Change of scenery …

Just celebrated Canada Day on July 1st at the cottage on Lac Huot, Quebec - this year very quietly without the usual crowd and so so weather and today it is the turn of our American neighbours to celebrate Indpendence Day.

As you can see, I have crossed the Atlantic and I have been in Ottawa since last Sunday, spending the coming weeks with children and grandchild Luca. I left behind a beautiful garden in full bloom, now under extreme hot temperatures to come back to this equally beautiful city. A surprise for me was the complete re-landscaping in the back of my condo building, which was definitely long overdue and has spruced up its Eastside; one of the few in centre town to have this huge lawn and flower borders, making our BBQ’s on the back patio very pleasant and a pleasure to the eye.

More about life here at Ann Manor soon.

Dutch bandwagon rolls over Romania …

… this title screamed at me from the CBC coverage on my computer! No casualties, we are talking … soccer! Since more than 14 days Europe is in the grip of Eurocup soccer fever and the above title referred to Holland’s 2-0 win over Romania to the great relief of Italy, who that same night won from France, but would have been sent home had Holland not shown a lot of class (having already qualified for the quarter finals) and sportmanship to play for victory.

Yes, the dreams started on June 9 with the Holland-Italy game, lots of tension and emotions ran high in via Ospedale, where a mixed supporter group was assembled: 3 Dutch, 1 lone Italian and 2 Canadian “observers”, who did their best to cheer for Italy. Liz and Libby went on a shopping expedition within a 50 m radius of via Ospedale and were able, though with some difficulty, to procure blue and orange construction paper (Italian and Dutch colours) plus ribbons. That evening, while we were waiting for our special pizza’s, they surprised us with these colourful thundersticks. Lisanne had made several Dutch and 1 (!) Italian flag reading “Campioni del Mondo” for her Dad, Daniele. Poor Daniele remained very calm under the wild cheers of wife Eugenie, daughter Lisanne and myself.

Italy lost, Holland then went on to win from Romania and Italy from France. Everything looked glorious, but things did not turn out as we had hoped. First Holland was eliminated - rightfully so - by Russia and Italy had to bite the bullet and lost in penalty shots from Spain, a fact that had not happened since 1920!

Yes, we are all disappointed, but after all, it is just a game and we are looking forward to the next World Cup in South Africa!

P.S. Lisanne was dressed to kill as you can see from Libby’s photo. Both she and Liz sent me photos of the Infiorate, which you’ll see by scrolling down to the start of Liz’s articles.

Coming home to Spello

Liz and Libby, my two friends from Ottawa left this morning under pouring rain. Fortunately, we had a very good, though muggy day, yesterday, which ended with a mixed grill on the barbecue, washed down not only with wine, but also with a bottle of the best Brut around here. On top of that a spectacular sunset, finally!! After weeks of clouds and/or rain, they were rewarded with what I now more or less take for granted when I am in Spello, the slow changing colours of the sky from yellow through orange to deep red in contrast with the bluish green of the hills across the garden. My friend Francesca joined us and we even saw the last, for that day, incoming small plane from Milan landing at the Assisi-Perugia airport, right on time at 9.20 p.m.: oh those small pleasures in life!

Liz and Libby left me with another write-up which I copy here:

“We returned our rental car after a week of driving hundreds of kms and exploring the layers and layers of Umbria and Tuscany. There were the expected first driving jitters and circling the roundabouts, but we were soon buzzing along the small roads and superstradas like Italians and taking pleasure in the lost moments. For some reason, we always found it necessary to drive right into the centro of each town. This meant negotiating tight turns, avoiding pedestrians and trying not to scrape along the sides of the buildings (or the rental car!).

We set out each day from Spello, starting in Gubbio and ending in Orvieto with a two-and-a-half day absence from Spello to explore beautiful Siena and Lucca. There is so much to say about each town we visited - if only we could remember which church and which frescoes belong to which towns! We loved them all and have fond memories. Always, we looked forward to coming home to the now familiar, jagged outlines of Spello’s soft pink and white buildings, hanging on the side of Mount Subasio: it is our home in Italy and we love it!”

P.S. Double click on photo to get clearer view of Liz and Libby enjoying their last meal in the garden (last, for this year that is).

Of a “Ben’tornata a casa” and an “Arrivederci e tanti auguri” …

In my little world of the Via and Piazzetta dell’ Ospedale, neighbour Rina, whose apartment is situated at the Piazza dell’Ospedale and right across from the Western wall of my house, finally came home to her renovated apartment. My bedroom looks across the low roof of an adjacent house to her kitchen, so for years we have greeted each other whenever, early in the morning, we open our respective windows. She lives in a big building which houses several apartments, whose main entrance stairwell got damaged in the 1997 earthquake. They were allowed and able to stay on until some 3 1/2 years ago the re-structuration of their building was begun. The work would take 2 years, well, Rina is the first one to have moved back in again after a very lengthy delay. I am happy to finally have my neighbour back, at least we can yell at each other if need be! “Ben’tornata Rina, Welcome back home Rina!”

The workers, who started working in Spello after the earthquake, are mostly persons from Naples, Maroccans and Albanians. The group working around my house in the via Ospedale and the Piazza dell’Ospedale, has as Capo, “boss”, a very pleasant Napolitan, with a good sense of humour, who since years lives in Rome. Over the years, we have often talked and the other day I asked where his work was going to take him next, now that the last building he had been working on in the Piazzetta was almost finished. Back to Roma, he said, it has been 8 years since I left my family to come to work in Spello, seeing them only every second weekend, and it is time to go back home. So to Capo, I say “Arrivederci e tanti auguri”, Goodbye and lots of luck!

Our introduction to the Infiorate …

Here then are the long-awaited impressions of Liz:

“I had been told about the Infiorate by Elsebée and by Mike and Karen, frequent visitors to Spello, but nothing prepared me for the high energy, excitement and involvement of everyone in the community. This celebration occurs 9 weeks after Easter, on the Sunday after Corpus Domini. This year Easter was early and there had been weeks of rain. This made collecting flowers difficult: some families chose not to take part.

In spite of this, we were mightily impressed. I cannot believe how hard people work collecting and meticulously separating the flower petals and stripping the wild herbs to create their masterpieces. Great time and effort goes into creating the design and choosing the right palette of colours.

One of our favourites was Noah’s Ark, the work of a group of children, supervised, amongst other mothers, by Elsebée’s niece Eugenie, whose daughter Lisanne together with her teammates, rightfully earned the First Prize in the Under Fourteen category. Another was a very simple but effective arrangement done by students at the nursery school. As menioned in an earlier blog entry, Libby and I became a very small part of Nadia’s team, so, of course, that was our “favourite”. In fact, we took first prize in the “tappeti” (carpets) category. We were very impressed with the skill and patience of Mercede, Nadia’s niece, who drew the design free hand in the traditional way with chalk on the pavement. Many now draw on paper and paste it on the ground. The centre piece of the carpet was the face of the Madonna, from a painting by Pinturicchio.

Plastic awnings are erected and lights installed, so teams can and did work all night - or in the rain if that should happen - to finish their creations. The awnings are removed in the morning and the carpets then exposed to the elements - and the hordes of people, who come to Spello for this celebration. Following Mass, the Bishop began his procession through the main streets of the town, walking over all the carpets. We had a choice location,looking down at the procession from Nadia’s living room windows. After the Bishop passed and hundreds of photos were taken, we joined a very pleased but tired group: BRAVI!”

The wonders of Week One in Umbria

Liz and Libby arriving from Ottawa via Baden Baden (Frankfurt) for the first one and via Frankfurt/Milan/Venice for the second one, were literally thrown into the Infiorate preparations and had to cope with so many new impressions in the very first few days. Propelled into this small, beautiful, Medieval/Roman walled-in city with so many flowers on terraces and window sills, I can imagine how tired they must have been, trying to take everything in.

I had asked them for a brief description, mainly of the Infiorate , instead I was given an impression of their first week here in Umbria, not only of Spello, but also of Assisi, Gubbio, Castelluccio and the Piano Grande, Norcia, Bevagna, Montefalco and Todi, the places they visited in their first week here. Although they mention the Flower Festival briefly, I know it made a huge impression on them, especially being able to watch the procession of the Bishop and high dignitaries pass right under the windows from where they were able to watch everything. Perhaps, after their short “deviation” into Tuscany and Liguria (Cinqueterre), we may get to hear more. The photos will definitely come at a later date, because I was extremely lazy and left the photography to my two friends. In the meantime, you could always scroll back to June of last year to see those posted with my various entries.

Here then is what Liz and Libby wrote:

“Our first visit to this beautiful area has been full of aaahhh’s and WOW’s, e.g.
- arrival (on separate trains from opposite directions) in tact and on time;
- the pleasure and gratitude of seeing Elsebée’s smiling face at the station;
- the splendour of Spello, on first sighting;
- welcome meal with wine at the beautifully re-structured ‘big house’ (and the realization that we would keep fit climbing up to the 4th floor);
- first of many wonderful visits to the garden apartment and dinners there, also with E’s good friend, Francesca;
- excitement and preparation for the Infiorate weekend and our awe at seeing generations of families working together in their fondi (cellars under houses open to the street) on this traditional Corpus Domini celebration;
- our inclusion onto Nadia’s (E’s note: she of the windows Liz and Libby were hanging out from photographing everything that passed in the street below) team and becoming experts, rather reluctantly, at stripping wild thyme and fennel (Libby graduated to rose petals later in the evening!);
- our drive to Assisi and E’s careful directions for the return by foot (too bad we missed a crucial turning in the road after 8 KM in 30 degree weather and finished by hitchhiking);
- blankets of wild flowers in the fields en route to Collepino and Mount Subasio;
- the awesome beauty and serenity of the many churches we have visited;
- learning to drive (Liz) and navigate (Libby) in our rental car (Clio);
- the patience and good humour of the Spellani in understanding our attempts to speak Italian … so many wonders to absorb in one week: overwhelming!”

Canada not so boring after all …

“Sexy scandalo canadese” screamed all the front pages of the Italian press yesterday. All the juicy details of a Canadian politician, in this case the Minister of Foreign Affairs, leaving classified documents at the house of his ex-girlfriend, who apparently has connections to a biker’s gang … it was all too beautiful to be true. And it got the attention away from the many diverse scandals in Italy, mountains of garbage in Naples, adulterated mozzarella cheese, Brunello wine not made according to the law, the high cost of living, etc.etc. Canada is not so boring after all!

And now it is all over for another year …

I have been rather busy with preparations for the “Infiorate”, the yearly flower festival of Spello. This year it was quite an iffy thing; first of all, Easter being so early meant that Corpus Domini , the religious feast with which the Infiorate coincide, and which takes place 9 weeks after Easter Sunday, would also be earlier than usual. Secondly, Spring was extremely wet and cold with hardly any flowers blooming. On top of that, the last four or five days before Sunday, May 25, were again marked by heavy rains and cold weather, making the last excursions into the fields to collect the last fresh flowers, almost impossible. Anyway, most people had dried flowers from last year, which came in handy.

Friends Liz and Libby from Ottawa arrived in the midst of the last, hectic preparations and happily (?) joined Nadia’s group near my house. Last June I wrote extensively about my experiences and, therefore, will leave it to Liz and Libby to give their comments. I know that they are absorbing all the beauties of this town and its environments, but they promised me to write down some of their impressions. By the way, the tagliatelle con asparagi , the pasta with wild asparagus, was a big hit with both of them.

What is cooking?

Strangely enough, although regularly eating delicious meals at Lidia and Antonio’s (and other places!), I have not elaborated too much on what is cooking these days . Apart from the green fava beans that are sold in their skins and that you eat raw with slices of pecorino (sheep’s) cheese, it has been a glorious wild asparagus season. All thanks to the rain the countryside has had this Spring.

I myself, am not able to find these very thin, bluish-green-brown, slim stalks that grow in the high grasses close to olive and other trees. The locals have an eye for spotting them and you see many people gathering them and bringing big bunches home. You snap them, small piece by small piece, until you hit a hard part, which is then discarded. This process is rather lengthy if you get a fat bunch of asparagi. The pieces are blanched quickly and then you can cook them in various ways: a frittata is a good way to enjoy the delicious smell of the wild asparagus; risotto or pasta, preferably an egg-based one, are good ways also for using and serving these wild greens with. You can also put them in jars under olive oil and store them in the fridge for later use.

I recently was given a big bunch and prepared them with some pork sausage meat, shallots and some cream and this concoction is waiting, frozen, for my special guests who will be arriving from Ottawa soon. I’ll give you their comments later.

A funny thing happened in the Piazza …

Last year, I reported on a meeting with a group of Japanese ladies passing through Spello, who seemed to be intrigued by me, the pale-faced Italian. Yesterday, around 2 30 p.m., I was waiting for friends in the Piazza near my home, when, to my amazement, I saw a Japanese man of a certain age, working his way through the rose beds around the fountain picking up all the litter and handing it to a woman with a plastic bag, who, I take it, was his wife. They were with two other Japanese couples, who approved of this action and encouraged the man by pointing out more pieces of paper to pick up! Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me.
The scene has stayed with me and I kept wondering whether the Japanese did this act of cleaning up the rose beds out of a sense of ecological concern or was it for any other reason?

Spello’s streets are kept very clean: the big garbage truck passes every morning around 7 a.m., also on Sundays. Street sweepers follow around 8 and apart from their brooms, they also drive a small vehicle that goes through also the smaller streets, like mine and spray disinfectant. Also this is a daily ritual. The culprits of the wrappings and empty chips’ bags in the flower beds are the many high-school students who these weeks, on their excursions by bus through Italy, drop all this garbage, notwithstanding the availability of garbage bins everywhere around the Piazza.

Anyway, today, Sunday morning, I heard clapping and cries of “baci, baci” (kisses, kisses) and looking down from the terrace to the Town Hall, I noticed a lovely Japanese bride on the arm of an Italian husband: they had just been married and were accompanied by many Japanese relatives and/ or friends. Would the people cleaning the rose beds yesterday be part of this wedding group? Maybe.