view from the backyard; day
view from the backyard; night
Click on images to see a larger version.
Spring has had a late start here; cold and rainy all through April. It even snowed once again the beginning of March! The snow picture at the right shows Oscar, our new dog (not that we ever had an old one..). Our friend Donna came to visit and we saw a camel in Siena; we met up with Giovanni's family in San Vincenzo near the sea and saw some interesting things along the way; one of the first festivals of the season was the 'Sagra dei Pici'.
Oscar
The biggest news of the spring is probably that of the dog, Oscar. He's a Bernese Mountain Dog, and will be pretty big when full-grown (100 lb.s or so). Our friends in Rome, Anna and Paolo, have an adult male, Leo, and decided to get a female companion for him. We went along for the ride when they visited the breeder... Giovanni wanted to take a pup the minute he saw them (they are super-cute when little!), but I thought the last thing we needed at this point was a dog, just since we're still not really settled. "Well, if at the end there's one puppy left over we should take it... it will be destiny, then..", says he. I agreed, kind of, so... of course it came to pass that someone who'd put down a deposit found another pup cheaper elsewhere and thus re-neged. So not only did Destiny see to it that we got Oscar, we got him marked-down for quick sale on top of it!
We've gone through all the usual puppy-rearing stuff: the half-eaten washcloth (oh God!.. is he doing to die!?!?); the bout of diarrhea (lovely); the jumping, biting, barking, rolling in mud... He's very independent-minded and only sometime obeys; he really just wants to do his thing BUT we have to do it with him; he hates to stay alone and so is always underfoot. He's just six months old and weighs about 60 pounds now. His favorite toy is a plastic ball he's bitten a big hole out of; he bites it from the inside and runs around with it covering his face.. bonk! He has klonked his head into the parked cars several times!
Just to proselytize for a moment to fellow dog owners: it's worth checking out raw feeding (there's a Yahoo group with an overwhelming amount of traffic that has a lot of good info; you do have to sign up for it, though). We have had fun doling out half-chickens, lamb's heads and beef spleens! Too bad meat here costs a lot more than in the States (there's no Wal-Mart nor Costco); not even the organ bits come cheap--the folks here eat 'em up themselves! Giovanni grumbles.. HE wants the lamb's head for supper.
A day in Siena
Our good friend Donna was able to pay us a visit; too bad it was cold & rainy most of the time! (Ok, it was late February, but still...).
We thought it'd be nice to spend a day in Siena, so we headed out in my car. It took us an hour-and-a-half to get there, and three hours (more, really) to get back. Armed with a highway map and a map of the center (nothing in-between exists), I took the exit that seemed to lead to a parking lot outside the center. We found a small lot and parked right away. Looking around, there was no bar or tobacconist (where one usually can get bus tickets), so we just decided to start walking in what looked like the right direction.. we walked, and walked, and walked some more. We passed a couple of bus shelters, but with no recognizable schedules, routes or agency name. We passed fields. We passed houses. We kept walking, up, up, up on a winding road with fast traffic and no sidewalk. We could see a kind of city wall way up there somewhere so we kept going and finally got to the edge of the center.
After a restorative cappucino and a pit stop, (and our encounter on a tiny side street with a live camel.. we just turned around and there was the camel right next to us.. "oh, yeah,.. ok.. a camel.. right" led by some guys from a Russian or Romanian circus; we were to cross paths once again with the camel and I was able to get photographic proof that we were not hallucinating) we headed off to see the "Duccio" exhibit. Tho' there were big placards all over advertising the show, it took us three tries to find the correct entrance (typical). The show was nice, although hoards of Italian schoolkids with declaming teachers forced us to ricochet around more than we would have liked.
On to see the cathedral, which is quite spectacular. A torrential downpour kept us from strolling around, and we hustled to the nearest restaurant to dry off and relax. The rain refused to let up for the rest of the day; we took refuge in a bookstore for a bit, but were pretty sick of being cold and wet and decided we should take one of the buses we had seen in the cathedral square, or one of the taxis, back to where we'd parked. Needless to say, the square was now deserted: no buses, no bus stops or signs, and no taxis. We started walking, thinking we'd come upon 1) a bus or a bus stop 2) a place that might sell bus tickets 3) a taxi or 4) a human we could inquire of regarding the above three items. There was nothing and no-one, all the way back along what seemed to be a rather main street back to the city entrance where we'd come in. Or rather, in the midst of this downpour the only other creatures on the street were a couple of bedraggled Gypsies who asked *us* where they could find the 'Caritas' (basically like the Salvation Army). I didn't have the presence of mind to say. "no, but if you find it, could you come back and tell US where it is?" We were in that bad a state!
The square at the city's edge was equally bereft of taxis and bus indications of any kind, so there was nothing to do but juggle our heavy books and (fortunately) our umbrellas and hike our sodden selves the 30-40 minutes back to the car. Several of the bus shelters we'd passed revealed themselves to be school bus stops. Not a single regular bus passed us, but, with the car now in sight, one taxi did blow by (going the other way) and honked (out of sheer perversion? he didn't slow down, at any rate...). The icing on the cake was when, thinking I'd hit something in the parking lot while pulling out, I discovered I'd run over my bag of books that I'd put down while opening up the car, leaving them all scuffed-up and wet.
Not that our sorrows ended there: the exit where we'd come in had the outgoing ramp blocked off for some reason, so we had to take the next exit, which led only north. Doubling back a second time, we couldn't find any alternate route; the third time I tried any old thing that looked like it would take us to the Cassia road (SS2). Problem is, no-one seems to be too concerned about street names or numbers, especially highway numbers. They are also unconcerned about indicating detours or salient points like "north" or "south". The signs for SS2 led to the Cassia but in one direction only.. north. (Strange indeed, for it's a two-lane road). The other direction took us back to the same blocked off area. Desperate, we asked a (saintly) woman for directions. She told us to follow her and, after about twenty minutes zigging and zagging through a series of semi-urban streets (I could never for the life of me re-trace this path, and in fact she did well to lead us, since it would have been impossible even to describe), showed us where we could again pick up the SS2 south. Coming back we nearly had to stop driving, it was raining so hard, and to top it all off in the dark and on the wind-y roads I managed to miss a turn (thank goodness for cell phones; I asked Giovanni the way back.. Sensing our distress he fixed us up a nice hot meal. I was never so happy to be home, that I can recall!).
Donna, though, is a real trooper! Aside from Oscar jumping all over the poor girl and muddying her up, I hope she had a good time; I know we were glad to see her.
Lidia's 80th birthday
We drove to San Vincenzo, a smallish seaside town on the coast between Grosseto and Livorno. Giovanni's brother, Nello, who lives in Pistoia, has bought a house under construction there in a little development. Some of the family took the occasion to celebrate his mom's 80th birthday there, since she wanted to give the house the once-over.
The drive was really spectacular, but a lot longer than we expected since hoards of cyclists (super-serious, tricked-up Italian cyclists with their matching Spandex uniforms and pricey bikes) were clogging up the narrow byways, riding in packs of ten and twenty, rigorously never, ever in single file. The curvy roads make it impossible to pass so sometimes we'd be stuck behind them for miles.
We passed by Arcidosso, which is also a lovely town, much bigger than San Casciano, but still little, and more off the beaten track even than we are (further from highways & trains) and even higher up (900 meters above sea level). Reportedly this is where Richard Gere frequents some sort of Buddhist retreat (the "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo"/chant-for-a-new-BMW types, I suspect...). Everywhere you look in Italy, you see the striking contrast between the beautiful and the mundane, the treasure and the trash...
For a couple of kilometers we passed through the strangest sort of forest, where every tree had the bark entirely peeled off it, from the ground up to about 8-10 feet. After a bit, we figured that they must have been harvested for cork, but it was still a strange sight...
After the house tour, we repaired to a local seafood restaurant with a big outside dining area. It looked like half like a restaurant and half like some hippy's backyard.. it was great! Oscar, surprisingly well-behaved, did not get into any scraps with the other half-dozen-or-so dogs strewn about (some loose, the resident restaurant dogs, and the rest, of other patrons) but did decide to spend a minute or two barking (you cannot imagine the tremendously loud voice this dog has..) at something none of the other dogs or people could see or hear, scaring the whole place into silence. Oops! On a few occasions we have been able to take him into restaurants.. we always ask first, and so far they have never had any problems; we haven't been anywhere really fancy, though.
We feasted on the local specialty which Nello had reserved ahead of time: "cacciucco" which you have to imagine as a sort of bouillabaise, but without any of the fussy French herbs or Pernod or anything like that. Also, much less broth. The secret is, supposedly that each fish is cooked separately, and they are joined together only at the end, so each is perfectly cooked. The octopus in it was amazing--my favorite part-- although there were also scampi (not really a shrimp.. more like a cross between a shrimp and a mini-lobster) and mazzancolle (not quite crayfish... long insect-like things with very little meat, but still, they seem popular) along with a sort of whole sea bass.. all sitting on top of bread to soak up the tasty tomato & olive oil sauce. Yum!
Sagra dei Pici
The warmer weather also brings back the local outdoor festivals, which are called "sagre" or "feste" and usually feature a traditional local food product. One very near us (Celle sul Rigo, the next town over) featured "pici", which are thick hand-rolled spaghetti, usually served with a really garlicky tomato sauce ("all'Aglione"), but also with ragu' or with mushroom sauce. Click here for a recipe
I tried to get a picture of the big barbeque (had to hold the camera up over a tall fence) that had an excellent structure: the wood fire area was connected to the grill area in such a way as to let fresh coals be moved constantly underneath, so they can cook indefinitely.
It's a tiny, tiny town (a 'suburb', if you can call it that, of San Casciano dei Bagni) but there were lots of police about.. We came to find out the next day that, as the night progressed and more of the local youth congregated and continued to imbibe, there was in fact a big fracas with fist-fighting and several injuries. Whoopee!
Q&LI Informatica
Nothing is really moving yet, but a lot of things are "boiling in the pot", as they say here. The SuMisura product is packaged and out in a couple of stores, but only 1 copy sold so far. People are unlikely to change accounting software, though, in the middle of the year, so the real reckoning can't be made for many months. It does serve as a good starting point for talking to folks, though.
In the meantime, Giovanni has made some contacts in some public organizations that have been getting pressure to upgrade their technology, and there's the EU grant phenomenon also in play (yet another public trough!). On the surface, people seem eager to start getting things done, but there is a series of elections to come in a couple of weeks, so everyone is in a holding pattern til' probably mid-July. Another possible gig for a 3-4 month project MAY come through.. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Best to all.. drop us a line if you can! One thing we can say is that the spring here has been worth the long, cold, dark winter.
Love, Cynthia & Giovanni
The
Oscar, March 1
a very muddy puppy
Full steam ahead--
tho' he can't see where he's going
Live camel strolling past the cathedral in Siena
A mini tuna
Medaeval walls of a little town we passed
Trees harvested for cork
Roadside Italy
Arcidosso (taken from the same gas station pkg. lot as the pic above); note the evocative vine-covered fence
On the site of Nello's new vacation home
Only Italian men really seem to be able to get away with wearing orange pants. (Green suits are also popular.)
Odd seafood item 1: "canocchia"; aka "cicale" (which also means 'cicada' in Italian)
Odd seafood item 2: "mazzancolle"; distinct from the canocchia, it's another shrimp-like creature
Odd seafood item 3: "scampo"; the 'scampi' in "Shrimp scampi" is not a preparation, but a different animal.
You can see the rain coming
View from Celle sul Rigo, the next town over from S. Casciano
Typical 'Nonno' ('Gramps') with typical nonno-style hat
Heavy police presence...
the cooker
