tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91117122588575458722025-02-06T13:27:15.922+01:00A Norwegian woman writes about life in Italy, the Italian cuisine, history, language and much more...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-59224173211845271832013-11-25T00:09:00.000+01:002014-06-04T17:24:44.542+02:00

The annual "Il festival della canzone italiana di San Remo" or just "il festival di San Remo" is a very popular song contest here in Italy that has taken place ever since 1951. Many famous Italian singers have participated (and won) through the years. Eros Ramazotti is maybe the most famous one, even outside of Italy. He won the contest in 1986 with the song "Adesso tu". Today I'll let you

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-44005668778211400142013-11-22T01:15:00.000+01:002013-11-22T01:15:32.900+01:00

When on a hot summer day the temperature reaches more than 40 degrees C (104 F) one of the best places to be is on the Amalfi Coast in  the Campania region in the south of Italy. It's the stretch of coastline that lies between Salerno and Positano in the Salerno Gulf, and which covers a distance of 40-50 kilometres. Along this stretch you'll find small, picturesque villages (with approx

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-83938081995655474462013-11-19T18:27:00.000+01:002013-11-19T18:33:16.943+01:00

Image courtesy of -Marcus- / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Italy, the land of Chamomile tea... I guess you thought it was the land of cappuccino, caffe latte and espresso, am I right? Well, you're right... and you're wrong.... The Italians are of course drinking millions of cups of coffee every day. Lots of coffee. Strong coffee. They're Italians, right? And they know both how to make it and how to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-29561392865064162972013-11-18T20:00:00.001+01:002013-11-18T20:00:54.557+01:00

BUONGIORNO A TE (good morning to you) I'm not a big fan of tv commercials, but here in Italy there's one that always get me in a good mood. It's for a famous Italian chocolate spread. And even if I don't like or eat the chocolate spread I do love the commercial....  Play it and see if it gets you in a good mood too.....  And here you can listen to the entire song....

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-41539614452282987442013-11-15T12:47:00.001+01:002013-11-15T12:47:22.192+01:00

The harvest this year has been what I would call "miserable". Last year we had an abundance of plums, figs, pears and olives. I made 30 kgs of plum jam and also some fig jam (in addition to eating as much fresh figs as we could possibly stomache for about 3 months). I made canned pears and the olive trees gave us 1600 kgs of olives that we made into 220 llitres of olive oil. I was of course

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-52450861040225976742013-11-05T20:57:00.001+01:002013-11-05T20:57:53.090+01:00

In 1967, Al Bano Carrisi met Romina Power, daughter of American actor Tyrone Power, during the filming of the movie "Nel Sole", named after one of his songs and from then on they were one of Italy's most loved famous couples for many many years. (They married in 1970 and split up in 1999).  And here's what Wikipedia says about the couple. Here you can listen to the song "Nel Sole

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-56494808771148223382013-11-01T00:42:00.001+01:002013-11-01T21:13:13.503+01:00

Here is a video for those of you that takes a particular interest in languages and/or dialects. If you're not interested in dialects at all maybe you like coffee and/or history and then I have another video for you.  Enrico Brignano (actor and comedian) lets us experience some of the Italian dialects. It doesn't matter if you don't understand Italian because it's the sound of the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-5231337277742791612013-10-26T22:02:00.000+02:002013-10-26T22:02:01.950+02:00

I guess the owner of this bar was tired of  his "rude" customers You can see this sign as you enter a particular Italian bar. For those of you who doesn't speak Italian - this is what it says: A (cup of) coffee    3 euro A (cup of) coffee, please    2 euro Good morning, can you make me a cup of coffee, please    1 euro This is kind of a funny way to get

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-86086693457009892612013-09-23T13:20:00.001+02:002013-09-23T13:20:02.840+02:00

Last winter I had a bout of bronchitis and with it comes the (bad) cough. At some point I ran out of cough medicine and all the pharmacies were closed. And then what do you do...???  The advice I got from my mother-in-law was this. Boil some red wine and add some sugar to your taste. Let it boil for awhile so that the alcohol evaporates. (Add some almonds and raisins and voila - you've made

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On the TV news today...   A woman in her 60s has been shot and killed by a mistake by her husband. The story goes like this:   The woman finds a gun in a drawer and says to her husband:  Aren't you going to kill yourself soon? (I guess she was getting tired of him... Or maybe they just had a very strange sense of humour... )   Her husband takes the gun from

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-91841963172327576942013-03-13T21:37:00.001+01:002013-03-13T21:37:43.389+01:00

Congratulations to all catholics of the world. They have elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina as the new pope and he has chosen the name Francesco (Francis) - after Francis of Assisi. Bergoglio is the first pope ever to take this name. Earlier this evening pope Francis spoke for the first time to all the people that had been waiting in St. Peters Square and he seems like a very open

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-80817513426627607172013-02-20T21:43:00.002+01:002013-09-23T19:45:27.206+02:00

I told you some days ago that this autumn we made 200 + litres of olive oil. Now I have to figure out how to use as much olive oil as possible..... And I've come up with a few ideas. So today I'll share the list with you. The average Italian use approx. 25 litres of olive oil a year and I'm trying to (at least) reach that level.... 1. Make a soffritto. (fry onion or garlic with carrot and celery

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Saturday evening turned out a bit different than what we had expected. At 1020 pm there was an earthquake here in the region of Lazio in the province of Frosinone, which is where I live. I was at home watching tv when suddenly I felt the ground shaking. It didn't last more than a minute, but I have to admit that it was pretty scary when it happened. The magnitude was 4.8 on the Richter scale and

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I'm still here - in case anyone was wondering. I haven't left Italy, but I've had a loooong break ....... For several reasons. Partly because of us moving house last year. Secondly, because now that we've got a fairly large garden there's quite a lot to do. We have fruit trees such as plums, pears, peaches, figs and nespole. And apart from stuffing myself with figs (figs are one of my favourites

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-18973237562348793622012-05-25T15:47:00.001+02:002012-05-26T00:20:51.459+02:00

After a while of living abroad you will probably realize that there are things from your home country that you're missing in your new life. It might be stupid, but there are a few things from Norway that I really miss. Apart from family and friends, that is.... 1. Long summernights when the sun "never" sets. This depends on where in Norway you are living. If you're as far north as the North Cape

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-38825790824410895102012-03-18T18:21:00.000+01:002012-03-18T18:28:05.140+01:00

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth. I'm just too busy moving house. We have left the city and are now living up in the hills in the countryside. And this is (a part of) what I can see from my window..... Surrounded by olive trees.... At the moment I'm working inside and outside the house all day - and driving back and forth with all our

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-34087261547390324782012-02-29T20:44:00.000+01:002014-06-04T17:59:25.442+02:00

Italy is going through some pretty rough times. Like I have mentioned earlier, many family businesses have already closed down and will probably never open again - ever.  Berlusconi reassured people time after time that everything was fine. And people believed him. But everything wasn't fine. And now the party is over. A party that was mostly for Berlusconi and his likes.... And the bill

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The cold weather in Europe has reached Italy. And with the cold comes the snow. Compared to Norway it's not that much snow, but enough to force Italy on its knees. The whole society closes down when it starts snowing. It's completely caotic on the roads because the cars don't have winter tyres like we use in Norway. Close to the town where I live there are lots of small,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-33620413706093618122012-01-28T17:26:00.001+01:002012-01-28T20:09:58.394+01:00

Here in Italy I come across as a bit "weird". Because I'm doing weird things. Like.... Putting on my summer clothes in March because the temperature is the same as in July in Norway - and everybody else is still in their winter clothes... I recycle.... and in my kitcken you'll find containers for glass, plastic and paper. The Italians (at least Italian friends and family) see me as somewhat "

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-60615050985510665972012-01-19T21:48:00.003+01:002012-01-20T12:06:23.239+01:00

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net When you're living abroad, you will experience things that are different from what you're used to in your homeland; things that you have to get used to, accept and learn to live with. Some of the things you won't have any trouble accepting, while others will be more difficult. And one of the things that I haven't learnt to live with (yet) is the

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Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Today, most Italian children wake up to find their "Christmas stockings" filled with chocolate and small gifts. But it's not Santa Claus who is bringing the gifts - it's La Befana. And who is La Befana? She is an old woman (a witch) riding on a broomstick (so she can travel around all of Italy with the gifts, maybe?)   According to old beliefs La

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-61893739523299657232012-01-04T12:03:00.000+01:002012-01-04T12:03:21.824+01:00

...or in English - the evil eye. In many cultures it is believed that certain people can cast a spell on you, cause bad luck or injury just by looking at you. You'll find this belief or superstition in the Middle East, but also in countries like Italy, Greece or Spain. The so-called "curse" can consist of anything from small mishaps to some major "disasters". As protection against these, you can

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-10015371454267829532011-12-31T14:35:00.000+01:002011-12-31T14:35:37.557+01:00

2011 hasn't been too good a year for Italy (along with some other countries). Because of the well-known crisis, the Italians have been forced to cut in an already tight budget. But where do you make these cuts when a normal salary or pension is only 600 euros or so?  Unlike in Norway, for Christmas here in Italy people have mostly been buying un pensierino (a small present), because they

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-30043075188844998342011-12-19T23:09:00.002+01:002011-12-19T23:48:06.440+01:00

Christmas time is "tombola-time" here in Italy.  In Norwegian - and if I'm not mistaken, also in English - tombola means "raffle" (lottery). However, in Italy the tombola is something different. It's a gamle that resembles bingo that many Italians (mostly from the south) are playing at Christmas gatherings.  Here you can see a traditional tombola from Naples  This

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9111712258857545872.post-37559859952482064472011-12-09T20:32:00.001+01:002011-12-09T20:35:38.287+01:00

For many Italians the "presepe" is what gives them the "Christmas feeling". The Christmas tree, which is very important for us Norwegians, takes second place here in Italy - even though you see Christmas trees "everywhere" in the country. This is taken from Wikipedia:  "A nativity scene is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. While the term "

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