Last Day in our Apartment Thoughts

Here we are on our last day in our apartment, in the middle of doing one last load of laundry, getting ready to pack, etc. - and the power suddenly went out a few minutes ago.  Sigh.  Really hoping it comes back on soon.  This is the second time we've had a power outage here.  The first time it was out for just about a whole weekend, and was an issue that actually affected much of the comune.  I just sent Paolo out into the streets to see if this is a comune-wide problem, or a just-us problem.  We'll see what he finds out.  UGH.

I was just thinking about what things I will miss, and what things I won't miss when we leave.

Things I won't miss:

- constant vigilance against muffa

- the crazy plumbing issues in our apartment:

    - the very loud, drawn-out moaning noise the toilet in my bathroom makes when I flush

    - the fact that lately, in order to get hot water from any other faucet or showerhead, you first have to turn on the faucet of the sink in Paolo's bathroom (it's crazy, I know!  We don't know why this should be, but it is!)

- having to drive 45 minutes to an hour if we need to buy something other than basic staples (gas was about €1,75 per liter here last time I checked - about $1.89/liter, so well over $7/gallon)

- having to dry laundry in the house if it's raining (or having to wait for a sunnier day to do wash)

- Italian drivers, particularly on narrow, curving mountain roads, or in cities, or...well, pretty much anywhere, really

- the lack of "ethnic" food - while we've been to a handful of good Asian restaurants in big cities, there's just nothing like that in most small towns; and other types of ethnic foods / cuisines from other countries (even European ones) just aren't available (for example, no Mexican restaurants - although you can purchase a handful of things like tortillas and salsa in the big grocery chain stores, they are not the same and definitely not as good; the salsa is particularly weird)

- Italian bureaucracy - one does get used to it, but honestly, for those like us who don't speak the language well, certain aspects of it can be a real struggle

Things I will miss:

- friendly neighbors - even if we don't speak the same language

- seeing dogs everywhere (Italy is very dog-friendly; people take their dogs just about everywhere, it seems.  Since our own Very Good Boy passed away last summer, I have missed having a dog)

- the weekly market with its fresh, inexpensive produce and bread

- bread and produce trucks stopping by twice a day

- the local bakery!  I swear we get the best, freshest bread in Italy here, not to mention all the other scrumptious goodies they make

- walking down to the local bar to hang out with neighbors, people watch, and/or cheer on the soccer matches on the big screen

- being able to just walk down to the mercato with a backpack to pick up basic groceries, or to the farmacia (pharmacy) for those needs

- being able to ask for advice and get good recommendations for basic OTC medications at the local farmacia (Paolo has gotten a few things there, including one medication he regularly takes that requires a prescription in the US, but not here, and a skin cream that helped soothe a minor skin irritation issue he'd been experiencing)  

- travelling around Italy by train whenever we feel like going somewhere new - just pack a bag and go catch the train in Termoli

- real Italian food!!!

- cheap cell phone and internet services, no long-term contract required - just top off your account online or at the tabacchi

- the tradition of afternoon "quiet time" / siesta when almost everything is closed in the middle of the day for a few hours (except the bars) - I know it sounds like that would be inconvenient, and occasionally it is, but for the most part, I find it's actually quite pleasant and peaceful

UPDATE:  the power has just come back on!  It seems it was a just-us problem this time; our landlord came by and flipped the breaker and all is well now.  Whew! Admittedly, we feel slightly silly for not having figured that out for ourselves.  But in our defense, we didn't know where the breakers were - it turned out that they are located downstairs in the foyer of the building, not up here in the apartment.

I suppose I should get back to packing now...sigh.  Later, we have plans to meet a friend at the bar for good-bye drinks.

Random Food Ramblings

 "Food, glorious food / Eat right through the menu..."

- Food Glorious Food; Act I, Oliver; music & lyrics by Lionel Bart

When the fruit and vegetable seller drove through our street this morning, shouting his wares over his (very loud and somewhat distorted) sound system, I could actually make out some of the words - a first for me!  Specifically:  "Arance oggi!" (Oranges today!)

He certainly did have a lot of oranges, as well as lemons (limoni), potatoes (patate), apples (mele), a smaller amount of other citrus fruits, and some kind of leafy green vegetable.  I didn't buy any today; between last Saturday's market and a trip into Termoli to go to the supermercato, we have enough fruit and veggies on hand for the week.

I think I've mentioned orange juice previously; I love that you can easily get arancia rossa here - red orange juice (the link is to an image of the brand we normally buy here).  I think it tastes so much better than arancia bionda ("blonde" or orange-colored orange juice; like we mostly see in the US).  I find the red OJ to be less acidic; at least, it doesn't give me heartburn.  I have never yet seen (yucky) frozen juice concentrate here.  It may be available in bigger towns/cities/regions with more expats, but not here.

Apricots (albicocche) are also very popular here.  Not only is the fruit easy to find, as well as the juice, but there seem to be a lot of baked goods with apricot in them, particularly cornetti and other pastries, cookies, and so on.  Paolo usually chooses apricot-filled cornetti for his breakfast; I prefer ciliegia (cherry), myself.  Or chocolate.

I've encountered some other interesting fruit flavors via Italian carbonated drinks - I hesitate to call them sodas, because they aren't as aggressively carbonated as soda we'd buy in the US.  The first one I tried was chinotto:

It is citrusy without being very sweet, and has a somewhat bitter aftertaste - which is probably why I like it.

Another one I tried and really enjoyed:

Bergamotto  is also very citrusy, but a bit sweeter, with less of a bitter aftertaste.  According to Wikipedia, it might not be very good for your skin.  On the other hand, I'm drinking it, not wearing it, so...

My favorite flavor to date is cedrata - as you can see, I will need to get more very soon:

This is made from the citron fruit, kind of the granddaddy of all citrus fruits.  The beverage has a sweet and sour flavor, and is mildly carbonated.  When I first bought this, I was confused by the name, because "cedrata" and "cedro" also translate into English as "cedar," like the tree.  I am not a huge soda drinker - or at least, I wasn't - but I will be very sad if I can't find a way to buy this when we are back in the US.

Every now and then I get a craving for cola flavor, so I've bought a few packs of the mini cans of Coke here; not very often though, because I can't seem to find a Coke that is both caffeine-free and diet - it seems to be an either/or thing in the stores where we are.  One good thing about the soda packs here is that they do not hold them together with those plastic rings that are so bad for the environment.  Instead, they are sold like this:

The cans are slotted into a cardboard carrier, and attached to each other, for extra support, I think, via what I call "glue boogers."  No dolphin-killing plastic rings here!

Speaking of plastic, I've noticed that the plastic bags used to package loaves of pre-sliced bread are quite different than the ones I've encountered in the US.  The plastic is thicker and stiffer, for one thing.  Also, it is sealed at both ends; you have to cut the bags open at the top.  Now, for our dinners we do buy good Italian bread from either the bakery here in town, or the bakery counter at the Carrefour, but we also usually keep a loaf of what I think of as "sandwich bread" on hand, simply because it's a little more convenient for sandwiches, melts, etc. at lunchtime.  This is the brand I prefer - note the "cut here" scissor markings:

I was amused to see this at the Carrefour the other day (no, I did not buy it, even if it was on sale for €0,85 - about $0.96; bread is quite inexpensive here anyway in my opinion, and I'm suspicious of anything labeled so blatantly as "American"):

On this same shopping trip, I came across this bizarre offering in the pasta aisle:

This is just...wrong.  Why, Barilla, why?  Pasta mista is basically "mixed pasta."  If you look closely, you'll see it indicates the pasta will be cooked al dente in 9 minutes.  But look at the pasta inside the box - they're different sizes and thicknesses; I can't believe all of them take as long as 9 minutes to cook.  I'm not going to try it to see how it turns out - I don't buy Barilla here; I like La Molisana much better.  Interesting difference between the packaging here vs in the US:  I've checked a few brands, and unlike in the US, none of them specifically state the "directions" for cooking pasta (first, boil x amount of water; then add pasta and cook between ___ and ___ minutes...).  All of them simply list the amount of time needed to properly cook the pasta (oftentimes, right on the front of the container).  And by "properly," I mean "al dente."  Overcooking pasta is practically a criminal offense here, as is not salting your water (one of the very first things we did when we arrived here, at the insistence of Nicoletta, was to purchase both pasta and the salt required for cooking same).  I like that Italian pasta manufacturers assume their buyers already know how to cook pasta and just need to know for how long a particular type should be cooked.

Aside from bread and pasta, our other kitchen staple item is a carton of eggs.  At the supermercato where we shop, you'll find them in same aisle as the UHT milk (Parmalat, which is also sold in the US, is an example of this) and various "panna" products (creams) - across from the cereals.  In other words, they're not refrigerated.  We keep our eggs on the kitchen counter:

 

These are store brand eggs from free-range chickens

All the eggs we see in the stores seem to be brown, not white.  If I remember correctly, egg color depends on the breed of chicken; I guess they have a lot chickens of the brown-egg-laying variety in this region.  The eggs are packaged in recyclable plastic containers inserted into cardboard sleeves; I have not seen any Styrofoam egg cartons here.  We usually buy a pack of six, although you can get bigger packages, such as of eight or a dozen.  The reason they don't need to be refrigerated has to do with how they are processed - unlike in the US, the eggs aren't washed here prior to being sold, so they don't lose the protective coating on the shell. 

Are you hungry yet?

In other news:  we have a little four-night getaway planned for later this week, yay!  We'd originally planned to go late last week, but put it off as it seemed at the time that the weather wasn't going to cooperate.  Although looking the weather report now, it's still a bit iffy as to whether or not it will be raining during our stay, sigh.  However, temps are looking to be in the range of high 50s to about 60F, which will be pleasant enough for walking around outside.  We'll be taking the train from Termoli station; we'll leave around 12:30ish and arrive about 15:45 (with one change).  We will be located about a 50-minute train ride from Naples, so we're hoping to day-trip in for a museum visit and/or shopping.  One of the major attractions at our destination has a Star Wars Episode I connection, a factoid I learned right before I typed this sentence.  So check back soon to see where we are!

Random Things

Oops!  There were two random, unrelated things I was going to mention in my earlier post:

First:  a shout out to the family for sending us a Christmas card (and scratch offs!).  The envelope was postmarked 12/14/2021, and only took 3.5 weeks to get to us!  Might be a new record.

Sadly, despite using my lucky euro, we didn't win anything on the scratch offs this year.

The second random thing was that I happened to witness the Poste italiane driver needing a little assistance today from one of my neighbors, to whom she'd just delivered mail.  She was having trouble getting down the street due to a randomly parked car:

It was a tight squeeze, but she made it

The surprising thing is that she didn't just barrel down the street, taking out the passenger-side mirror or otherwise dinging the parked car, which is what usually seems to happen, because Italy. 

Which reminds me of yet another random thing:  the other day, some poor guy in a Land Rover tried to make the turn onto our street, but the vehicle was simply too big to make said turn, and the driver had to slowly back himself down the way he came.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of that.  Must have been someone new in town.  On the other hand, we've been there, done that, so I do have a little bit of sympathy for him.

Odds and Ends

It's Monday, and as I am writing this, the streets are still relatively holiday-quiet; I think the official "holiday" season here doesn't really end until Epiphany, January 6th, which is a public holiday here.  I do hear the vegetable seller driving around in his truck calling out his wares over his loudspeaker, though.  And, when I was hanging out laundry earlier today, I looked down from the balcony to see someone standing in the street waiting for the doctor's office to open.

Speaking of the doctor's office - she (one of our landlords) still hasn't entirely moved to her new offices.  When we first moved in, we were told she'd be moving out in a week or so.  I mentioned it in passing last time I spoke with Nicoletta, and she said that they're still working on getting the new place ready!  Because Italy.  I don't really mind, except that I'm not thrilled about a bunch of germy sick people hanging out around our front door several days a week; I'm kind of a germaphobe.  But they all do wear their masks, so that's something, anyway.  The doctor's office placed a sign on the door - that is, on the door to OUR apartment - stating that patients must wear masks in the building.

Speaking of masks, and Covid, and so on - in my last post I talked a little bit about the currently mandated Covid mitigation strategies, and how people generally comply with the rules, and we don't see a lot of evidence of any anti-(Covid, mask, vaccine) people around - I just wanted to clarify that I was talking about our personal experience, here where we are, in our region (and also in Lecce where we were for Christmas, for that matter, which is to our south).  Of course there are anti- (Covid, mask, vaccine) people in Italy - I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression that we're living in some kind of Covid-free paradise.  There are areas of Italy - quite a few - where Covid is currently surging.  While certain regions are back in the yellow zone, Molise is not one of them, thankfully; it is still in the lowest-risk white zone.  I think this is in part because it is so rural; Puglia, where we spent Christmas, is also a white zone.  Interestingly, we read that while Omicron is here, Delta is still the dominant strain in Italy - for now.  

One more personal Covid bummer is that the Marche region currently has a high number of cases.  That is the region where my great grandfather's hometown, Corinaldo, is located.  I was hoping we would be able to take a drive up there sometime soon-ish; but I think it would be best to wait on that for now.

And then there are these people living in Bolzano who think they're protected from illness by all the fresh Alpine air, and who sincerely believe that if they do happen to get sick, they can simply treat it with "onion compresses, body cream[s] of thyme and myrtle, and drink[ing] a lot of tea."  Bolzano, which - surprise! - has one of the highest Covid infection rates in Italy, is pretty far to the north of us.  Aside from Covid and the weird healthcare beliefs of a majority of its population, Bolzano otherwise sounds like an interesting place to visit, but we won't be going there anytime soon.

We don't really have anything interesting planned to do for this week; my next citizenship-related appointment, for the purpose of applying for my Italian passport, is scheduled for Tuesday of next week, 1/11 (or, as we write here, 11/01 - something I always have to stop and think about when filling in or reading forms).  This morning I took care of some basic household chores - vacuuming and then mopping the tile floors, as well as laundry - I'm on load #2 as I'm writing this.  

When I got up at 5:30 or 6 AM this morning to use the facilities, I turned on load #1 before going back to bed; that way the load was done by the time I woke up for real around 9 AM.  It really does take about two hours to do one load of wash; that just seems to be the norm here.  I'm really not sure why European washing machines have such long cycles.  The machines tend to be smaller capacity, too, according to my observations.  I've tried running the machine on both the regular and the "eco" cycle, but that didn't make any difference in the amount of time it took to complete a load.  Frankly, I'm not even sure what the "eco" button does on my machine.  The weather has been very nice lately, in that it hasn't been raining and/or super windy; it looks like it will be sunny and mid- to upper-50s F for at least half of this week - in other words, good clothes drying weather.

I forgot to mention that when I went in to sign the registers at the town hall last week, I was also - finally! - given a copy of the trash and recycling schedule! Up until now, we've put out trash and recycling based on our guesses as to what our surrounding neighbors were placing outside for pickup.  At last we have confirmation as to what specific items to put out for pickup on a given day, and on which holidays trash/recycling is not collected.  I was also informed that the schedule will be changing in the beginning of the year, and I should be getting a copy of the new schedule in the mail (who knows when? because Italy).  The funny thing is that last week, someone - presumably one of our landlords - taped a note on our door about what containers to put out on each day.  The note was written in English, so someone must have helped them, or else they used a translation app.  

Monday:  "organico" (food trash/compostables)

Tuesday:  "secco residuo" (non-recyclables, trash that doesn't fit into the other categories)

Wednesday:  "plastica e metalli" (plastics and metal)

Thursday:  "organico" (again)

Friday:  alternates between "vetro" (glass) and "carta e cartone" (paper and cardboard)

Saturday:  "pannolini e pannoloni" (baby diapers and adult incontinence products)

There is a restaurant in Termoli we'd like to try, maybe this week, for lunch - a time of day we suspect there wouldn't be many other people in the restaurant - called Yoshi Fusion Sushi.  It's very near the Carrefour (supermarket) and the Happy Casa (home goods).  Whenever we drive by it, it looks pretty empty.  It's only open 12-3 during the afternoons, then opens again at supper time form 7 PM - 11PM (very common hours here).  We're curious to see how the Asian food is here.  We have to go out to Happy Casa at some point soon anyway, as Paolo has been on a kind of glass-breaking rampage...OK, perhaps "rampage" is a little strong; but he did manage to somehow break both a wine glass and a water glass in separate incidents today.

We have been watching TV shows in Italian with English subtitles - or rather, shows available via our Amazon Firestick.  I mentioned previously that we watched the Italian version of Nero Wolfe on MHz Choice, which was really quite good. The downside of watching things on MHz Choice is that you can't change the streaming settings, so shows we watch through that subscription (which are almost all HD) use up more data per episode than I would like.  Netflix is much better as far as that goes; if you adjust down to SD, you use much, much less data.  We watched all three seasons of Suburra:  Blood on Rome, which was excellent, I thought.  Apparently it's based on a movie (that we have not seen).  It has organized crime, gypsies, and corrupt Vatican officials - what could be better?  It's also pretty violent, so definitely not a show for the kiddies.  I personally enjoyed this show much more than I did The Sopranos, actually.  We also just wrapped up a two-season documentary series called Rotten, which is about food production, and really made us think about some of the foods we consume and the effect our consumption has on other people around the world, as well as the environment.  I don't know that watching TV shows in Italian is really helping us learn the language all that much, but it can't hurt, anyway.

One food-related item:  peanut butter!  Another item found on the "international" shelves at the big supermarket (we have not seen any peanut butter at any of the little mercati here in town).  They had two kinds - a "crunchy" and a "creamy," each made by a different producer.  I couldn't resist and chose the creamy one, as that's what I would eat at home.  It was, by the way, close to €4 for a jar (in other words, a little pricey).  I finally got around to tasting it yesterday...and do you know, it was pretty close to American, non-organic peanut butter (frankly I don't care for the organic kind because I don't like the way the oil separates out of it).  I would say it was a bit less salty, and less sweet than the brand I normally buy in the US, but had just about the same creamy texture and peanuty flavor.  Interestingly, the company listed on the label - Nick the Easy Rider - seems to be German.  Nick appears to be an importer of some sort...the website, in both German and Italian, seems to lose something in translation...

And now, time for a little pranzo; I think there's a tuna melt calling my name...

Photo Post

 “I love to take a photograph, so mama, don't take my Kodachrome away.”

-Paul Simon, Kodachrome

Not much happened today; as it’s a public holiday, town was pretty quiet for the most part.  I did notice that the trucks hauling harvested olives were still running through town.  We took a trip to the big town to pick up a few more supplies.  Hopefully once things open back up tomorrow, we can do our grocery shopping with the local merchants going forward.  

Our evening walk was cut short tonight.  When we headed out after dinner, there was a fine, light drizzle - but the rain picked up as we were walking, so we were not out very long - just up the street and around the church and back.

So to make this post less boring, I’ll upload some photos from the last few days, that I wasn’t able to share previously due to my connection issues:

The B&B we stayed at in Campobasso:  La Terrazza

Our street:  Via San Martino - our house is the the building with the blue RAS sign - on the right side of this picture

Church door - I love the skull & crossbones details

 

War Memorial

Our first day here: trying to chat with our new friend, the older gentleman who was so excited to meet us.  The guy in the blue jacket on the left is an Englishman who’s lived here for about eight years; he translated for us

On the grounds of what appears to be an abandoned church or other religious structure - we haven’t had a chance to confirm what the building is/was yet

Corso Vittorio Emanuele

Steps leading up to the abandoned church

One of the many cool little passageways

The Angevin Tower

 

Bench with a GK Chesterton quote…what?!

Another little street

Typical breakfast:  caffè (Italian-style, made in the moka pot pictured), cornetto, and hazelnut spread…yum!  Not pictured:  glass of orange juice - the orange juice here is made with blood oranges, I think - it’s much redder in color, and actually has flavor.  It also seems to be less acidic because it doesn’t give me heartburn like the kind we have in the US.

Tomorrow I may or may not have an appointment at the town hall relating to my citizenship process.  I messaged my translator to confirm, but she stated she would have to let me know, because the clerk told her when she made the appointment to confirm with him before showing up…because Italy.