Larry and I want to wish all of our Blog followers a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I believe only the Americans, Canadians and Dutch celebrate this day.  About three weeks ago our oldest daughter, Jeni, asked if we were going to have Thanksgiving for our new Italian friends.  I have to admit she was way ahead of me as I hadn’t thought about it but, since we have so much in our lives to be thankful for, it seemed like a wonderful idea.  We have invited six friends to join us for An American Thanksgiving (actually being held on Saturday since they all work).  I’m still searching for the illusive ingredients to put it together, so I’ll let you know how it all worked out later in the food blog. Baby it is cold outside!  I really don’t expect much sympathy when we’re in Italy living our dream.  But honestly, other than leaving loved ones behind, for me dealing with the winter weather may be the hardest part of this adventure.  Anyone who knows me well is aware of how much I love the sun and warm weather, so California was my weather paradise.  I was raised on the east coast where we had winter but, once I was old enough to understand weather nationwide, I told everyone that I wanted to live in Florida or California. I admire the meteorologists in this area because I’ve never lived anywhere that they could predict the weather worth a darn.  If our weather forecast in Ascoli predicts rain at 3:00, more often than not, right around 3:00 it starts to rain.  I can probably count the number of sunny days so far this November on one hand.  This is no surprise, but that was the one bit of knowledge I had to put into my “denial file” in order to move here.  Monday night’s prediction was for 1″ of snow – our first in the city.  Fortunately, we took the forecast seriously and braved the cold rain on Monday to run our errands and gather supplies.  Before we went to bed Larry finally figured out a way to support a cover for our potted lemon tree, so we were hunkered down and...

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...

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...

(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...

The other day, we joined a guided, three hour walking tour of Ascoli. At the outset, the guide asked, “How many tourists are in the group?” Appropriately, neither Arlene nor I raised our hands. It was one of those little reminders we fortunately get that we actually now belong here – we aren’t visitors! But being stranieri, resident foreigners, in a land different than where you have spent your life up to now is quite a new experience for us. It has been a little over four months since we first stepped onto the ground in Ascoli. There has been the inevitable, readjusting to do – in particular, overcoming the challenge of attempting to communicate in a language other than our own. From the minimal amount of Italian we acquired on previous visits to Italy, augmented by Rosetta Stone, we can, sort of, get by – that is until we encounter the local dialect. Then all bets are off – for now. Progress with communication seems slow at times but we are making some progress, thanks largely to the very tolerant Italians. Being ‘off the beaten track’ means there has been little necessity to use or acquire English by many of the Ascolani. As a result, most Italians are grateful for our still inadequate attempts to speak Italian. We sense some occasional amusement at our feeble attempts that we have generally found to be a source of mutual enjoyment. Thankfully, this has been a shared amusement and not condescension. Just one more element in the generally socially positive and open attitudes we experience in Italy. When it comes to learning Italian, first, the ear needs to get retuned to new pronunciation pitch sounds and cadences. For some reason, understanding Italian doesn’t seem to work well if you are expecting it to sound like English. The vowels are all different sounding and then there is that staccato, r-r-r-rolled “R.” Each day seems to add a couple of new words and retunes the ear to the point of recognizing, ‘so that is what they are actually saying!’ And the Italian proclivity to gesticulate does wonders. Reading sign and body language turns out to be an excellent augment to an inadequate Italian...

(See related photos under Portfolio menu. Note they are photographed with a wide-angle lens so rooms are not quite as large as they appear, however, the ceilings really are 11 ft. high.) The brother of Mario, our unofficial food critic, named Giampaolo, knows about the artist who painted the frescoes in our apartment and says a relative of the artist still lives in Ascoli and has a photography studio. The artist, Egido Coppola (1852-1928), lived in Ascoli and was a famous artist in his time. He painted frescoes in several villas and churches in the surrounding areas. Our landlord told us that one of the buildings in the courtyard behind us use to be a silk factory and he thinks the person who lived in our building was associated with it, while the building directly behind us was the servant quarters. Italy had a flourishing silk industry beginning in the middle-ages that lasted for centuries. The other day when we attended the opening Mike’s art exhibit, we discovered that a couple we met there owned our apartment from 1999 to 2006. Sergio and Laura said the place was a shambles when they bought it and they are responsible for the beautiful restoration. Sergio spoke fondly of the property saying he left his heart here, and I would guess a lot of lire, and sold it to our current landlord in 2006 or 2007. Laura, who supervised the restoration, speculates that the original building was built sometime around the end of the 16th Century. They also said the living room area of our apartment was once the dining room of a villa where silk merchants were fed and that is why the frescos are about game and associated foods. Laura is a friend of Cinzia M. and is the person who told the Mike and Avril, who have the apartment below them, about our blog. Crazy coincidence? Maybe this kind of thing is just normal in a town this size? Living/dining room area – Sergio and Laura confirmed that they are not aware of another bay window like ours in Ascoli and told us the current woodwork at the bottom of the windows was salvaged from the kitchen. We assume...

Although I haven’t had time to blog about it, our Italian angels have been very busy these last eight weeks. Lovely Caterina told us that her father had asked around to see who our new landlords were to be sure they were reputable – how sweet – and yes they are. She is an attorney and he has an important role in his family’s winery in nearby Teramo and gave us a case of wines from his winery as a welcome gift – they were wonderful. We asked Caterina if she knew someone with a truck and a strong back that we could pay to help us move to our new apartment. She promptly introduced us to Emidio (yes named after Ascoli’s patron saint). He is a muscular attractive entrepreneur, maybe in his early 30’s, who describes himself as a “problem solver” which is surely a great guy to know. He has a company that deals in moving items out for companies going out of business, buying their office furniture, and reselling it to new companies he is helping set up. Oh yes, and he also rents cars and has a shoe outlet in another town. I think he also has several other enterprises but I can’t remember what they are. He delivered boxes and tape, moved us to our new apartment (he lives up the block, how handy) and later rented us a very large panel van to drive to IKEA for one of our major pick-ups. When he came by to retrieve the van, upon our late return at 8:30 that night, he would not let us take our purchases up the stairs without his assistance – what a guy. Caterina told me I needed to sign up for the recycle program, so she picked me up one day and took me to the recycle facility to register and pick up our organic recycle bin and four different recycle bags. She explained that Ascoli just started recycling a couple years ago (too late in her opinion) but is now proceeding with an Italian passion. Organic is picked up three days a week, non-recyclable the three alternate days each week, plastic and paper/cardboard once per week (except, of...

Homies in Ascoli

By Larry & Arlene on Oct 11, 2013 in Blog | 4 comments

We had a wonderful visit from one of the BATB*, Laura Klesper, and her husband Gary. Laura just retired and they are celebrating with a long vacation  in Italy and France. They visited Ascoli on the heels of a one-week cooking school in the countryside east of Rome, prefaced by time touring Rome, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii. We sent Carlo, a local taxi driver, to pick them up at the cooking school to maximize their time in Ascoli. The Klespers arrived bearing delicious gifts of wine, cheese and salumi from farms they had visited the week before. Their time here was too short, only a day and a half, but we were glad to see them and appreciated their extra effort to get to Ascoli. It was fun to show someone from home our new town and confirm that we are not looking at Ascoli through rose-colored glasses. We heard them say things like, “wow, there is a photo op around every corner,” and “this is like the place you always hope to find when you travel, but rarely do.” We had great meals at Il Desco and Country House San Giorgio, now rated #1 and #2 respectively on Trip Advisor. However, Gary said if it were up to him he’d switch the ratings as he thought Country House was better. They left Ascoli by bus to Fiumicino airport outside Rome. From there they flew to France where they are now spending a relaxing couple of months enjoying the country Laura loves. So, who’s next? (Sorry about the photo but an hour of messing with it has gotten me nowhere but older. You can see the important folks!) *BATB – acronym for Babes at the Beach. This is a group of about 17 incredible women from SAIC that I am so proud to be a part of. We have been getting together for a pot-luck every three months or so for about 24 years – yikes! When we started, we worked in La Jolla and originally met at La Jolla Cove or on the beach near Scripps.  All the BATB have now either retired or left SAIC, but our bond just gets stronger every...

The vacation is over. I am certain of this because last month I washed and waxed hardwood floors, scrubbed a kitchen, hemmed and hung four pair of curtains and performed many other tasks that I never do on vacation. After scrubbing the tile floor in the bathroom on my hands and knees I told Larry that I felt like Cinderella. Nowhere in my imaginings of this adventure did I picture giving up my spoiled princess status I have held for many years. Larry went on about how much we could save by doing the cleaning ourselves and put that money toward travel. He said he didn’t mind pitching in and helping, so I assigned him to washing windows and cleaning his bathroom – which he did without complaint. However, my strategy must have worked because we are now looking for a referral for a housekeeper. I think I’ll go polish my tiara! Yes, six weeks ago we moved into our beautiful apartment here in Ascoli. I have not blogged since because my multi-tasking skills are not what they use to be. Being very goal oriented, Larry and I decided to have our apartment in good order by the time our first visitors arrived, which was last week (more on that in the next blog). So you could say we were speed nesting. If we don’t set a goal then “whenever” sometimes turns into “never” and there is nothing better to get you moving like inviting company. Unlike the last 25 years, Larry and I do not plan to spend our time here renovating where we live. However, Larry did change out the light fixtures to LED, repair some nonfunctioning items and patch and paint walls – some things never change. I never thought I’d be so excited about a clothesline, but I am thrilled that I now have two lines installed on the terrace. Of course, these tasks could only be accomplished with some new tools that must be housed in a new rolling tool box. As we all know, anything with a motor or wheels makes Larry very happy. After countless trips by both rented car and train to IKEA in Ancona, the staff now smile and nod...