Random Photos

We are happily working right up until our return to Florida at the end of October and between cooking and touring and packing and cleaning, well, sadly,there's not been much time for blogging. But when we find the time,we'll be telling you all about the places we've beenrecently and the amazing adventures we've had at villas and palaces, castles and wineries, cities and towns .....with princes and farmers,and amazing new friends from all over the world.

SO MANY FLAVORS...SO LITTLE TIME

I’ve posted about the great food (coglioni di mulo notwithstanding), aperitivos, digestivos, wine and grappe but I have somehow managed to overlook Italy’s second greatest gift to humanity…GELATI (Italian Ice Cream)! I’m not talking about the commercially packaged supermarket stuff or the stuff made from industrial mixes sold to the unwashed masses. Nope, I’m talking about the artisan “made-from-scratch”, frozen orgasmic gelati that only true aficionados know and love. Italians are as loyal and fanatical about their favorite local gelato makers as they are about their beloved soccer teams…perhaps more so.

Our search for the ultimate gelato experience is an ongoing quest. Everywhere we go, we sample, compare and debate the merits of each gelato vender’s product…many are noteworthy but none have as yet transported us to gelato Nirvana. So the search continues.

Beyond assessing the quality of each gelato is an equally daunting challenge of choosing the right combination of flavors. At any given time there are dozens of flavors to choose from which makes selecting the right combination all the more difficult. So, being a linear thinker and analyst, I have developed the following gelato theory:

• Time of Day - Like ordering cappuccino only before 11:00 AM, certain gelati are “morning” combinations; others should only be consumed between 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM; and, others eaten after dinner (late into the night). I am very curious if other gelato fanatics share my theory.

• Morning Flavors (Before 11:00 AM) – Any combination of fruit flavors (fragola, pesca, melone, fruiti di bosco, etc.) with plain vanilla or cream (panne) flavor); Caffe and/or cappucino are also fine. No Chocolate, nuts or “complex” flavors.

• Midday Flavors (11:00 AM to 7:00 PM) – Any combination of chocolate or hazelnut with caffe or vanilla; fruit with vanilla; or a single “complex” flavor. A note of caution…some of the complex flavors will seem strange, so ask for a small taste before tackling a whole cup.

• After Dinner Flavors (After 9:00 PM) – Anything goes…but if you can’t handle caffeine at night, stay away from the caffe and cappuccino gelati.

Now it’s quiz time. Raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember:

“Sometimes you feel like a nut…sometimes you don’t!”

That’s an old TV commercial for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars;. Mentioned by another American tourist recently, she inspired me to try something new. Next time out, I’m going for the Mounds gelati combo (chocolate and coconut) or, if almond gelato is available, the Almond Joy combo (chocolate, coconut and almond). Of course, I may exercise a little Italian artistic license substituting nocciola (chocolate hazelnut; a.k.a. Nutella) for chocolate with coconut…but only after 7:00 PM. Rules are rules…but in Italy, rules are made to be broken.

P.S. – Please don’t make the same embarrassing mistake I made a few years back. Don’t confuse pesca (peach) with pesce (fish)…you might be served anchovy flavored gelato.

C’è Pizza per Te

Our apartment came with a number of welcomed amenities (clothes washer, central heating and air conditioning) and several businesses on the ground floor (an interior design studio, a physical therapist’s office, a tattoo studio and…a great pizzeria. C’è Pizza per Te is owned by our upstairs neighbors, Valter and Olga. Since opening the pizzeria last November, they work 16 to 18 hours, six days a week (closed Mondays) making the dough and sauces in-house, baking the pizzas and preparing other dishes. They purchase only some of the toppings (cheeses, anchovies, tuna, fresh vegetables, etc.) but everything else is homemade. They kindly allowed us into their kitchen to explain their process and to watch how their hard work and talent keeps us well fed and happy.

Once their sons Andrea and Marco are off to school, the work begins. Valter begins each day by preparing multiple, 5 kilogram (about 12 pound) batches of two types of pizza dough; one for big rectangular pizzas that are cut and sold “by the slice” and the other for individual round pizzas. Once the doughs are mixed, they are left to rise. While Valter is busy in the kitchen, Olga walks to the piazza and does the daily family shopping. By late morning the dough is refrigerated to stop the yeast action and the shopping is done, Valter and Olga turn their attention to preparing the ingredients and toppings. There are liters of sauces to be made, kilos of vegetables to be cleaned and chopped, and always cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. There must also be administrative work but I have no idea when they find the time for that.

After lunch Valter turns on the two huge ovens and by 3:30 or so he and Olga are stretching the dough, brushing the pans with olive oil and assembling the different types of rectangular pizzas that are sold by the slice. These pizzas are served at room temperature and include: tomato; tomato and cheese; onion and potato; mushroom and sausage; tomato and anchovy; and a very non-traditional pizza that has mayonnaise, lettuce, fresh tomatoes and tuna.
The individual round pizzas are prepared and baked to order, served hot from the oven. They resemble Pizza Napolitano but the dough has a different texture, taste and “bite”…Carol’s favorite is Valter’s Pizza Margherita (tomato, mozzarella) and I love the Napolitano (tomato, mozzarella, and anchovies). The renovation of the outdoor terrace is now complete, so with the warm weather we’ll be enjoying Valter and Olga’s pizzas along with a couple of cold beers as we watch the sunset on Soriano nel Cimino.

That’s amorè!

Belated Buona Pasqua

It's taken many unsuccessful attempts but here some slides of what we've seen in the first few weeks. I started trying to upload last Thursday, but the slow and weak signals and the fact that all the school kids have been on their home computers from Friday through today, it's impossible to get a connection. Turn up the sound on you computer and enjoy...Buona Pasqua!