movie set!” It was all beyond real, not to be believed. Pinch me. Am I dreaming this stuff up?
Friday morning at 11:10 I hopped on the train heading to Sanremo on the Italian Riviera.
Just outside of Milan, a blizzard started.
(I later heard Milan had several inches of snow. I missed it again.)
I arrived in Sanremo in pouring rain and was welcomed by Sandra, my landlady, and her husband, Mauro, whom I had met once last Fall and had talked to for only an hour. They had invited me to stay at their house for 3 days.
We cleaned a big pile of mussels, clams and branzino (fish) to cook up for dinner.
Their good friend, Sandro, joined us for dinner and the four of us ate and talked all evening. Sandra, Sandro, Mauro and Maureen.
Saturday morning was sunny and blue-skied, and Sandra, Mauro and I wandered through the crowded street markets of Sanremo and strolled along the shoreline path.
At 2:00, after lunch, the 4 of us took off driving west along the Ligurian Sea/Riviera coast and about 15 miles down the road crossed over into France.
We stopped in Menton, France, wandered around town and I kept forgetting to change languages and say “Merci” instead of “Grazie”.
About 15 miles further, we crossed over into Monaco.
We walked around town, saw the outside of the Casino Monte Carlo and the route for the Grand Prix Monte Carlo.
We toured an amazing show of 300 photographs of women, photos c. 1900-2008, all from a private collection.
This morning was again sunny, blue-skied and in the 60s. The four of us went for a 14 mile bike ride to the town of Santo Stefano al Mare, along the paved bike path at the water’s edge on the Riviera.
We returned home to a meal of apperitivi and rabbit.
I had spent three days, with three people, speaking and listening to Italian the whole time. (I think I rounded a corner a month or so ago.)
When I left this afternoon, I felt as if I had spent the weekend with friends I’ve known for years.
I hopped on the train which left promptly at 3:15. The ride was under sunny skies until the town of Ronco, in the mountains halfway between the coast and Milan, where there was deep snow and whiteout conditions. I arrived home at 7:30 Sunday evening to “bare and wet”.
I had traveled from Spring back in time to Winter in a matter of just a few hours.
What’s next on the list?
by Maureen | Feb 4, 2010 | Introspection, Journal, Quips
Sun in my eyes yesterday and the day before! Temperatures in the 40s demanded that I mount two wheels and head off along the canal for a ride. Divine. I haven’t been a cyclist for about 30 years so it surprises me how much I’ve taken to this biking. During and after my ride is when I feel my absolute best. I’m hooked on that sensation: I get hot and sweaty; I breathe hard; I feel both energized and relaxed at the same time. It’s when I feel most prayerful, grateful for having a healthy body ABLE to make such rides!
As often as I’m riding – (I guess I’m pretty gung-ho if I’m still riding in temperatures in the 30s!) – it should not be surprising that the faces on the bike trail are now familiar to me, and I’ve become a part of that community. How unexpected! Now, after 7 months on the canal path, the other cyclists and I exchange our acknowledgements: a nod, a hand raised from the handlebar grip, a “ciao” or “salve” (more formal) as we whiz past each other. Sometimes I’ll tuck in behind another rider and use his speed as incentive to work harder. Other times, a rider and I will sprint together and have an out-of-breath conversation as we ride, then wish each other well when we arrive at our separate routes.
Along the way I see the very hard core bike jocks on their streamlined bikes, wearing their lycra race gear. These guys are serious! Then there are the “intermediate” cyclists, still out just for the ride but not quite such jocks. I encounter the men with bikes-as-transportation getting from point A to point B, and the fishermen carrying nets and rods.
MAYBE I can count one other woman in 200 or 300 riders! Where are the women riders? Are women at home? At work? Is it considered unfeminine for a woman to be sweating and racing, pushing hard in that way? What statement is made by the absence of women on the bike trail? The city’s main outdoor gear store has a large bike section but offers next to nothing for the female cyclist. A male cyclist friend explains, “there aren’t any”.
That must be why they crane their necks as I ride by. Here in Italy, I’m an anomaly in the wheeled community, but it’s nice to be acknowledged with a rolling “ciao”.
