AGES AND AGES

Wow it has been ages since I have posted anything. Mostly since Feb posting, we came back from Italy after a spring filled with visitors from the US and a summer filled with travels around Europe. I've decided to go freeform on this blog with whatever strikes my fancy until I find something specific worth devoting wordage to. Things I am interested right now and spending time on are:

Fabrics and furniture for my old house. I gave myself five years after we moved in to do some furnishing and I am behind!

Coding for Aireyes, Inc. where I am the new owner. I am amused daily by all the little reminders that I am coding like a gamer.

Are we gonna move our garage or not? The development review board has the say on whether we can do this or not. I have garage build plans to put together to apply and see what happens.

Job: hmmm education, healthcare or another tech/software gig? Will some small startup be interesting? I am spending time reading, talking to people, and doing my best to put a toe into the "new networking" a la founder's coffees etc in Portland. I am enjoying reading about the Portland business scene.

Then there is regular , domestic stuff which seems to take at least 25% of my day - plus the boys which take any and every second they can :-)

Genoa day visit

Genoa is a ninety minute drive from Neive - or perhaps 75 minutes if you are with Carlo driving a BMW. We had a rental car today and possibly a first we WERE the speediest car on the road ( at times anyway). It is probably good that we have a slumber minivan and not the zoomer we had today. I think Carlo has drunk the koolaid on the BMW make of cars...

Anyway, we had been to Genoa once before but it was for a boat show and a trip to the Aquarium with grandparents and 4 kids - that was a different "tourist" experience. Today, we have four hours to do whatever and we decided to just walk mostly and find a lunch spot. So , after an uneventful freeway drive and an oops - founds the one way streets already!- in Geneo , we parked and started walking. We breezed by the three palaces and will visit one or some on another visit - and instead gawked at the palazzos on that same street peeking into courtyards and peering into some windows. We found a pretty spectacular water feature/grotto in one courtyard! Carlo had read that Genoa was the first place to really DO window grating - so we have a few shots of that. Carlo took lots of pictures this trip.

We accidentally found a tiny chocolate shop that I had seen on some blog or another. We bought some of them, but then Carlo had to try these chocolate pastilles with flavorings like: basil, anise, red pepper, coriander - you get the idea. I have no interest at all. The place definitely had the aura of artiginale ( artisanal) work, and the slow food people must swoon over it.

We also found a big – I would assume chain- book shop that had a great selection for kids ( Italian books). We picked up some more Asterix, Geronimo Stilton and Richard Scarey and Dave Pilkey.

Via Settembre XX is the high street lined with porticos and mostly the same shops found in each Italian city of a certain size (H&M, Zara, Motivi, Intimisso, Benetton, etc etc.). We had previously passed high end shops (Ferragamo, Prada, etc) but skipped by those as again they are in each Italian city. Carlo took lots of pictures of buildings which are highly decorated and varied. We then by accident found the Marcatino Orientale which I had read about, Very nice fresh food market with many, many stalls for fish, meat, poultry, cheese, and fruits and veg.

Have I mentioned that the street names are the same in each city in Italy here are some:

via Roma, via XX Settembre, via Garibaldi, via Cavour, Via Vittorio Emmanuele

There are about 10 more and then the next 10 if the city gets larger. I suppose we have the same in the US - main, 1st 2nd , tree names ...

We found a nice lunch spot after (of course!) waiting til a decent Italian lunch time of 1:30 or so ( and Carlo was STARVING at this point) called "the 3 crows" - in Italian. We were thinking of perhaps fast food - like farinata (focaccia’ish bread mad with chick pea flour - similar to socca in France), or fried seafood )( for Carlo) – but anyway we found the 3 crows. Had their thin cheesy focaccia a la Recco – the next village over ( yum and perfect when you are STARVING!), lasagna made with chestnut flour pasta, and rigatoni with sausages and cheese. The lasagna was wonderful and delicate with a light cheese/nut sauce. The rigatoni was not just al dente but al cemente J as I told Carlo – of course he loved it! The dish was tasty as could be with perfetto sausages. The wine was a white one and delish – starts with a “V” I think - Vermentino I just asked Carlo.

So we step out of lunch and start walking a few steps and find we are in the heart of some kind of prostitute area and the girls are all out and about (completely in black and each one in super high heeled, thigh high black boots) of course because everyone (else) is off work for the long lunch. Very, very odd experience.

After that we had to hightail it back to the car to get the boys from school in time back in Neive.

Next time in Genoa: palace/museum visit, more street wandering, farinata, perhaps ride up to the hilltops to get a view of the city.

Fully domesticated ?

I have been made into a stay at home, fully domesticated mom. I had an idea to buy a small poinsettia plant for each teacher. Ago has 6 and Jujee has 4. Augustin "built on" my idea saying we should make a flower and put a chocolate in it. Wellllllllllllll - since he was so gungho and I had some time, I went for it. I MADE teacher presents. ARGGGG. What was I thinking? I was in a bad mood after the first one! We have them done with the additional 6 for all the bidelli( sp?) (janitors).

Note to self : do not be tempted again - you do not like crafting.

Chow for now!

JT

Piemonte - foot of the mountains ( piede dei monti)

Probably not too many have heard of the Piemonte region in Italy - though you may have heard of Turin or Asti a couple of the main cities- and maybe if you are a wine person the village names of Barolo, Barbaresco might be familiar. Here is a little bit more about the area and what we have experienced so far.

Italy is divided and subdivided into administrative sections as follows: region, province, municipality, and fraction. Piemonte is a large region in Italy ( other examples are Lombardi with Milan, Lazio with Rome, and Veneto with Venice ). SB: I have yet to understand exactly the boundaries of the state vs region vs the provinces as far as governance - but probably it has to do with politics back when Cavour was working to unite Italy. There is still politics over how autonomous each region is - you can read up in wikipedia or elsewhere to delve into the intricacies of it all.

Piemonte is known for the food and wine. Carlo and I have definitely explored the gastronomic offerings here and have enjoyed it very much. The white truffles are world famous and cost (like$6 per gram so a grape sized one would be about $30). There is always rumors hat here are not possibly enough truffles in Alba for the world demand and so they may be coming from elsewhere. I like this saying about this: "the only one who can guarantee a truffle's origin is the dog".

There are other typical regional dishes that I have written about before. ONe that is popular right now AND goes well with truffle shavings is fonduta. Fonduta is not like Swiss fondue but rather is simply fontina cheese, melted with milk overnight then warmed and combined with egg yolks. Sort of the richest cheese sauce you could imagine. My fav fonduta dish is over a flan with some sort of vege like asparagus, cardoons, or artichokes. Many have it over simple gnocchi.

In order to "combat" the great food, Carlo and I have taken advantage of the hills surrounding the river valleys ( Po, Tanaro, Belbo) for hikes and biking. When the weather is nice, there are just tons of bicyclists on the roads- in the proper spandex and super kitted out road bikes of course! Italians are always attired and equipped splendidly - no matter the activity. Also lots of motocyclists - gain kitted out royally.

On Monday, for example we plan to walk to Barbaresco and have lunch at Antine www.antine.it/ - then walk back home. About 12 K altogether.

The capital of the region is Turin ( Torino). I love Turin. It is perfectly sized for exploring and abut an hour or so away from here. It has some of everything. It was at one time the capital city when the Savoy's were in power so there is a richness and beauty of the city. I love the covered promenades throughout the center around an radiating from the couple of main piazzas. There are a couple of palaces to tour, many upscale shops, several excellent restaurants, and well I have only been there two times so far. Looking forward to more visits! The Savoy also had other minor palaces here and there throughout Piemonte and of course the royal hangers-on has their castles and villas near the Savoys. This makes for some lovely castles and palaces to visit. Also the skyline is beautiful with the castled hilltops everywhere. We found a little castle in Coazzolo http://www.coazzolo.com/ that is also a B&B - lovely soaring rooms to stay in and you can see our house across the river valley!

We have not yet explored the Alps in the North and West of Piemonte but we will go through the next region north (Valle d'Aosta) and into France to Chamonix next week and plan to do skiing in nearby resorts after the holidays next year! I am looking forward also to some hiking and camping in the western parts or perhaps Valle d'Aosta next spring!

Chow for now & Buon Natale, and Felice Anno Nuovo!

JT

macro versus micro business

My friend Maria asked about why we have so much fresh, local produce whereas the US has so many resources and space and mainly does not have these things...though there are the farmer's markets and that slow food movement is creeping into high-end, gourmet foodies' thoughts and haunts...it is not a widespread thing and in fact organic, local food is sometimes considered as elitist!

I think there are a couple of contributing factors: the micro businesses that fuel Italy's economy and our particular location in Piemonte.

Time has sort of stood still it seems where all the agri -businesses are still quite small and generally family owned. This is true too for restaurants and retail. Note that there ARE big businesses here. The french it seems have learned how to do big business successfully in Italy - they have the big grocery stores: LeClerk, Carrefourre(sp?), and perhaps EsseLunga as well. Further from where we are there is Ikea and the equivalents of Home Depot and Best Buy. But, in Neive lower there is a shoe store, several butchers, several bakeries ( some it seems just storefront someone else's products?), and in Neive upper there are two small markets as well ( kinda of not so good but anyway...). This for a town of 3000!. Then also there is the weekly market - very much like the markets we have - but well not so pricey: The market is: four or five fruit/vege, a fish, a cheese, a meat, four or five clothing, a candy, a hardware, a fabric. The people who use the market are not just the hipster, foodies but the regular residents young and old. In the town 5 km away there is a slightly larger market very similar to Neive's each Thursday. In larger Alba ( 30K people), there is a market twice weekly - and quite a bit larger. It seems to me this is just the way of life that has gone on for very very long time and never changed. Italy kind of skipped the 50-60-70 bigger is better thing. There is some downside too....like the food is *very* provincial here - yeah you eat locally and pretty much only locally- i made some "unsual" pasta sauces that were simply different than the 4 that are here on every menu...( one with basil and lemon, another with sausage and onions only - so you get the idea).

Our particular location too has some influence since 1. it is an agricultural area known for producing fruits and vegetables - not a big city, 2. it is the world center and origin of the slow-food movement ( eat fresh and local is a main mission) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food and http://www.slowfood.it/ Oh of course the location's climate and soil are the reason it is an agricultural area - but one has to include that very basic thing...

Wine too is small, family businesses. It is surprising, if you have visited wineries in california or even some of them in Oregon, to see how small and unostentatious ( I made up that word ) the wineries are here.

Well that's my babble on this topic!

chow for now-

JT

Missing it or not?

Don't miss the Portland winter weather goddess: "you'll get sunshine when I am good and ready to give it to you - like March or....perhaps May - hhhhhahahahahaha." (evil laugh). It is not warm here now but the sun does come out very clearly and shine for a day or more.

Missing filtered coffee - i like my "watery" coffee, espresso is the caffeine shot not the coffee sipping whilst watching the fog lift ritual.

Missing NPR on nearly all the time ( except for the music shows on OPB - don't care for them s'much). BBC tv is just not the same.

Missing tumble dryer - though not as much as I thought.

Missing unscented laundry soap - eau de Dash "Meadow Fresh" is my new cologne :P

Don't miss driving on I-5.

Don't miss our drafty house - the Neive house is so well insulated, the temp fluctuates mere points of a degree over hours!

Don't miss fast food (and...people I worked/lunched with know I am no food snob when it comes to food choices!)

Missing ordering online ( shipping here is prohibitive)

Missing buying at US prices :-(

Don't miss US wine prices :-)

Missing spicy foods

Missing friends and family

(tunnel+bridge)^85

The drive from Neive to Antibes is mostly autostrada quite easy driving as long as you look ahead for slow trucks pulling out from the right and ultra fast cars zooming up on the left. First drive South on a flat, wide drive then over the pass in the Apennines’. There were inches of snow there today during our drive. At Savona you turn left and the coastal highway drive begins. The scenery is inspiring, sweeping views of the Med and inland between the crags of the Apennines’ as they dive into the sea. The road is tunnel after bridge after tunnel after bridge with no “solid” road anywhere. The temperature to has risen about 10 degrees and there are patches of sun warming instead of the clouds and fog. Then you hit the Grimaldi tunnel and suddenly all the license plates have ‘F’ instead of ‘I’ and the driving is a little less…exhilarating. You are using the “sortie” instead of the “uscita”. Then sortie 44 and in a few minutes you are in the slightly shabby 2 star you have chosen for a base to explore Biot, Grasse, Antibes and the other villages of the Cote D’Azure.

A tout A l’heure!!

JT