THE CHEESE
When I posted on the SlowTrav and Expats message boards asking how to store the block of Parmesan cheese that Wendy gave Art for his birthday, it was suggested that I take the cheese to a local cheese shop to have it cut and vacuum packed. Since we don't have a cheese shop here or in Marsciano, I wondered whether I could take the cheese to the local grocery store instead.
We discussed the problem with Giacomo the other day, and he suggested the large butcher shop here in San Venanzo, Davide. Since we don't go there very much at all (they're supposed to be famous for their meat/sausage, but we think they're a bit pricey), this didn't seem like the best place to ask.
Art suggested that maybe we should just buy a vacuum machine and do it ourselves, but I told him those machines are expensive....over €100, I'm sure. Not that I'd mind having one, especially now that we have the freezer, but still....
Art decided that we should ride down to Marsciano to see if we could find a vacuum sealer, and also to see if Rita might be helping out at Nestor's (formerly Ternana's). We were wondering how Pino was feeling, but hate to just stop in at their house without notice.
The Brava! store was sold out of vacuum sealers, but the clerk said they cost €120 and up! Never mind.
We had more success at Nestor, where Rita was indeed helping out on a busy Saturday evening. We found out that Pino is feeling much better, and that physical therapy has helped his back/leg pain considerably.
While we were eating our pizza, Art had a great idea.....he remembered that Marco had laminated our Carta d'Identita cards way back when....maybe he still had the machine and could seal something larger...something like our cheese.
I took advantage of a rare quiet moment without customers to ask both Rita and Mara if it would be possible to seal the cheese Art had received for his birthday. We found out that the machine had stayed with the pizzeria, and Mara told me we could bring it by in the morning!
This morning we drove down to Marsciano. Art was expecting the pizzeria to be empty, but I was afraid we'd hit the after church crowd, which we did. On Sundays there are sheet pizzas, roasted chicken, roast potatoes, pasta dishes, focaccia, loaves of bread, and everything else you'd need for a delicious Sunday lunch without heating up the kitchen.
When there was a momentary lull, Giuseppe took the cheese to the back to cut it and seal it. He brought out a sample wedge to make sure that it wasn't too large or too small for us. In the end, it took well over an hour, due to the constant stream of customers. We didn't mind waiting, and in fact, we're so happy that business seems to be as good now as it was when it was Ternana's.
While we were waiting, I took a picture of the Sicilian wine, Zibibbo, that Giuseppe has for sale (€8 a bottle I think)
And here's the cheese, before....
and after....
We tried to pay Giuseppe, if not for his time, at least for his supplies, but he wouldn't take a penny. We did get him to keep one wedge of the cheese...not a big deal for him, but at least we could show our appreciation.
ART
With the help of the pneumatic hammer, Armando’s little chair, and much advice and encouragement from everyone, the wall is now finished! Art did a fantastic job, and my worries about a hole in the wall or a toe accidentally cut off by a dropped tool were unfounded.
Personally I don’t see how this can solve our moisture problem. I agree with Wendy that the moisture is probably coming from below, but with moisture/water, who knows? The area that Art cleared DID need to be resurfaced, so at least that will be done.
The Italians use an interesting technique, and maybe it’s just because I’ve never seen houses built with stucco/concrete that it seems unusual and interesting. The outside of our house is finished with a layer of concrete, not completely smoothed. The texture is just a bit rough, and the bottom section of the house is even rougher.
The rough area, about the bottom three feet of the wall, is made by flicking concrete onto the surface using a large brush. If moisture gets under this concrete it flakes off quite easily. I’m hoping that this new application will stay put for a while.
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Wendy called me on Tuesday to ask if we were going to be home on Thursday, Art’s birthday. I told her yes, we’d be here. She and her boss, Corrado were gong to meet with the people who own the house in Ripavella (the one we went to see with Anna and Trevor). Wendy said she had a gift for Art and wanted to stop by. When she told Corrado of her plans, his question was “Do you think you’ll be invited for dinner?!”
In typical Italian style, or maybe typical Umbrian style, Corrado is quite reluctant to try new food, or even familiar food cooked in a different style. After bringing Wendy many, many treats to the office, Corrado finally succumbed to hunger one day and tried something that I’d made. After that he was a convert, and always hinted to Wendy how much he enjoyed the things I made.
When he asked Wendy about being invited for dinner, he asked if he would ever get to taste anything I cooked other than sweets. What could I do but invite them both for dinner?
Art knew that he wanted to barbeque some ribs, now all I had to do was come up with the rest of the menu. Since it was his birthday, I asked him what else he wanted, and after much thought, here’s the final menu:
• Celery stuffed with cheddar bacon cheese spread
• Ribs with homemade barbeque sauce
• Pesto rice
• Cole slaw
• Grilled eggplant
• Sliced tomatoes
• Key lime margarita pie for dessert
Let me say that the celery/cheese was NOT my choice, but Art’s. I had bought some cheddar cheese spread as a small gift for Art, thinking that we wouldn’t have any cheddar cheese, and that this stuff, that didn’t require refrigeration, would help satisfy his cheese craving. Serving it for company is another matter entirely! Anyway….
Everything was wonderful, and Corrado seemed to enjoy it all. We knew Wendy would like the ribs, and she did. Art’s mastery of the grill and his barbeque sauce really made the meal. Of course Corrado had never had cole slaw, but he seemed to like it.
The frozen Key lime margarita pie, made from a recipe my daughter had sent me, was quite a hit….after I picked it up off the floor! I had lined the pie pan with parchment paper…don’t’ ask me why….and when I took it out of the freezer the frozen-solid pie on a slippery sheet of paper just lid right out of the pie pan and onto the floor! Ack!!!!
The crushed pretzel crust suffered, but because the pie was frozen it survived intact. Being among friends, we laughed, I taught Corrado an appropriate use of the English word “Shit!!!”, picked up the pie and proceeded to serve it.
I think a graham cracker crust would work with this pie, but I’m assuming that the crushed pretzels are used for their saltiness, imitating the salt on the rim of a Margarita. Here’s the recipe, compliments of my daughter, with a special thanks for including the Kool-Aid in Art’s birthday card!
Key Lime Margarita Pie
1-1/4 cups crushed pretzels
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice
1 envelope Lemon Lime Kool-Aid mix
1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed, divided
MIX crushed pretzels, sugar and butter. Press firmly onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to fill.
COMBINE condensed milk, lime juice and drink mix in large bowl until well blended. Remove 1/2 cup whipped topping; set aside. Gently stir in remaining 2-1/2 cups whipped topping. Pour into crust.
FREEZE 6 hours or overnight. Let stand at room temperature 15 min. or until pie can be cut easily. Garnish with reserved whipped topping before serving. Store leftover pie in freezer
Naturally I had to use real whipped cream, which I made in the milk frother our friend Nedra bought for Art last year. I have a bottle of Key Lime juice that I brought from the states….you know you have to have Key lime juice to make a key lime pie!
The birthday gift Wendy brought for Art was amazing! Not only did she bring FOUR bottles of wine, but she also brought this HUGE block of parmesan cheese! It weighs 8.1 Kg, or nearly 18 pounds!
I have to find out from someone just exactly how to store this, to keep it from drying out. We’ll be thinking of Wendy every time we use it, which I’m guessing will be for quite a while!!!
KEEPING UP WITH MY BLOG...OR ANY BLOG
There's a website called BLOGLINES where you can subscribe to various blogs. Once you've registered, subscribed, and downloaded a notifier icon for your computer, you'll be notified automatically whenever a new article has been posted to your listed blogs.
I was a bit challenged in trying to figure out how to do everything, but eventually even I figured it out, so I'm assuming that most of you can too. This site helps me to keep up with all my friend's blogs without having to check them ever day to see if they've posted anything new.
If you think this is something that you might like to try, just click on the link above.
SUMMER UPDATES....AND A RECIPE
Giacomo and Belinda have finally received their grant to turn their home into a rental property. They’ll add a pool and a medieval-style tower for two additional apartments. When it’s all finished, the main house, with three or four bedrooms, and the two additional apartments will be rented en-masse, perfect for a large family or a group of friends. Should the dollar take a turn for the worse, we plan to take over one of the apartments and work as caretakers!
Although I don’t know the details, I do know that Giacomo worked long and hard to prepare the paperwork for this grant. They could have started the work at any time, but if the grant hadn’t been approved, they would have been out not only the money they’d invested up to that point, but also committed to continuing the work at their own expense.
The grant they received was for €80,000, and they estimate they’ll spend an additional €80,000 of their own money. A few weeks back Giacomo received notice that he could go to the bank to collect €40,000 in cash to begin the project. The bad news is that the entire project must be completed by December 2007. Had they begun work before the grant was official they would have been in better shape for the deadline, but I agree with their decision to wait for the official notification.
The pool will be the first thing to go in, and when it’s dug the foundation for the tower will also be dug. Installing a pool will mean that some olive trees will have to be moved, and although they definitely want to save the trees by transplanting them, I’m not sure the trees will survive. Moving them in mid-season like this can’t be the right time, but the December 2007 deadline means that they have to begin work ASAP.
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We went to the picnic last Saturday hosted by our new expat friends, John and Vera. There must have been at least thirty people there, maybe as many as forty. After introducing myself numerous times and trying desperately to not only meet everyone, but also to remember their names, I finally had to give up. Here’s what and who I do remember:
John and Vera, our hosts, have a fantastic house that they built a few years ago. A large covered portico separates the main house from the guest house, and both houses have large covered verandas from which to enjoy the spectacular views of Todi, and of Fabio’s castle-in-progress. (See previous post for more info).
John was in charge of the barbequing, in traditional American style. He’s brought his Weber kettle grill with him….and he’s not afraid to use it! We had chicken, ribs and Italian sausage, all grilled to perfection.
Vera loaded the table with roasted potatoes, baked beans….yes, American style baked beans!, roasted peppers, pickles, and if there was something lese, I’ve forgotten. Anyway, quite a nice meal!
I brought some brownies for dessert, thinking that it was the perfect American picnic-type dessert. Along with the brownies we had cheesecake and a chocolate torte flavored with espresso….too much coffee for me! I gladly passed the torte over to Art, and he gladly accepted.
We met a LOT of Brits, a few French, some Germans, and one woman from Bulgaria. We met Mark, who’s a moderator on the Italymag’s message board, and his wife Karen. Karen and I looked at each other all night trying to decide where we’d met before. BOTH of us swear we have, but never could come up with a place, time, or even a remote possibility!
Fabio, builder-of-the-castle was there, and he did remember us from last winter. He asked about the couple who’d been with us, and wasn’t too surprised when we told him they’d returned to the United States. “Plans change” he said. He’s still trying to sell his house near Tuoro, up near Lago Trasimeno.
I met a French woman, Marie Christine, who’s married to the German Rolando, and they have a home just outside of Monte Castello di Vibio. They’ve been here for many years, having previously worked in Rome. While in Rome they bought their current house for a summer place, and once the retired it became their permanent home.
We met a British couple, Alison and Steve, who have a house not too far from us. When they told us where they live, we knew immediately that they must know the UNrealtor, and we were careful to steer the conversation away from that topic. Friends of the UNrealtor probably are only still their friends if they didn’t buy a house through them (Alison and Steve didn’t), or because they’re fiercely, blindly loyal. Either way, I didn’t want to get into our long story….it’s been three years now, and although we can’t avoid him or his friends completely, we can do our best to minimize the contact or discussion.
We met John and Morris (or is it Maurice?), who live in Collazzone…I think…I don’t think it’s Collepepe…..and, Nathalie, the woman from Bulgaria, and Frederick and his wife (name????), both German. We met three young American girls from California who were traveling around Europe for a few weeks. Everyone we met spoke better English than we did their native language, so English was sort of the default language.
The weather was perfect for a picnic, the views were spectacular, the food was delicious and the company was very interesting. What a great way to spend an evening in Italy….or anywhere!
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I've had this recipe since 2001 and had never made it until last night. Once we moved to Italy part of the problem was the cheese, but now I realize that parmesan could just as easily be used. Anyway, yesterday I harvested enought tomatoes from our garden to make this pie. I used some cheddar that we'd brought back from London, and although I'm sure jack (or colby) cheese would have made it creamier, it was still delicious!
One of the interesting things I did was to make the pie crust using lard instead of shortning. Since Crisco isn't available here, it's a precious commmodity....my suitcase is usally filled with Crisco sticks when we return from a U.S. visit. Lard IS available in Italy though, and I'd bought a package of it a while back. I wasn't too pleased with the first pie I made with lard...I could smell the lard as it baked, and it just didn't seem the right thing to use for a fruit (or other sweet) pie. Using it for this pie seemed perfect....and it was!
Tomato and Onion Tart
2 large onions
2 tsp olive oil
2 cups jack cheese, grated (or other cheese as you wish)
7 roma tomatoes, in 1/2" slices
1/4 cup olives
single pie crust
In a large skillet cook the onions in the olive oil until nutty and brown. Allow all the liquid to evaporate. Cool.
Into the prepared (unbaked) pie shell, spread the cooled onions. Top with cheese. Arrange the tomato slices and olives on top of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
Bake at 375º until golden, about one hour.
I SCAVI (THE EXCAVATIONS)
Sometime last spring, while Googling San Venanzo, I found information about an excavation just outside of San Venanzo. Florida State University was bringing a group over to Italy in July, so I sent an email to the address listed, asking about the excavation itself, if we could visit, and if we could help.
Eventually I received a reply telling me the name of the director, and also the name of the Italian contact. The Italian director was based in Orvieto, and the email told me to contact the geological museum to find out how to contact the FSU people. Orvieto was a little too far to drive just on the off chance that I’d catch anyone in the office, assuming I could even find the office, so the idea just kind of faded away…….
Until Thursday, when Art heard a group of young women speaking English at the local bar one morning. He spoke to them and when he came home he told me they were doing some sort of excavation. HELLO!!! These are the people we’ve been trying to find, I told him!!! Did you ask where the site is? Did you find out how to contact the director? Do you know where they’re staying? NO…no….no.
Okay, return trip to the bar, and just as he’s approaching the group, a woman drives up who turns out to be the director! And Art finds out that the geological museum they’re working in is the one in San Venanzo, NOT Orvieto! They’ve been here for a few weeks and we haven’t even known about them!
Art spoke with the director and she told him they were in the volcano museum, working up on the third floor, every day. She told him we could stop by, holler up, and they’d drop a key down so we could get in. As I’ve mentioned before, this museum seems to be open only for school groups, and only on rare occasions to the general public.
I walked up to the piazza the next morning, shouted up to the third floor, and Ceil, the director appeared at the window with a small basket containing the key. I made my way up to the third floor and Ceil filled me in on the excavation. Eventually information about this site and the artifacts from it will be displayed here in San Venanzo.
The site in question is on a high hilltop….It’s possible to see Perugia, Todi, and Chiusi from the site. Because these are all important Etruscan cities, and because Orvieto, also an Etruscan city, is the only city NOT visible from the hilltop, it’s thought that this location was used by Orvieto as an outlook, and the site also seems to have been an important crossroad between all the cities. An aerial photograph shows the ancient road quite clearly, as well as showing that the site is the only hilltop that’s been completely cleared.
The site appears to have been occupied all the way back to the Bronze Age, then fell into disuse sometime in the 4th century A.D. I’m a little confused, because the information I have says that the Bronze Age ended about 600 B.C., but I’m sure I was told that this site was occupied from the third century B.C. Oh well……..I’m just off by a few hundred years. Maybe I can get this cleared up next week.
The college students who work on this excavation (thirteen this summer), alternate working in the field (read: HOT SUN) and working in the museum cleaning previous finds. A well is being excavated this season, and it’s full of many large clay pots that were just dropped into the well….meaning that many of them will be able to be pieced back together.
Ceil showed be various artifacts…a bone needle, a pair of tweezers, a shard of beautiful blue glass from a Roman perfume bottle. Many, many bones were also found on the site, mostly cattle bones. Whether the cows were used for sacrifice is unknown.
Although the site was originally occupied by the Etruscans, eventually it was taken over by the Romans. Quite often the Etruscans groups realized that it was better to live WITH the Romans than to die trying to hold them back.
The site itself has been terraced,
a fact that’s quite evident as you approach it, which is exactly what we did on Saturday morning. We left the house early, and based on Ceil’s directions, I was almost certain I knew exactly where the site was. After a false start we eventually did find the entrance to the site, exactly where I thought it would be.
I’ll post a picture of the view, but none of the excavation itself, per Ceil’s request. I’m sure they don’t want to run the risk of someone damaging the site, or of giving away too many secrets before they publish their own report.
In addition to the well, another trench is also being excavated, and the foundations of a house have been found as well as part of an ancient road. This sort of work has GOT to be tedious and boring 99% of the time….gently scraping and brushing away at a pile of rocks for hours on end??? And what appears to be just another rock could, at some point hours later, turn out to be just a small part of a bigger structure I guess. I’m glad there are people with the knowledge and patience to do this important work.
Also up on the site we saw loads of these fabulous blue thistles. It must have something to do with my love of Scotland, but I was just completely captivated by these thistles! So forbidding to touch, but so beautiful to look at…………
ART BEGINS A NEW PROJECT
Last winter our pantry, which is located underneath the stairs, seemed to be very damp. I bought more of the dehumidifier kits that are sold everywhere and put one in the back of the pantry. The salt in the small container on top draws the moisture, then it collects in the container on the bottom.
Even though I emptied the containers regularly, there was still ‘muffa’ (mold) on the walls, which meant I was back in the corner with a bucket of bleach on a regular basis as well. Not my idea of a fun time, especially since I also had to clean the muffa in our bedroom and in the small upstairs bathroom.
Now that the roof and gutters have been repaired, the bedroom and bathroom shouldn’t be a problem this winter (Please!), but the problem under the stairs continues, even now.
Art asked the men who did the roof if they had an opinion about this, and eventually, after consulting with those two men as well as with Armando our neighbor and with Luciano and Dino who‘re working in the park, it was decided that Art needed to remove the outer layer of concrete on the house so that it could be re-done.
Art thought this was going to be a simple project, but as he started to work at chipping away the loose concrete, he learned that he had to remove much more than he ever dreamed of!
The project has now taken on a life of its own, and even as I type this, Art’s on his way to talk to someone about borrowing a pneumatic hammer. I for one am not in favor of this. Art has no experience using one of these hammers, and I’m just afraid that we’ll end up with a gigantic hole in the wall…one that goes all the way through! Of course as a man he’s not the least bit hesitant to pick up a power tool and blast away…….
PAUL
At long last my McCartney rose, or Paul, as I prefer to call it, has bloomed! I have three beautful, frangrant roses, and with any luck I'll have a few more before the summer's over.
SUMMER
Summers always seem to be so busy, and the time goes fast, even though we have more of it, given the longer days and daylight savings time. Even if we don’t do that much, our days seem to be filled with so many different activities. Maybe it’s just that we can stay inside, go outside, take a walk, read on the patio, water the plants, work in the garden, whatever….even if we only go a few feet from the house, we can at least get up and go, as opposed to the winter when we feel bound to the house and I stay close to the radiators to keep warm.
The vegetable garden, or orto as it’s known in Italy, is so much happier than it was last year. Sure I’ve made adjustments, and I gave up on those plants which require a lot of water like peppers and eggplant, preferring to concentrate my energies on my two favorite summer crops: tomatoes and basil.
Although I’ve made several batches of pesto, I’m still waiting for that first ripe tomato! Yes, I realize that we had a very slow start to the summer, and that the temperatures during the first part of June were nothing short of frigid, but still….it’s the middle of July! I want my own tomatoes! I want to see the difference between the San Marzano that’s for sauce versus the San Marzano that’s for salads!
The vines are heavy with fruit, but so far, nothing is getting ripe! So much for my great plan to put out a few plants in mid-March before we left for the states. Yes, they survived and look great, but they STILL haven’t produced a ripe tomato…..yet.
I think I have about ten basil plants in the orto, and another five or six in the backyard. The ones in the backyard are growing in pots, and although they’re doing fine, they still don’t grow and produce like the ones in the orto, even with the poor soil.
Today I added another five basil plants to the orto. The original ten plants will probably start to poop out around the end of August, and these new plants will help keep me in enough basil to continue making pesto. Now that I have the freezer, I can load up!
summer fields in Umbria....
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Paul and Patty, our friends who have that spectacular house in San
Terenziano ( click here for the link to IL MULINO ) were here for a few weeks. They’ve just finished their first year at the international school in Morocco and they both said they were surprised at how much they really like it there. Since they plan to be there for another four years, we’re hoping that we’ll get a chance to visit them.
We had dinner with Paul and Patty one evening, and they also invited another expat couple, John and Vera. John and Vera live here for six months, then return to the Poconos in Pennsylvania for the winter. While we were talking, several interesting things happened, all of which support my theory that us expats are really a very incestuous little group.
I don’t even remember how it came up, but something was said about Kentucky. John got the strangest look on his face and said “I know you! I’ve read your blog!!” Turns out that he’d found the blog a while back and was absolutely amazed that we’d decided to make the move then just DID it. I think the phrase “ignorance is bliss” wasn’t far from his thoughts, but he was much too kind to say it out loud.
Because John lived all over the world not only as an adult, but also as a child, and because Vera is originally from Germany, moving to Italy wasn’t really such a big deal for them. I don’t know how many languages Vera speaks (German and English obviously), but I do know that John is fluent is English, German and Spanish, and once you speak three languages, the probability that you speak four, five or more is certainly greater.
In addition to the fact that John knew our story (and loved us already because we come from the home of bourbon!), we also discovered that their house faces the castle that we had toured way back when, back when our (former) friends had just moved here and were looking for a house to buy.
We learned that Fabio, the retired Alitalia pilot was NOT restoring an ancient ruin as we had been led to believe, but had actually built the entire castle himself, and that the work was still continuing….not a surprise, given its size.
We’ve been invited to a picnic at John and Vera’s home on Saturday, and I think that Fabio will be there too. I don’t know if he’ll remember us, but at least now we have a way to keep up with the progress of the castle.
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Paul took us and John on a small tour of a few of the new wineries he’s discovered in his area. Living so close to Montefalco means that they’re surrounded by hundreds of acres of vineyards, and by many, many wineries, both large and small. One winery we visited was just a small mom and pop place, practically operating out of their garage. The other had sprung up almost overnight, although they must have an established reputation because we saw an Italian wine magazine that featured an extensive article about the winery and its products.
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Larry and Shelly are also here, but they’ve been so inundated with guests that I’m afraid they may just want to rest and recuperate once everyone has gone home. Now that Shelly’s retired she’ll be here more often, and once the plans for their house are approved (a very frustrating process!), I’m sure she’ll be here on a regular basis.
I hope they’re here in August to enjoy some of the festivities that are scheduled….or course Massa Martana will host their annual Sagra di Gelato, and there are a number of musical events we’d like to attend….a “Big Band” concert and a blues/soul/R&B performer we’ve never heard of…
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Gioberto told us that his daughter’s group will perform in San Venanzo on the 22nd of July, and they’ll also be performing in Marsciano on the 28th….sounds like the perfect place to take Art to celebrate his big 6-0 later this month.
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We walked down to our favorite little grocery store in town the other day…I needed a few more eggs to make brownies for John and Vera’s picnic, and I also needed another pepper for a dish I was making for a dinner with Giacomo and Belinda. While there we also picked up a bottle of Brunello….a 375 ml bottle, just right for two people! Additionally it was a 1997 vintage, supposedly the best year, and increasingly difficult to find.
Whenever we find a ‘97 we pick it up for my son and his wife….it makes a great “thank you” gift when we stay at their house. I don’t know how this particular winery, Col d’Orcia is rated, but I’m hoping the wine is good enough for people like us who aren’t connoisseurs, but still appreciate a good wine.
SCAFFOLDING AND IRON BARS
The roof cleaning continues. Marco and Maurizio had hoped to be finished on Friday, but were delayed by two things: 1) We decided to go ahead and have a new gutter put up on the side of the house rather than just patching it. The geometra told us that basically since we had the guys and had the scaffolding up all it would cost would be for the materials. sigh.... and 2) we actually had RAIN!!! yesterday, both in the morning AND in the evening!!!!
The fabbro, Renaldo, had told us he would be here on Saturday morning to install the iron bars for the kitchen window. Imagine our surprise when we come home on Thursday afternoon to find the job finished!!
For those of you who might be wondering why we did this, I'll explain. Those of you who don't care can skip this part.
Previously our kitchen window had a single shutter on the left side, then a double (hinged) shutter on the right side. In order to close the shutters you had to go outside to release the latch for the shutter on the right.
The Italians seem to keep their shutters closed all the time. Most Italians don't have screens, so in the summer I guess this helps to keep the bugs out, and in the winter the shutters are closed to help keep the cold out.
Although we close the shutters in our bedroom in the afternoon to keep the hot sun out, the rest of the time all our shutters are open...all the time...summer and winter. We like the light!!!
Of course the Italians think we're strange, and consider it somewhat of a security risk to keep the shutters open. If your shutters stay open all the time, then are closed for several weeks at a time, like we do when we go on vacation, to the Italians this is just a red flag announcing that you're not home. Perhaps if we lived in a big city or a very remote location we would have more concerns, but living in San Venanzo, living right across the street from the old folks home where there's always someone coming or going, security isn't really a major concern for us when we go on vacation, especially if all the shutters are closed and locked.
Somewhere along the way we got the bright idea that we could have iron bars installed over the kitchen window, thereby eliminating the need to ever close the shutters. When we had the shutters revarnished we had the second shutter on the right removed, and now we have one (non-functioning) shutter on each side, just for looks. I guess we could have elimnated the shutters completely, but since every other window has a shutter, we thought this was would look better.
The fabbro told Art that when he was installing the iron bars, several people asked him how we were going to close the shutters, and he told them we weren't, because we wouldn't need to. Mauro, our geometra, asked why we didn't have the iron bars mounted inside the window frame, but when we told him we wanted to have flower boxes, he understood.
I was afraid we might feel like we were in prison when we were sitting in the kitchen looking out, but we both agree that it's not a problem, and adds a slightly medieval touch and maybe even a bit of much needed character to the house.
I'm sure we do things every day that puzzle the Italians, and although there are many Italian ideas that we've adopted, we still think like Americans....lots of light in the house.....shutters that are for looks only....screens on the windows. And now we also have beautiful copper gutters and downspouts, just like some fancy-shmancy Italian villa!
We've been here almost three years, and we're finally getting everything done! The shutters have all been repaired and revarnished, the windows are now all double-paned and weather-stripped, all the windows have screens, we have the iron bars on the kitchen window, a clean roof and new, functioning gutters. Only a few things remain on our list....cleaning the front door and installing a new sidelight, and finishing the small bathroom upstairs. We've decide just to make this a half bath and will remove the shower stall. We'll buy a nice tall cabinet to put in it's place to use for storage (currently the shower stall is being used as a closet anyway...it's where we keep the vacuum cleaner and mop bucket!) We'll also tile this bathroom now that the gutters are functioning and moisture shouldn't be a problem any more. (Speriamo!)
VIEWS AND PIZZA
On Monday we went with Wendy and a couple from Poland to look at a house in Ripavella, not too far from San Venanzo. Anna and Trevor (she’s Polish, he’s American) had contacted us after reading our blog to ask for advice and suggestions. They knew who NOT to use from reading the blog, and were concerned about finding someone honest to deal with…..and also someone who spoke English. We were happy to put them in contact with Wendy.
The house was nicely done and the grounds were beautiful….the view of Monte Castello di Vibio from the pool was stunning! Can you iimagine floating in your pool, staring off at views like these? (Well no, but I'd sure like to give it a try!)....
Although I don’t think this house was “the one” for Anna and Trevor, they plan to come back in October for more house-hunting and we hope to get together with them then.
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It’s no secret how much we love the Testatonda family….and their food. It’s also no secret that we were so sad to see them retire from Ternana’s, but that we were very happy for them. We were so pleased that Pino and Rita would get a chance to relax, to enjoy the grandchildren and to be off their feet. We were happy for Marco and Maruska because they will now be able to pursue their dream of a bed and breakfast.
We were also quite happy to meet the new couple who’re running Ternana’s, now called Pizza Nestor. Giuseppe and Mara, from Sicily, are every bit as warm, welcoming and friendly as the Testatonda family. We joked with them they they’re staring out just like Rita and Pino did, as a young couple with a growing family, and that some day they too will retire from the pizzeria.
Still, every time we go to Pizza Nestor it’s not without a tinge of sadness, just knowing that we won’t be greeted by Rita, Pino, Marco or Maruska. Last night we went to Marsciano for a pizza, and I think we’ve finally accepted that the Testatondas are gone, and that Giuseppe and Mara are damned good replacements.
As usual, as soon as we entered, we were greeted with shouts of welcome. “How are you?!” “Is everything okay?” “Are you hot?” Just simple things, but it was the simple acts of kindness we felt from the Testatonda family that made us feel so at home every time we stepped inside, and that feeling continues with Giuseppe and Mara.
After some chit chat we ordered our pizzas and I told Mara that I wanted mine extra crispy. “Of course!” She brought us our half liter of wine and glasses for the wine and the water. She then reappeared with two plates of eggplant parmigiano….just a few bites each, but just like Rita, she’s a great cook and loves to share. Needless to say it was delicious.
The pizzas arrived and were just as we had ordered. My pizza was extra crispy, and Giuseppe brought over the bottle of spicy oil because he remembers that Art likes it. Perfetto!
As we sat letting our pizza digest, enjoying the last of the wine, Mara appeared with a plateful of sweets. We had these small fruits, which aren’t fruits at all, but sweets filled with an almond filling.
Is this what they call marzipan? We also had another sweet that was just as tasty, this one filled with pistachios. Wow! We were both so impressed, not only with the taste, but also with the thoughtfulness.
After a few minutes Mara appeared once again, this time bringing us two glasses of the Sicilian dessert wine they sell, Zibibbo, along with a piece of fruit-filled crostata! We were groaning with pleasure by the time we were finished, and I was really glad that I’d only eaten half my pizza!
Of course when the bill was presented, there was no charge for the eggplant, the sweets or the wine….those were simply little gifts, presented with love and friendship. Although we’ll always miss seeing the Testatondas on a regular basis, I think they’ve found the perfect replacements in Giuseppe and Mara.
MORE CLEANING, MORE COST
The work on the roof has been interesting. This morning I went out to talk to the guys, mainly to ask about the beautiful copper gutters and downspout that were laying out back. For me beautiful equals expensive. I asked why they weren’t using the galvanized metal like the gutters were made of before, but of course everyone assure me that copper is a MUCH better product. Yeah, and we know what THAT means.
Additionally, we didn’t realize what the cleaning would involve. I guess Art and I thought they’d just go up on the roof, dust or scrub the tiles, replace any that were broken, and be done. Of course it’s not that simple. For those of you who don’t know how a tile roof is made, here’s my take: first the roof tiles are about 24” long, and curved in a “C” shape.
The tiles seem to be up on the roof in two layers….the bottom layer of tiles are laid with the curve facing up, then the top tile faces down.
In order to clean the roof, the men are taking up the top tile, setting it aside, then sweeping tons and TONS of accumulated dust, dirt and pine needles that have accumulated underneath.
Our neighbor Frank commented that the house should also be cooler now that all this stuff is no longer retaining the heat that’s being stored in all this ‘stuff’. That will be an added bonus.
Of course our workers told us that the roof had been done incorrectly the last time. Apparently instead of looking like this:
, they should have been placed like this: __ __ __ . (Well, apparently the symbol I found online won't copy into blogger...so just imagine several upside down U's for the first example, then upside down U's separated by the underscore for the second example!)
They told Art that by leaving a space in between the tiles the dirt, pine needles or whatever wouldn’t accumulate so easily. Of course it makes sense, and who knows why ours was done the other way…..but it seems to be the most common, judging from the other houses around us.
It’s also looking like the cost will be about double the original estimate. We suddenly jumped from “about” €1000 each to “about” €2000 each. I hope Mauro will let us pay over a few months time, since this wasn’t quite in the budget!
WE’VE EXPERIENCED A PPU! (POSTAL PHUCK UP)
Since the days when Art worked nights and had to sleep during the day, he’s used something to make white noise to help him sleep. We used to have a box fan in our bedroom, leaning against the wall, just for the noise it made, or really, for the noise it drowned out.
Several years ago my daughter gave him a small clock/radio/noise machine for Christmas. The nice thing about this was that he could take it with him when we traveled, and we could use it with the electrical cord or with batteries.
About four weeks ago the sound machine part of the combo just stopped working. No warning…..it just stopped. I immediately began searching the internet, starting with Amazon in Great Britain, thinking that I could have it mailed cheaper from England than from the states, but all they had were noise machines with running water, lapping waves, raging thunderstorms or chirping birds.
The first three noises would keep me up all night, and the last one would make me think it was morning……oh, and I guess there was another option, a heartbeat. Is it me, or would that just be kind of creepy, hearing a heart beating loudly all night long?…..I’d be thinking of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Telltale Heart”. Oh well, they wouldn’t ship these machines to Italy anyway, so I had to check Amazon in the U.S.
I found the same machine that Art had, and since it had lasted for so many years, I figured I’d might as well order another one. Additionally we’d still have the option of using it for travel. So, I ordered one, expecting that it would arrive at my sister’s house within a few days. Well, that was my FIRST mistake.
Eventually (after about two weeks!) the sound machine did arrive, and my sister packed it up to mail. I told her to make sure the clock/radio was taped securely to the inside of the box, having heard bad things about the state of affairs within the Italian postal system. I also advised her to list it as a “sound machine” rather than using the word clock, since clocks are not allowed to be mailed from the states to Italy. (Also prohibited are prescription drugs, albums of any kind, playing cards, artificial flowers and lots of other things that will have you shaking your head.)
Okay, so the package was wrapped and ready to go. This is when the SECOND mistake occurred. My sister must have copied our address from the address cards we had made, because on the last line of the address, she wrote “ITALIA”, not ITALY. One of the rules for international mailing is that the country name MUST be written on the bottom line, IN ENGLISH. My sister reports that the window clerk in Plainview did write "Italy" on the last line.
The package was mailed on Tuesday, June 13. We expected it to arrive within a week or so, especially since we’d recently had very good experiences with mail sent both from Italy and from the states. Time went on, but still we continued to wait, and eventually we decided that it must have either been confiscated by customs or stolen.
Until today, when it showed up, delivered by the private company that now takes care of parcels for the Italian postal service. And that’s when we saw the FOURTH mistake. (No I didn’t’ forget the THIRD mistake, it’s coming in a minute)
Italian addresses are written differently than U.S. addresses. Just as in the states, the name goes on the first line, the street address goes on the second line, but the third line is where the difference occurs. This line contains the CAP (the Italian equivalent of the ZIP code), the city name, and the province.
And as stated before, the LAST line of the address would be the country name in English. Because U.S. postal equipment is set up to read the bottom line of any address, this ensures that items going overseas are immediately separated from the domestic mail.
At this point we can only speculate about what happened, but here’s our theory (and keep in mind that we’re both former postal employees, so we have some idea of how these things usually work): Because the bottom line of the address said “Italia”, not “Italy”, we think that this line was completely missed, and instead the third line of the address was read….the line with our Italian postal code. This was the THIRD mistake.
Possible contributing to this problem was the fact that “Italia” was written on the right hand side of the address, rather than being on the left hand side of the address. If it had been at the left margin, directly under the postal code, maybe it would have been more easily seen. Maybe the "Italy" written in ink was too light to be read?
Although there isn’t an 05010 ZIP code in the U.S., the package must have been sent either to an area whose ZIP code begins with 050, if that exists, (Vermont???) or possibly it was rejected in Louisville and sent to a clerk for manual coding. In the end, a person had to look at it to figure out the problem, and guess what this brilliant (NOT!!!) clerk did???? THEY COMPLETELY OBLITERATED THE ENTIRE THRID LINE OF THE ADDRESS, AND SIMPLY WROTE “ITALY” ON THE LAST LINE. This was the FIFTH mistake! This meant that our package would go to Italy, but once here, all that was showing was our name and street address.
Luckily the package did have a customs form….the long form, which wasn’t even needed, or at least it didn’t used to be needed for a package under four pounds. (Again, I’m confused about how this could have been handled so badly at the station when it was mailed? Isn’t the smaller green customs form used for parcels under four pounds? And do we no longer have the “small packet rate”? Our package was well under 4 pounds, yet it cost $22.40 to mail, WAY more than we pay to mail the same size package from Italy to the states!!! That’s quite a switch!)
So…..once the package arrived in Italy a real person eventually took a look at the customs form, read the rest of the address, and was able to route the package correctly. And today, SIXTEEN days later, we received the package, undamaged and unopened. After having paid $22.90 for a small (just over two pounds) package, we certainly expected faster service than sixteen days!
Of course we’re really glad the package wasn’t lost, stolen or confiscated, but as former postal employees we just can’t believe that someone would completely obliterate an address line! What an idiot!
Sooo…one mistake led to another and another, and another, and our feelings for the U.S. Postal Service, once our employer, have been, well, severely tested. We realize this was a series of mistakes, but ultimately feel that whoever blacked out our postal code, city name and province was the person who was most at fault in the delay. Had this been handled correctly, the third line should have been left untouched and the word “Italy” simply written boldly and clearly on the bottom line.
What can we learn from this? Well, for people mailing stuff to a foreign country, make sure you know how to correctly address the letter or package. Also know what items are prohibited and what are legal to mail. For window clerks, check the way items going to a foreign country are addressed. Fill out the correct customs form. Check for different rates and the expected delivery time. Educate your customers….educate yourself. For nixie clerks (do those still exist???), NEVER EVER obliterate an address! The information could turn out to be needed somewhere further down the line. Let’s all work together to avoid another PPU.
I’ve forwarded this sad tale to a friend at the Post Office, and although we realize we’ll never know exactly what happened, we’d at least like to raise awareness about how easily a piece of mail can be misdirected.
And here's the package, just so you can see what NOT to do....
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Spina Bifida
