Italian Television: The temperatures are now getting down into the high 40’s at night and maybe into the low/mid 60’s on a sunny day, which we haven’t seen many of this month.  Last week it rained five out of seven days and for the first three days it never stopped.  We should have a bit less rain in December, but the temperature will continue to drop and the likelihood of snow will rise.  This is our reintroduction to “seasons.” I’m not complaining as this was expected.  I have a plan to spend the days we can’t go outside cooking, learning Italian, blogging and working with my mother on ancestry.com researching our Italian roots.  Other things one might normally do during this time of year, like going to the theatre or movies, is not really an option for us yet.  We need to improve our language skills by leaps and bounds to get any pleasure out of this type of entertainment and there aren’t enough English speakers here to warrant showing films with subtitles. We purchased a 46″ television with surround sound and we expanded our viewing options by getting a satellite dish – remember them?  The term expanded is relative, like when they told us we could get the BBC with it and what they really meant is we could get BBC News (which is the best in news).  If you remember satellite dishes, then you may also remember that in unstable weather the reception is interrupted repeatedly, in a pattern that seems to be timed exclusively to the critical scenes of whatever you are watching.  I paraphrase from memory here, “Oh, Mr. Darcy, please don’t remind me of what I said then.  Miss Bennett, release me from my misery.  My previous offer still stands as my feelings for you have not changed.  If you still do not wish to accept it then say so now and I shall never mentioned the matter again.  Mr. Darcy, my feelings, oh my feelings they” Blip, blip, blip, blip ——————————————————–.  We are currently waiting for them to install cable. With the change to standard time, it now gets dark about 5-5:30.  I’m much more of a television junkie than Larry but, with...

As far as I can remember, I don’t recall reinventing ourselves as something we set as a goal in becoming ExPats.  Its not that reinvention was an idea we had any objection to. We just didn’t think about it. When we were in the process of turning our lives completely upside down, the idea of reinvention got crowded out by a lot of other issues. As it worked out, we did change virtually everything around us. That being the case, the habitual, ingrained responses just didn’t work the way they used to. Once that sunk in, it became apparent we would have to do some readjustments on how we functioned in the world; in other words – some reinvention was involved. We are pretty much in place now. The mad rush of the initial relocation issues is starting to settle down. In one of those pleasant, quiet moments on the couch, looking up at the Italian Art Noveau Painting, which takes up our entire living room ceiling, I came to a realization. I’m not only in a different place; I’m also probably in the process of becoming a little different myself.  In short, I just may be in the process of reinvention. That is not necessarily a bad thing.  I’m sure there are any number of people who have known me over the years who would declare their hope for a better outcome.  But since I have a feeling I’m still very much a work in progress, the final evaluation will probably have to wait for a while.  As to when the process of reinvention got started, that’s hard to say.  Since I only recognized that the process was already underway sometime after it already started, I’m not sure when and how it got going.  I suspect, the initial stage started about the time we decided to entertain a crazy idea. The motivation to do something fairly radical had a number of roots.  Elsewhere in the Blog we explored some parts of the decision process.  At some convergence point, while sitting around over wine, cheese and crackers we started talking about uncomplex and trivial issues like, “What do you think we ought to do with the rest of our...

It’s About the Jeans: Since our arrival in Italy I had been focused on learning our new town, people, customs, food and then speed nesting in our new apartment – but all along I was observing what people were wearing.  I have now had time to assimilate what I have observed and am ready to focus on, well, me! Cinzia M., who’s enthusiasm and generosity knows no bounds, agreed to fill yet another important role, fashion consultant.  This was a very odd match-up as Cinzia is petite, slim, a decade younger than me and her style is very eclectic and hip.  She has a great way of layering and putting things together that I have never achieved but have always admired and I’m feeling game.  I use to love fashion and buying clothes, but that was back when I; 1) had a place to wear them, and 2) liked what I saw in the mirror –  making that about ten years and two pant sizes ago. One item I am determined to live without is a bathroom scale.  It’s a dispiriting game I no longer wish to play and, personally, I think they make you fat.  But I could tell by the fit of my clothes that I had lost some inches, so I put 50 cents Euro in the scale in the pharmacy.  It gives you a printout with your weight, percent of body fat and height.  If I’d have known that ahead of time I’d have stood up straight.  Good news – I’ve lost 10 pounds and enough inches to take me down a whole pant size!  I’m pretty sure our life-style change since we moved into our apartment – not eating a fresh cream-filled croissant every morning, not eating in restaurants every day, and not ending each day with a gelato – just might have something to do with it.  Not to mention that, for the first time in my adult life, I have hardly a care in the world (take that cortisol!) and we are still walking everywhere.  Good news – my body is now a size 12.  Bad news – my skin has decided to stay a size 14.  The largest organ in my...

Photos- Bologna

By Larry & Arlene on Nov 13, 2013 in Portfolio, Travel | 0 comments

Piazza Maggiore Notaries Palace roof & Communal Palace Piazza del Nettuno Neptune Siren Podesta Palace & TI office Interior of San Petronio One of 11 Chapels Porticoes as far as you can see Santa Maria dei Servi church, 1346 Looking toward Merchandise Palace Oldest portico in Bologna Galleria Cavour, designer shops Bologna in the Po Valley...

BOLOGNA (See accompanying photos under Portfolio menu) Bologna – the food capital of the country of great food.  I have read many times that, “it is a challenge to find a bad meal in Bologna.”  So how can you screw that up?  By going without a plan, which is what we did. We are experienced travelers and we have learned many important tips to enhance our travel experiences.  Tips like, buy a travel guide and read it, choose a few things that you want to see/do, have a couple reliable restaurant recommendations in hand and pay a little more if needed to find adequate accommodations close to what you want to see.  This last tip has been added to the list in recent years as we now get tired about mid-day and want to go back to our room and put our feet up for a couple hours before we head back out for more sightseeing and dinner. I don’t want to describe here where I think our heads were because our grandchildren may read this, but we pretty much spent an hour on-line finding an efficiency apartment and another half-hour looking at the train schedule, and when the day came we went.  Maybe because all of Italy is now so close we felt we didn’t need the hours of preparation.  Lesson learned – even if you feel like an Italian it is still necessary to research and plan if you want a good experience. It wasn’t Bologna’s fault, the city is beautiful with it’s towers, fortress-like palaces, miles of porticoes and red-brick gateways.  Piazza Maggiore is dominated by San Petronio, the principal city church, dedicated to St. Petronius, Bologna’s patron saint.  It is one of the most monumental Gothic basilicas in Italy that would have been larger than St. Peter’s in Rome had the city not run short of funds (insured by a jealous Pope).  Adjacent is Piazza del Nettuno that acts as the antechamber to Piazza Maggiore, and these two squares form the symbolic heart of the city, showcasing the political and religious institutions that define independent-minded Bologna.  The square’s talking point is the Fontana di Nettuno, the huge bronze fountain to Neptune, sculpted by Giambologna in 1563. ...

SENSI Ristorante, Wine & Cocktail Bar (click here to go to website) UPDATE 2:  We met Cinzia, Grace, Sergio & Laura at SENSI on Saturday night for a very late aperitivo – 8:30 – in their wine bar.  The wine and conversation was wonderful but the snacks they had out, although interesting and plentiful, had been there for a while and were a bit dried out and cold.  As I said, it was a very late aperitivo and we stayed until they closed. UPDATE 1:  Thursday night we went back to SENSI for dinner.   Our new housekeeper had just spent an hour cleaning our stove with a toothpick and we really didn’t want to mess it up so soon.  Again, there were not many people in the dining room but the welcome was warm and food very good.  Since I didn’t have any paper with me, I put the Italian names for our dishes in my iPhone, however, when I look at them now it appears that my auto-correct played mayhem with my notes.  So I shall tell you what we had just in English.  Larry started with small gnocci in a four-cheese sauce with nuts followed by medallions of pork served with mushrooms and crispy bacon which were both wonderful.  I had Oso Bucco (veal shanks) with spinach, which was very tasty.  We thought we were finished but the Chef offered us free dolce – which we did not turn down.  We were served individual chestnut cakes with a sauce of vino cotto – yum. This summer, when we would walk to and from the train station, just behind the baptistry we would pass the sign for this restaurant.  But when you looked inside renovations were in process.  I have to admit I had forgotten about it until the other day when Larry brought home a card and asked when we were going to give it a try.  Coincidently, a day later when I stopped by Cinzia M.’s office there was a letter on Sensi letterhead on her desk.  I asked if she knew much about the restaurant.  She explained that they were serving all the highest quality organic foods, beautiful dishes, and the owners were quite...

I’m no Tim Parks, who wrote the wonderful book “Italian Neighbors” as well as many others, but I will attempt here to give you a feel for our neighborhood and neighbors. There are four apartments in our building that have their entrance through our lobby door. This seems an odd way to state it but, in the historical center, you think you are looking at separate buildings with adjoining walls, but you would be wrong. That is how I tried to look at them, but the spaces never added up. These are people not constrained by such creative limitations, so when more space is needed, one breaks through the adjoining wall and adds whatever space to their apartment/office/shop that is needed and available. As the buildings are stone, the issue of load-bearing walls is not too much of a concern. If you take the time to visually study the outside of these ancient buildings you can see by the changes in the exterior stonework some of the modifications made over the centuries to doors, windows and structural support. Actually, the outside of these ancient buildings is quite deceptive in many ways. You walk down the street and see the old wooden doors that haven’t had a coat of varnish for more than 100 years, if ever, and the hinges, door-knockers and locks appear much older than that. The shutters are often (not always) falling apart, sometimes hanging by one hinge, with the paint peeling off and the wood dried out. Usually any metal work on the outside is rusty. Even if you get a chance to peek inside a building lobby when walking by it usually isn’t much to look at, so your expectations of what is inside is pretty low. This is confusing because the Italians are so concerned about “La Bella Figura,” but apparently it applies to all things Italian except the exterior of your home. I believe this habit is an old one stemming from the time when the tax collector walked the streets and knew everyone. (I’m currently reading a hilarious book called “La Bella Figura” written by an Italian, Beppe Severgnini, who attempts to explain this Italian phenomenon.) If Americans care enough to spend...

Taverna Di Cecco (no known website) I am never sure what the restaurant owners are told on the phone when reservations are made by our new friends, but this guy was definitely told something about us reviewing restaurants on our blog because as we left he asked us to give him a good review. Well here it is! The restaurant is near the jousting stadium just this side of the bridge at Porta Maggiore. I had looked at this place several times when we walk to/from the train station, but could never make out just what kind of place it was. Lucky for us it is a tavern with incredible food, and the decor is reminiscent of Mideval times. Upon arrival we were directed up a steep set of steps to a private little tree-house sort of area just big enough for a table, two benches and a chair. We only had to traverse those steps twice during the evening but the waiter, waitress and owner that served us must be in really good shape as they were constantly running up and down them. When we sat down and ordered the water and wine, they brought antipasto. Larry and I assumed that at most we might order a pizza, but that would be it. We were not aware that Cinzia had ordered a “menu degustazione” which is a sampling of the typical dishes they have on the menu (what we’d call grazing). So the beautifully presented, loving made dishes just kept coming and the feast went something like this. House Rosso Piceno Antipasto: Prosciutto, homemade bread, tomato bruschetta Primi & Secondi: Carpaccio with parmesan and parsley Speck with fennel and lemon Potato leek soup with truffle Raviolis stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a butter cream sauce Timballo (what lasagna is called in Ascoli) made with crepes instead of pasta sheets, ground meat (I think pork), peas and besciamella Dolce: Plate with tasting of three desserts – panna cotta w/caramel, tiramisu, crepe filled with Nutella Vino cotto (traditional dessert wine of the area) with cantucci to dip in...

GRACE’S HALLOWEEN MENU Grace (who was born in Australia and has lived here for 30 years) and Cinzia had returned only the day before from a trip to Dublin, therefore, the Irish twist to this delicious menu. Proseco and wines Antipasto: Gaetana’s Dip – this was a layered dip with cream cheese, tomatoes, olives and other wonderful things. Some guests had brought three fresh sausages to spread on bread or crackers. One was plain, one was liver and one was very spicy. I tried the first two and they were wonderful. Primi: Pumpkin Soup with Fresh Herbed Scones (and Irish butter) Secondi: Guinness Stew with Boiled Potatoes (and Irish butter) Dolce: Irish Tea Brack – which is more of a bread than a cake and is made with tea, currents and raisins. This was also incredible the next morning toasted with butter or marscapone cheese. Chocolate Tart made by one of the guests and various candies. Caffe and British Tea ARLENE’S DINNER FOR SIX Lasagna is one of Larry’s favorite meals. When in Bologna the week before we had the most delicious Verde Lasagna Bolognese. They make their lasagna different from any I’ve ever had. First, there is just a small amount of tomato, bechamel sauce (besciamella in Italian), lots of ground meat, Parmesan cheese, and as many layers as you can get in the dish of very thin fresh pasta sheets. Never is there any garlic, ricotta or mozarella cheese found in this dish. Of course, there are as many recipes for the bolognese sauce as there are cooks but I used Marcella Hazan’s recipe that cooks a total of six hours. Okay I got impatient at five hours and figured the sauce was not going to benefit from another hour of cooking. I may have been wrong (but I don’t think so) because I made a test dish for our dinner that night and it was a bit bland. I needed to do an Ina Garten on it and ramp the flavor up a bit. So after reviewing several other recipes I decided to add some tomato paste and red wine and cook it down some more – and that worked. So in the future I will...

(See menu under Food blog) A couple weeks ago we had our first party which was an opportunity to thank some of our new friends who have gone out of their way to be helpful to us. Attendees were: Italian angel Cinzia M. (in case you’ve forgotten she handles public relations for the Comune of Ascoli Piceno, and it appears for us) and Roberta (who also works in her office); Grace (a ESL teacher) and her partner, Maurizo (who is an ESL teacher by day and an Alto singer, actor and dancer by night); Italian angel Cinzia V. (our agent immobilare and geometra); Mario (our unofficial food critic who also works in the comune office) and his wife Giovanna (a teacher), Giampaolo (Mario’s brother and our authority on all things Ascolani); David and his mother Antonella (who are our upstairs neighbors, David is a geometra); Avril (doctor of holistic medicine as well as the wife of Mike, the British artist) and her good friend from London, Allison (a physical therapist who has also been active on our equivalent of the school board). Everyone seemed to enjoy each other’s company and it we shall consider it a success for our first effort. We feel so very fortunate to have such an incredible and varied group of acquaintances that are quickly becoming our friends. I told Cinzia M. that if she ever doubted what her kindness to us had accomplished, well look around. We would not know any of the people at this party or be in this wonderful apartment if she had not befriended us. Of course we will never be able to pay them back for their generosity because they all brought plants, flowers, gifts for our home and spirits of all kinds including a homemade coffee liquor and a traditional dessert wine made form an ancient recipe. Since we have been in this apartment we have been gifted over 20 bottles of wine – who wouldn’t like friends like that! Thankfully, our social life is ramping up as winter approaches. We were invited to Grace and Maurizo’s annual Halloween dinner. (See Food blog for menu.) Cinzia M. offered to pick us up and take us home, which was...