Finally time to write another post. I was pretty busy with various things in February and especially March but now it’s time to do an update. Yes, another trip to Italy for a little over 2 months and now I’m back in Bologna. I’m writing this on Easter (Pasqua). The weather last week was great but yesterday in rained a lot. Here they say “piova a catinelle” (it’s raining buckets) kind of like saying it’s raining cats and dogs. Italians always find it amusing when I tell them our saying for a hard raining. Idiomatic expressions in any language often make little sense. Despite the significant jet-lag I’ve managed to see several italian friends, bought a beautiful moka (stovetop expresso maker) and make a deposit on a nice apartment for May when the lovely Karen arrives. The apartment is on the 2nd (3rd floor in the US) and top floor. In this case it’s called a mansarda because it has a gabled roof. There are big exposed beams, a fireplace, two bathrooms and a little terrace. It’s in a great location and faces the cortile (courtyard) rather than the rather busy street so it nice and quiet. The beams look so old that I asked how hold the building was and they told me it was built in the 1500’s. Wow!
Oh yes, I also found a gym that I like at a price that I like so I’ll go there on Tuesday morning to pay the 90 euro membership for the two months. It’s much nicer than the gym that I’ve gone to the last couple of years. It’s further in distance but about the same walking distance thanks to the great bus service that they have here. Speaking of money, I’m delighted that the exchange rate is now averaging about $1.08 per euro rather than $1.35 a year ago. I even splurged on the really cool moka. I’m embarrassed to say how much it cost but the features are interesting. First of all it’s made of relatively heavy stainless steel. You can reverse the little basket where the coffee goes to make either a 2 or 4 cup pot of coffee. Keep in mind that these are the tiny cups they use for a coffee here. Also it has a unique closure. Instead of screwing the top on, one turns the handle to attach the top to the bottom. It’s already in regular use.
The new moka
Oh, a couple of things that I forgot to mention. Cesarina, knowing my fascination with frogs and my collection of same, surprised me with a little ceramic figurine. Also, since I’m very fond of it, I bought a nice bottle of grappa.
The ceramic frogs
The grappa
Not much in the way of photos for this post other than some selfies of me and some friends. Another post coming soon.
Ah, another month and another post. When I’m writing about Italian stuff it’s hard to maintain as much enthusiasm about posting items as when I’m in Italy. Not that I don’t think about Italy, the Italian language and (especially) Italian food it’s just that it seems like I’ve been over a lot of that before. In any case, I do continue to cook Italian food. In fact I rarely cook anything else. Probably because I’m lazy, like it so much and at this point it’s often almost second nature. Likewise I continue to study Italian. Here of course I can’t go around speaking Italian all day except to myself – which I do a lot. I do have the occasional meeting of Italian speakers and I read. So today’s post is about the latter and particularly about the title guy, Beppe Severgnini.
Beppe
Beppe is a columnist for the Milanese newspaper Corriere della Sera which I think is comparable to the New York Times of Italy. He has contributed often to newspapers in  England and the aforementioned New York Times.
I first read one of his books last year when in Bologna. The title is “La Testa degli Italiani” – the Head of the Italians. I had joined a gym while in BO and since my habit is to read while doing relatively boring cardiovascular exercise I read most of this book during half hour sessions on an exercise bike. While my vocabulary is not what I’d like it to be I found out to my delight that I could read pretty much all of the book without TOO much trouble, filling in my vocabulary gaps through context, just as I would when reading a book in English. Of course in English I have a lot fewer gaps! In any case it’s a fascinating book and so I was looking for an English translation and having absolutely no luck until I found a site that said that for the English version they changed the title to “La Bella Figura” (why do they do these things anyway). In any case it really gives a lot of insight into the differences between the cultures. One probably well known example is how a traffic light is considered. In America a red light is considered as only one thing – stop! In Italy it is an invitation to consider what is really meant and what one should do? Is there little traffic and good visibility? Then there is really no reason to stop. He goes on from there. You get the idea. It was a very enjoyable read and Beppe has a well developed sense of humor.
On the last trip I picked up another of his books, “Un Italiano in America”. I don’t think that I need to provide a translation of that one but for some inexplicable reason the title was changed to “Ciao America”. Now why would they possibly do that!? The setting for this book is 1995 (I think) when he and his wife lived in Washington D.C. for a year. Many of his observations about the American way of life and how strange it sometimes seems for an Italian is still just as valid. I would say that some of this observations about American ways are a bit off just as mine surely are about Italians. Still it is very entertaining. I am reading this book more slowly since I don’t read it at the gym. That means that I am highlighting words and looking them up in an attempt to improve my vocabulary. It is undoubtedly improving my “reading” vocabulary but less so my “writing” vocabulary. That is, I can recognize a word that I’ve read before and then recall the meaning in English. However I’m often not familiar enough with that word to do it the other way around – search for the Italian way of saying something that I know how to say in English. Still I know that it is having some positive impact on my spoken vocabulary and I’m doggedly continuing. Probably I will want to reread it at some point to help absorb some additional words adequately to use them in writing or speaking.
Beppe does presentation and speeches  occasionally in English. So I found a speech that he made on YouTube. A note on this. It is the third part of a speech that he made to an association of travel executives. You can look for the first two parts which are also quite entertaining. I went with this one because of a great story about turning a difficult situation into a party (aboard an airplane) which starts about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through this segment. I hope that you enjoy it and perhaps feel compelled to sample one of his books.
On Sunday we boarded a Frecciabianca (white arrow) train back to Bologna. There are the Frecciarossa, Frecciaargenta and Frecciabianca. The Red Arrow train is a “bullet train†in the Japanese parlance. They have such high speed trains in Europe but of course we don’t have them here. I took the Frecciarossa to Torino once from Bologna and loved the in-car display that informed you that you were were moving forward at 300 km/hr (185 mph). Well they don’t have the high speed rail infrastructure in the south so there it the Frecciabiana. It has the comfort of the high speed trains and stops at a lot fewer stops so shaves the time from Bari to Bologna from 7 hours to 5 ½. Karen convinced me that it was worth the extra fare and she was soright.
Once in Bologna we had to collect a smallish suitcase and some other stuff from Roberto’s place, bring it back to the waiting taxi and continue on to Cesarina’s place (my home away from home). All done and we went for aperitivo near porta Saragozza. We walked the half mile or so and found that a bar near the porta had an incredible buffet for aperitivo. There must have been at least 10 things to choose from, all of them tasty.
The next day was the last chance to see a couple of friends. We met Jessica and Gianluca in the center of town and went for coffee. Gianluca speaks excellent english but Jessica speaks almost none. Interestingly enough she claims to understand it very well which is quite the opposite from me. I speak Italian reasonably well but don’t understand the spoken word nearly as well. In any case we had a good time and then went on to our other meeting with Gaudio. Gaudio also speaks english well so we had another good conversation. All of my friends are different but all are interesting and I enjoy being with them.
Il Sangiovese interior
Dinner was at a place that I (and Gaudio) had never heard of – a restaurant named Sangiovese, near Porta Castiglione and inside the walls. I had found it on the web and it was well reviewed. Gaudio was a bit skeptical but used his usual method for judging the validity of on-line reviews. If there are LOTs of yelp comments and the majority of positive it is usually pretty good. It weeds out the cranks and shills. It was indeed a great meal. The highlights for me were two. First, they offered a pasta with white truffles at a non-exorbitant price. Well, it was 20 euros when most of the pastas were less than 10 but white truffles are incredibly expensive and I had just about given up on ever tasting them so I went for it. They really have an almost hypnotic earthy aroma and are served one something very plain, in this case fresh pasta with little else on it – think just some butter and a little cheese. I don’t know that I’ll be so extravagant again but it was a sublime experience. Karen had the tortellini in brodo which was perfect since the weather was starting to get a little crisp. They did a very good rendition of it there and it is such a bolognese classic that I’m really glad that she was able to sample some when it was done really well.
Pasta with white truffles
totellini in brodo
The other high point was the bottle of a regional sangiovese riserva superiore (I think). Usually we just would get the house wine that comes in a decanter (which is usually pretty darned good) but we paid 18 euros for a terrific bottle of wine. I couldn’t help imagining what a restaurant bottle of such a wine would be here in the U.S. – probably triple the price as is the U.S.custom (unfortunately).
A grappa and coffee ended the very pleasant evening and we were ready, reluctantly to leave the next day.
We had to leave Lecce fairly early for the long drive back to Bari. That was where we had rented that car and we had decided that Bari warranted another full day or so to do it justice. Thanks to my iPhone GPS I was able get into the city and to the address of the AirBnB with few problems. Usually, as I may have said, I wind up taking something of a roundabout route through a city because the directions such as “turn right on via santa whatsername are at least half useless since there is almost never a sign indicating the street. So you just kinda have to guess. OK, she must not mean this street because it’s only slightly wider than an ox and I’m not going there. As often as not that WAS the street so you wind around for a bit but eventually get there. Fortunately that was not the case entering Bari but was definitely a characteristic of my trip from Bari to the airport. Perhaps there was a payoff to Google maps to route me through the industrial area so that I could marvel at their industry and remember the names of the companies.
After returning we took a walk to the old town. We of course knew at this point that anything interesting other than food needed to occur before the witching hour of 1:00 PM when all of the stores turn into pumpkins until 4:30 or 5:00. I was looking for the “orecchietti streetâ€. Let me explain. I once tried to make orecchietti at home and failed miserably and looked for guidance on YouTube where I was treated to a number of videos of older Italian women making orecchiette without even thinking about it. This video is actually very interesting so I’ve included it here. I swear I saw at least two of these women inside in their apartments and talked briefly with one and told her that I was pretty sure that I had seen her making orecchiette in a video on the web and she said that she is in one.
In any case, in the video that I mentioned above the street is called Arco Basso (low arch) so I found the street. As I feared, the cold weather had driven people inside although there were still a lot of handmade orecchiette in drying racks outside.
Arco Basso
Drying orecchiette and “big orecchiette” (orecchiettone?). I’m not sure that the tubular pasta is called
After a nice and light lunch at a place in perhaps the main piazza of old Bari (that also had incredible gelato) we returned to the street. There was still nobody outside but there was a woman working with her daughter just inside an open window. She was starting to make another batch of dough. This was clear because there was kind of a “volcano†of semolina flour on a work surface. She came back onto the scene with a pitcher of water and I asked if she would mind if we watched. No problem. So she quickly made and kneaded the dough and started making orecchiette.
Apperitivo lunch
Gelato
More fantastic gelato
As an aside, Bari was an incredible place to shop for clothes. I can’t explain the difference but there seemed to be so many clothes shops for both men and women with different styles and price points. Specifically there were a lot of very attractive clothes in a mid-priced range and I indulged in a couple of shirts and fantasized about returning with a large suitcase and just going clothes crazy.
Here are a few more random shots of things seen in Bari. Definitely worth a visit. Great food, great shopping and high energy feel to the place.
I guess they took the building out that was holding things up on either side.
Bari Cathedral, building started in 1035, rebuilt  in 1292
