Food and then more food.....

Christmas Day, between meals, at little card game called Scopa....I watched Sandro's hand, he was partnered with Marco. It's a bit complicated, but I could probably catch on. They had just before this explained that the word SCOPA means broom or fuck, of course, depending on the
context.



At 8 o'clock we sat down to the second meal of the day, soup and the meats used to make the broth, I could only eat the soup and passed on the meats. Very unlike me.















The day after Christmas: lunch. Leftovers, with the northern Italian favorite: POLENTA, and then pannetone, the way it's supposed to be eaten, with a warm chocolate sauce dripped over it. AND THEN dinner treat: SANDRO'S justifiably famous PIZZA.

After all this we talked about having plain boiled rice to eat today....I'm thinking brown rice and cabbage is about right.

Christmas Day at Vanda's table

Ok, this will take a little explaining. Roberta is in the background, and her gift to her boyfriend Marco was this CAKE platter............not your USUAL cake platter, rather one that will fit into their Milano loft which I have HEARD is decorated in a very particular CONTEMPORARY STYLE. At the table, when Marco was showing this to Vanda, Sandro said: "Now, in my day young men did not ask for cake platters..........they asked for a quickie..."
Sandro, the cook par excellence.........fabulous meal, everything was delicious, see previous post
OK, sometimes we get a little tired............
Like sisters, Roberta and Hiwot
Marco's father Mario, who was very charming and exceptionally kind and warm to me, his "girlfriend" Bianca who sat next to me because she has a good command of English. Before they arrived Antonella buzzed me on the intercom and said they wanted to pull a prank on her. They told Bianca that I am American but can only speak Japanese....and I was even wearing my Japanese padded vest. So when I went into Vanda's apartment to greet them, everyone was quite expectant and I managed to pull off: hagimimashi te, yoroshiku onegaishimasu, watashi no namae wa Gretchen desu, and Bianca got a really funny look on her face, like oh my god, this is really happening! But then everyone started cracking up at this performance...and then she realized we were just pulling her leg.

Italian Christmas Day Dinner THE FOOD, oh my god

Anti pasti, of course: white mushrooms, Visso prosciutto, Russian salad and anchovies, yum
Second course: Bergamasco traditional cheese filled ravioli with crispy pancetta and oil
Main course: Roasted capon stuffed with sausage/vegetable mixture, mushrooms with herbs and sauteed fresh artichokes
Fruit, always fruit after dinner, including litchis from Madacascar
Desert: Antonella's chocolate tort, nice and light with warm chocolate sauce, oh my god

More Christmas Eve pictures

Sandro the cook, but Antonella said SHE had cooked the sauce, so there was a running, joking "discussion" about who's tuna sauce is the best, just a long standing family squabble, Sandro is such a joker. They are both excellent cooks. Sandro is holding the Albanian whiskey we tried later, not bad.

Filippo got a new room for his MAIN christmas present, but also a nice new jacket from Roberta
OK , this is a nice, no flash picture of Hiwot
Mitzi the cat just loves my lap, I'm the chosen one and I'm wearing the scarf Antonella knit for ME
That's Marco in the background.........................

Christmas Eve dinner

The traditional meal is TUNA pasta, we also had Visso prosciutto, Russian salad and bread. No one could say why it's a tradition to have russian salad on Christmas Eve.....one thing I have learned here in Italy: when the pasta is served, better start eating. No one likes tepid pasta, so even though Sandro is still serving, it's definitely the thing to do to DIG IN
Hiwot, who is hidden behind Vanda in the previous picture, anyway Hiwot and I walked into the village center to the fanciest bakery I have seen here in Alme and we picked out what looked like a nice Christmas cake.....this was it. It got almost all eaten up, and several people had seconds, the strawberry glacee hit the spot. On the spot we had to decide to keep Antonella's desert for the next day. The big dinner day. At about 10pm I was starting to flag, but finally Roberta said, isn't it time, time to open presents......everyone agreed it was time, yeah.
This is Roberta, Sandro and Antonella's daughter who is now 30, living in Milan and working for Microsoft, with her long time boyfriend Marco, who is working in advertising. They are planning on going to Miami right after new years for a 10 day vacation in the sun.
Roberta kindly took this picture, the gifts were as big as the tree.......................
Maggie, who's such a good day got to spend the evening inside, she has her special bed when she is allowed upstairs, and she stays there too. Too bad that hat wouldn't stay on her head

Tuesday's walk in Alme and my birthday dinner

Yesterday I felt sufficiently over my cold to go out and walk around the village, taking some pictures. This is the main side street which leads to the downtown area, cars can drive on this too.
This is the walking only path leading back the the house, old walls, new walkway.
I invited Sandro, Antonella, Filippo and Vanda to have dinner with me at the local restaurant, which I knew was good because David and Claudia and I went there about 10 days ago. I had a steak with green peppercorn sauce, yum. It was a way for me to reciprocate all their hospitality AND celebrate turning SIXTY FOUR!!!!
Mother and daughter, both stylish and beautiful!
Filippo had a steak too. He's off to Rome this evening to take his carabinieri test tomorrow.

Near Bergamo

My friend Jane who is living my house suggested that I take pictures of where I am......the local scene. Since I'm now into my fifth day of a nagging cold, each morning being a bit more difficult to get myself together, I decided to oblige her. This is in the hallway from the kitchen to the living area, the walls are lined with cork, a very pretty and nice touch. David and Claudia have all kinds of artwork from around the world here including the ceramic pieces they have made themselves.
My bedroom, looking out onto the balcony which can be entered from the dining room. The lamp is from Santa Fe! They planted the big cedar tree when they moved here in 1978.
This is where I do most of my hanging out, reading, writing, cooking and I told Claudia I wanted to take a picture of the excellent design of her dish drying cabinet over the sink, the next picture......

Well, there I am! Having worked hard to put myself together...in my bathroom, I like all the chocolate brown tiles, very pretty.

Third post on Venice

I do want to thank Lisa and Pilar for coming up with this idea that we meet in Venice, without their invitation I would not have gone, it just wasn't something or somewhere I want to go by myself. As brief as it was, the awful beauty of Venice will stick with me. This picture was from inside the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Museum, I liked the blue glass, the iron work, the canal and the buildings across the water.
Hope they like this picture, an unforgettable and cold morning......
That the sun shone on this early and foggy morning felt like amazing luck, we liked the color on the water
This was just after we were "lost" and now we knew that we could find our way back to the guesthouse.
Probably the oddest chandelier we saw, and we saw HUNDREDS!

The up close contrasts in Venice

The artistic guesthouse Al Portico, and in my room the lampshade decorated with safety pins

On the way to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Museum......couldn't resist this Venetian bag
A scuplture gallery, still along the canal to the PG Museum.....................and we saw this woman
She was still there after we spent an hour looking at the fantastic collection, this woman was still there, so we dropped some coins into her cup, but she didn't move
This is for all the dog lovers, they were so cute, but so very cold, I could not capture their shivers

Twenty five hours in Venice

Lisa and Pilar met me at the Venice station when I arrived at 1pm on Sunday. We immediately went to our cute guest house just a short walk away. After meeting Stacy the American guest house hostess and artist, we had a warming and delicious lunch at her husband's darling restaurant. We then headed out to Murano, the island with all the glass shops. How to do Venice justice in such a short time? Oh well, we just did it. When it got dark, and very cold and sort of wet we decided to head back from Murano. Preposterously the boat driver stopped not even remotely near where we had gotton on and said (in italian) everybody OFF! So, we had that quintessential Venice experience, we got lost and then had to find our way, which we managed to do with a lot of map consultation, and direction guessing we got back to where we came from! It was 7pm and we were totally exhausted. After a rest, we went out for dinner (late of course) and came up with the plan for today: get up early, take the Vaporetto up the Grand Canal, go to San Marco Square, then find the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Museum. The joke is that Lisa and Pilar are the most directionally challenged people I know, but I had decided from the beginning they were in charge, they would find the way, and guess what, they did and I followed! It was fun and I'm still feeling the rock of the boats, the tremble of the train, and I'm so glad to be back in Alme in David and Claudia's home flat. Oh so fortunately for me Antonella graciously picked me up at the Bergamo station. More pictures on tomorow's post. I'm whooped!