My First Hosting

This week I played a little hosting to a friend from Park City who was traveling through Europe and staying with all of the ski instructor friends she had made over the winter. This was my first time as a tour guide and it was fun. Last night we went to a ski people dinner at a (are you ready) Siberian restaurant. Turns out it's mostly just a grill. It started to rain and we had to walk in it but it was nice and cool. These were our dates....

I was casually strolling to my local paneteria for some bread rolls to make into hamburger buns yesterday when I suddenly realized that the main street was blocked by a funeral persession . It seems the entire town was following and chanting Maria prayers. It was interesting for me to see how a small Italian town gathers together. It looked like this:
So after the persession went by and I finally made it to the bakery, turns out it was closed for 1 month for vacation. I went home with no bread and that's life in Italy!

Are You Sure That's Miss Italy?

Pier and I sat down and watched the Miss Universe contest the other night. We both were anxious to see our respective countries represented. The traditional country costume portion was corny but an ok time to pick your favorites. I chose Miss Czech Republic, Pier choses Miss Mexico. Miss Italy finally came out and our mouths dropped open and we had no words to say accept, I hope she's got a really good talent because she’s gona need it. Here is a photo of her:

She's pretty but, for Italian standards, she's a disappointment. She didn't make it very far but she didn’t fall on her ass, which is what Miss America did. During the evening gown competition our Miss America took one step out and on the second step, hit the floor. Five minutes later she was eliminated. She did also have the fakest smile of all the contestants, a robot could have had a better smile. Miss Venezuela won. I could tell she was going to win during the swimsuit competition because of her walk. She had the walk of a winner.

Maybe next year...

To The Market

This weekend at the Santa Margarita marketini I discovered a rainbow of beautiful Bakelite jewelry. Oh, I wanted to cover myself from head to toe with these shades of rose pinks and jade greens and the bright juicy Bakelite fruits like these cherries.

Full Moon

There was a full moon over the weekend, and I tried my best to capture it in Santa Margarita. We had a lovely dinner here, where we had the best seafood pasta and about 12 antipasti dishes each deliciously decorated with fresh herbs, lemon sauces and olive oil. Polpo, calamari, smoked salmon, swordfish with apple cider vinegar and crisp onions. Grilled tuna on a bed of rocket and cracked pepper. Yum.
Apparently Oprah was here, I missed her by one week...Drats!

Latest Market Finds...

Intruducing My Shop at Etsy!

Intruducing my ETSY store : Italian Postcards!

Full of vintage finds from my travels in Europe and my Photography taken along the way. Click here to see it now! http://www.italianpostcards.etsy.com/

Congratulations Anna and Fredrico!

This weekend I learned that at an Italian wedding, 1)it is impossible to take a good picture because there are 12 grannies at all times pushing you out of the way 2)you have to eat lot's of food and, 3)Vino never stops coming.

Italian Alarm Clock

In Italy we have a natural alarm clock and every morning here is mine:

The Collard Dove or Tortora dal Collare. Here is how it sounds:

http://www.birdsongs.it/songs/streptopelia_decaocto/call1.wav

It's loud and proud outside of my window first thing at 7am. It's not a bad way of waking up. At first I thought it was an owl but after some internet research, I discovered that not only is it a dove but it's also under threat of getting on the endangered list in Northern Italy. Luckily I've got mine here in Pecetto.

(Photo from : birdsolutions-southeast.co.uk)

At the Market...

Weekend market finds:



















David in Levi's. That's just wrong.














How many different ways can Italians make coffee? A million.

This Weekend in Rome...

We Americans can sometimes be bullies. Right now Tom Hanks and company are filming the sequel to the DaVinci Code in Rome. On Saturday an entire block in the middle of the city was blocked off for filming. Unfortunately, and this is so Italian, no one told the filming crew that there was a wedding planned for that day in a church that was inside the blocked off area. The fully wedding dressed bride and bridesmaids went up to the film crew (and here is the bully part) and asked if she could get by to get into her own wedding and they refused her!! Upon seeing the bride bursting into tears, Tom Hanks rushed over to the bride, let her threw, and escorted her to the church!!

(Photo taken from http://tomhanks.fan-sites.org/ )

Now we Americans should remind ourselves that the making of a Hollywood movie is not more important than the most important day of a couple’s life and it's a good thing that Tom Hanks noticed the bride or she might still be standing there sobbing. And that's this weekend in Rome.

Happy 4th!!

"Quattro di Luglio" is 4th of July in Italian. Happy 4th everybody! Days like these I miss home so today I think I'll make my Mom's famous potato salad and some fried chicken and watch some fireworks on the internet!

Signs That Its Summer Around Italy...

The following are some highlights of the signs that say it's summer in Italy:

Cherry stands on the side of the road , 5 euro for a kilo!
Fruit granitas
Lemon sorbet popsicles on a licorice stick. (Or as Pier calls them pop licks)

Local fruit and veg in the newspaper shop down the street

Old men walking around in socks and sandals with fanny packs
Cars with homemade convertible tops

Local pharmacy closed along with the vet, the bakery, and the maintaince man because everyone is at the beach on vacation

Shop windows with summer dresses like this Dolce & Gabanna window

My Wife Makes the Best Ragu, No Mine Does!

The Sunday marketini this past weekend was in our neighborhood, down the street in Chairi. When I got there all of the 'old' men of the town were standing on the corner debating who knows what?? Perhaps they were talking about who was going to win the Euro Championship. Perhaps it was Italian Politics. Or perhaps it was just whose wife makes the best ragu...hum...

When I Get Down We Go...

Living in foreign country, I get down. Things are hard, I miss certain things. So Pier asked me what I wanted to do to perk up and there was only one thing that came to mind...

BOWLING!!!

The differences between Italian bowling and American bowling is that they give you tickets for getting strikes and they give you little booties to wear over your socks when you put on your shoes. You can see they gave Pier pink ones. The scores? Well, I don't want to embarrass Pier BUT we did play 4 games and I won all 4. I won't reveal the scores...