Dreaming In Italian

Our place for 86 days (except the a couple of side trips) is the same apartment where we stayed last year. After almost 3 months you get to know a neighborhood reasonably well. So here is a bit more about where we stayed. First there is the map:

We’re at #66

Starting at the closest place is the tabaccheria. In Italy it is not just tobacco products. They sell bus tickets and recharge cell phones. To add minutes to your phone you give them your phone number, the cellular provider (in my case Vodafone) and hand over 20 euros and voila! You immediately receive an SMS message from Vodafone that you have another 20 euros in your account that usually lasts a couple of months of calls, texts and internet access. Of course they also sell batteries, stamps, lottery tickets, mints and usually a variety of stuff like playing cards, key chains and whatever else will fit in the window. Ours actually has the same street address (numero civico) – #66.

“our” tabaccheria

Next is the local bar. There are bars everywhere in Bologna. You can barely go 100 meters along Santo Stefano without encountering another one. I pop into this one on occasion for a coffee on the way back from the gym.

“our” barrista

They have some signs on the wall like you might find in a cafe in the U.S. A couple seem to be either originals or replicas of information for a brothel.

The stuff on the wall

The saying on the right say “we gladly sell to the poor: they have little money … but in compensation there are lot of them” – not a literal translation but that’s how you’d say it in English. If you want to know what the others say, leave a comment.

Just a few steps further on is a very good gelateria. Rain or shine, warm or cold, there always a crowd there in the evenings so you know it must be good!

“our” gelateria

There are lots of little “corner” stores and this one is literally on the corner. They are mostly general stores that carry fruit and vegetables, beer, wine, cleaning supplies, pasta, etc. A wide variety of things that you often need – in our case mostly potato chips and beer. Still I continue to be amazed at the variety of things that they cram into these small spaces. An interesting aside, they are mostly run by Bangladeshis.

“our” corner store

Ah, the wine store. In this case it has been there a long time and still has the name “fiaschetteria” rather than a newer term “enoteca”. It is owned by two brothers that inherited it from their father who founded it in 1947. It’s absolutely my favorite place for wine and grappa. The prices are reasonable and the advice good. I’ve visited a lot of enotecas here and it’s definitely worth going out of your way to stop in here. By he way the wine prices are significantly lower than in the united states. I estimate that a bottle of wine here that costs roughly $10 would cost over $20 in the U.S. Tell ’em that I sent you.

Roberto on left and his brother Giancarlo

Of course when I don’t want to go to the Mercato delle Erbe we do shopping closer to home. Also for non food items. So not far away is a store named Verdura; kind of a smaller scale Whole Foods with similar prices. Right next to it is a fairly inexpensive supermarket, Pam, with a limited selection. A little further away is a Coop (another supermarket chain) with more stuff but I usually opt for the Pam while Karen goes the extra distance to the Coop for a greater selection of stuff in general.

The Coop has a salumeria inside among other things

Via Santo Stefano continues on straight but it becomes mostly a pedestrian area at the beautiful Piazza Santo Stefano. The road however curves to the left and becomes Farini. Karen took a lovely sunset photo there in early March.

Ah, the beauty of Bologna

A dop0! (See you later! – sort of)

The Museum of the History of Bologna had a special exhibit of street art including Banksy, the famous street artist from England and also Blu the fantastic street artist of Bologna. There were others that I’m not familiar with as well as some very modern and curious art works which are clearly not street art. It was quite a show. We then went through the long permanent exhibit of Bologna history about which I have already written a blog post here.

Banksy

Banksy – at least on the left

Blu

Blu

Some French guy did this

Perhaps a Japanese artist? – Maybe, but I think it came from France

Not your usual Charlie Brown

The effects of Big Macs

Mashup of Marilyn and Disneyland

Ouch!

And there is a very unfortunate postscript to this whole story. For whatever insane reason Blu, the incredibly talented Bolognese street artist, decided to destroy all of his street art here in Bologna as a protest. I almost couldn’t believe it when I was watching the television news and saw people scraping off and painting over some of  his incredible murals. I found a photo of the destruction in progress. A quote from Blue (whose identity remains unknown):“There’s no more Blu in Bologna, and there won’t be any until the fat cats will keep getting fatter,” the artist announced in a laconic message on Blu’s website explaining the action. “For acknowledgments and complaints you know who to turn to.”

The quote above comes from his website and is written in Italian and the translation is a bit strange but so is the original which uses a Roman dialect word for to eat. It’s literally something like that “the fat cats will eat” – maybe it’s used in a reflexive sense, who knows. It is certainly a play on words.

In any case you can still go to the website at the link above where there are photos of Blu’s work in many other parts of the world as well as those that were destroyed in Bologna.

The destruction of Blu’s murals

Art is still art and wanton destruction is a STUPID thing to do in protest.

Just a collection of interesting things I happened upon here in my favorite city…

One man band #1 near the two towers.

And then a week of so later.

One man band #2 – also near the two towers

I think on the same day..

Balloon man in Piazza Maggiore

They are inspecting Neptune for a planned renovation. It seems there’s a problem with the plumbing and they are planning to start before the end of April on the repairs. The first time I saw the fountain there were jets of water coming from the nipples of the women – I hope to see that again when it’s all fixed!

Examining Nettuno

Electric cello one day near the fountain of Neptune

5, count ’em 5 cellists along via Clavature

A whole mortadella on the hoof in via Vecchie Pescherie

Interesting shop window

And last but not least – that stronzo makes news in Italy. I ask people about him and other than my friend Gianluca (who I hope is actually kidding) everyone thinks that he’s ridiculous but also fears him. I assure them that he is totally unelectable but still, I’m advising the religious ones to say a little prayer or maybe light a candle for Hillary.

Magazine cover at dental office - that stronzo makes news everywhere

The Monday after Easter (Pasqua) is also a holiday here. I have no idea why that is also a holiday. It’s probably related to some ancient Roman holiday or something similar. Still, it’s a traditional day to go somewhere out of town for a lunch or picnic. So Karen and I were delighted to accept the invitation from Gaudio and Sandra to go to lunch at an agriturismo in the countryside outside of Bologna. For those unfamiliar with the term it means a farm that has usually is still a working farm but now includes a trattoria and usually some lodging for guests. This one was called Il Cucco  and offered a fixed price meal on Pasquetta. The place was jammed of course but we had the obligatory reservations thanks to Gaudio.

We went in Gaudio’s car and settled in for a great meal (well, with one minor exception). We kept a copy of the menu  to be able to remember exactly what was served.

The Menu

A few definitions here:

• Sformatino (little sformato) of parmigiano – parmigiano, eggs and cream baked in a mold with a field salad
• Mousse di moradella – mortadella, parmigiano and usually one or another kind of soft cheese whipped together
• Vellutata – a creamy vegetable soup
• Lasagna – I don’t need to explain this one. Made with asparagus and artichokes
• Bocconcini – little bites, in this case of young turkey roasted with orange sauce
• Tagliata di manzo – slices of beef with (I think) a specific kind of salt – salfiore di cervia)
• Patate al rosmarino – rosemary potatoes
• Torta barozzi al cioccolato – a specific kind of chocolate cake – a lot like an american brownie
• Pallina di gelato – little ball of gelato in this case with bitter cherry syrup

The mortadella mousse and the sformatino (bottom)

I forgot to take a picture of the soup, which was very good and disappeared in a flash. I should have at least remembered to take a picture of the empty bowl. The only flaw in the meal was the lasagne. The top layer resembled cardboard. Maybe they didn’t cook the pasta first or left it too long in the oven. The other layers were fine and quite tasty.

The flawed lasagna

The turkey, beef and potatoes

Torta and gelato

Of course there was wine and water, and as always, coffee at the end of the meal. I wasn’t driving so I went for a grappa as well.

Coffee and grappa

There was also interesting conversation. Gaudio speaks English well but Sandra speaks almost none. She does, however, speak Italian in a clear manner and I was quite pleased that I understood almost everything. She is a dentist and recounted the obstacles that she had faced and overcome to become a dentist. In Italy there are few women dentists. I believe that she was the only woman in dental school and then had difficulty establishing herself as a dentist after she graduated. She specialized in children since many parents were more trusting in a woman dentist and built her practice from there. The parents often became her patients and now she seems to have a very successful practice. And of course, she’s the boss.  Brava Sandra!

Gaudio and Sandra

And now some photos of the place.

The room where we ate – and the cows ate a long time ago

Another view

Yes, I was there.

And another room – Karen and Sandra

The group outside – I blinked at just the wrong time.

Of course this was on Pasquetta – March 28th. So I finally got around to publishing this post.