Newspaper Article – Il Resto del Carlino – Martedi 25 Marzo 2014 It seems our star continues to rise in this city of Ascoli – go figure! Above you will find a copy of a recent newspaper article about us. This does not make us celebrities here in Ascoli, but it was fun to talk with the kids. Note that this is written by high-school students, many who think the best place in the world to live would be America, especially where The O.C. is filmed. I am sorry to say we may have inadvertently left them with the impression that restaurants have separate rooms for adults, children and the elderly. We were trying to explain what we now realize is a very complex observation – that in the U.S. adults often leave the children and elderly home and go out to very nice restaurants where one would not normally take children because they are too noisy and active. Here in Italy we have yet to find a restaurant where the long tables did not include everyone, from the youngest to the oldest family and friends, all talking and gesturing at once. (And frequently the family dog under the table, except in the very best restaurants.) So, no surprise they didn’t quite understand us. Qualifier: this is my first translation (took three hours) which is literally the student’s interpretation in Italian of what we said to them in English, translated back into English by someone just learning Italian. Hoping for total accuracy seems futile. WHEN ASCOLI IS BETTER THAN AMERICA An interview with a couple that moved “Under the Hundred Towers” We kids in the newsroom had the pleasure of meeting Larry and Arlene Howe, a couple of Americans who, after retirement, have chosen to live in Ascoli. Interviewing them we got to know their motive for coming to our city. Our guests responded willingly and very slowly to allow us to comprehend their English. *Why have they decided to live in Ascoli Piceno? We lived in southern California, precisely San Diego, and as the city is very busy we desired to live in a place more peaceful where everything was accessible by foot. We chose Italy in...
Read MoreIt’s time to talk about some Italian food! Carnevale: You probably remember the photo I posted on Facebook and the blog of the sweet fried raviolis and other treats of Carnevale. In addition to bringing us a beautiful selection of these treats, our lovely neighbor Antonella brought us two kinds of homemade raviolis. One plate was stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a yummy sauce of pork. Then later she had her son, David, deliver a beautiful dish of ravioli’s stuffed with meat in an incredible tomato sauce. I could just kick myself for not taking a photo of those beautiful dishes!!! Ravioli is my favorite pasta and I think I blacked out when I saw them and when I awoke they were all gone. Seriously, they were the best raviolis I have ever eaten in my ravioli-filled life! The multi-course meals we had at the two party locations (Cantina del Arte and Caffe Bistro) were very good but not blog-worthy as they were cooking for a crowd. But so reasonably priced at 20 Euro per person including the wine! Jo’s Dinner: Our dear angel Grace left for three months in Australia a couple weeks ago and we already miss her a lot. Our new friend Jo (born in Pittsburg) had a small bon-voyage dinner for her. As always, we were excited to visit another Italian home and Jo has a reputation as a great cook. Jo and her husband, Maurizio, have a gorgeous home (condo in US terms) in the Villa Pigna area not far outside of town. It is full of her handmade lace and other needlework creations as well as those made by her mother. Grace picked us up and we were joined by Lucia, Serafino and Gina at Jo’s beautifully set table. There was prosecco and a smooth red wine chosen by Maurizio. Antipasto consisted of Jo’s homemade water crackers, fig and brandy jam and fresh pecorino cheese, homemade hummus, veggies and olives. I brought Grace’s favorite, Ina’s crostini with tuna tapenade. Primo was a very unique pasta that I had never seen before called Pizzichero della Valtellina. It is a buckwheat pasta with cabbage and potatoes that was incredible. Jo even sent me home...
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Primavera, spring, has officially arrived in the northern hemisphere. Here in Ascoli Piceno, there were some earlier signs that spring was not far off. The sun seemed a bit warmer, the days started to get a little longer, closer examination of the trees we pass on our walks showed signs of forming buds and song bird choruses were more in evidence. And then, just about on the Equinox calendar schedule, we had a brief warming trend that actually had us out one afternoon without jackets. But that didn’t last long. It is back to the changeable weather that is so common to the transitional aspect of what makes early spring. And as if we were having difficulty recognizing that winter was not that far behind, on clear days we can see the higher elevations in the Apennine Mountains west of Ascoli are still covered in snow. We arrived in Italy in the earliest part of summer last year. So we are now moving beyond the third into the fourth seasonal experience in our newly adopted home. Being southern Californians through multi-year immersion, we are accustomed to less extreme and more rapid temperature changes as in during, Morning, Afternoon and Night. But Arlene and I have our roots in a less temperate zone on the east coast. There were defined seasons that were part of how we were reared in those years. I‘m finding it interesting that the visceral signals involved in the passing seasons here in Italy have a surprising comfort to them. I’ve never been a great fan of being cold and damp but I seemed to have found what little of that was experienced was really quite tolerable. It seems I’m getting back in touch with the natural, cyclical order of things that might have been submerged beneath the climatically comfortable consistency of southern California. I continue to be amazed by the sensory reawakening that being retired seems to afford. Intellectually I realized my working life involved a pace that was too fast to adequately sense some of what was passing by. Occasionally, I gained awareness that I was missing something. During one of my phases, I became enamored with riding a motorcycle. What comes to mind...
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Piazza del Popolo – Carnevale We didn’t get close enough to see reflection in mirror A little story of the fall of our singing nun Sunday in the...
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Red Sea – beach Stella di Mare Hotel Hotel main pool Hotel children’s pools Blog Office in Egypt Red Sea – reef off beach Our room – 4th down from top corner Hotel room with towel sculpture Our friendly beach hosts The Spa staff Outing to the Red Sea Reefs Aquatic life Reef Reef resident Sinai Desert St. Catherine’s Monastery St. Catherine’s-setting Exterior walls Entrance Exterior wall near entrance Exterior wall Exterior wall Interior-garden wall Christian bell tower next to Islamic minaret Interior court Prayers people leave in the walls Interior Mt. Sinai of 10 Commandments fame Lawrence of Egypt? Bedouin encampment Bedouin shelter Where’s the food? Ali Baba Resaurant, Dahab Tour Guide, Allam & Driver,...
Read MoreSharm El Sheikh, Egypt Here in Ascoli we have had a long run of unusually warm weather during the last half of December and most all of January and February. I have to admit that I sort of freaked out when it was in the 30’s and we got our first snow in November. I figured that it was going to be a long, cold winter. It seems that I overreacted because, as I mentioned before, when we returned from Rome in mid-December it turned warm (50’s during the day and 40’s at night) and it has pretty much stayed that way since. We’ve had a few nights in the 30’s and a couple days it was near 70 degrees. The low pressure fronts bringing the very bad weather to the UK and surrounds is bringing warmer air up from Africa to this part of Europe. This quite lovely weather made our planned trip to a warmer climate mid-winter to thaw out seem uncalled for. Oh well, we’ve never have needed a reason to take a trip. Our research found that actually there is no place in Europe that is warm this time of year. People recommended only two options within a reasonable travel distance – the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa (with temps around 70) and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (with temps averaging in the mid to high 70’s). Egypt was not on our very long list of places we hope to see, mostly due to safety reasons. Currently there are travel alerts discouraging Americans from traveling anywhere in Egypt, except, Sharm (what those who have been there call it). That is because there is the very large Sinai Desert between the the cities with the political unrest and terrorist troubles and the Sharm area on the Red Sea where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba converge. The Egyptian government is protecting this last bastion of tourism in their country with everything they’ve got. Never-the-less tourism is down over 40% in the area and made a trip there very economical. Plus we decided it might be our only chance to visit Egypt should their situation continue to deteriorate. This was very out-of-character for Larry (Mr....
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