Category Archives: Italian life

Luca’s gift

So, I forgot to mention that on Thursday, when Luca returned from his pranzo, he had a bag of fresh lettuce and radicchio for us. He is so sweet. How many people have had their house painter bring them fresh garden veggies from their orto? I saw a crisp salad in my future.

Luca is a very typical Italian. They are super regimented people. In the morning, he greets me with how are you? Come stai? I always say “bene, bene, è tu?” Then we get along with the observations of the day’s weather. Later, when he leaves for lunch it is always buon pranzo! And at night there’s the obligatory buona serata. On Friday it is always buona domenica. They always have a coffee and a cornetto (pastry) for breakfast at a bar. Pranzo is mandatory and an hour and a half to two hours long. I ask Luca what he had for Pranzo and it is always pasta. This is what all traditional Italians have for lunch – everyday. But the fresh vegetables he brought made my heart happy. 🙂💕 Today, I had a big salad with the lettuce and I added a hard boiled egg and a ripe avocado. I whipped up a homemade ranch dressing. It was delicious. Luca came out while I was eating it and he seemed pleased I was enjoying his produce. But the amusing thing is, when he left for the evening, he mentioned bringing more veggies tomorrow and asked if I had something other than the salad. I said no. He was incredulous. How can someone have pranzo without pasta?! Amusing, but so typical.

We called the kitchen designers Friday to see when we can expect the kitchen. 2-3 MORE WEEKS! Argh! I hate, hate, hate not having a kitchen. 😡 They lied to us. Big surprise, 🫤

We are hanging close to the apartment until Luca gets done. It is mainly herding the cats. Keeping them in a part of the house where they can’t get into paint. He is painting the bedrooms now. The guest room and the “junk” room are in progress, then our room the hall and the bath are next. The big part is the living room and kitchen. That will take time. Looks like it will go into next week.

The weather is changing. The highs in the day are between 15 and 21 Celsius. Nice. Nights are still cold. I am itching to go somewhere, like to taste wine. Or, I saw a frantoio (olive mill) with tours that looks great. Ciao for now!

Thoughts

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So, since we moved here I have had plenty of time to think. I have also had a couple people ask about this. I am going to share my thoughts with you, my friends.

I have decided there are two Italys. I guess I have just really realized this since moving. We used to live in one Italy, and now we are living in the other Italy. When Americans think of coming to Italy, they think of life in the small, ancient and quaint hill towns, or life in the bucolic countryside. The houses always have beams and archways and terra cotta tiles, with outside loggia to enjoy dinners in the open air. Yes, that is one Italy. Life in the Centro Storico, where we lived before, was this Italy.

The other Italy I have decided is the real Italy. It is where the middle class Italians live in apartments. Almost always in a city or town and usually in a newer neighborhood. By that I mean newer than the ancient centers. Our building has four apartments off of our common stairway and elevator. The neighbors we have met are super nice and very friendly but living busy lives with jobs, children, dogs and Nonni. There are shops on the ground floor. Street parking along the streets. A couple nice coffee shops nearby. Butcher, pasticcerie etc. nearby too. But it is NOT quaint.

Me, being American, miss that quaintness very much. But there are big disadvantages to it as well. The old buildings are drafty. They have thick stone walls and no insulation. They get cold in winter and stay cold. They have numerous stairs. They are generally vertical. Systems don’t always work like we would like. Unless you completely strip them to the walls and rafters and start anew. Our newer building (it’s about 50 years old) is warm. With actual insulation! What a concept. We have had a few Italians in, workmen, my housecleaner, and they love the apartment. It is an Italian’s dream but not necessarily an American’s.

I’m not sure what point I am trying to make. I guess I just wanted to put into words what I’ve been thinking about. My observations.
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We just returned from a walk to the kilometer zero market. Not many stands right now. We are reaching the end of winter vegetables, and not quite to the spring vegetables. I bought more chard. We had a caffè at bar Mary and chatted with Irene. I took some donations to Books for Dogs. We checked the mail at our old apartment, went to the Carrefour and the butcher for spalla dì maiale, pork shoulder. I saw I can cook it in the instant pot.
Buon fine di settimana a tutti!

Blessing of the house

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So we found a flyer in our mailbox telling us the local priests will be blessing our home on March 1. Don Mario is our assigned Priest for this address. The other one is Don Gaetano. There is a supremely ugly Catholic Church for this part of town nearby. We figure they come from there. Back when we lived in Centro there was the 15th century Collegiata associated with the three churches in Piazza San Francesco. And there was another church also 15th century, not far from our old house whose bells serenaded us. Not being Catholic I think we will pass on the blessing…but given the problems of moving here…maybe we shouldn’t! 🤔

We tried another Rosticceria than the one downstairs. Luther, being unadventurous got another half chicken. I got a pasta and we got some veggies. It was pretty good. Better than the downstairs one. Next time I am getting the Torta al Testo. This is a specialty around here. A dense but soft flat bread. You slice it in half and make a sandwich with it. The traditional filling is sausage and cooked spinach.

Our painter, Luca, starts the job next week. He said it will take two weeks. It is just a one man show and this is a big house. He will begin upstairs. This week I also had a cabinetmaker come. He was nice and had some good ideas. I will call him next week to have him come measure and tell him our final decisions. Not much exciting to tell right now but I plan to finish unpacking the rest of our boxes this weekend. Ciao a tutti!

Sunday lunch out

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Luther and I decided to have Sunday lunch in a restaurant right next to us that we love. We lucked out and got the last table. Note to self: remember to reserve next time. C’era una Volta is the name of the restaurant. It means Once Upon a Time. It is a family run place with no menu. They just come and read what they’ve got. They are known for their antipasto platter so we got one to split. And then we each got a pasta. I got tagliatelle with cinghiale (boar) ragù bianco. Luther’s came with guanciale (pork cheeks) and potatoes. It was all good. First three pictures are the antipasto, next my pasta, then Luther’s.

It was good to get out for a bit without having to get something done!

On Saturday we picked out a stufa. We have a chimney sweep coming to clean and then they will come to install.

It is Monday. New week. New things to get done! Ciao for now!

One week from today

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So, I’m happy to report things still are on schedule for The Move. We had our meeting with our sellers. It was good to get back into the apartment because it has been a very long time since we viewed it. They are obviously working on getting out. They had SO much stuff. I can’t imagine. And they told us their house is not ready so they are storing their things and renting a small apartment.

We had a lot of questions which we got answered, but there was one pressing issue in my mind…that the floor plan I had was not the most recent. In my pictures of the apartment there appeared to be a room that was formerly a terrace. So, with our friend Jim we went straight upstairs and saw that I was right, there is a big room that was formerly a terrace. Marcella, one of the selling couple said the work was all done legally and there was a new Catasto. So long story short, the work was done but the Geometra did not do the paperwork and register at the Comune. This also happened to us in our present apartment. We moved the kitchen, which is a major change that needed to be registered. We didn’t know at the time that it was needed, and that it was not done. We got it done and all was well. Today we heard it was an easy fix and they would have it finished before closing next week. It made for a stressful weekend of waiting. Here is the mystery room! I love the space and have no idea what I will do with it. I need to decide this week if I want our office things put up here. I am leaning towards yes.

Here are a few pictures of the bathrooms and some other spaces. I was pleased to see they were leaving some of the built in storage closets. Not all, but enough. And all the built in bookcases. They will look pretty empty because we don’t have a lot of physical books anymore. Nor a lot of decorative things. I am sure we can make it nice…

This is the top floor. When I came up I smelled a lovely aroma. It was Marcella’s two lemon trees! See them in the photo above on the right? She keeps them inside in winter. They call it a lemonaia. The trees were full of flowers which have a very sweet aroma. This is also the space I will use to make my open plan kitchen. Behind that large china cabinet is a wall and a minuscule kitchen. We will remove that kitchen and the wall. Then across that whole back wall will be the kitchen and in front, an island. Looking forward to that project! Here is the minuscule cucina.

Very odd to me that Marcella and Walter do not have an oven in either kitchen. So strange. Do they never roast anything? Or bake anything? I couldn’t live without one. I am buying one that sits on the counter for the downstairs kitchen. But for the new kitchen it will be a very nice range, this time free-standing. Not built in like our present one.

So there you have our latest update. This week I have to do a lot of final stuff. We also are meeting some new friends for dinner Thursday. And there is a Quiz night tomorrow night — a benefit for books for dogs. Should be fun! Ciao for now! 🌈

Off and running…

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We got the new year off with a bang! We are only five days in, four of those were working days, and already I have received my renewed drivers license and our new Tessere di Sanitaria, health care cards. I think getting the later this fast must be a record!

I also have an upcoming unpleasant test to prepare for. I think most can figure out what it is 😏. For this I had to get blood work done and buy meds which my doctor said were over the counter. Got both of those things done yesterday.

We did a pleasant task today as well. Thank goodness sometimes we get to do fun things! We ordered two beds for our new house. We have only one mattress that we are bringing so we also bought a new mattress. We visited our old friend Sr. Tiziano. We bought a lot of things from him back when we moved into this apartment. He has a showroom with some furniture. But he also has books full of products to order. I leafed through the copious pages and chose two pretty iron beds. I really like their look. Clean and spare. We asked if he could deliver the same day as we move into our new place and he can. That’s good because I want to move in as soon as we can. A bed to sleep in is essential.

Tomorrow is Epifania, Epiphany. It is a holiday here. The end of the Advent-Christmas season. I wrote a post about this and the beloved witch Befana who comes the eve of Epifania. It is an interesting story — check this link for the legend. All the Italian children wait for her to come and bring them gifts. Much like Santa. Anyway. I heard the town band playing and went to the window to see. They were coming down the street all dressed as witches! And one of them was dressed as Befana herself. She is the one in the scarf and checked apron.

We are nearing our move. I am doing some packing of things that I would rather not have the movers packing for me. Our guest room is piled with boxes. I have been purchasing some odds and ends that I think will come in handy. Like a hand truck. I love hand trucks. I used to manage all of the trade shows for my employer, back when I worked. I accompanied our big display booth, making sure it got to the show and back safely. I used a hand truck all the time. I decided it was just what I need now to move boxes around. I think Amazon knows how much I love hand trucks because they sent me two!

Ciao for now!

Capodanno!

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Today is New Year’s Eve. New Year is called Capodanno in Italian. Everyone is wishing each other buon anno and auguri. Today is Saturday so I got to go shopping for the beautiful produce I needed for our dinner today and tomorrow. I also wanted to get a pork shoulder. My eating plans for the weekend are in step with the traditions of two countries, Italy today, and the US tomorrow.

In Italy, the tradition is to eat lentils on New Years Eve. The legumes are coin-shaped. So they are supposed to bring you wealth. They traditionally eat Cotechino at the holidays too. This is a traditional product made of minced pork, fat, and rind with salt, spices and wine. Since pigs were generally slaughtered in December, this sausage became a symbol of the holidays, accompanied by lentils and mustard or mashed potatoes. Super easy to prepare. Here are the ingredients.

So. I prepared the Cotechino as the box instructed as well as lentils. I decided a salad was needed for a green — I had bought some nice greens from the market today. I also added an egg. Here are pictures.

This was our first Cotechino. It tasted a lot like corned beef. It was pretty good. I am not a big meat eater. The small Cotechino was perfect for the two of us. I would do this again!

Tomorrow I will be doing Hoppin John. Carolina gold rice, black eyed peas and pork shoulder. Homage to my southern roots. The more luck the better for the coming year.

Buon anno a tutti and Auguri! 🎉🎊