Fodor's Photography Contest

Fodor's is having a photography contest called "Show Us Your Italy". With the help of family and friends, I found five photographs that I'm proud enough of to submit to this contest. Now, I know I'm an amateur but there's no harm in trying, right? So, here are the five submissions that I made - thanks to all who helped me pick them out!

Piazza della Scala, Milan


Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa


Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan


View of Vernazza during the hike to Corniglia, Cinque Terre


Beach at Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre

Gone Hiking

Marco went hiking a couple of weekends ago back to Piano di Bobbio (I blogged about it last month). This time, the guys took the funicular all the way to the top of the lift and went hiking through the top ranges.


The lift itself only went halfway up the mountain so there was lots to keep them busy up there. Cooper particularly enjoyed the cold mountain lakes.


This is NOT the trip where the guys went mountain biking in Piano di Bobbio and Marco came back with a gigantic red scrap on his neck. No pictures from that trip, I feel certain that had photography come into play then broken bones would've surely followed.

50 Books in 2009, an update

I've hit the halfway mark! Both the Kindle and the Twilight series were large factors in keeping my reading interest high when work was trying to get the best of me. The teen-lit vampire series was strangely addicting, though not particularly well-written and full of the WRONG kind of messages for teenage girls. Girls, being controlled by your boyfriend =/= love. Still, it was light and quick.

However, I have two clear-cut favors so far. In the non-fiction categories, 'Guests of the Ayatollah' by Mark Bowden wins out. It was a really interesting and vivid portrayal of the Iran embassy hostage crisis. While it was a long book, it was pretty engrossing. Points to Bowden for making sense of the acronyms from so many different branches of the USG.

For fiction, I loved loved loved Jhumpi Lahiri's 'An Unaccustomed Earth'! This collection of short stories follows several different Bengali characters as they search and struggle to find their places in the world. It was a gorgeous book and I would recommend it along with all of Lahiri's other books.

25 more to go!

The Story of the Chicken Pitcher

This is a chicken pitcher. I bought it in Nove and love it. You may wonder why I have a chicken pitcher in my house. Here's the story of the tradition that drew me in.

Way back in the early Renaissance days, in Florence, the Medici family ruled the roost (pun intended). They were the wealthiest and most powerful family in the region but the rivaling Pazzi family were trying to assassinate the Medicis in order to take their power.

Giuliano Medici loved to throw festivals in the villages based around the family's numerous landholdings. The Pazzis plotted to kill him and his guards during the night of an upcoming festival (while everyone was drinking and making merry). So in the 1478, a festival took place in Gallina and the Pazzi's assassins snuck into town to kill Giuliano. When the assassins tried to cross the yard to kill Giuliano, the many chickens and roosters sitting in the yard started to make a racket, cackling and crowing so loudly that it woke Medici and his guards. They managed to capture the would-be assassins before any damage was done.

Giuliano was so grateful to the chickens that he threw another festival that same night. He ordered his artisans to make chicken-shaped pitchers to honor his life savers and gave them to villagers for good luck.

The tradition continues today as the pitcher is a sign of good luck and protection from trespassers and danger.

Only in Italy

At this weekend's Italian-American baby shower, there was spiked punch, key lime cheesecake, cute games, and an advice session from those who have children and, well, those who were children. Like most showers, the presents were the serious point. In Italy, however, showers (either bridal or baby) are simply not a tradition. As a consequence, registries aren't really a 'thing' over here. The mother-to-be had registered at the European store Prenatal but I was one of the few people to actually purchase off the registry. Let me tell you why.

After work on Friday, I went to the Prenatal location nearest to my home. An employee asked for the family's name and, when I replied, shuffled through a pile of emails about two inches thick to find the message with this family's info. What kind of info? It was the name of the store they'd registered at. Because they registered at a different location of the same store, I had to call the other store to find out what was still available on the registry. I narrowed down the price point but, as you can imagine, it took awhile to go through all the items and match them up with the flimsy catalog at the desk.

After choosing some tub accessories (I like to pick the functional, boring stuff), I was disappointed to find out from the clerk at my store that the store doesn't even have half the items in stock. Back to the drawing board.... I finally settled on a giostrina mobile, a musical mobile of fuzzy (so soft!) monkeys since bedsheets were my only other option (I like boring but have the draw the line somewhere). So then, once the clerk at my store got the mobile, we had to call back the other store to give them the item number so they could cross it off the registry. I'd show you a picture but, naturally, the store does not have online shopping or internet catalog.

I'm hoping that my next baby shower will be for an American (online shopping and registries!) as I have now discovered why Italians tend to ignore the whole concept of a registry.

Aperitivo

A little Milanese tradition that we've been enjoying in the past few months is aperitivo. Aperitivo is the Italian version of happy hour except for the fact that there are (usually) no discounts on the drinks. Instead, in typical Italian fashion, there's a free buffet.

In Italy, and really just in Northern Italy, aperitivo occurs on all nights of the week in bars, restaurants, and cafes. I pass several on my way home from work and I've even popped into my morning coffee place much later in the day to see their spread start to appear. Some are small - bread, meats, cheeses, olives. Some are much larger with quite a bit more variety, including pastas and seafood.


In the Brera district, students come out early to pay for a couple full price drinks but get dinner for free. The unwritten rule of aperitivo is that one drink = one pass through the buffet. Despite the small plates, most people seem to be able to fill up on one trip and just get the second drink for fun.


Our favorite aperitivo is at a bar/restaurant near the Arco di Pace in the Parco Sempione. They have a huge outdoor patio with heat lamps in the winter and umbrellas in the summer but we usually sit inside. When we go with some friends here, the treatment is even more impeccable than usual thanks to the table service we receive. We're at the mercy of the kitchen but we've feasted on oysters, smoked salmon crostinis, tender salami, fried olives (see above), and miniature pizzas. They come in waves and don't end until the table is begging for mercy (or the check). Drinks aren't cheap but they bring my prosecco with a strawberry so I stay happy.

Snowboarding (aka: How Mark Broke His Nose)

It was a dark (well, not too dark) and snowy day. Mark and his brother went to the ski/snowboarding shop near their hotel to rent snowboards for their day out on the slopes. To their dismay, the shop was out of equipment for rental. Undaunted, they resolved to call with a reservation the next day. While in Venice, they were again disappointed to learn that no rentals were possible and that they would have to rent from the VERY EXPENSIVE shop right on the slopes at Piancavallo.


Since they'd driven four hours to get there, it was a little too late to abandon the plans completely. Pickings were slim at the shop the next morning and Mark got a snowboard that was longer than the prior board he rented. Not knowing what this actually meant (this is only his second day snowboarding!) he hauled it out to the kiddie slope for a few practice runs. At this particular kiddie slope, there's actually a small hill you have to go down in order to get to the life.


Mark, excited to get started, strapped his feet in for the small hill....and fell. Flat on his face. While the helmet he was wearing protected the top of his head, he would've needed a hockey mask to avoid the damage to his face. Bleeding from multiple locations and walking away with a swollen and slightly bruised eye, his main thought was the cost of all that damn equipment. So he picked himself up and kept going, trying to adjust his center of balance with this new (longer) board. In fact, with all the swelling, it wasn't until he got home two days later that his lovely and attentive wife noticed that he had broken his nose! Luckily, the damage was minor and you'd probably only notice if you saw his face as often as I do but his nose is definitely crooked. Crooked enough to see a doctor? Nah.


The aforementioned kiddie slope has a very interesting lift method. While all of the other runs have chair lifts, this one has a standing lift of sorts. I was really nervous the first (and second) time that I went up it. You basically get in a single file line at the base of a long tube on the hill side. When you get closer, you can see a strip of rubber tracking that goes up the mountain inside the tube. There are suction cups on the rubber that theoretically hold your skis/snowboard to the ground but when the track stops abruptly - some of the suction cups pop off. And if you're ever been on a chair lift that stops a million times because newbie doesn't know how to get on or off, you'll know how often this one stopped. You also have to watch your balance (lean forward!) so that you don't go tumbling backwards when the track stops moving. I had a close call and came pretty close to being that newbie jerk who falls down in the middle of the darn lift.

The guys were pretty lucky that, despite broken bones, they quickly made it to the grown-up runs and even down a few black diamonds before the weather gave out.

Eating through Belgium

I've been meaning to write up our last day in Brussels for a couple of days now but have been ridiculously tired! Instead, I'm going to cheat and make a posting about all we ATE in Brussels. Yummy.

Thanks to EasyJet's two hour delay, we ended up missing our dinner reservations in Brussels and having to settle for crummy Malpensa Terminal 2 food. Fun fact: it's worse than Terminal 1. No pictures but trust me, you aren't missing much.

Our first meal out ended up being in Luxembourg. For lunch, we ended up in a restaurant where the menu offered the sandwich "Barack O" and classified Gin as a 'health food'. I think this is worth noting. Luckily, it got better from here.


Frites were a frequent companion during this trip. They're everywhere and they are uniformly delicious, especially when sprinkled with just a smidgen of sea salt.


Frites accompanied our moules, or mussels, for dinner Saturday night. Our friend's favorite restaurant offered mussels in many different styles but I opted to go with the traditional white wine and garlic version (Mark went for a shared Chateaubriand which, while delicious, came out practically mooing). While au pairing in France, the mom I worked for taught me that the traditional way of eating moules is by using one empty shell to clamp down on the meat in another. From my informal survey of the rest of the restaurant (well, the part I could see), it appeared as though a full 50% of the mussels-eating patrons were employing this technique. The other 50% were using forks, of course.


After dinner, we strolled a bit around the Grand Place, trying to make room in our stomachs for dessert. When we felt ready, we popped into a waffle shop to debate and test the merits of a Lieges waffle versus the Brussels waffle. My verdict: both delicious. I ordered mine Brussels-style with strawberries. It was eaten too quickly to be photographed.

More than waffles or frites, Belgium is famous of it's beers and it did not disappoint. I wrote earlier about our trip to a Trappist monastery to taste one of the world's most coveted brews. Many others were sampled during our trip (especially considering that Mark headed to a sports bar to catch the Eagles-Cardinals game) and reminded us that very little in life beats hanging out with friends, laughing, and drinking a beer or two.


While at the aforementioned Trappist brewery, we ordered the cheese plate to accompany our beers. I have no idea what kind of cheese it was but it went FAST. Before leaving, we stopped by the gift shop and purchased a substitute souvenir for the beer we couldn't buy: cheese soaked in beer. Judging by the smell of my carry-on when I unpacked it back in Milan, it's a strong one that we'll probably be trying out this weekend.


While in Ypres, I also had the chance to try Carbonnade a la Flamande, a Flemish beer-based stew. I make a version at home that I like to think it pretty good, however, this was my first taste of the "real thing". Thick and beer-y, the meat was practically falling apart. The side of frites was a little too much for my tastes, I think I'll still with my home version with egg noodles!


While everything was delicious, what would a trip to Belgium be without sampling the chocolates? On our day in Brussels, our host took us to his favorite chocolate shop in town, Mary's Chocolatier. The shop is small but the rich scent of chocolate practically knocks you over when you open the door.


Winter is marzipan season, judging from shop windows over Europe, and Mary's was no exception. Their piggies and mushrooms were practically too cute to eat with the piggies giving each other exasperated expressions. While I don't personally care for the sweet, it reminded me of my grandmother who REALLY loved them.

Mary's isn't a chocolate shop for nothing, though. Photographs of famous fans of the chocolatier lined the shop's walls. For Belgian royalty and George W. Bush, this is the place to buy chocolate. We made sure to leave with a container of 16 pieces chosen from the below selection as well as a baggie of orangettes (candied oranges covered in chocolate).


Beer-soaked cheese, chocolate, and a mug purchased in Ypres (with the British military recruiting slogan from WWI!) ended up being our chosen souvenirs. The chocolate disappeared sometime last week and the cheese will go this weekend but with the upcoming Torino Chocolate Festival, I think we'll make do locally!

Resolutions for the New Year

Like last year, I had no intentions of making a New Year's resolution. Seriously, what's the point? It's always stuff you've been putting off so it's not like flipping some pages on a calendar is going to make a difference.

But (and there's always a but)

While on vacation, I rediscovered my love of reading. REALLY reading. Like, letting myself get so into a book that I prop it up against my dinner plate - not just a chapter or two before bed. In the spirit of 2009, I've decided to challenge myself. Instead of just saying "I will read more", I'm now saying "I will read 50 books in 2009". While I'd initially wanted to go for 100 (it just sounds better), I realized that
a) I have a job
b) "Lost" is starting up again this month
c) I can't bear to lose "Gossip Girl", "Medium", or "Heroes" and seriously doubt that, with these shows on the air, I can commit to two books a week. I am a fast reader though and I can commit to one.

So, not that anyone has asked for book recommendations (nor am I convinced that anyone beyond my immediate family and a few cousins are reading this) but I'm posting my book list along the sidebar of this page. It'll help me stay accountable to my goal and keep me motivated. The trade off is that I'll be admitting what I read. And I don't always read the most intellectual of books. So when you see the "Twilight" saga appear or the occasional chick-lit novel, bear with me and try not to make too much fun.


Here's what I've got lined up on my nightstand right now. Recommendations are encouraged!

Fiesty Milanese

So our apartment is on the 5th floor (6th floor in American-style buildings) and overlooks a huge Piazza in Milan. Luckily, our window glass is thick so if we want to shut out the world, we can do it pretty successfully. However, it feels very "Italian" to us to hear the hustle and bustle of the world go on outside of our windows, so we usually leave the balcony doors open and let that fresh air in. This means that we can often hear some exciting thing - like a Rihanna concert down the street or the smashing of fender to bumper and subsequent sirens. Every now and then though, it gets really quiet. Then, after a minute or so...you hear voices. It's PROTEST SEASON in Italy. Name the interest group and I guarantee they're riled up about something.


These pictures are a mix from different protests that have come by our flat. They've been 100% peaceful and generally not even too loud. The picture above shows one of the noisier protests we've seen...due to the band hanging out and performing on the back of the truck.


This crowd (above) stretched out for a couple of blocks! I always get a kick out of seeing the insane drivers in the piazza come to a screeching halt...and then forced to wait as several hundred people leisurely stroll by.


These protests are legal and escorted by the cops (who stop traffic and monitor public safety). You can tell how lively the issue is by how many people are crowded to the front of the line. The more that people want to be in the front, the more fiesty the subject is. However, when the crowd gets thin and goes for blocks, you know you've got hangers-on.

So what do they protest? Heck if I know. Very few people carry signs or banners and the voices from the bullhorns end up being pretty unintelligable. However, they're an amusing distraction from a lazy Saturday.

Married Life

Happy six-month-niversary to my amazing husband.

The Omnivore's Hundred

I saw this on another blog (www.verygoodtaste.co.uk) and couldn't resist playing along. This is a list that another blogger made of foods that everyone (well, everyone who isn't vegan/vegetarian) should eat at some point in their life. Below are the rules...

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (Note: I've put an asterisk)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (Note: I've italicized)

Basically, my "never" list includes anything intestinal. However, if you'd asked me a few years ago whether I'd eat goat tartare, I'd probably say "never" to that! I'm at 50% right now. I suspect we'll have delve deeper into Asian and Indian foods to move further along!

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
*3. Huevos rancheros
4 . Steak tartare
*5. Crocodile (at the infamous 'Carnivore' in Nairobi)
6. Black pudding
*7. Cheese fondue
*8. Carp
*9. Borscht
*10. Baba ghanoush
*11. Calamari
*12. Pho
*13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
*15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (just wait - it's about to be truffle season in Italy!)
*18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (strawberry wine at Horton Vineyards)
*19. Steamed pork buns (of all places, a Chinese restaurant in Lagos was where I first ate these)
*20. Pistachio ice cream (gelato, to be precise. One of my favorites!)
*21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
*23. Foie gras
*24. Rice and beans (Spring Break 2007 - Belize!)
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
*27. Dulce de leche
*28. Oysters
*29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
*31. Wasabi peas
*32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I should get extra points since I made it myself)
33. Salted lassi
*34. Sauerkraut
*35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
*38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (I've eaten goat in more ways than I care to count, but never curried)
*42. Whole insects (ew. never again)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
*47. Chicken tikka masala
*48. Eel (only in sushi)
*49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
*54. Paneer
*55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
*56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
*58. Beer above 8% ABV (thank you, Brussels)
*59. Poutine (thank you, the Moose in Paris!)
60. Carob chips
*61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
*66. Frogs’ legs
*67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
*69. Fried plantain (this belongs on the "five Nigerian foods I'd eat" list)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
*71. Gazpacho
*72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
*78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
*80. Bellini (at Harry's Bar in Venice - the original Bellini location)
81. Tom yum
*82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Someday - hopefully soon)
*85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
*88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
*92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
*94. Catfish
*95. Mole poblano
*96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
*98. Polenta
*99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake