Buddies – Sergio & Larry Laura’s lovely table with Antipasti Fresh squid ink sack 2 Bucatini with Ascolani & Squid Ink/Saffron Sauces Brodetto Happy chandelier and happy people! Olive di Magro-ready to freeze or fry Grace’s Beautiful Christmas Eve Table Luca Opens the First Bottle of Bubbly We ate, and we ate, . . . Maurizio & Serafino Caroling Valentina & Antonella Cinzia M. and Newest Family Member The Welcoming The Chefs-Cinzia’s Mother (ctr) & Aunts Cinzia praising Son, Davide And we ate, and ate, . . . The Pizza Makers The pizza dough The pizza oven The pizza baker Cinzia V. & Italian flag pizza We’ve died and gone to Pizza Heaven We ate, and we ate, . . Cinzia’s Incredible Tart Serafino’s 2 Sisters & a Friend Maria & Wood Oven Frying Meatballs A table set for 29! Grace & Jackie (from Dublin) Teresa Kissing son, Serafino Yes, Teresa, I did get that photo We ate, and we ate, . . and we ate, . . . and we ate, . . . Serafino & Larry Harmonizing Our New Year’s Eve Party Larry’s Angels-Grace, Me, Cinzia M. We ate, and we ate, . . . . And we drank. Serafino & Maurizio Emidio, Giampaolo, Mariella & Cinzia Mario, Maurizio, Joanna (in back) Grace & Allesandra (front) Serafino & Larry harmonizing Giampaolo at microphone (in back) Serafino, Allesandra & Maurizio Jackie & Gina Check out Serafino’s expression Friends-Cinzia & Grace Serafino can dance, too! I’m trying to imitate Cinzia but it never looks the same. Maurizio, Allesandra, Emidio And then we just got crazy! Epiphany Eve @ upstairs neighbors Traditional costume Bafanoatti entertaining for treats Upstairs neighbors-David & Antonella...
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Christmas Day Our Creche Our tree Fountain & Market – Piazza Arringo Tree – Piazza Aringo Comune Courtyard Ice Skating – Piazza Aringo City Tours Donkey rides Christmas Market Piazza del Popolo Christmas Antiques Market Christmas Market Caffe Guido – Marzipan Shop Window Piazza Roma Corso Mazzini across from Piazza Ascoli handmade ceramic...
Read MoreFood – Christmas Holidays Cookies & Truffles: As is my MO, as long as I was making Peanut Butter Cookies, I made a lot. I had to make the plain ones where you press the fork onto the top because I could not find Hershey’s Kisses to make Peanut Butter Kisses. What I did not take to Sergio & Laura’s dinner or Cinzia V.’s pizza party, I plated and wrapped up as small gifts for Larry’s barber, my hairdresser, the guys in the grocery store, the ladies in the pharmacy, etc. This was much easier than the multi-stage mega cookie and tea-bread marathon I did in the US, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Of course, I have a lot fewer people to gift here. For the angels and neighbors I made Ina’s chocolate truffles with a hint of Cointreau. All sweets were greatly appreciated and totally unexpected which, as a wise relative recently said, makes it even better. Olive di Magro (without meat): Whether making them with meat or fish,the trick is to cut the olive away from the pit so you can recompose it. With a small paring knife, start at the stem and peel at an angle, like peeling an apple without breaking the strip of apple skin. Per every 50 olives: mix together 100 grams canned tuna in oil; 80 grams grated Parmesan cheese; 1 egg and fine bread crumbs, a spoon at a time, until you get the right texture (something that will hold together). Then you make little balls out of the tuna mix (about the size of the pit you removed) and wrap an olive around each ball and squeeze slightly together. If done correctly, they should hold together just fine. Then you take 3 bowls and in one put fine flour, a couple eggs stirred in the second and breadcrumbs in the third. Put the olives into each bowl in that order, and then put aside. When finished with the olives, they are ready to freeze or fry and serve. Click here for a video of how to make Olive all’Ascolana, also showing how to remove the olive pit. Our New Year’s Eve Party: I didn’t want to worry about where...
Read MoreHoliday Fun: There is a lot of information about food here, but I chose not to put this on the Food Blog because I cannot separate the celebrations and people from the foods – they are one. The holiday celebrations began as soon as we returned from Rome and kept on through the New Year and Epiphany. Accompanying photos should be up in a couple days. Laura & Sergio: As I have said before, my favorite thing is to be invited to someone’s home. Laura & Sergio (who use to own our apartment) hosted a small dinner party the day after we returned from our Rome trip. The invitation was for 8:00 PM, which is the normal start time for a dinner party in Italy. Their current apartment is only a couple blocks away from ours. Their building has a lovely gated garden in the front and their apartment is two stories and, as with many of the older buildings, this apartment has been totally remodeled. It is warmly decorated in a fun eclectic style to match Laura’s personality. As in most homes the centerpiece of the living area is the dining table. Over their table hangs a lovely Murano glass chandelier in the traditional style but in a mix of fun colors. Sitting at the table under that chandelier, you had to be happy! In addition to us, attendees were angels Cinzia M. and Grace, her partner Maurizio (the singer) and Rita, who works with Laura. They had selected some lovely wines to serve with the meal and we all brought a bottle, so there was no shortage of good wine. Laura had really put a lot into this dinner and we were the lucky beneficiaries. We started with a delicious guacamole (which I hadn’t had since we left the US) that Grace had made and a plate of traditional black olives with orange slices. Most notable was an organic brown bread with nuts that Laura had made that was as yummy as it was beautiful. For Primi we had two pasta sauces over bucatini. Bucatini is larger spaghetti pasta but with a hollow center to hold sauces well. It is, as Sergio pointed out, very hard...
Read MoreFood: Rome & Florence at Christmas The Perfect Bun: On the English web-site www.inromenow.com under the heading Restaurants is a subheading of American. There is a large ExPat contingent in Rome so here you will find a list of restaurants where you can get “hamburgers” and other American fare. Other than the ones I’ve made at home, we had not had a good hamburger in a restaurant in six months, so we were game. The closest one to the B&B was “The Perfect Bun” which looked like a typical American upscale bar and grill. The nostalgic menu had 15 kinds of burgers – your classic burgers plus bacon/blue cheese and chili – but they also had a Hell’s Burger, The Nightmare and The Big Badass Burger. The menu included chicken wings, ribs, steaks, nachos, burritos and other Mexican fare with brownies for dessert! We arrived without a reservation at 7:30 ish on a Saturday night and almost didn’t get in (I think the couple behind us were turned away), even though the place is pretty large with two levels. We noticed that they had a Sunday buffet (all you can eat, which we can’t do justice to) with pancakes, waffles, bagels, omelets, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, country potatoes, American coffee (which Larry had, but I consider a huge step down from Italian caffe) bloody Mary’s and Mimosas – we made a reservation right then for noon the next day. They also had a carving station with turkey, ham, roast beef, lamb, pastas, chicken and vegetable dishes, salad/fruit bar and great desserts – but we were there for the good ole American breakfast that does not exist in Ascoli. Yummmmmmm! Click here for website. We ate once right on the piazza by The Pantheon and another time on the Campo di Fiori, admittedly for convenience, and both were mediocre tourist meals at a relatively high price. Rick Steves warned us to just have a drink at these places and go somewhere else for dinner, but we were having too much fun people watching and were too lazy to relocate. Our bad. Cremeria Monteforte: Is a great gelateria in Rome that has fruit flavors that taste like biting into the fresh...
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Rome- The Vatican Rome – Vatican and Tiber River Rome – St. Peter’s Rome- St. Peter’s Basilica- St. Peter’s Basilica St. Peter’s St. Peter’s Dome St. Peter’s Dome and Baldiccino St. Peter’s Farnese Papal Crest St. Peter Rome- Castel St. Angelo Rome- Castel St. Angelo Castel St. Angelo C. St. Angelo Courtyard Castel St. Angelo Crossbow Castel St. Angelo Courtyard Castel St. Angelo Workshop Castel St. Angelo Armory Archangel Micheal – atop Castel St. Angelo River Tiber from C. St. Angelo Rome – Pantheon and Piazza del Rotunda Piazza del Rotunda Fountain Detail Pantheon Dome Interior Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore Piazza Navona at Christmas P.za. Navona and Fountain of the Four Rivers Fountain of four Rivers Detail Piazza Navona Christmas P. Navona Christmas Market P. Navona Christmas Market Christmas Market Tourist Rome – Spanish Steps Rome-Chestnuts and Dior Rome- Babo Natali ala Bulgari Cul de Sac pate & cheese Cul de Sac ravioli, meatballs, etc. Florence- Palazzo Vecchio Florence- Pal. Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery Florence- Loggia in P.zza della Signoria Florence – Duomo Florence – Duomo Florence – Duomo Baptistry Doors Florence Duomo Interior Florence- Duomo Dome Florence- Duomo Interior Florence- Duomo Interior Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Florence Christmas Market Tourist Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Doors Florence- Basilica di Santa Croce Cloister Basilica di Santa Croce Interior Basilica di Santa Croce Interior Basilica di Santa Croce High Alter Cross Sta. Croce- Tomb of Michelangello Sta. Croce- Tomb of Galileo Sta. Croce- Tomb of Dante Alighieri Sta. Croce- Tomb of Machiavelli Santa Croce- Side Chapel Santa Croce – Side Chapel Santa Croce – Side...
Read MoreROME & FLORENCE at Christmas We love our life here in Ascoli but it was time to get out of town again and see more of Italy. We had been to Rome and Florence before, but not in several years and never at Christmas. It was also about time we took the bus from Ascoli to Rome, which is the most cost-effective means of getting there – only 54 Euro for two people round-trip. Many people we know take it to Rome/Fiumicino airport and use that as the jumping-off point to wherever they need to go . What was a bit of a surprise, not a problem, is that you have to change buses in Porto Ascoli (about an hour out) and have since learned this is a new twist. It wasn’t a problem, just a surprise. The buses are comfortable, long-distance buses without bathrooms. We were pleasantly surprised to have what was essentially a bus attendant on the long leg who served water and caffe. I’m pretty sure she had other responsibilities too. They made one rest-stop in-route at what looked like an Italian Stuckey’s, minus the pecan logs. Due to construction on the autostrada (which has been going on since long before we got to Italy) the bus was running about an hour late. No problem for us since central Rome was our final destination, but if you had a flight to catch, it could be a bit stressful (i.e., our friends the Klesper’s exerience). So after a comfortable trip of four hours we arrived at the Rome/Tiburtina Station around 3:00 PM. As you can imagine in any large city, the bus station was chaos. Luckily the taxi stand was not hard to find. Navona Queen/Navona King Suites: This was our third time in Rome and we knew exactly which area of the city we wanted to stay in. We decided to try this new B&B (opened in May 2013) in a terrific location and are so happy we did. It is in a very old palazzo right on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II (next to the piazza of Chiesa Nuova) but the entire B&B has been totally refurbished. As is the case in many large ancient cities...
Read MoreBuon Natale, Joyex Noel and Felice Anno! La Bafana has come and gone and the Italian holiday season is now officially over. Monday, 6 January, was an Italian holiday (Epiphany) with banks and post offices closed. Their holiday break over, the children returned to school yesterday. The holiday decorations in homes are being boxed up and stored away until next Natale. In Piazza Aringo, Babbo Natale is nowhere to be found, the Christmas market stands are closed and waiting to be dismantled, the donkeys are taking a well-deserved rest after carrying an untold number of delighted children through the piazzas. The ice rink has started to melt, the speakers that had ensured a festive mood with holiday music (oddly mostly in English) are now silent, and the holiday decorations in the piazzas and adjacent streets are being removed. The shops have changed their holiday displays and one of my favorite Italian words – SALDI – is now plastered on every window. Tis the season to shop and blog! We spent a very good week in Rome in early December enjoying the sights and their famous Christmas market, decorations and some good food. From there we took a quick one-day trip to Florence to see their holiday decorations and their international Christmas market. When we left for Rome on 6 December, Ascoli was just putting up their decorations, there were almost no stores with holiday displays in the windows and few places you could even purchase holiday decorations. As I mentioned in another post, the holiday season begins in Italy on 8 December (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) and in Ascoli that tradition holds. When we returned late on the 13th, Ascoli had become an even more magical place than usual. I know I’m partial but, in all honesty, Ascoli at Christmas is way more beautiful in every way than Rome or Florence. In fairness to Rome and Florence, in this case size does matter, they are too large and spread out to achieve the intimate fairytale quality of Ascoli no matter how hard they try. One night after walking around our town with the lights, music, market, ice rink, donkey rides and train – I told Larry that I...
Read MoreIt is a tradition of the New Year observance to look back over the past year and attempt to put it into perspective. The year 2013 has been very significant for us. It is the year in which we became Ex-Patriots in Italy. We hope this Blog has gotten across how very pleased we are to have made this move but I’m not sure we yet fully grasp how we came to make such a good decision. In attempting to better understand how this came about, an idea I’m currently playing with has to do with how a change in life circumstances can lead to the generation of new options. Gail Sheehy and others have talked about life having ‘passages’ – significant stages in the course of living. Retirement has been a very important event for us, just as it has for so many others. Gradually coming to terms with the adjustments retirement imposed on us was probably a factor in starting the reassessment process that ultimately brought about this decision. A professional career becomes a pivot around which so many of life’s structures operate and is also a source of affirmation. Once the old structures and sources for affirmation don’t have the same immediacy they used to provide, there is the option to develop a new focus for your life. Developing a different direction is not so much a discarding of the past, as it is moving beyond it into something new and satisfying. In moving forward, it would be a tragedy to diminish any sense of pride in what has been accomplished in the past. Past accomplishments reside in memory and should be a source of satisfaction. An appreciation of the accomplishments of the past is, at best, a source for having confidence to move forward and take on new challenges. The future can hold any number of opportunities for growth in new directions. An interesting insight is suggested in biology. The concept of ‘Atrophy’ suggests that a biological function that is not kept active deteriorates. Growing and developing ourselves seems to be built into the dynamic of sustaining who and what we are. In retirement we are probably also dealing with an aging process that contains...
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