Dreaming In Italian

I talked to Claudia, a former Italian teacher and still friend, after I got here. She had become increasingly dissatisfied with teaching for various reasons and has recently changed jobs. At the time she was very busy and said that may we could get together in a couple of weeks. She contacted me on about that schedule and asked if I’d like to go to Mesola for a Fiera di Asparago – an asparagus fair. Sounded good to me. They have these fairs, often called sagras, often in Italy but I’d never gone to one.

Poster for the fiera

Mesola is a small town sort of in the middle of nowhere. In the big plain of the river Po. I think of it kind of like the central valley in California in that it is very flat and fertile and they grow huge amounts of all kinds of stuff there. I joked that it could be a Fiera delle Zanzare (mosquitos). One another visit there I saw (and was bitten by) lots of mosquitoes.  There is a lot of water around.

Claudia now has a car so she picked me up at my house and we drove to Mesola picking up her friend Daria on the way.

The route to Mesola

There were a couple of big tents. I mean BIG. Big enough to have tables inside to seat over a hundred people. The second thing that I noticed was that there were zero bathroom facilities. In a similar event in California there would be a row of porta-potties. Of course those who were residents were not far from home. Like I said it was a small town. But what about the out of towners? But Claudia and I went to a bar nearby, bought a glass of prosecco each and used the facilities.  Since Claudia grew up there until college age and her mother still lives there she was always running into people that she knew. That is both the advantage and disadvantage of a small town I guess.

Yes, fried fish. Claudia’s mother is on the right and Daria is on the left.

So the tents were for lunch. So what was served? Fish. I had spaghetti with clams followed by fried fish, then a little regional desert made of grape “stuff” (heck I don’t know exactly) mixed with flour. Tasty but not exactly breathtaking. Then a little plate with 4 or 5 baked deserts that were very good and of course water and wine with the meal and coffee afterward. But NO bloody asparagus. Strange.

A good friend of mine unfortunately moved to Los Angeles. Well, I’m sure it’s good for him since he grew up there but it does mean that already sporadic meetings will be even more so. I did hear from him not long before I came to Italy in early April. Some long time good friends of his were planning a trip to Italy including a stop in Bologna and he asked if I could advise them or even show them around. I was delighted to have the opportunity to show off a city that I love.

Mel and Ellen with the twin towers in the background

I arrived here on Thursday and met Ellen and Mel at their hotel in the very center on Saturday. We walked around for a bit through the quadrilateral where there are great little food markets and generally give of the medieval vibe of the city. Then into the Bibilioteca Salaborsa (the central library) including a little tour through the etruscan and roman excavations inside.  At one point Ellen and I lost Mel. Ellen was wearing a yellow jacket and Mel was following and at some point started following someone else in a similar jacket. After that I kept a close eye on him to make sure that he didn’t stray too far. It certainly helps if everyone has a cell phone.

Ellen’s lunch at Sfoglia Rina. Great Bolognese food at very moderate prices.

We had lunch on Sunday and then ate dinner together on Monday before they left for Venice on Tuesday.

Seafood antipasto

Spaghetti with clams

A risotto

A semfreddo – dessert halfway between a mouse and ice cream.

So if you plan to come to Bologna let me know – leave a comment on any blog post. If I’m here I’d be happy to show you around.

It has been a year and a half since I’ve seen the fountain of Neptune. That’s how long he has been undergoing restoration. I did take a tour of the restoration in progress a year ago and have been anxious to see the results. Now somewhat polished, sans pigeon droppings, oxidation and with cleaned water spouts plus a new lighting system.

By day

I had first seen this fountain many years ago, I think about 1995 when I was visiting several cities in Italy including Bologna. At that time each of the, I suppose mermaids, was spouting water from her nipples. Now only one is still active. Someone told me that since the water here has a lot of calcium it blocks the water ways. I guess they need something like big pipe cleaners to keep those nipples spouting.

Only one of the mermaids is spouting water

The new lighting – doesn’t seem much different of better than the old lighting.

It’s great to see the old guy back. He’s been there since 1567 and has been restored several times and this last one was probably the most thorough and certainly used ever modern means possible to care for him. I sure that this will not be the last time that he get some tender loving care.

I have found that as my language skills continue to improve that I read more and more books. That’s partly because it doesn’t take as long to read them. It used to be a bit of drudgery because I was looking up so many words or phrases and making notes that it would take a long time to get through a book. It has always been somewhat pleasant and certainly perhaps one of the best ways to improve my vocabulary. Now it’s going further on the pleasure end of the spectrum. In fact I ran out of new books to read last summer and re-read a couple that I had read before and I found to my delight that I understood them much better. It seems that sometimes I actually lost track of the plot. So here are the books that I brought back.

Wow -7 books that I brought back.

OK, Ratman doesn’t really qualify as a book. It’s a comic book but perhaps the only one I found that I really like. It’s about a goofy superhero, well I guess you could call him that but he’s often getting himself into trouble. I included quite a bit about him in another post so if you’re interested you can see that by clicking here. In any case this is the last issue of Ratman. I’ll be sad to see him go.

The book on the bottom right was a gift from a friend there. It’s a story of a surviving Italian soldier near the end of WWII and his nobility and humility as he struggles at the end of that conflict amid the chaos. It’s title is “The Traveling Companion”.

All of the other books are mysteries of one sort or another. I’ve now read a lot of the books by Carlo Lucarelli. He writes mostly mysteries, including ones that are also humorous, as well as some nonfiction. I really like him a lot and have a reasonable collection of his books as well as having read several others that I got from the library in Bologna and read while I was there.

Massimo Carotto also has a big presence in my Italian book collection. All of his are mysteries. I really like some of his characters, especially one with the protagonist nicknamed “Alligator” and his partner the “Old Rossini” whose nickname come from the fact he is the eldest of several sons in his family. He’s an interesting author but sometimes the happenings can be pretty brutal. I wrote a blog post about him in 2011 before I ever went to Italy. If interested click here.

A newer discovery is Antonio Manzini. He has a very interesting protagonist who’s a reasonably high level detective for the state police that keeps getting himself in trouble due to unorthodox (and often quite illegal) methods as well as his habit of smoking joints in his office – well, he opens the window at least.

The newest discovery and to my mind the best is Gianrico Carofiglio. In real life he was a mafia prosecutor in Bari, Puglia and started writing his books later in his career. His protagonist is a lawyer and unlike almost all of the others there are legal cases but no murders. His protagonist is a thoughtful guy and a talented defense attorney. I love reading him. Many of his books are available in translation from, who else, Amazon. In fact I bought two used copies of a book translated into english (they’re pretty inexpensive) of one of the above books “Ad Occhi Chiusi” for gifts. The translated title is “A Walk in the Dark” which makes absolutely no sense at all. “With Eyes Closed” is both the literal translation and also fits with the plot of the book. It’s weird how some movie or book titles get such strange translations.

So you see, Andrea Camilleri, who many people know about with his Detective Montalbano series of books is only one of many excellent Italian authors.