Our neighbors to the East and South.

Via Cavour 5

I 've got some pictures to upload & here is the first patch of our house & around it. (R) the view of the BorgoNuovo ( lower village) from the house. The kids go to school "downstairs" as Carlo calls the lower village. There are indeed stairs to walk down to the village. (L) View of the pool with Neive in the background. Note clock tower with bongs on the hours and half hours and when there is a mass and when it is garbage removal day and when it is lunch time and when someone has a caffe and when a dog takes a ...etc etc ;-)

(R) View walkin' out the front door - security gates ( Of Course). (L) walking down the drive on the start of a village walk. TBD Another post with pics from the village.

( R&L) Pics of our house at Via Cavour 5 on the Marcorino -a little hill just outside the entry of the Capolongo ( or top of the hill center) proper. Obviously NOT from the 18th century. It was built in the 50's. Carlo's grandparents Lavinio and Ada were the original owners and Carlo's mother Giovanna and her 6 siblings grew up in this house (and other houses in Neive but that is for another post.) Recently the roof was raised ~ 4 feet to make the third floor livable space with two bedroom and two baths.

Chow for now!

JT

1st guest post from hubby

This morning I had a conversation with the town hall people in charge of tallying school lunches.

Lady: "Well, with 1.5 hours for lunch many kids just go home with their grandparents or whatever".
Me: "Well in the US they had about 15 minutes to eat their sandwiches".
Guy: "15 minutes??? That's not even enough to open a bottle of wine! No wonder the poor guys are forced to eat hamburgers and those porcherie (food fit for pigs)" (I didn't ask if they serve Julian red or white).
Guy: "Anyway, in the South they take 2.5 hours! Things are a lot slower down there."
Lady: "In any case, we are getting a lot of pressure to start serving GMO-free organic foods, there's always something!".
Me: "Well, if they don't learn Italian they will at least learn how to eat well."

Other tidbits:
- Ago's Commandant teacher has told him he MUST wear a jacket in order to transition between buildings at school. He is of course hot from just having to wear his smock on top of the shirt and shorts. I am waiting for the battle about no shorts in the winter.
- He is also to finish ALL the food on his plate. Brings back memories. We used to have stools in the cafeteria that stowed on tracks under the table surface. Those tracks is where all the food went when we didn't want to eat it. No tracks at this lunchroom. It will be interesting. On the other hand, here are some sample menu items:

• Tagliatelle with tomato and basil sauce
• Risotto
• Veal rolls
• Caprese salad
• Pasta with Pesto
• Sole
• Fresh cheese
• Pork loin
• Octopus and potato salad
• Gnocchi
• Frittata

Fresh seasonal fruit is on the menu with EVERY meal.

supermercato

Although there are the small and generally excellent butcher shops and green grocers and bread shops here in Neive and in every town, there are also chain super markets - Conad and Standa are two near here.

First, you need some coins to unlock a cart ( note to self: write about the ubiquitous crime and obsession with preventing it), so if you thought you might get away with anonymous shopping without having to try to actually speak Italian ( like I thought :-) - wrong- you need to ask for change so you can even start shopping.

Oh and before the ‘first’ above, you need to navigate the parking lot – it ain’t just the little old ladies that ”accidentally” go the wrong way down the parking lanes….arg! And of course the parking lot and spaces are all very tiny and there are jams in the lots and etc etc. Chaos reigns in general. Now that I think about it though the parking at the Fred Meyer on Hawthorne is kinda similar.

The stores are pretty nice though - rather like Fred Meyer or Super Target with food and bits of housewares, toys, house fixit stuff, etc. The selection of sweets in every store is HUGE - Italian's standard breakfast is a coffee or hot cocoa with some sweet something - what US hotels would call a "continental breakfast". There is substantial shelf space also for:

*many of varieties of short grained rice ( Arborio, Roma, etc etc

*various sized garbage cans and their plastic liner bags as well as little brooms and dustpans

* olive oils

*bottled water

*pasta – OF COURSE!

On the other hand if you are a soy sauce or refried beans fan, you might have to import from Britain or perhaps find it near a larger urban center. I have not been in a Carrefour for several years but that megastore might have more “alien” foods. The Carrefour near Antibes had like 50 check out lanes!!!

Except for cleaning products, many items are packaged in smaller sized. Flour for example is in a 1 kg package - about 1/2 the sort of standard sized flour bag. Finally, I could not located too many spices ( cumin e.g.) I think they are not part of the cuisine here at all. Also, could not locate baking powder nor baking soda in the few times I have shopped so far. ( I just thought that maybe the baking soda is in the cleaning supplies isle! ! :-) )

There is lots more seafood available. In addition to the fresh fish/seafood counter, there is many types and various premixed fresh selections packaged in plastic. There were toher seafood things that I could not quite ID – it seemed like a selection of battered seafood and seafood cakes – like crab cakes. I did not go too near though as I am not a seafood fan – the smell even I do not care for.

Fresh fruit and veg are like in the US with some variations – with some things being more prominent than the US like fennel.

Last little thing about the super markets – always carry cash or be prepared to abandon your cart because the ATM/credit card processing system can and does go down at no notice. This last seems to be an epidemic in Italy – “il sistema non funziona”

Ciao for now. J.T.