In Italy: on Sunday, the women walk, the men watch football

After the Indian Dinner feast at about 3 o'clock Antonella suggested that we go for a walk. Even though I felt STUFFED, and tired, I figured this is a good idea and IF Vanda can do it, so can I.
We took about a two mile loop going past an old aristocratic estate, where the same family still lives, up to a sanctuary of some kind, we just kept walking. It was such a nice day, a real feel of it is almost early spring, not too unlike it can be in Portland at this time of year.
This just PART of the old estate, they have their own chapel, and other buildings, all enclosed by big thick rock walls. but the gossip is that they are poor inside there, just hanging on.
After the walk, almost back to the car, kind of nice to take a break, Vanda is holding up just fine.
Looking the other way, back to Alme and Bergamo. Great to feel the sun on our faces. Afterwards, I joined the guys, to watch football, I AM A MILANISTA. Fun to watch.

Sunday "lunch" Indian Feast cooked mostly by me

David is showing off his empty plate, emptied TWICE. The menu: chicken in tomato and spiced sauce with ginger, raisin chutney, red lentils, not sure how to spell dahl (?) made with onions, spices, tomatoes, coconut milk and lemon juice (very good) bitter greens, broccoli rabe and spinach pureed, a raita with red and yellow peppers, radishes and yogurt, chai, coconut cookies and mandarini for dessert. It was fun to cook and I was pleased everyone ate with relish.


Even Filippo admitted that just a few years ago he might not have been able to eat this meal, but he's showing just chicken bones left on his plate and he ate quite a bit of everything, even the greens.

Sunday Morning in San Pellegrino for Coffee

They are working on the old Grand Hotel, to become a destination spa, looks like it will be especially grand.....yes this is the place where the famous water comes from. David and Claudia and I got up on Sunday morning and took about a half hour drive north to San Pellegrino to one of their old haunts, a lovely old style cafe. There, we had a nice talk about all that has gone down in the past four months, assuring ourselves that we are indeed still friends, having a little cry and some big hugs.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of the floor, Claudia and I agree that this is a beautiful pattern.
The main street, David went to get a La Republica, his kinda paper (leftist) Very attractive stone work on the outside of the buildings
The baristas put happy faces in chocolate powder on the tops of the cappuccini......

Winding things down in Italy.....our visit to Milan

I screwed the picture order up, but here is the world's largest Nutella jar...Roberta is quite the fan, I took this for Ursi.
My death warmed over look, after about five weeks of sickness, I'm still not convinced that I did not have pneumonia, however finally, I've recovered. Still have a little cough though. Last week, we, meaning Sandro, Antonella, Vanda and I went to Milan in the evening to meet Roberta and Marco. We had dinner in their neighborhood, which I have to say was refreshingly multi-ethnic and very big city looking. Unfortunately, as digital cameras can do, my battery failed after only three pictures inside their very chic loft apartment. But I'll put up the three I got.
Remember the Christmas present cake platter? Well, there it is, in its rightful place.
I love the red refridgerator...............keeps everything so cool

I took this picture when I first moved to Alme, the Zamboni house is the ONLY one in this neighborhood that looks like this, it was designed by their brother Mario and built 30 years ago. Very nice three family abode. Each apartment is different, has a different feel and layout. I'm thinking we in the US need more family living like this in the future. However it probably does have it's drawbacks which I may not even be aware of, like lack of privacy, but there is a lot of sharing too.
Although I did not take pictures we had our OBAMA DAY on Tuesday, we started watching the TV at about 4pm and his speech was at 6pm. Sandro was equipped with earphones that gave an Italian translation so he could follow the speech. We planned our dinner to be after that, Antonella made vegetable soup, Sandro make pizza and I made apple crisp, to have something "American." And we had a lively political discussion afterwards, lots of Italian spoken all at once.

Tomorrow, Friday, David and Claudia will drive up from San Ginesio to spend the weekend saying good bye to me, and they will bring whatever stuff I left there. We've already decided to cook an Indian dinner for Sandro, Antonella, Vanda and Filippo. It will be fun to do this together.
A way for me to say thank you to the Zambonis for all they have fed me in the past six weeks.

Tutti Putti in Parma--Correggio Exhibition

Our DAY started by getting up at 5am, catching the bus in front of the church in Alme at 6:30. We drove for two hours, this first picture is the early morning view entering the center of Parma, which is a beautiful city. We, meaning Antonella, Vanda and I were with a group of 25, off to see the blockbuster exhibiition of Correggio works. I mean a blockbuster because although two domes in huge churches in Parma are painted by him (circa 1520) but the enormous Art Palazzo has hosted works by him and other of his contemporaries borrowed from around the world.
Even though I KNOW we are not supposed to take pictures, I couldn't resist....we climbed UP the ten flights of stair/scaffolding to view the first dome, Correggio was a radical...he really mastered foreshortening, and LOVED all those putti, which I'm guessing means creatures about to become angles....that's some research for Carol. Anyway, I've never seen so many putti, and maybe I'll be lucky and NOT see so many again.....all that climbing up and down just wasn't enough, so we trotted over to another huge cathedral and climbed another ten flights of scaffolding and saw yet another dome painted by Correggio. That was just beginning, by 11am we met our exhibition guide. Well, of course she was Italian....but I had a little guide voice box in English, so I got perhaps 5% of the explaination of his works....but I got to see it all! It only took two and half hours, mind you this is with only ONE bathroom stop since leaving the house at 6:15. I spent as much time sitting down towards the end as I could, and enjoyed watching all the people who were at the exhibition. Fortunately is was in a frigid drafty old palazzo building and so everyone could keep on their coats, hats, scarves, etc. without being overheated. And I have to admit I have never seen so many FUR COATS in one place in my life, at the exhibition and all around the city of Parma. Did I say it's a beautiful city? It is.
This is Parma's leaning tower.
Vanda, the 81 year old trooper, and she NEVER USED A BATHROOM for the entire day, we even joked about it....she is TOUGH and of course, beautiful.
Finally, we got to have lunch.............guess what? PASTA, and wine, and bread and little salty greasy meats. I was so hungry I would have eaten anything. After that, like at 3pm, we were greeted by another tour, for a walk around the whole city of Parma, seeing more palazzos, gardens, Toscanini's house...............finally we got on the bus at 6:30pm. I was so tired, I immediately fell asleep. Still went to bed early and slept 9 hours. So, now I can leave Italy and can honestly say: I saw ART, Italian art. I did it, all those putti, all those saints, all in heaven, so lucky for them.

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.