Pesto Day

Daniele's Mother makes pesto a few times each summer, when her and Daniele's basil is growing. This time I helped. We harvested all our basil in the morning and brought it over. Then theirs. It was a lot. Antonietta determined it was three batches worth. First we washed the basil by rinsing it in one side of the two-sided sink, then the other, and repeating until clean. Then we spread them out on the kitchen table to dry on clean dish towels. Then I grated the parmigiano and romano cheeses while she got her blender ready and chopped the garlic. She eyeballed all the measurements, but I guess when it's all delicious, it's hard to mess up. We had bought most the pinoli nuts, but Giulio, Danile's father had also gotten some fresh ones from the trees outside their apartment.

Antonietta blended each batch into perfectly-smooth green deliciousness. Then it was poured in what I would call plastic dixie cups, they call disposable espresso cups. We freeze them and each one can be thawed for the perfect “for two” serving. Or cut in half for a simple “for one” meal.

We have to leave our little babies here to freeze. They transport better (safer) once they are in solid / frozen form. But this is enough maybe to last a year, and now I know the secrets!

(Antonietta making pesto)

More photos are in my Summer Rome Album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110608Roma

Scicli, Sicily and the trip home

Finishing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

Our last days of vacation were in the town of Scicli. It was like Noto in that there were tourists as well as people actually working and going about there lives in this city. Noto had considerably more tourists, but Scicli had plenty to offer. There is a canal running through the town with all these little bridges. There are lots of piazzas, I'm actually not sure which was the “main” one. The first big one seemed to be setting up for a big out-door dinner while we were walking through. The second had tons of people just sitting outside enjoying the evening there. The convent, set atop a giant rocky mountaintop, sets the backdrop for the whole city.

(Convento Suore Domenicane del Sacro Cuore di Gesù / Convent in Scicli)

Our B&B gave us a good dinner recommendation, Trattoria del Ponte. The food was great. We were right by the entrance to another room where a child's birthday party was taking place, which made the night way more entertaining. When we finished dinner I was impressed how alive the city was. Other places we stayed at seemed dead at night (and sometimes during the day).

I think we got an incredibly authentic Sicilian experience here. We were staying at Casa di Pam, a B&B run by Pam and her brother. Just the year before they had moved to this bigger building to accommodate all their business. Though it appeared at the time we and a man also from Rome (though not originally) were the only guests (off season, after all). The other man was looking to buy something near here for retirement. I learned all of this over breakfast. The four of us: the man, Pam, Daniele, and I sat for maybe two hours talking over breakfast. Pam had lived in Rome for a little while, the San Lorenzo area, so we all had so much to talk about. I learned it is very popular for Italians to retire in Sicily where the price of living is significantly lower. I also learned that salaries in Italy are not scaled for region. So a person with the same job makes the same amount whether they live and work in the center of Rome or a tiny little town in Sicily. Which begs the question, why quality of life (and cost of living) have not caught up in these poorer areas. I think there is a large amount of unemployed residents in these areas. There is a political movement from Milan (where the cost of living is highest) to change this and scale salaries for cost of living, but it will probably fail, as so many people benefit from the system. Pam had interesting insight on the local economy. She said there is much more work now than there was years ago for the people who want it, but not everyone does.

(A red Fiat 500 on Ponte Umberto I in Scicli)

That day we started the journey home. In true Daniele fashion, we needed to get one more visit to a beach first (it should be noted Rome has a beach on the same sea). We stopped at a beach near Sampieri. It was a beautiful day for the beach, like every day we had. It was hot and dry. Luckily I can always go into the water when I feel like I'm gong to faint from the heat. We didn't stay too long because we had so much to drive still.

We stopped at Messina, where we get the ferry to Calabria, to get some pastries for Daniele's parents (I got one last cannoli). We also picked up some pizza to go from the place we had arrancini on our way in. Daniele got me pizza alla norma, which was the traditional style pasta I had eaten several times on this trip. It's made with eggplant, peppers, and tomatos covered with grated ricotta salata cheese on top. The pasta is served hot, but this pizza was served cold. It was delicious!

Daniele drove straight home all through the night so we got in at I-don't-even-know-o-clock. It was how we came down too, but much further this time, since we added the rest of Calabria and a piece of Sicily.

The rest of the pictures from Scicli and everywhere else are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Noto Agroturismo, and Modica

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

That night we circled back to Noto, but this time we didn't stay in the center. We stayed at an old farm in the countryside that takes guests. This industry is called “agrotourism” in Italy and is very popular. The place we were staying at, B&B Anticomar, was really cool. Our room had vaulted ceilings with exposed beams and was all wood (very uncommon in Italy where stone is cheaper than lumber). All the furniture seemed to be antique and was all weird and different. In the morning we pigged out on all sorts of home-made breakfast food served by the owner's wife. The owner came around and chatted with us, gave us some nice places to check out in the area. But we never went because I wanted to go to Modica... the city of Chocolate!

(Its like the map is dipped in chocolate!)

Modica is a city famous for chocolate. As in regular chocolate, chocolate gelato, chocolate granita, and who knows what. And like any small city famous for something, they are proud of it. At the Sicilian gelateria I frequent in Rome, they have “Ciocolato di Modica” as a standard flavor. I was really excited for this place. In the end it wasn't the chocolate pig-out I imagined, but the city was way prettier than I expected.

Like many ancient Italian cities, there is the upper/old town and the lower/new town where the old town overflowed past its walls and down the hill. Where we live in Monterotundo, the two are rather separate; we drive to go to the old town. Here in Modica you can walk between them and there are buildings along the incline of the hill that once protected the old center. All the architecture is beautiful. The new town had mostly baroque facades.

We covered the lower, then the upper city, stopping up top for lunch. We found this cool place where I had a tasty black rice dish. Back in the lower city I had a chocolate gelato filled brioche. Imagine a fancy Italian ice cream sandwich. Daniele was having a terrible time because there were on and off showers and Italians hate being out in the rain. Personally I found it refreshing compared to the heat we had been suffering. I couldn't bring back any chocolate because there were still some days left of our trip and the car gets too hot.I found this considerably more upsetting than getting caught in a little rain.

(City of Modica)

(Chiesa San Salvatore of Modica)

The rest of the pictures from Modica are in my Calabria and Sicilia album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, Portopalo, Marzemeni, and Pozzallo, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

We left in the afternoon for Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, which is basically a nature reserve. There were paths through some swampy and wooded areas leading to a beach. The beach was really interesting; some squishy plant product covered the sand. There was also ruins of Tonnara. I'm dumb and thought the town was named Tonnara, since it had big signs saying “Tonnara” pointing to it, but turns out lots of cities in Italy, especially Sicily have a “Tonnara” just like they have a port or main square. It is where they fished for and processed the tuna. Obviously, right?

Anyway, Tonnara was really cool, it was basically just ruins that were open to walk through. There were very few other people there. We did pass a middle aged American couple. Before I could say hi and make friends they started talking about us, we were speaking Italian to each other at the time. Nothing bad, just making observations about us clearly in ear-shot in a “I assume you can't understand me” kind of way. I figured it would be more snotty than friendly to let myself be known as a fellow countryman at that point, besides, I love when people think I'm Italian! (Though it's only ever the fellow foreigners who do)

(Squishy beach at Vendicari Natural Reserve)

(The ruins of Tonnara in Vendicari Natural Reserve)

Next we went to the town of Marzemeni, founded by Arabs and an important fishing town up until the last century. This was a really small town. It was cute with a color fishing boats in the port. Now a small tangent, Italians do things certain ways and at certain times. I think it's just that their culture is more homogenous. Hey, they are all Italian after all (except all the immigrants and tourists, of course, but we won't count them since no one else seems to). This extends to taking vacation in August. In August everyone takes their annual vacation, the radical ones might go in July. Those who stay domestic, typically go south to somewhere with a nice beach like Sicily. Now my boyfriend has a shift-job so he takes his vacation at different times, also he knows me well enough to know it would be pointless to bring me to Sicily in the August heat. So this is June when we were in here. June is off season. It was most obvious in this town. On every street, there was at least one house being renovated, presumably in preparation for the peak season (we actually saw this a lot all over Sicily). Walking through the main square, the locals looked up at us funny in a “who are you?” kind of way. But Daniele loved it. He is convinced the smallest, most hidden, sometimes dirtiest, places have the best food. We actually came back here at dinner time and walked trough the whole town a second time looking for a place to eat. We couldn't look the first time because restaurants don't open until 8 PM typically, so we can't see the menu. There are plenty of places in Sicly that every single thing they make is fish, which I don't eat, so we need to see a menu before committing. We did eventually agree on a place called Aquaram, right on the port, where seemingly everyone in the town was eating that night. I had a delicious pizza and Daniele really liked his swordfish. Yeah, picking restaurants for our two meals out each day actually ate a lot of out vacation time.

(Colorful boats in the old fisherman village of Marzemeni )

(Church in the old square of Marzemeni)

In between we checked into our hotel in Portopalo, another town just down the road still on the coast, but we didn't get to explore the town much until the next day. This was our one hotel without included breakfast, so we went to a bar where I got to try the traditional Sicilian breakfast of granita (Italian ice) and a brioche. Sicilian granita is famous for being especially fine and smooth. I don't remember what flavor I got, but Daniele got the traditional almond flavor-- it was so good I didn't give it back after trying it!

After breakfast we went to the beach. The beach was not that special and kinda “ehh” but there was an island across from where we were. The couple next to us from Northern Italy found the guy you pay to bring you over there in his boat (and back), and we over heard and tagged along. The Island was gorgeous! Cristal clear blue water, it was like a swimming pool. Only the few of us from the boat on the island. Some ruins that I never really got to check out because time for the boat back came all too quickly.

The boat off the island picked us up in time for lunch (they do everything at set times, I told you). We found this kind of cafeteria place higher up in the town with average food. After we saw the rest of the town, including the Tonnara of Portopalo just off the port.

(Edge of the city of Portopalo)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Pozzallo. We stayed at the beach for a while first. It was nice to see another city, but the island-beach from the morning at Portopalo was *so* much nicer. This beach had a dirt-sand that left me and my towel all brown and icky and a little damp. There were lots of kids here too, playing soccer and flirting with each other. On the other hand, the city itself was really nice. It had way more going on that the last few towns we had visited. I took advantage of being in civilization to nab some fried goodies that ended up being dinner and my second Sicilian cannoli.

The rest of the pictures from these towns are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Noto, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

That afternoon we headed to our next city, Noto. Noto Antica lies 5 miles north on Mount Alvera. In the Roman era the city opposed the governor of Sicily, in 866 was conquered by the Arabs, and later became a rich Norman city. In the renaissance, under the kings of Sicily, the city gave birth to many important architects and musicians. However I never saw this original city as it was completely destroyed in the 1693 earthquake.

The new city was built closer to the sea on the left bank of the River Asinaro. It was planned on a grid by Giovanni Battista Landolina. Being rebuild as it was, the new city is itself a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque architecture, thanks in great part to Rasario Gaglardi, Francesco Sortino, and others.

(Some of the Baroque architecture of Noto)

It is not that strange for cities for be rebuild like this in Italy. In fact the city of Old Calcata, where I spent Halloween last year, was condemned by the government and everyone from the town moved to newly-build New Calcata. Weird, huh?

Anyway, Noto. We stayed at the family owned B&B Federica. They were really sweet. Told us about the festival going on that evening, for the new mayor (actually they were waiting for us to be all settled in to go there themselves). And told us a great place to eat dinner, Trattoria Ducezio. At dinner I solidified a realization that Italians (as a generalization) really like going back to the same restaurants over trying new places.

It wasn't dark yet (for once) when we were first walking around the city. So we checked out this new mayor celebration, which was basically a big crowd of people in the main street, some with flags. As well as the churches on the give-away-tourist-map, which Daniele (being from Rome) scoffed at saying that even the unimportant churches in Rome are more interesting. He often compares smaller cities to Rome and hates how they put less effort into their tourism industry, but try to take more money out of it. He has a good point, Rome has some amazing tourist sites, and most of them are free. However in these tiny towns you pay even to enter the church. That's god's house, who are you to charge an entrance fee?

(Noto celebration for their new mayor)

The next day we covered the rest of the city. We checked out of the B&B right after breakfast, but here is the thing, there are practically no publicly available bathrooms in Italy. Ever. Your best bet is a McDonald's, and there weren't any in this little town. My mother and aunt invented the “pee-pee-cino” where you buy a coffee to use the cafe's restroom, but no guarantee the place even has one, and if it does, it's probably what the Italians call a “Turkish” toilette. That's where there is no “toilette” per say, more like what looks like a shower stall just with a bigger hole in the middle and raised sides for your feet. If you are lucky enough to find a toilette, don't expect a toilette seat or toilette paper. Yes, even in nice places; that has nothing to do with it. It's just how it is. Now, I'm really good at holding it in for hours and have pretty strong legs for the Turkish (thank you years of biking in San Francisco), so whatever. But I didn't need a place to pee. I needed a ladies room. See, a bird shit on my shoulder. Twice that day.

Noto was really hot that day, but we covered it all. We saw all the churches and town buildings. We went inside the Madonna del Carmine church. We went through the old convent rooms and to the top of San Francesco d'Assisi Church, where we could see the whole town.

(View of Noto from San Francesco d'Assisi, featuring Corso Vittorio Emanuele and hills in countryside)

Every April Via Corrado Nicolaci is filled with designs of flowers. This street has a steep incline, the palace of Nicolaci noble family on the left and a little church at the top. We were there after the flowers were gone, but the designs were still marked in white and there were pictures around.

(Via Corrado Nicolaci, without the flowers)

We even eventually found sinks for me to wash off the bird poo. After striking out at a cafe and a public bathroom marked on the map, I resolved to wait for lunch. Only to find after we ordered that they didn't have a public restroom either. But after confirming it was for me, and presumably deciding that I looked respectable enough (she must not have looked closely), the owner decided to let me use their little bathroom in the back. I was luckier the second time I got bombed, we quickly found another public restroom, this one was not locked and even had paper towels. I guess those birds really like baroque architecture.

The rest of the pictures from Noto are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Siracusa, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

In the evening we headed to Siracusa where were were spending our third night in Sicily (forth on this trip, there was one night in Calabria). Siracusa was founded 2,700 years ago by the Ancient Greek Corinthians. It was an important Mediterranean power in the ancient world and the birth place of Archimedes.

We were staying in Siracusa, but just outside Ortigia Island or Old Siracusa, where the historical center is and where we spent most of our time. Once we got settled in we took a night walk around the old island. We ate at a restaurant Daniele found online, Sicilia in Tavola, which was delicious!

(Lantern-lit park in Siracusa)

The next day, in the day-light, we really saw all the sights. We started by the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, right there when you first cross the bridge to Ortigia Island. Then we worked our way to the busy Main Square with the main Cathedral. We had walked by all these things the night before, but they looked so different in the daytime. Finally we walked around most of the coast. The waterfront had really interesting architecture in some places, like built-in pools. Also there were views back to the “mainland” (or bigger island of Sicily). Siracusa still has an active port, “Marina di Archimede".

(Temple of Apollo)

(View of mainland Siracusa from Island of Ortigia)

The rest of the pictures from Siracusa are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Gardini di Naxon and Aci Castello, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia...

Hotels in Italy have limited check in hours, so in the evening we had to leave lovely Taormina and head to our next city: Giardini di Naxon, the next town over. This was 6/11 now. Once we found our hotel, we found dinner at Pianta Pizza, a delicious pizzeria on the main street through town. We spent the next morning at the beach here. It was very different from Taormina, even though it was only five minutes away. Taormina was breathtaking and full of international tourists. Giardini di Naxon was full of locals.

(Beach of Gardini di Naxon)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Aci Castello. We just walked around and checked out the castle built in 1076 by the Normans. There was also a wedding going on here. The town is right on a cliff's edge offering views back to the rest of the gorgeous coast of Sicily.

(Castel of the city of Aci Castello)

All the pictures from Calabria and Sicilia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

Messina and Taormina, Sicilia

The ferry from Calabria started us in Messina where we walked around a little. It is by far the biggest city we visited the entire vacation. We ate aranchini and pidoni at La Foccacheria. Also picked up some Cannoli. Cannoli are Sicillian deserts (they are actually not that common in the rest of Italy) and these were the best I've ever had. The most notable thing there was a glockenspiel-style clock featuring a chicken.

(Chicken glockenspiel of Messina)

That night (June 10th) we stayed in Taormina, my favorite place from this trip. I wish we had spent more time here. That first night, we walked up to the old center, which was up on a hill. It was already kinda late, but the city was pretty happening. It was full of high-end stores and well-dressed travelers. We got a feel for the place then grabbed a bench in a piazza between the Duomo (Chiesa di San Giuseppe in Piazza IX Aprile) and the cliff edge of the town looking down at the sea. That's where we ate our cannoli from Messina.

The next morning we started off with the beach. It's not fair that such a beautiful city should also have such a beautiful beach. The beach we went to was “Isola Bella” or Beautiful Island. It was an “island” attached to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. There was an old fort that is no longer used on the island build by the Normans. There were steps carved into the stone and a man-made cave that was used as a boat-dock. Just a perfect background while taking in the Mediterranean sun. We set up our towels on the strip of land connecting the island to the mainland with our feet in the water, there were no waves so you could do that. The water was clear like a swimming pool, all the way through you could see to the bottom.

(Isola Bella of Taormina)

When we were done taking the sun, we hiked from the beach, up to the road, up to the town center, up to the monastery. It was a long steep hike, but along the way were lots of flowers and increasingly beautiful views of the sea below. When we finally reached the monastery at the top there was a wedding going on, so we didn't hang around long. We worked our way back to the town, where another wedding was going on in the church there, and took in the day-time atmosphere of the city. We saw gardens, tombs, shops, and everything the city had to offer.

(Park in Taormina)

Photos from this day are in my Calabria and Sicilia Album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia

Calabria

I left Newark, NJ June 7, arrived in Rome the morning of June 8th. That night we left by car for vacation in Calabria and Sicily.

Originally our vacation was not going to start until after the 10th, but scheduling vacation and shifts seems to be a technology that has not yet arrived to Italy. Daniele's vacation ended up being scheduled to start before I even got back to Italy, never mind the few days I wanted to adjust back to the time-zone. So the same day I flew in we took a little nap in the evening and set off around 1 AM driving south for Calabria.

We arrived in the morning at our first stop, Rose. A very small town in Calabria, easy to reach from the highway or city of Cosenza. There is nothing of interest there and I would not have wanted to visit except this is where my great-grand parents were born. The town is kind of sparse and spread out. The center had the obligatory church, post office, and city hall. The church was a new church built next to the remains of the old. These remains were not much to look at and where the only “old” (in a Roman/Italian way) thing around to see. There were prayer posters and street signs bearing my family names. There were not too many people out and about at 9/10 AM.

(New church next to old church's ruins in Rose, Calabria)

(Chiappetta was my great-grandmother's name, it's everywhere in Rose)

We went to the city hall, which had a shocking amount of people working in it but no one who wanted to acknowledge us. Eventually a man named De Marco brought us in to where they had a cabinet full or giant hand written books. Each book for a year or range of years, with entries for each person born in the town. A note is added on the side when they marry or die. We went through dozens of these books looking for my relatives. We found my Great Grandfather, Lorenzo, easily, but I knew about him. I wanted to find someone still living, even if more distantly related. We found Lorenzo's younger brother Michelle who had returned to Italy (having not taken well to the US). He had died in 1975 in the neighboring town of Contrada Pizzillara. These were easy to find because I knew the year they were born.

(View of outskirts of Rose, Calabria. That group of houses in the center is Contrada Pizzillara, where my great-grandfather was born )

I wanted to find their younger sister Chiara, who I thought may have a daughter my parent's age. Unfortunately I did not know the year she was born, just that she was younger. We are talking about 100 years ago, facts get lost, for example half of my family insists Michelle was the oldest. De Marco was patent enough to look through lots of year's worth of books in search of Chiara. It took especially long because she was born June 3, 1910 in Carbondale, VA, but filed at the end of the 1925 book when her father, Francesco, returned to Rose to add her to the record. In 1925 their first son, Lorenzo was born 27 years earlier; I was getting rather pessimistic by the time we reached these books that my ancestors would have children so far apart. It has a whole story about her (written in Italian) including that her god parents were Tomaso Nicastero and Vittoria Catti. We then looked for Chiara's daughter, but she was not to be found. Most likely they moved to a neighboring town so the birth record was not recorded in Rose or we are really, really off on her age. I may try Contrada Pizzillara.

(The tombs of Rose were like a city within the city)

We were only in Rose for maybe two hours. After the town hall we walked around the tombs looking for relatives, and there were plenty, but that is only entertaining for so long. I thought I would want days there, but Daniele was right to make it a short stop. There just wasn't anything else to do. Our next stop was Tropea, on the coast.

(Beach of Tropea)

Tropea was my favorite place we stopped at in Calabria. The beach was beautiful and the old center was, too. If my ancestors had been from here, they may not have immigrated to the United States. Our hotel had a really nice view of the center, which is on a cliff. We stayed here the night of the 9th.

(View of Tropea center from our Hotel)

The next day we went to Capo Vatocano, a beach near Tropea, and stayed there a little while until it started to rain. Then headed to Scilla. Scilla was a decent sized town with *no one* there. It was nice there but hard to find a place to eat. Lastly we took the ferry from San Giovanni to Messina, where my adventures in Calabria ended and Sicilia began.

(Capo Vaticano )

(Some sheep crossing)

(Fort in Scilla)

(Beach in Scilla)

(Saying goodbye to Calabria from the ferry to Sicilia)

All the pictures of Calabria and Sicilia are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia

Home for May

I made a trip home to New Jersey from May 4th through June 7th. It was motivated mostly by my cousin Corrine asking me to be in her wedding on May 7th. Luckily May is one of those months full of family parties, so I got to see lots of people while I was back.

Corrine and Anthony's wedding was beautiful. Corrine's daughter, from her first marriage, Celina was just precious as a flower girl. Anthony is first generation Italian, so the food (and especially the dessert) was amazing!

My cousin Mike and Bonnie baptized their second daughter Keira. My Uncle Bill was in from Alaska and able to do the ceremony.

My cousin Brian graduated from Boston University with a collection of degrees and honors and is off to a really sweet job at Duke now. He is going to bike down there.

I had a fun New York day with my godmother. She is a Tony judge, so we hit up both “Sister Act” and “How to Succeed in Business with out Really Trying” on a Wednesday. They were both really good. I thought Daniel Radcliffe was great in “How to Succeed in Business”. We also hit up this Gelateria in midtown near the park, Grom. They ship their good stuff in daily from Italy! Daniele's mother had seen a special on them and told me to check them out while I was home.

My parents and I also opened up my Uncle Bill's LBI house. We stayed a few days but the weather was not very good so we headed back home. My friend Fabienne stopped by, so did my Aunt Linda and Connie.

Now it is back to Italy for the summer. I wish I had made it up to Boston, but there was so much going on in NJ I never found the time. Ciao USA!

Pictures from Corrine and Anthony's Wedding:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110507CorrineAndAnthonySWedding#

Pictures from NY fun day with Aunt Linda, Keira's Baptism, and Brian's Cake
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110603KeiraBaptismAndNJ