Category Archives: Italian Life
Pre-summer “Corso Lampo” at IEI
Starting May 10, IEI is offering an advanced conversation/grammar course in Redwood City, ideal to get you ready for high-season Italian travel. This morning course is taught by Italian-born Angelica di Chiara, runs for 8 weeks, and each lesson lasts for 90 minutes.
COURSE: Italian Conversation w/ grammar
LEVEL: Semi-advanced
TIME: 10am to 11:30
FREQUENCY: Weekly starting May 10
DURATION: 8 weeks
FEE: $185
Enroll by going to our ENROLLMENT page or send us a note with your check at:
Italian Educational Institute
Menlo College
1000 El Camino Real
Atherton Ca. 94027
Tell us your name, contact info, and state that you are enrolling in the morning conversation class. We will notify you of the course’s exact location.
Sinceri saluti da IEI!
Unlawful to die in Italy!
Cimitero di Carinola
Not for the Mayor of Falciano to find a mundane solution such as contracting with Carinola to bury Falciano’s dead in Carinola’s cemetery, or of building a new cemetery for Falciano. Better not to allow anyone to die: more humane, more cost effective, and ecologically sounder. No penalty is specified for contravening the anti-death city ordinance, and it is known that at least two elderly residents of Falciano have shamelessly contravened it already.
In all fairness, it must be admitted that Mayor Fava HAS sought remedies more likely to bring about a lasting solution to the dilemma, and has decided to challenge death because of the failure of these more orthodox remedies. Having raised the awareness of the Italian public, he hopes now to be able to tackle the problem effectively. So the injunction against dying will eventually be lifted and anyone who so wishes will be able to die in Falciano del Massico. But, at least for now, it is illegal to die in Falciano del Massico.
Which makes one wonder why such creative solutions could not be found at the national level to tackle some of Italy’s more pressing problems. Can the Italian Parliament pass a law to forbid unemployment, for instance?
The San Remo Music Festival
Serenata Italiana
San Remo is a little town on the Italian Riviera (Riviera di Ponente), not far from the French border. It is renowned for its flower industry and is a sought-after tourist destination. Notable people from Alfred Nobel to Italo Calvino to well-known members of European nobility have vacationed in San Remo.
The festival, which is supposed to be a competition between composers, has served as a launching platform both for internationally known songs and for the careers of eventually-famous artists. The ubiquitous “Nel Blu dipinto di Blu” (Volare), sung by Domenico Modugno, was the winner in 1958 (Modugno came back the next year to win again with “Ciao, ciao bambina”). Newcomers whose careers took off after their appearances at the festival include Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, and Andrea Bocelli. The San Remo festival holds a special place in the hearts of Italians, who take their music very seriously. And Italians are justly proud of the fact that their festival was the inspiration for launching the Eurovision Song Contest.
You will not find old classics in the annals of the Festival di San Remo, since all entries must be hitherto-unreleased songs. Nor will you find old regional favorites, or Aunt Carmela’s Favorite Tunes, or Neapolitan songs, or nostalgic mandolins. The latter you can find in the music of Al Fabrizio, whose CD’s can be purchased at http://finestitalian.com/products/miscellaneous/music/. Happy listening!
Bella Serenata
Everything Italian on one site!
Looking for Italian language instruction? Organizing a trip to Italy? What about finding the greatest Italian restaurant in the Bay Area or that ultimate recipe just like your grandma used to make? Or perhaps you spent too much time watching the game (alas!) with your buddies, and need a little Italian bauble to soothe your lovely wife’s ruffled feathers. All of these things you will find on our website. We have consolidated the contents of a couple of earlier sites to provide you with a seamless Italian experience.
Along with the new commercial elements there remains, on this site, the original focus on art, culture, and history. And we intend to grow: the ultimate aim is to provide all Italophiles of the Bay Area, and beyond, a one-stop electronic storefront that will provide intellectual stimulation alongside material possessions for gracious living. Our sister site, finestItalian.com, continues unchanged, though it, too, is slated for some enhancements.
So please come visit often, drop us a line, let us know how you feel. Buy some Italian art once in a while, or an Italian pendant for your sweetheart, or a gorgeous ceramics bowl for your holiday table. But even if you don’t, we hope to hear from you.
Agriturismo in Italy
Italian Landscape
Agriturismo, the countryside kind of tourism that has been growing in Italy in recent years, is a sort of rural retreat, generally for the whole family, during which the vacationeer can relax and reconnect with nature in its various manifestations, including getting to know your friendly horse and cow and other farm animals. A treat for the city slicker who thinks that eggs are made in a laboratory and milk comes from the interior of coconuts. This being Italy, agriturismo is also closely related to the regional types of cuisine that can be sampled while enjoying your stay in the rustic surroundings of the fattoria or casale of your choice. In fact, as shown by several polls in Italy, the culinary element is key, for most people, when choosing an eventual destination. This was explicitly recognized by Agrietour, International Salon for Agriturismo in Arezzo, in recently organizing a contest to choose the best peasant dish from 20 entries submitted by preselected agriturismi from all parts of Italy,
The prizewinner was the casata, a dish from Latium, which is a kind of pie based on an ancient recipe and made of two different dough mixes which should layer and not intermix, a result that can be verified only when the pie is cooked and eventually cut. As agriturismo continues to grow in Italy we can look forward to more such contests and sagre that will showcase the local culinary specialties connected to each agriturismo. All good for the vacationing public, which stands to benefit from the increased competition and the resulting improvement in the quality of agriturismo fare.
If your intent is to relax and unwind, an agriturismo vacation is hard to beat: the Italian countryside, magically timeless, the Mediterranean climate and its glorious vegetation, excursions to solemn pinete as spiritual as any church, the rediscovery of ancient unhurried rhythms and practices, top-notch food, group activities in a convivial setting ideal for bonding with your family and making new friends … what more could you ask?
Enjoy!
Pizza Margherita (and a bone to pick)
Pizza Margherita
PIZZA lombard tomato passata, fior di latte, oregano, basil
Excuuuuse me, LOMBARD? A pizza of that description is none other than the famed MARGHERITA, and here’s the Wikipedia entry for pizza Margherita:
In 1889, during a visit in Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy was served a pizza resembling the colors of the Italian flag, red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil). This kind of pizza has been named after the Queen as Pizza Margherita.
Now, our Lombard compatriots have much to be proud of in their traditional cuisine. It’s enough to mention the agnolini, the tortelle di zucca, their exquisite polente e osei, the pizzoccheri, the salame di Varzi, the bruscitti, the casonsei, and so on and on. But PLEASE, the Pizza Margherita? That is as Neapolitan as Spaccanapoli (where the best samples are undoubtedly found), as southern as a tomato vine in November, as typical as a scugnizzo sunning himself on a scoglio off Mergellina.
But wait, maybe there’s something different about Ristobar’s “lombard” pizza. Could it be that they use grano saraceno to make the dough? Umh, must try it next time I go there, then report back to you all. Perhaps I am premature in my outrage.
In any case, to all my friends from Milano and Cremona and Lodi, enjoy our pizza Margherita, and we really don’t care what you call it. And just to show that my heart is in the right place my next post will be about the Madonnina on the highest spire of the Duomo di Milano.
finestItalian
