Donate to the OCRF!

If you’ve been around here in past Septembers, you know that for two years going, we’ve marked Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month at Bleeding Espresso — and this year is no different.

Well, it’s a little different because this year I’ve lined up some of the fabulous jewelry designers I’ve mentioned in the past (5 Ways to Raise Ovarian Cancer Awareness Through Jewelry) for giveaways to encourage you to go to their sites, have a look around, and perhaps purchase an item whose proceeds go to various ovarian cancer awareness funds.

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Ovarian cancer is often called the “silent killer,” because many of its symptoms can be mistaken for minor illnesses. But as women, it is up to us to let our doctors know when something just isn’t right, so please read up on the signs & symptoms of ovarian cancer, and don’t be afraid to speak up — and men, please forward this information to the women you love.

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Today I’m proud to welcome Angela Moore and her gorgeous jewelry collection, which includes this brand new ovarian cancer awareness bracelet; purchases from this collection donate 15% back to the OCNA (Ovarian Cancer National Alliance).

Angela Moore OCNA Classic Bracelet with Teal Crystals

These are brand new (released on September 1) and there is a limited number available; this bracelet retails for $60. This new collection also includes a necklace, earrings, and my personal favorite, pendant. Prices start at $30.

Now, turning to the bracelet for the giveaway, the white bracelet with teal ribbons, which retails for $50:

Angela Moore Ovarian Cancer Awareness Classic Bracelet with Silver

This original Ovarian Cancer Awareness collection, by the way, is available in several pieces, including bracelet, necklace, earrings, pendant, watch, and hair ties; prices range from $12 and up. Fifteen percent of this collection is donated to the OCRF (Ovarian Cancer Research Fund).

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CONTEST RULES:

To enter for your chance to win the original Ovarian Cancer Awareness bracelet (white with teal ribbons pictured above, $50 value), visit the Angela Moore website then come back here and leave a comment with your favorite piece of jewelry *outside* of the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Collection.

For an extra entry, you can “like” Angela Moore on Facebook and/or and follow @ArtToWear on Twitter, and then come back here and tell me you’ve done so in a separate comment. You may both “like” and follow for a total of three possible entries, but the comment regarding your favorite piece of jewelry is the main entry and mandatory before you can gain extra entries.

All entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CET Sunday, September 12, 2010; this drawing is open internationally. The winner will be chosen randomly.

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As in previous years, you can also donate through my FirstGiving page to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund; stay tuned for lots more ways you can increase ovarian cancer awareness around you, and please spread the word about what’s going on at Bleeding Espresso here this month!

Related posts:

1. Angela Moore Jewelry for Ovarian Cancer Awareness
2. Teal Toes Winners and More Ovarian Cancer Awareness Info
3. 2nd Annual O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

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Should You Take an Italian Cooking Class?

Are you wondering how to prepare authentic, tasty Italian dishes? Do you have a desire to do more when you make Italian food? Perhaps you have spent a long time yearning to make delicious Rollatini di Pollo served with a properly chilled bottle of Chardonnay.

Eggplants/Aubergine/Melanzane

There are plenty of restaurants and culinary schools offering Italian cooking courses. And no, you don’t have to be a little bit Italian to take the courses! You can have fun, improve your Italian cooking skills and enjoy some scrumptious food. Buon appetito!

Impress friends and family members by making a delicious Italian meal. No longer will your guests’ “that was delicious pasta” comment be dripping with insincerity! Well, let’s hope not.

A Google search such as “cooking courses Boston” (replace Boston with your city of residence) may just provide a few nearby restaurants that offer Italian one-day or longer cooking classes. Some of the classes teach students to make a five-course meal. Typically, students are part of a cooking team. Classes usually take two to three hours after which it’s time to enjoy a tasty Italian meal.

• The Italian Culinary Academy, located in New York City, offers amateur and professional programs through a variety of part-time amateur night classes. The courses include two or three sessions. Attend a high quality Italian culinary school during a New York City vacation. Sell your collection of antique ascots and dine at Babbo Ristorante.

• Cooking Vacations offers hands-on cooking classes and cultural tours in Italy’s 20 regions. Students are taught to prepare traditional Italian recipes by skilled chefs, local expert cooks, bread and pizza makers and Nonnas. The culinary holiday includes visits to markets and tours of vineyards and cultural landmarks.

• The International Kitchen offers a variety of Italian cooking vacations. The programs combine sightseeing and cooking classes taught by expert chefs. How about making scrumptious dishes from Umbrian recipes? Your friends will be inquisitive and hopefully impressed.

If you are one of those people who have a casual interest in cooking, taking a cooking class at a local restaurant may well be the best option. Here are some restaurants that offer cooking classes for a small sampling of cities across the US:

• Taranta (Boston, MA)
• Chef Andy (Orlando, FL)
• A Tavola (Chicago, IL)
• A Taste of Italy in Austin (Austin, TX)
• Andy Food (Scottsdale, AZ)
• Tante Marie’s Cooking School (San Francisco, CA)
• Rustico Cooking (New York City, NY)

Invest a little time and reap the rewards for the rest of your culinary life!

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Brian Jenkins writes on Cooking Schools and other topics for Braintrack.com.

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Have you ever taken a cooking class? Would you recommend it to others?

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Remember you still have another day to enter the big FOUR book giveaway!

Related posts:

1. Enrich Your Italian Vacation with Milano Summer School
2. Gita Italiana 2010: Taking a Break, Italian Style
3. Three Questions with Tania Pascuzzi of Cooking in Calabria Tours

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The song is about a beautiful eagle that delivers a love letter to the singer’s beloved — unless she’s sleeping, in which case, the eagle is to let her sleep (and dream sweet dreams) because for her the night turns:

“Dorma gioiuzza, fai li sogni d’oru; Ca c’esta cu pe tia la notta gira.”

*le sigh*

Happy Love Thursday everyone!

Related posts:

1. Calabrese Proverbs by Month: March
2. Calabrese Proverbs by Month: April
3. La Bella Lingua/Celebrate Italian Heritage Contest

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As a recent transplant to the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex (via Naples, Italy and the Pacific Northwest) I must agree with the state slogan of, “Texas, it’s like a whole other country.” It’s not only because the state is huge, or the fact that it has its own power grid. There is just something about Texas that sets it apart from other states. Every time I land in Dallas, for instance, I feel like I should get my passport stamped.

So how does all this fit in with the Gita Italiana? Well, I’ve discovered that the bel paese and the Lone Star State have a surprising amount of things in common. Don’t believe me? Read on!

Dallas skyscraper.

Iconic Shapes

If you pulled a tortilla chip out of a bag and it were shaped like either Texas or Italy, you might notice. You might even get a few bids if you placed that chip on eBay. At the very least, your friends would probably nod in agreement as you dipped it in salsa and took a bite. Try the same with a chip resembling Colorado or Belgium, however, and people will think you’re nuts. Those shapes are not nearly as striking or recognizable.

Texas and Italy, on the other hand, are like the geographical equivalents of Beyonce or Christine Hendricks; they are not afraid to flaunt their shape. While living in Naples, I even had people use my lower leg as a makeshift map from time to time. I confess that I am so bad at geography that this was the only way to get their point across, but hey, it worked. And while I still think there is a market for tights imprinted with a map of Italy, there is definitely a market for anything Texas-shaped. You name it, if there’s a way to produce a Texas-shaped version of a product, someone will do it, and Texans will buy it. I’ve seen Texas-shaped belt buckles, tattoos, muffins, swimming pools, crewcuts – there’s even a Flickr pool of Texas-shaped things.

I'm not sure how to pair wine with Chicken Fried Stuff.

Love of Wine

We all know that Italy produces some of the finest wines in the world, however Texas makes its share of vino, too. The state has over 200 family-owned vineyards, and a whole bunch of wineries. The city of Grapevine is named after the indigenous mustang grape (Vitis Mustangensis) and hosts the largest wine festival in the southwest. Meanwhile, DFW International Airport has an on-site winery, which offers the aptly named “Aero Port.”

I honestly can’t say yet how Texan wines compare to Italian ones (ask me again after Texas Wine Month this October) but I can tell you that the European wine industry will be forever grateful to a Texan named Thomas Munson. Munson developed a vine hearty enough to resist phylloxera, an aphid-like critter which wreaked havoc on grape harvests in the 19th century, so propose a toast to him the next time you open a tasty bottle of Italian red.

A sign at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Texas.

Unique Dialects

While living in Naples, I enjoyed learning phrases in Neapolitan dialect, as well as songs in dialect such as “O Sole Mio,” and “Funiculi, Funicula.” I was surprised, however, to learn that Texas has its own dialect. I am not just talking about the contagious Texan twang. Texas actually has its own unique version of German, thanks to generations of immigrants. The German word for “skunk” is stinktier, for example, while the Tex-German variation is stinkkatze.

Wacky Men in Charge

It would take a lot to rival the buffoonery of Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, but from what I’ve seen here in Texas, Governor Rick Perry has his moments. Not only has Perry been dubbed “Governor Good Hair” due to his immaculate coiffure, but he’s been known to impulsively smooth the unruly locks of strangers in the audience during public appearances. Also, back in April of this year, Perry shot and killed a coyote … while out jogging! He claims the coyote was menacing his pooch, but I have my doubts. I’ve lived near coyotes before, and they are very skittish. In any case, who packs heat on their morning jog?

Confusing restroom sign in Dallas.

Freakishly Large Insects

If you’ve ever spent time in the Italian countryside, chances are you’ve seen those huge, black bumblees known as Calabrone. While your average bee buzzes like a Vespa (pun intended!) a Calabrone rumbles like a Harley Davidson, and just like a “hog”, you can hear them coming a mile away. Fortunately, Calabrone rarely sting humans.

Turns out that Texas has its share of big bees, too. Lately I’ve spied Cicada Killer Wasps in our yard. As the name suggests, this creature kills cicadas (which, I might add, is another hefty-sized bug.) Cicada Killers are an impressive 2″ long and thankfully, like the Calabrone, they have better things to do than sting you. I still tend to shriek and run the other way, though, whenever I see one.

Texans leads the USA in wind power.

Regional Pride

More than anything else, both Texas and Italy share a deeply rooted sense of pride, and locals are eager to share their traditions with you. Nor is Texas afraid to take on what it finds cool about Italy and put a Lone Star spin on it. There are plenty of Texan towns named after Italian cities: Italy, Florence and Naples, to name a few. Dallas has a mozzarella company, as well as one of the few Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) certified restaurants in the USA, while the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth is home to the only Michelangelo painting in the Americas. I still get a kick out the Maccaroni Grill, an Italian restaurant where the ladies room is labelled, “Uomini.” (Pretty confusing, since that means “men” in Italian.)

The Texan love of Italy runs deep, but doesn’t veer into wannabe behavior. One incident in particular summed this up for me, it was when the waiter at an Italian place in Dallas exclaimed, “Mangia, y’all!” after setting our entree on the table. At that moment I realized that no matter how passionate this guy was about Italian cuisine, he was still Texan through and through.

So there you have it, a brief sojourn off the boot and over to the land of cowboy boots, where there is more in common than you might expect!

P.S. I want to thank Michelle for inviting me on her Gita Italiana. She was the first expat I connected with online while living in Italy. From Bleeding Espresso, I quickly found Cherrye Moore, another expat who just so happens to hail from the great state of Texas. Although we’ve never met in person, those two are a continuing source of inspiration to me.

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Tui Cameron is a writer and musician who recently settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex after having lived in Italy, Belgium and the Pacific Northwest. She disagrees with the saying, “It’s a small world.” In her experience, it’s actually a great big world with an endless array of places to explore. You can find her on Twitter @mentalmosaic, and at her blog, Mental Mosaic: Even home is a travel destination.

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Wonderful and so sweet too, Tui; grazie mille!

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote, read, and commented on the series; I’ve had so much fun reading about all different parts of Italy from some of my favorite bloggers, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Looking ahead to September, remember it’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, so there will be lots of fun happenings here (including giveaways!) in order to spread the word about this disease that affects far too many women. See you next month!

Related posts:

1. Gita Italiana 2010: Six Memories of Venice
2. Gita Italiana 2010: Salento — Not Your Typical Italy
3. Gita Italiana 2010: At Home in Basilicata – The Forgotten Region

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Remember when Susan Van Allen was here a while back telling us why women love Italy so much? Well today it’s my turn to tell you a little more about her book, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, and give you yet another chance to win Susan’s book as well as three other titles from Travelers’ Tales.

We’ll get back to the contest in a bit, but first let me tell you what a treasure 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go would be in your library, virtual library, or even in your life via iPhone app.

Check it out on Amazon!

Whether you want to find a cooking course, spa, religious retreat, great beach, or just some fabulous shopping, Susan has it covered –in every corner of the Bel Paese. When I first received this book, I thought it would be something I’d flip through every now and again when the mood struck; instead I found myself reading chapters straight through, imagining myself visiting all of the wonderful places Susan describes so well.

The tone is friendly and the advice sincere, so you really do feel like you have a knowledgeable girlfriend by your side with the inside scoop on where you should go on your next Italian vacation. I probably don’t need to tell you this book would make a *fabulous* gift for your favorite Italophile who also happens to be a lady, either.

So if you entered the last drawing but didn’t win, here is another chance for you to win this book; even better, in addition to 100 Places, Susan’s publisher has also offered up one copy of each of the following:

• Travelers’ Tales Italy: True Stories of Life on the Road
• Travelers’ Tales Tuscany: True Stories
• 30 Days in Italy: True Stories of Escape to the Good Life

To be eligible for the drawing, just leave a comment on this post before 11:59 p.m. next Sunday, September 5, 2010. For an extra entry, head to Facebook to “like” 100 Places Every Woman Should Go and let me know you’ve done so in a separate comment. I will draw four winners randomly at the close of the drawing; the first winner will receive 100 Places; the second will receive the second book on the list, etc.

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Now be sure to come back tomorrow for the final day of our gita!

Related posts:

1. Book Giveaway: 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go
2. Winner of 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go
3. Book Review & Giveaway: Palermo by Roberto Alajmo

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When Michelle proposed the Gita Italiana, I thought about all of the wonderful things I could say about Abruzzo.  I could talk about the National Park, the wildlife, the breathtaking views of the Maiella that I can see from my town. Or, I could talk about how close we are to the sea and the wonderful historic treasures that are all around us. But, as fantastic as all of those things are, they are not what really comes to mind when I think about my life here in the heart of Italy.

View of the Maiella

Upon moving to Abruzzo it felt as though I almost went back in time because this place is so closely linked to the rhythms of the earth. That link is so strong that even a person who has newly arrived can feel it. Yes, I know all about harvest time and I’ve grown my own vegetables, but I’ve never felt as attuned to the seasons as I do here. Even though we live in a modern world with computers and cell phones, we still take part in those seasonal activities that have been going on here for generations and generations, back into the mists of time.

Forget about football games and hayrides. These seasonal activities are all related to putting food on the table.

Spring is the time to plant and you’d better plant when the moon is in the right phase or your seeds won’t grow the way they should. Then the grain is harvested and the fields prepared for the next crop.

Pacchianella 2007: Festival of Madonna of Mt. Carmel

Of course, summer is when we enjoy the abundance of fruits and vegetables from the garden but then, in late summer, it’s time to preserve part of what the garden has yielded and can some tomatoes. You can make sauce or can them in chunks or even whole, but everyone does it. It becomes a part of conversation. No longer is the opening phrase about the weather, now it centers on whether or not you’ve done your tomatoes yet and how you do them.

When early fall rolls around it’s time for the vendemmia. Then later comes olive harvest time when everyone gathers their olives and takes them off to the frantoio for making oil. And once the cold temperatures arrive it’s time to butcher the pigs and make sausage.

Ventricina -- traditional pork salami

Yes, there are some people who don’t do these things, but the majority of people are involved in at least some of them. We don’t have grapes, for example, nor do we raise pigs, so there is no butchering for us (thank goodness), but our lives still revolve around these activities as we watch the tractors full of grapes go by (or peaches when the season is right).

And, while you can sometimes get some vegetables and fruits out of season here, you pay very dearly for them. Unlike supermarkets in the states that seem to have grapes and cherries all year round, you can really only get them in season here. Consequently, I had no idea that there were winter vegetables, like broccoli for example.

While life is not perfectly idyllic here, there is definitely a fair amount of tranquility that comes from being so closely bound to the seasons. Since moving here, my life has definitely changed, for the better.

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Some people said Mary was crazy when she walked away from a promising IT career to move to her ancestral town in Italy. Now 4+ years later she works part-time as a Freelance Translator and Writer and the rest of the time she spends chasing after her 2 year old son and enjoying life in Abruzzo. You can catch up with her on her blog: The Flavors of Abruzzo.

Abruzzo

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Grazie mille Mary!

Be sure to come back later today for the final book giveaway of the Gita Italiana 2010!

Related posts:

1. Are You Ready for the Gita Italiana 2010?
2. Gita Italiana 2010: Taking a Break, Italian Style
3. Gita Italiana 2010: Salento — Not Your Typical Italy

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Sometimes I get so caught up in daily life that I have to stop, look around, pinch myself and realize where I’m living.  The Salento is the sub peninsula that makes the “heel” if you are looking at a map of Italy.

It’s different than the rest of Italy.  Every region has its own identity and traditions, but here in the south, the difference is pronounced.  On one hand, it’s the Italy people dream of, untouched by mass tourism.  Things are slow, shops close from 1:00 to 5 or 5:30 in the afternoon, people hit the streets of Lecce in bici, on their bicycles, green grocers can be found everywhere, and the gelato is just right.  All the things you might fantasize about when thinking of Italy, you will probably find here.

© Tina Ferrari

On the other hand, I feel like I’m in my own special place, removed from the rest of Italy.  I think anyone in southern Italy, be it Calabria, Basilicata or Sicily, might feel the same way.  Being at the bottom of the peninsula, the Salento is nice and isolated.  It’s not the easiest to reach, and when you do finally get here, you feel like you are separated, in a way, from Italy.  On the train along the Adriatic Coast, as soon as you pass Bari, your view out the window suddenly consists of red soil (with olive trees) muretti a secco (dry stone walls characteristic of this region), and the occasional trullo.

The Salento even has its own railway system: the Ferrovie del Sud Est! It’s truly a parallel universe.  At the regular TrenItalia train station in Lecce, you’ll find chaos and grumpy employees, as you would at any station belonging to the national train network.  But pop into a Ferrovie del Sud Est station in one of the neighboring Salento towns, and it’s a completely different set up.  Complete tranquility.  “Is the train for Lecce running?” you ask.  The man at the biglietteria, calm as can be with glistening eyes, shrugs his shoulders, nods his head and says, “Sure.”  You press further: “What time?”  He nods his head again and answers, “Quando vuoi. When you want.”  You move to the platform to wait for the train.  The same man comes out and manually lowers a bar to block automobile traffic from crossing the tracks, and finally, a tiny toy train pulls up.  Off you go.

On the other hand, it is also a region of progressive artists.  Plenty of modern talent comes from the Salento, including musicians such as Dolcenera, i Bambini Latini and Sud Sound System.  In Lecce, artisans sell their wares on the streets on summer evenings, and galleries abound with original, avant-garde creations by local artists.

© Tina Ferrari

It’s strange to think that I am five hours from Rome on the train, but if I were to take my friend’s boat, I would get to Corfu (Greece) in only three. (In fact, there are a few towns near me where you’ll hear people speak Griko, a “modern” Greek spoken in the Magna Graecia region of Southern Italy, including the Salento.)  It’s also strange to think that after all the time an American English speaker might spend learning to roll their r’s properly in order to pronounce Italian, if you want to speak Leccese, the American “r” is actually much better, at least when it follows a “t.”

Perhaps the language here is Italian, perhaps this region belongs to the republic of Italy, but once in a while I realize, as I walk through Lecce’s historic center in the morning, looking up at homes made of white-gold Leccese stone and the contrast against the Mediterranean blue sky, or as I make my way down the road on the way to Gallipoli, surrounded by oleanders and prickly pears, with the salty scent of the Ionian Sea in the air, that I am in a very special, truly unique Paradise in the south: the Salento.

© Tina Ferrari

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Tina Ferrari is an Italian-American tango dancer, translator and writer living in Lecce. You can find her at http://tinatangos.com.

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Grazie mille Tina!

Tomorrow we’ll have a special treat; a book review and giveaway in the morning and a quick trip to Abruzzo in the afternoon. Be sure to come back!

Related posts:

1. Gita Italiana 2010: Mountains & Sea: Between Two Worlds on Italy’s Amalfi Coast
2. Gita Italiana 2010: When I Was Two, I Was Nearly New
3. Gita Italiana 2010: How to Really Love Assisi

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Our gita Italiana starts like this:

I’m brusquely awoken by something pounding on my belly.  I open my eyes, and realize it is a small boy, an odious boy, who happens to be my son.  He dashes off cackling and I catch sight of the clock.  Darn! The alarm didn’t go off!  We’re late!  We gotta get out of bed and head up the mountain before (dramatic, scary music) the tourists get there!

Alexia, Nick, Liam, and Luce (don't worry -- the arm is fine!)

As some of you know, my husband Nick is Sicilian and we always spend part of our summer in his hometown, Catania.  One of our yearly day trips is visiting the Etna volcano, a massive active volcano standing 3,329 meters high that dominates the east coast of Sicily between Messina and Catania.  The last eruption was in April of this year.  In 2001, a crater even opened dangerously close to the town of Nicolosi.  The worried townspeople brought out their Saint from the church and the lava stopped.  A miracle!

“I’m going to need another miracle to get my family moving,” I think as I gaze across the bed and see Nick snoozing beside Luce, our 6 year-old daughter.  Only 3 hours later we’re in the car, picnic packed, camera in tow and donning high-tech mountain gear (clothes from Nick’s prepubescent era).

Obviously, being “Catanese”, Nick does NOT consider himself a tourist, but a LOCAL, a gruff mountain man, bordering on volcano expert…even though he goes to the Etna once a year (using his satellite navigator) and doesn’t know the difference between magma and lava (do you?).   As we snake up to the Etna (about 30 km from Catania), Nick grumbles that we’ll get to the cable-car station just as the bus loads of (scary music) tourists start swarming in.  He pleads, “ let’s just go to the beach!” No way Jose, the kids demand to eat their salami sandwiches face to face with the mighty Etna.

Mount Etna

Finally, we pull up to the “rifugio Sapienza” at 1910 meters.  Nick’s mood changes (thank God) when he immediately finds a parking spot.  A miracle, he announces.  My day starts to look better.  Pasty-faced with total sunscreen, we climb into our own private cable-car, the kids buzzing with adrenaline.  Luce, the wise one of the family, inquires, “Mom, what happens if the volcano explodes now?” I laugh and reply, “don’t worry about it sweetie, it’s not going to happen…” But the question echoes  in my head… “crap, what happens if the volcano really does explode, NOW?” I instantly file the thought into the “I can’t deal with that” section of my brain.  The 15 minute cable-car ride flies by, apart from a brief episode when the gondola (no, not the ones in Venice!) suddenly stops and we dangle in thin air for what seems like an eternity.  Liam jumps up exclaiming, “I need to go poo-poo,” making us lurch precariously.  To avoid a panic attack, I spend the rest of the gondola ride on an astral voyage.

At 2500 meters, we roll out the plaid blanket and devour our picnic. I scoff at the (scary music) tourists, some in flip flops, struggling to walk over the jagged lava rocks, others with straw beach mats under their arms.  I wonder, “what were they thinking when they decided to spend the day on the highest active volcano in Europe?” I gaze down at my feet, proud to be wearing my robust high-top sneakers.  That lava ain’t got nothing on me in these.

The view is stunning from our picnic spot.  We’re on top of the world.  Everything around us is black, while Catania and the immense sea gleam below us.  I can practically see all the way across Sicily, to the Madonie mountains where (more dramatic music) Corleone is…  It’s amazing.

Alexia's trusty hightops

After lunch we get on a jeep-bus with gigantic wheels, a relic from some lunar expedition.  The NASA-mobiles will take us up to 3000 meters to visit a small active crater!  The kids tingle with anticipation.  On the way up Luce eats three ham sandwiches, a banana, a zucchini omelet and belts out “Old McDonald” to the dismay of our fellow travelers.  Liam, on the other hand…falls asleep.  Nick is very pleased as he will have to carry Liam on his back like a donkey when we take our one-hour hike around the crater.  Upon arriving, we are greeted by our guide, a REAL, although slightly elderly, mountain man with a thick Sicilian accent who occasionally utters a few words in French (in the same Sicilian accent).  Do I look French, I wonder?  I don’t know.

As I take my first step behind our guide I feel something strange on my foot.  I realize that my sturdy, reliable high-tops are disintegrating.  The soles are detaching and I’m going to kill myself on the top of a mountain in Sicily.  So much for my high-tech gear, I might as well have worn flip flops.  However, the situation is not so dismal as I soon figure out how to walk so the soles don’t catch on the craggy rocks.  I know I look like I’m doing a Monty Python “silly walk,” but I hold my head up high, avoiding the (scary music) tourist’s curious gaze and focus on the incredible moon-scape around me.  The top of the volcano looms above us, smoking enigmatically.  When I put my hand on the ground it is warm, and when I dig a bit, it’s hot!  Steam bellows out of the smaller crater below us and is whisked off by the wind.  Oh, and by the way, it’s freezing.  So, we take out our shiny, ’80′s triacetate-polyester tracksuit jackets and bundle up.  Lookin’ good, feelin’ good.

By the time we walk all the way around the crater, Nick is cussing in Sicilian due to the sizable weight in his arms (Liam), not to mention the 4 liters of water he is carrying in his backpack.  I am waddling like a neurologically damaged duck and Luce is getting reprimanded by the Sicilian guide (in French) for throwing rocks over the edge of the crater.  Ah, just another day of our relaxing vacation… And we still have to get down the mountain…

But all in all, a great Italian gita.

Mount Etna looms behind Calabria

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Alexia Murray is an American mom living in Rome with her Sicilian husband (who claims to descend directly from the Druids), two vivacious kids and their dog Hamlet.  Together they’ve created www.2kidsandadog.com, a site that hosts an ongoing comic web series, which thrice weekly reveals in short snippets what really happens to make their ridiculous yearly family calendar.  Documenting the activities is a multi-tasking mom and a burnt-out pop, cooky costumes, home-made sets, an absurdly busy doorbell, a slow burning soup on the stove, surreptitious sibling rivalry, and a lot of barking.

All photos courtesy of Alexia Murray. Along with visiting their website, you can show your support for this fun-loving family by voting for their webisodes in the NexTV Shortcut to the Finals competition!

Also, for a live shot of Mount Etna, check out the Mount Etna webcam.

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Grazie mille Alexia and family!

Are you ready for some Puglian action? That’s where we’re headed tomorrow…

Related posts:

1. Gita Italiana 2010: Visiting the Aeolian Islands from Calabria
2. Gita Italiana 2010: Six Memories of Venice
3. Gita Italiana 2010: How to Really Love Assisi

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Venice will always hold the honor of  being the first city I visited in Italy. One could say that Venice is partially responsible for my falling in love with Italy. It certainly started the ball rolling. I remember that magical moment as I caught my first glimpse of the Piazza San Marco in Venice from the Alilaguna as it sailed along the jade waters, on a bright, sunny day. It’s an indelible memory. One that I hold very dear.

But it isn’t the only memory I have of Venice. There are many. I thought I’d share six other things that I remember about Venice that put a smile on my face whenever I think of them.  Hopefully they paint a vivid picture of what it’s like to spend time in one of the most unique cities in Italy.

Photo © Robin Locker Lacey

1. Traversing the tiny footbridges and getting lost in the maze of calle, especially at night. Wandering with no particular place to go is one of the best ways to discover the real Venice.

2. The lovely gelato shop owner who not only had the best gelato, which we enjoyed no less than twice a day, but who holds the honor of being the very first Italian to ever say ‘Ciao‘ to me.

3. The manager of the tiny B&B where we stayed, who was a dead-ringer for Hank Azaria’s character, Agador (Spartacus), in the movie ‘The Bird Cage.’ He was delightful and each morning he served us warm cornetti filled with peach preserves alongside the best cappuccino, prepared with his tiny Bialetti.

4. Taking a mid-afternoon nap while listening to the beautiful sound of piano and violin wafting into the windows of our room, from the Music Conservatory across our canal.

5. The quiet. The lack of cars and scooters. I enjoyed hearing every footstep, every clip-clop of a stiletto heel. It was lovely being lulled to sleep every night by the sound of lapping water and the occasional boat that would slowly make its way passed our open window.

6. Our dinner at Ai Cugnai, a family joint, where the laundry dangled precariously above our heads and where the entertaining owner was more of a draw than the food. We watched her sip wine from other diners’ glasses and present dishes from the kitchen to everyone in the dining room before serving them. She spoke not a word of English and at the end of dinner, she pinched my cheeks and told me to call her mamma. Priceless!

Photo © Robin Locker Lacey

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Robin Locker Lacey is an Italy and France travel consultant, freelance travel writer and photographer who hopes to one day realize her dream of living La Dolce Vita in her beloved Italy. Her passion for European culture and lifestyle is featured on her site, My Mélange, which includes travel essays, photos, recipes, restaurant and hotel recommendations, ideas on how to live La Dolce Vita from abroad and travel tips–she is the self-professed Queen of the Carry-On bag and *will* convince you to convert. She is addicted to social media – you can follow her on Twitter @MyMelange.

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Grazie mille Robin!

Domani . . . Mount Etna in Sicilia!

Related posts:

1. Gita Italiana 2010: Visiting the Aeolian Islands from Calabria
2. Gita Italiana 2010: Taking a Break, Italian Style
3. Gita Italiana 2010: Finding Treasures in Alghero, Sardinia

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Today we’re spending time getting to know and love Assisi with Rebecca Winke of Rebecca’s Ruminations; you may also know her as one of the driving forces behind the Agriturismo Brigolante in Umbria. Welcome Rebecca!

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There’s a tipping point on the eternal scale of love.

At the beginning, you fall for the love of your life for the big things—her eyes, her smile, the way she walks—in short, those same things that have smitten every guy who has come before you and are still what make heads turn. But slowly, over time, your focus shifts and at a certain point you realize that what you love about her now are the little things, details so small and intimate that you feel like you, and only you, know.  The way she looks sad when she talks about her grandfather, how she bites her lip when she’s nervous, her secret stash of Phil Collins albums. And though she may be admired the world over for the big things, it’s those little ones that make her yours.

Assisi with Rocca Above by Gunnar Bach Pedersen

This is where I’m at with Assisi. Years ago I fell in love with her for the big things—the Basilica of Saint Francis, the winding alleys lined with pink stone houses, the pretty piazza—all of those things that have struck visitors for centuries before me.

But now, after almost 20 years of living here, I love her for the small things, my private collection of quirks that makes me feel like we belong together.

Her Checkered Past

Sure, your woman is a staid mater familias now, admired for her domestic organization, professionalism, and civic activism. But you know. You know she shies away from tank tops and sundresses because of that tattoo on her shoulder, the one she now finds tacky and slightly embarrassing, but which is the only remaining evidence of a ten-month long teen rebellion that involved quitting school, thumbing it to California, hooking up with a ne’er-do-well group of hemp activists, and finally having to call collect from a biker jamboree in one of the Dakotas for money to fly home and shower. And you love that tattoo.

Assisi is all peace and love and Saint Francis now. But I know. I know her past as a scrappy little warmonger, wreaking havoc in neighboring Perugia and Arezzo and taking up arms at the drop of a hat (for better or for worse) against Rome, the Byzantine empire, and the Lombards (amongst others). Today, Assisi is admired for her Basilica (the one dedicated to Saint Francis who was, before his religious conversion, a fierce merchant-warrior who survived numerous battles and captivity), but I love to visit one of the only vestiges of her bellicose past: the captivating and dramatic Rocca Maggiore, her stone fortress set above the town. I wander through the semi-restored tunnels and turrets, and climb the far tower to gaze over the whole of the Umbrian valley with a conquerer’s eye. I know.

Crucifixion by Cimabue via Wikimedia Commons

Her Chipped Tooth

Everyone loves her smile because it’s perfect; you love it because you know it’s not.

Whenever I visit the Basilica, I always stop to admire the famous fresco cycle in the upper church documenting the life of Saint Francis, with its breathtaking first steps towards conveying depth and perfect rendering of facial features. But what I spend most my time in front of is Cimabue’s magnificent Crucifixion decorating the apse, with St. Francis on his knees at the foot of the Cross. Because the artist used lead oxide in his colours, which were applied when the plaster was no longer fresh, the frescoes soon suffered from damp and decay and deteriorated to photographic negatives. Somehow seeing a great master’s “Doh!” moment makes all the perfection just a little more human and lovable.

What’s Really Important to Her

You’ve heard her hold forth at dinner parties about travel, food, wine, shopping, and all six seasons of SATC. But you’ve also listened to her read pages from her diary out loud to you in bed. You know what she would run back into the burning house to save.

Assisi has shops, restaurants, music and arts festivals, religious feast days, nattily dressed inhabitants, and many, many cell phones. But if you really want to see what makes this town tick, take the pretty walk past Porta San Giacomo to the cemetary.  Aside from being architecturally lovely in that way that old monumental European cemetaries so often are, here you will discover the soul of Assisi. Notice the names on the stones that repeat over and over, as generations live out their lives in this small town. See the carefully tended graves, as women return every week to freshen flowers and polish marble. Watch as they tenderly touch the portraits attached to the graves and quietly greet their loved ones. Assisi would run back into the burning house to save her family.

Assisi in Fog by Raniero Tazzi

How She Sleeps

Nothing is more intimate than looking down on your love’s face while she sleeps, and, indeed, the winter months when the tourists have left and Assisi seems to have fallen into quiet repose is when I feel closest to her. I wander her silent streets on a misty February night, hear the echo of my footsteps, discover alleys and winding staircases, and have only the occasional cat or church bell tolling as company. Everyone loves her when she’s awake and vibrant in the sunshine; I love her when she’s all shuttered up in the fog.

She Can Still Dazzle You

Yes, you are over the big stuff. But every once in awhile she comes down the stairs dressed for an evening out and manages to leave you breathless and head-over-heels in love again.

I see Assisi every day. I admit I get inured to her beauty after awhile. And then there will be that one magical fall evening when I’m headed up the hill and the light is just the right shade of dusk to set the whole town ablaze in pink and orange and the sky is an improbable azure and the mountain she perches on is an autumn firestorm and the air is so limpid that you can see every detail to postcard perfection and I am so smitten that I pull the car over and put my life on hold for ten minutes to watch my beautiful Assisi in all her glory. And I think, “It’s you and me, baby.  We’re in it for the long haul.”

Assisi at sunset by Roberto Ferrari Campogalliano (Modena) Italy

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Rebecca moved to Italy from Chicago in 1993 and shortly thereafter opened an agriturismo in her husband’s renovated family farmhouse at the foot of Mount Subasio near Assisi, Umbria.  She spends her time taking care of guests at Brigolante, blogging about the lovely region she now calls home at Rebecca’s Ruminations, and wondering about what strange winds blew an urban vegetarian to a pig farm in Umbria.

Related posts:

1. Gita Italiana 2010: At Home in Basilicata – The Forgotten Region
2. Gita Italiana 2010: The Loggia
3. Gita Italiana 2010: Taking a Break, Italian Style

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