A blustery day on the LakeM

A blustery day on the LakeM
A blustery day on the Lake

Friday, September 30, 2011

Laundry, Nonni and Bread

Here in this little seaside village of 2400 people, we have been able to enjoy the lovely pastime of people watching. This is a multi generational town and with our little bit of experience, we think that it is quite typical of most Italian towns. In the US we expect that our children will move far away, following their careers or friends. For us, it is quite rare to live, as an adult, in the town where you were raised. Across Italy, most adults live within walking distance of their parents and often, grandparents. As we walk through the village, during the day,we see little children being cared for by their Nonni, children delivered to school by their Nonni and in the evening we watch whole families, Nonni, parents and children enjoying the time together. These are families who live and share life together. At the risk of being trite....it takes a village to raise a child and it is lovely to watch.
Below is a picture of the little village of Santo Stefano al Mare.








A fresh baguette for 60 cents.....you have got to be kidding! The village is filled with little shops. There is a veggie and fruit shop, 2 small general grocery shops, a bread and pastry shop, a wine shop, 4 butcher shops where you can buy fresh meat or delicious dried and preserved meats, a fish shop, along with real estate offices, a town office and several restaurants. Bars in Italy are actually what we might call bistros. You can buy coffee, tea, cold drinks, sandwiches as well as beer and wine. There are a few of these in town as well. Everything we need is right here and all in about the same space as a small Vermont town. The buildings are quite close together with walking alleys connecting different areas of town. I love walking through these alleys. They are very clean and inviting. Looking up you see fresh laundry hanging from compact clothlines that are attached to the balconies. You see blue sky (300 days of sun a year here) and lovely overflowing window boxes. You hear people talking and calling to one another from window to window and you can smell the delicious aromas of cooking. You hear children laughing and music playing. Everyone greets you as you pass....Buon Giorno, in the morning, or Buona Sera in the late afternoon. On Monday we will take the overnight ferry from Genoa to Sardenia. Another adventure awaits..









Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Qui......qua. And much more..

We have just returned from another adventure filled with many "firsts". We traveled by train from San Remo to Torino by way of Cuneo following the same path as we did by car the previous week. This time John was able to see all of the magnificent views. Honestly we were a bit nervous.....we really weren't exactly sure that we were on the right train. We bought first class tickets but couldn't find the first class cars....so we made ourselves comfortable in second class. As usual our ears were open and listening to the many conversations around us....qui....blah,blah blah.....qua....blah etc. We watched....we listened....and both words seemed to be used quite frequently. And so, as usual we looked in our well worn Italian/English dictionary.....alora! They both mean ...here....umm. Very interesting.. we were determined to get to the bottom of this conundrum. We spent the weekend with two lovely families, old, dear friends from my childhood...exchange students from my teen years. They are both soulmates actually, you know those very special friends, the kind of friends who after many years of separation, begin conversations as if you had just spoken yesterday. Both families wrapped their arms around us. How incredibly lucky we felt. Torino is a beautiful city with very historic, Baroque buildings as well as buildings built many centuries earlier....the original Roman gates. We toured the Veneria Reale, one of the thirteen palaces built by the Savoy kings. This one was a palace outside of Torino used for hunting and enjoying the country life. It was astounding to see the beauty of the construction, the rooms, the various apartments for visitors and royal family, all filled with important works of art but no furniture. There were several multi media performances showing the various characters and life at court. The formal gardens covered about 20 acres and at one time included a man made lake with an island and smaller palace dedicated to Diana. We had a completely different experience the following day when we visited Canelli, a small town south of Asti. My friend, Carla's father was born here in the early 1900s. Carla and Alberrto had arranged for us to visit a small, organic vineyard to meet some of their friends. This vineyard had been in their family since the 1700s. Three generations lived in a large cascina or farmhouse perched on a hillside overlooking the family vineyard. Papa and Mama in their 80s, still active participants in the making of wine. They had just finished havesting all of the grapes. Everyone pitched in to help, along with 14 Bulgarian harvesters. This family makes three different kinds of wines, Barbera which is a wonderful red table wine, Moscato which is a sweet, bubbly after dinner wine and a blend of whites(i can't remember the name). The next generation is taking on the work now, a daughter and son both in their 40s. They travel all over Europe and the US selling their wines. They just won a prestigious Italian Slow Food award for their Moscato. The family works side by side to produce the wine, get the children to school, cook, take care of the land, bottle and sell the wine etc. We had a lovely time touring the vineyard and wine making rooms, lingering over a delightful lunch all afternoon and of course tasting their wines.














Carla and Alberto passed us on to the next family and the adventure continued. Fabrizio and his lovely family live on the very same street where he lived a a boy. It runs parallel to the Po River and is quite close to the centro citta....center of the city. He is a wealth of historical and factual information about art, artists, important battles, ruling families, and an amazing sense of the flow of time over many centuries. He has a wonderful sense of humor and adventure. After all, here is a man who as a boy spent an entire summer living with my family.....6 wild children and 2 busy parents. And he lived to tell about it... Here is also a couple who spent their honeymoon driving from California to Massachusetts. Both daughters speak several languages fluently and have lived in various countries. We had lovely and relaxed conversations and deliciously simple meals around their kitchen table. They were all consumate and gentle teachers....helping us with several phrases and finally solving the mystery of qui and ......qua. When we asked the difference, they looked at each other in surprise and said....no difference at all.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Traveling in the Torino area

Hello everyone, I must apologize for not posting anything lately but we are staying with friends in the Torino area.....they are wining and dining us as well as keeping us busy with all day visits to castelli and chiusi. When we return to our homebase in Santo Stefano, I will spend time adding a few posts to my blog. In the meantime, we are learning a lot about the Baroque period, regional Piedmontese food and wine...what could be better!


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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Adventure into the Piedmontese region

We began this four day adventure by taking the bus to San Remo and renting a car...an adventure in itself! Heading north into the Piedmontese region, we actually had to travel through part of France along the western border of Italy. If you are following on your maps, we left Ventimiglia and traveled north through Cuneo to the city of Bra. We planned to meet friends and experience a famous slow food cheese fesival. The state road we traveled on climbed higher and higher into the Alpi Maritime. The roads were unbelievable as was the view back down the valley....switchbacks and steep ravines. We had a wonderful time with our friends in Bra. Imagine streets lined with booths full of different kinds of cheeses and salamis from all over the region. Buono profumo! ...and the place was packed with people. Too many in fact to enjoy the cheeses. Our dear friend and his wife took us on a walk to various churches and buildings. This man knows his architecture and history and so we learned quite a lot. The churches were beautifully ornate inside and out. We spent the next two days with them, staying at country homes of their friends. How lucky we feel to have stayed with Italian families...lovely and gracious hosts..and wonderful conversations in a combination of our primitive italian and their primitive english. The Piedmonte region of Italy in a large region in the northwest, bordered on the west by the Alps and on the east by mountains called Mon Ferrato. In the middle lies the valley of the Po River where the land is flat and productive. All kinds of grains, fruit and vegetables grow here and so, there are many farms. We saw an amazing variety of fruit such as peaches,pears, apples, figs and kiwi. The Mon Ferrato area is similar to Tuscany with rolling hills like Vermont and it seems a castle,church and small village at the top of every steep hill. For many hundreds of years, Italy consisted of many small fiefdoms each controlled by a ruling family. And so these castles and villages were quite well fortified.

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On the third night we stayed at a wonderful little agriturista B&B...actually a working organic lavender farm in the little town of Ponti which is southwest of Alba. The state highway from Alba to Acqui Terme is a fabulous motorcycle road, curvey and full of switchbacks, descending steeply into a river valley. We stopped in the city of Acqui Terme which is famous for its hot springs. This was a popular place for Romans to come to enjoy the mineral baths. We discovered that there are several grand hotels dating from the 1800s where anyone can stop in to have a spa experience. In the middle of town there is a piazza where the hot..and I mean hot, water comes bubbling up into a fountain. Our stay at the lavender farm was a delightful experience. The woman who runs the farm grew up in Milan and bought this place about 9 years ago. It is way up on a hillside with beautiful vistas all around. Can you see the lavender in the pic below? Imagine the hillside in bloom!






Paola and her husband produce all kinds of lavender products from medicinal to cosmetic and some just for beauty. When we were there she was busy feeding her small menagerie of several sheep, 3 donkeys,a horse, 4 dogs and 5 cats. The buildings had a beautiful country feel to them and our room was filled with the scent of what else ? ...lavender. We'll return for sure !

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Getting Around in Italy

We have become quite familiar with le autobus, la bicicletta and a piedi in other words, riding the public bus, bicycling and walking. Most Italians do all of the above and then some... We sincerely believe that every Italian kid over the age of 14 rides his or her own motorscooter. Today at noon we saw kids heading home for lunch on their motorscooters wearing nothing but flip flops, shorts and tank tops....and they move right along. We spend quite a bit of time riding motorcycles and would not even think of getting on without being all geared up. Picture this though.. A woman coming home from the beach riding her motorscooter with her small dog riding snugly between her feet..or a young mother riding with her small daughter standing between her legs. It's nothing to see people on motorscooters or motorcyles passing cars, buses or trucks on straightaways and even on turns. The streets are narrow and winding and you might wonder, as we did, if there are many accidents. Here's another interesting phenomenon......the drivers are extremely considerate and polite. As soon as someone steps into the street, cars, motorscooters etc. Slow to a halt. It all seems very controlled....no honking, no shouting, just a continuous flow of traffic. Now we can't say if this is true in Rome or Naples but here in Liguria people on machines are very polite and careful. We have also noticed another interesting fact.....cars here are petite and it seems, especially made for this market. We see, in addition to the expected Fiats, Opels, Citroens and Peuguots.... Hondas, Toyotas and Fords all made to use diesel and in addition, the models are much smaller than the models made for US. Obviously all of these modes of transportation are more fuel efficient than big American vehicles and can we learn something from this? Gas and diesel average about $ 7.85 per gal. Exploring and learning about different cultures.....it is all part of expanding our understanding of people around the world. Bella Italia!



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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Speaking the language

This is exactly what we were hoping for...to be in a quiet village, learning another language,conversing with our Italian neighbors and shopkeepers. Each day we study and practice what we know. We are adding expressions and verbs to our ever increasing list of "knowns". Italian is quite tricky because the vowels are significant and you must pronounce each one. Take for example the following words... key: chiave, close: chiuso, church: chiesa. These exact pronunciations might not be that critical, you might think. But here are three words that are: penna: pen, penis: pene, penne: a type of pasta. Needless to say, I have warned John,who is having a difficult time pronouncing the vowels distinctly,.....never to utter these words. We are each at diiferent levels of competency in our understanding and usuage. I guess you could call this differentiated immersion. ( for all you teacher friends). Another important lesson that I have learned is to let John do all of his own ordering. Of course, I thought that I was being helpful...John might call it "controlling". Ordering lunch in San Remo last week, two bottles of acqua con gas( carbonated water) arrived at the table and yesterday in
Imperia, two plates of fresh fish arrived at our table instead of one. Of course we managed to enjoy these extra dishes ! John did a solo shopping this morning and survived. He walked down to the local veggie and fruit market to buy frsh peaches, bananas and zucchini. We had a great adventure yesterday when we took the bus to Imperia, the closest train station. From our research we knew that Imperia is actually two cities that sit on opposite sides of the Imperia River. A century or two ago, they were rivals controlled by two important ruling familes. Both have lovely ports, active marinas and lovely little restaurants along the water. We investigated how to buy train tickets and figured out the train schedule for our trip to Torino next weekend. It was a lesson in asking for directions....and actually being able to understand the spoken directions, and finding our way around each city center. Large towns and cities have turistica informazione, look for the "i" sign. These are often hard to find. We asked several people and finally found the office. Yipeee! We have quite a collection of city and town maps. Arrivederci mi amici...




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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Torre di Barbaresco

We have been exploring the area by bus and with our bicycles. However, walking is the primary mode of transportation in this little village. Our apartment is up the hill toward the mountains and really just a short walk to the center of town. We can look at the sea from both our front and back balconies. It is a beautiful sight wherever we look. Pleasure boats and smaller fishing boats ply the waters off the village. The weather has been glorious, sunny and dry ..wonderful for bicycling or going to the beach. This is a vacation town and very close to San Remo, Monaco and the French Riviera. This week school begins for all the children. There is a lovely
Iittle Primary school that I am going to attempt to visit next week. We will see if my pathetic Italian gets me through the door. This region of Liguria was at one time a prime target for pirates. Here, I have heard them called Barabaresco and Sarcerans. In each little town you can still see a tower(torre) along the water. Long ago these towers were manned by watchmen to warn the inhabitants about approaching pirates. Women and children were captured and sold as slaves to other areas in the Meditteranean. The men of course were killed. The watchman would sound the alarm and the inhabitants would race back into the interior where the mountains are steep and the valleys are narrow. Many of the little villages high in the mountains are extremely fortified against such attacks. Today these little mountain villages are losing their young people to the modern world.


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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

View from the back balcony




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Can you believe this view?

Today we are solo...going it alone. We have walked everywhere in this little village through arched alleyways, past shops and outdoor cafes, along the sea and past gardens bursting with pommodori, zucchini, olive, limoni and meloni. The Alpi roll down to the sea and the rivers have, over the centuries,carved steep valleys. The primary industry in this area has been growing flowers. The hills are covered with many, many greenhouses.This area used to supply all of Europe with flowers but now the market has been taken over by Holland and the greenhouses are being replaced by summer homes. The house and apartments in Santo Stefano are clustered together in the area along the sea. The buildings have been built close together and are connected with beautiful arched alleyways and pedestrian paths. Everywhere is perfectly designed for the walker. Two east/west roads run through the town connecting it to the other towns along the coast, one is similar to our state roads and the other (Lungomare) goes along the water and is quieter. There is also a bike path connecting most of the towns as well. Motor scooters are very popular as are motorcycles and cars. But to get around the town for shopping or exploring, it is best to walk. Every extra bit of land is planted with flowers,vegetables, olive trees and citrus trees. The hillsides are steeply terraced and planted as well. It is an amazing lesson in the careful usage of space. The picture you see is the view from our back balcony looking toward the village and the sea. Ciao,ciao....we must go to buy a few things for our dinner tonight.


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Location:La Nostra Casa

Monday, September 5, 2011

From the balcony




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Location:Santo Stefano del Mare

Arrivata !

We have finally arrived in the small seaside village where we will spend the next 4 weeks. Summer is winding down here and soon the tourists will return to their homes. School begins around the 10th of September. Our dear exchange student Sarah Colombo and her friend Francesco drove us from Milano to the apartment here in Santo Stefano. As you can see from the picture, the balcony overlooks the sea. From the balcony we can look over the center of the village and distinguish the oldest part of the village from the new. The coastal road is called Via Aurelia referring to the Emperor Aurelius dating from the Roman Empire. A beautiful bike path follows this road and you can ride from village to village along the sea. In the evening it is the custom to stroll along the walkway and so at this time you can really get a sense of the community. Last night after cena (dinner), we walked along the path to a grotto dating back to the 12 century and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Napoleon's army came this way to invade Italy in the late 1700s ( not sure of the date) Our hosts have been explaining, guiding and teaching us important locations, skills and words so that hopefully we will able to survive a few weeks alone. Our brains are requiring us to work double time...which quite frankly we have not had to do in many years. We are right at that point when learning new information that can be a little frightening and thrilling at the same time. Last night we went to sleep feeling perfectly happy and quite "fried". Meals are quite different than we are accustomed to in the states. For breakfast, caffe e un biscotti, for lunch a prepared meal in la casa and for dinner(typically beginning at 8 pm) a prepared meal in la casa. Needless to say the food is delicious! Today we will drive to San Remo to investigate car rentals and to visit a supermecato to buy caffe and meusli. Tomorrow, Franca ( Sarah's mother) will return and we will begin our solo adventure.....wish us luck.


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Location:Santo Stefano del Mare