Escaping the cold by going...North!

Lately, the weather in our region has been cold and damp; it rained and/or snowed most of last week.

View out the bathroom window, yesterday morning.

So we decided to escape the winter blahs for a few days.  We started checking the weather in a few places where we thought it might be warmer and drier - but it turned out that Napoli was going to be cold and damp as well; and so was Palermo.  To our surprise, the better weather (at least right now) is to the north of us.

So on a sort-of whim, we chose to spend a few days in Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region (fun family fact:  my great grandmother Emma Grandi was from a town about 45 minutes west of here).  It's a very old (founded by the Etruscans) and very young (full of students of the University of Bologna, est. 1088) and very diverse city, famous for its porticoes, its Due Torri, and for having been pretty heavily bombed during WWII (and maybe for a few other things as well).  The weather this week should be mainly sunny and mostly in the mid-50s F - perfect for getting out and exploring; the centro storico is very walkable, even in bad weather, thanks to all those porticoes.

We were scheduled to take the train from Termoli to Bologna Centrale at 13:20 yesterday.  It had rained and snowed all the day before, and although the snow hadn't stuck to the streets in our comune, we decided to leave a bit early, just in case we encountered snow or ice on the roads outside the comune.  Which, in fact, we did:

The road was perfectly clear right up to this point...and it was also clear on the other side a bit farther on...because Italy, I guess.  No idea what happened here.  Fortunately, we did not get stuck when turning around...although I think we almost did!  About a 10-12 minute drive from this point and everything was completely snow-free.

Despite the road block, we still managed to make it to the train station in plenty of time...only to find that our train was running about 25 minutes late.  Pretty typical of Italy, although it's rarely happened to us personally.   I tried to take a few pictures from the train during the four-hour ride:

Pesaro station, Pesaro being the origin of the name "Pesaresi"

I'll just mention here that this seems to be a pretty good time of year to visit, what with decent weather while still being outside of the tourist season; there are good deals to be had on hotel and B&B stays. We booked ourselves four nights at 051 Suites, a very nice B&B in the centro storico; it's a few steps away from the Two Towers and a very short walk to the Piazza Maggiore, one of the main piazzas in the historic district. It's in a building that also houses other businesses and apartments; the reception and breakfast room of the B&B are on the 1st floor, while the rooms are all on the 3rd floor.  I have to say that the staff here are super kind and helpful; even before we arrived, they emailed me a rather detailed list of restaurants we might like to try that serve typical regional cuisine - the kinds of places the locals would go, not tourist traps (I made sure to book a couple before we left).  

By the time we arrived, got a taxi to the B&B, checked in, etc., we had just a little bit of time to settle in and freshen up before heading out to find the restaurant where I booked dinner, which turned out to be about a 6 or 8 minute walk.  I chose a place called Trattoria Anna Maria; the B&B recommended it, plus, the Anna Maria depicted on the website looks like someone's nonna - who wouldn't want dinner cooked by Granny?  It wasn't anything fancy, but it was delicious!  I started with passatelli in broth - a dish I remembered from my childhood that I had not eaten in many years.  It tasted very much like I remembered - delightful.  Paolo chose tortelloni with butter for his first course.  

A bowlful of childhood memories

For our second courses, Paolo tried the stinco al forno (roast pork shin on the bone) while I ordered the coniglio arrosto (roast rabbit).  I'm not sure if the server - a mildly crabby older gentleman - was trying to be funny, or just didn't want to hear my poor Italian again, because when he set the dish in front of me, he called it "Roger Rabbit."

Roger was perfectly cooked and practically fell off his bones.

No fancy sauces, no artistic plating - just good food.  It was a perfect way to start our little adventure here.

I'll have to do a second post later, to describe our day today - but you'll have to excuse me now, as it's time to get ready for what will hopefully be another delicious dinner.

Questura

We woke up Monday morning to see a little snow on the surrounding mountains:

View out my bathroom window

Fortunately, it didn't snow here in town (yet) although the temps have dropped considerably.  Currently it is about 39F and a bit windy (though less windy than it was yesterday).  The Weather Channel app had predicted we'd have a little snow overnight, changing to rain today; happily, this did not come to pass, and all was dry as of when we woke up this morning.  Later in the week, the sun will allegedly return along with some warmer weather predicted to be in the high 40'sF - low 50'sF - I'll take it!

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had my passport appointment at the questura in Campobasso.  Ironically, this would have been the day that I would have had an appointment at the Italian Consulate office in Philadelphia, had it not been canceled for Covid.  I'm not complaining, as going to the consulate would have entailed a wait of at least another two years for the processing of my request for recognition of my citizenship - so it all worked out in the end, as life often does.

The questura is the provincial headquarters for the polizia di stato (not to be confused with the carabinieri - which are actually a military police force, like the French gendarmerie - or the guardia di finanza, which deals specifically with financial crimes, smuggling, and drugs).  The questura is also the administrative office where one goes to deal with immigration issues (non-EU immigration in particular), request passports, obtain firearms licenses (quite rare in Italy compared to the US), permits for various things, etc., etc.

Main entrance, for my purposes.  It appeared that folks with immigration issues enter via a side door.  It's quite a large building, extending much farther on either side of this door than you might guess from the photo.

My appointment was for 10 AM; we managed to get there on time despite having taken a couple of wrong exits off the roundabouts in Campobasso.  For some reason, the GPS system in our car sometimes gets a little fuzzy on exactly which exits to take when going around a traffic circle.  As it turned out, the questura is located just down the street from the agenzia delle entrate, where I obtained my codice fiscale.  To our (happy) surprise, we were able to find a parking spot in a lot across the street - a minor miracle.  Also a minor miracle that we didn't get flattened while crossing said street - Italian drivers rarely stop for pedestrians (or other drivers, for that matter).

Nicoletta was not available to translate for this appointment, so we met with her colleague Saya, who was very sweet. We walked up to a sort of gatehouse next to the questura building, which was manned by a somewhat grumpy looking officer behind a glass window.  Saya explained (more than once, actually) that we were there for my passport appointment.  I noticed he was checking a clipboard, presumably reading through a list of scheduled appointments, looking for my name.  Eventually he found it and we were waved through to the grounds of the building.  Interestingly, while there was a device for checking body temperature on a stand in front of the officer's window, we were not required to scan ourselves before being admitted.

Surprisingly, when we entered the building, it seemed pretty empty; I'd expected to see more people bustling about their bureaucratic business.  I'd mentally prepared for a long wait, red tape, requests for documents I didn't have, additional fees, whatever.  Italian bureaucracy really does have a poor reputation.  However, my appointment was actually very quick; we'd brought the filled-in application forms with us, along with two passport-sized photos (note that they are not the same 2x2-inch size as you'd use for a US passport; Italian photos are a bit smaller).  Once we greeted the woman at the passport counter and Saya explained that the appointment was for me, it went fairly smoothly.  The forms were reviewed and deemed correct; I just had to sign them.  I was also fingerprinted - one finger on each hand.  The fingerprint machine at the questura worked much better than the one in my comune; I didn't have to jam my fingers down on it, or have someone apply pressure to them for me in order to make the scan work correctly.  I was then told my passport should be available in about a week.  

And...that was it.  It was a bit anticlimactic.  The total fees, for the passport, plus the tax stamp that must be paid for and added to the application (this stamp costs more than the actual passport), plus mailing, I think was just about €126 (just over $143). My expedited US passport renewal in 2021 cost more, plus it took longer than a week to receive.

I suggested that we might perhaps check out the shopping mall in Campobasso, since we were already pretty close to it, but Paolo opted to head home instead, saving the shopping trip for another day.  So rather than celebrate this milestone by buying myself a present, I decided to mark the occasion by cooking dinner - I made capellini with clam sauce, which I'd never done before.  I melted some butter, added olive oil, a jar of clams with juice, some garlic, some very finely diced zucchini, and some seasonings; I let it come to a boil, then let it simmer a bit before stirring the sauce into the bowl of pasta.  It was delicious, if I say so myself:

Notice that Paolo got a haircut?  Unfortunately for him, I had to give him one of my Covid-specials with the clippers, since we can't figure out when, exactly, the hair salon here in town is opened.  Every time we go by, it is closed, and they don't seem to have a website.  I always forget to ask when chatting with neighbors.  I really should try to remember, though, as I myself desperately need a cut and color.  Paolo kindly offered to return the favor, but I declined as 1) we don't have proper haircutting scissors; and 2) I'm not that desperate yet.

Merry Christmas from Lecce: 12-23 & 12-24

Merry Christmas from Lecce, down in the "heel" of the Italian "boot"!  We opted to travel here for a few days, rather than buy ourselves gifts for the holiday - choosing experiences over things.  We are staying at the Grand Hotel di Lecce, which is just a couple of blocks from the train station, and from here it is about a five minute walk into the historic center of town.  We arrived on Thursday via train - about a four-hour ride from Termoli station - and will head back to our comune on Monday.

So far the weather has been excellent, all things considered:  temperatures are ranging from the high 50's to the low 60's Fahrenheit, and the skies vary between mostly sunny to partly cloudy.  Very comfortable for exploring the city by foot.

After we arrived, we took a walk around to get our bearings and to find that night's dinner (the hotel clerk kindly arranged a reservation for us):

Bernardini Library

Piazza del Duomo

Just a doorway I liked

Santa Maria della Provvidenza

We had our dinner reservation for 8 PM (20:00) - which is normal (if not a little early) for this region; in Italy, the farther south you go, the later dinner tends to be served.  In fact, when we first arrived at  La Scarpetta Hostaria, we were the only ones there (fine by me; I'm still not entirely comfortable with indoor dining, so the fewer people, the better).  The menu here was seafood-centric, which was fabulous because we haven't had a chance to eat much fresh seafood lately.  I was very excited to see oysters on the menu. I was mildly disappointed to discover that they were poorly shucked, but I got over this quickly since they were so tasty:

Festivus Dinner:  my grievance being that these oysters were not properly shucked.  Also Covid.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we did some more exploring.  We visited the Palazzo Vernazza, which is now a museum and archaeological site.  One section showcases the Sanctuary of Isis and Purgatorium (a kind of immersion bath where worshippers would immerse themselves in waters brought from the Nile in Egypt).  There is another area where you see some of the excavations relating to Messapian culture (they inhabited the area during pre-Roman times) and to later Roman-era structures.  There is a room (lapidarium) where there are broken pieces of stones, columns, and the like; and another section where you can see the underground tanks in which lamp oil was once stored (lamp oil was a hot commodity during the 16th-19th centuries and greatly contributed to the wealth of the area).  We had a guided tour given by a local student; there were also tablets which we used to scan QR codes for more information on the various exhibits.  Towards the end of the tour, we were given AR glasses (more like goggles, really) that projected what the Sanctuary of Isis might have looked like back in the day.  The virtual reality bit was interesting, but something of a struggle for me, because the headset didn't fit well over my normal, low-tech glasses, so I had to hold the thing out from my face with my hands.  Paolo had an easier time using the device.   I also found it difficult to take pictures of the exhibits while also juggling the tablet, but I did manage to snap a few:

You can see a chalice carved on one of these blocks

We continued our walk-about, and headed for Piazza Sant'Oronzo (Saint Orontius is the city's patron saint).  We saw the remains of the Roman amphitheater, as well the Column of Sant'Oronzo - though the statue of the saint is currently missing from atop the pillar; I have yet to find out what happened to it [edit: we discovered later that it had been removed for cleaning and repairs].  We also stopped at a nearby café for some lunch, caffè, and people-watching.

Where in the world is Sant'Oronzo?

L’Orologio delle Meraviglie - on the Banco di Napoli building

After an afternoon siesta, we headed back out for dinner at Pescheria con Cottura, located not far from the piazza where we had lunch.  Instead of choosing your dishes from a printed menu, you chose your seafood (prior to being seated) from an open display case featuring a variety of fish, huge prawns, some kind of enormous crabs, octopus and squid, etc.  There was also a rather long menu listed on a board on the wall.  The restaurant motto is "In Fish We Trust."  Why their motto is in English, I don't know.

Paolo had a tuna carpaccio; I had a salmon & mango tartare to start

I had him take a picture of me just to prove that I am, in fact, on this trip

Baccala for Paolo; seafood ravioli in a mushroom cream sauce for me

He wanted me to take his picture with the whales

Desserts

We were informed when we arrived that the restaurant was closing early for Christmas Eve - by early, they meant 10 PM (22:00).  We were out in plenty of time though - I think we were done by about 9:45.  I stopped to take a few more pictures on the walk back to the hotel:

I am writing this on Christmas Night; we just had a nice long chat with family via Facebook Messenger.  It's about 20:25 (8:25 PM) and time to head back out to get a small bite and espresso to end the evening, so I'll make a separate Christmas Day post later...stay tuned.

A Quiet Week

We returned from Rome last Monday; the car was indeed exactly where we left it at the train station parking lot, no ticket or boot or anything, which we were a little bit worried about.  There is a machine in said parking lot at which you enter X amount of time, and pay for parking accordingly.  So far as I could figure out at the time, it would only let me pay through Saturday, and so I was worried about getting a ticket at the least, and towed at the most - there was no English language option on the machine.  We couldn’t figure out exactly what we were meant to do with the ticket/paid receipt thing it printed, either.  We looked at other cars parked nearby; none of them had one sitting on the dashboard.  On the other hand, this is Italy; it seems as if drivers park and drive however they want to.  So we just left it on the dash and hoped for the best.  Assuming we don’t get a ticket in the mail 6 months from now, it’s all good. 

Speaking of Italian drivers basically doing whatever they want:  this is what our street looked like this morning - I’m not kidding when I say people park wherever and however they wish as the mood strikes them:

Good thing we don’t actually park on the street where our apartment is - we always park on the main drag, which is just around the corner.

The muffa seems to be under control for now; we have been letting the balcony doors as well as the bathroom window open during the day (the balcony doors have outside shutters with levered slats), and we run the dehumidifier 24/7 (Paolo empties it two or three times a day).  Tomorrow I will do a muffa check around all the windows and balcony doors and wipe away any mold I see with the special anti-muffa spray the landlord gave us.  Fingers crossed that it doesn’t get out of control again.

We are certainly getting a lot of fresh air in the house!  Unfortunately, since we’ve been back, the local temperature has dropped quite a bit.  In fact, Tuesday morning, I woke up to see this view outside my bathroom window:

Very pretty!  But I was glad we didn’t need to go anywhere in the car that day.  Honestly, I am a little worried about driving in snow and ice here in this mountainy area, with all the switchback roads and hairpin turns.

It’s been a fairly quiet week here; we did have a couple of days of sunshine, and not quite as much rain as usual.  In fact, it was so sunny yesterday that I took advantage of the good weather to do three loads of wash all in the same day, including sheets.  It’s a little difficult to wash sheets when you don’t have a dryer, because they’re so long.  We got ourselves a very large-sized rack that hangs over the balcony for just this reason:

That was the first load, just the one sheet and pillowcases.  Later I added the rest.  The wind picked up quite a bit (overall it's been a very breezy week here, with a “lazy wind,” the kind that’s too lazy to blow around you so it blows right through):

Fortunately, by the time we went to bed, the sheets were dry, which is not always the case; yesterday was not as damp as it so often has been here.

This week I did a little cooking:  I made stuffed shells in sauce.  I had to improvise a bit, as I could not find any pre-shredded mozzarella.  I seem to recall that I did see some, somewhere, but I can’t remember where, and anyway, the "real" stuff is so much better - I just sliced up a ball of good mozzarella and laid the pieces on the shells.  I whipped up a batch of homemade sauce for this dish, too:

Prepped for the oven

Ready to eat

They were tasty, if I say so myself.  We had leftovers for lunch the next day.  Note that I have not made any homemade pasta here (yet); I think I am a little nervous about doing it without my KitchenAid mixer to mix and knead the dough for me.

The difficulty of making a big batch of stuffed shells in a very flimsy aluminum pan did cause me to finally break down and buy some decent cookware though.  So the next time I won’t have to buy throw-away (or rather, recyclable) pans.

Speaking of trash and recycling:  it is a very different system here than it is at home.  First, we have a separate brown organico can that is just for organic/food trash (think compostables).  Then there are separate bins for paper/cardboard, glass and cans, and plastics, as well as for non-recyclable trash (rifiuti).  So we have all these separate bins to use…and, believe it or not, we’re aren’t quite sure of the exact pickup day(s).  We think is it Monday…the last time we put it out, it was picked up on a Monday…we just want to clarify whether it ALL goes out on the same day, or whether there is a different day for each, or what.   I noticed our next door neighbor sometimes (randomly?) leaves out blue bags of (presumably) trash that are picked up - so maybe they come through more than once a week?  I did ask at the town hall awhile back, but no one ever clarified this for me.  I've just now sent them a PEC email, so that they have to answer me (PEC is a kind of special email they have in Italy; it’s like sending the electronic equivalent of a certified letter.  You have to have a special email account in order to send PEC emails; I’m not aware of an American equivalent to this system).  We’ll see how long it takes them to get back to me on this…

We had a chance to talk to family today, which was great!  We were also treated to a little piano concert via the magic of the Internet:

We don’t really have anything exciting planned for this week; Wednesday is a public holiday here, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (La Festa dell'Immacolata); most everything will be closed.  Hoping to hear sometime soon that the transcription of my documents has been completed!

Rome: Saturday 11/27

We started our Saturday with a visit to the Basilica of St. Clement.  This site is very interesting because below the present day church (which dates back to the Middle Ages), there are several much older archaeological layers below, one of which is a church dating from about the 4th century. More ancient still is the mithraeum (a pagan religious site where worshippers of the god Mithras would sacrifice bulls to the deity).  Sadly, photography was not allowed down in the archaeological site.  We saw sections of old frescoes, fragments of sculpture, and an altar dedicated to the aforementioned Mithras.  There were also some mosaics and frescoes relating to St. Cyril and St. Methodias (St. Cyril is buried here).  You can view some of the things we saw here.

I did not see a sign in the present-day basilica indicating photos weren’t allowed…because it was, as it turned out, hidden in a corner next to the confessional, which we didn’t encounter until we were almost through with the visit.  So I did get some pictures (oops):

Since the basilica is more or less in the neighborhood of the Colosseum, we wandered in the direction of same and stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant, mostly just for the view - because why not?

As we'd already enjoyed an excellent guided tour of the Colosseum on our previous trip to Rome, we opted not to revisit it at this time.  Instead, we chose to visit a museum we’d seen advertised in the elevator of our hotel as being one where there might not be big crowds (which turned out to be correct):  the Barberini Palace, which houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, or National Gallery of Ancient Art.

We were really surprised that it wasn’t busier; there were many excellent works of art on display, including a copy of a lost Holbein portrait of Henry VIII which I have encountered only in books until now:

There were a few other famous paintings that caught my eye as well:

After we went through the museum, we took a brief stroll through the grounds before heading back towards the Metro station.  

Once we got back to Piazza Barberini (not far from the metro station) we decided to stop for a glass of wine and a people-watching session.  We had hardly gotten in our first sips when out of nowhere, it started pouring rain…and all hail broke loose!

Although we were under umbrellas at the table, they did little to protect us from the sudden onslaught from the sky, so we scrambled inside.  And once we got settled there…it stopped.  Sigh.

For dinner we went back to Il Lampadario, where I had a first course of gnocchi with clams, followed by shrimp cooked in cognac; both were very good, although I probably shouldn’t have had the shrimp as I think I had a (thankfully mild) allergic reaction to them later.

I’ll write a separate catch-up post to describe today’s adventures; but I will mention here that I spoke with Nicoletta today, who assured me that the landlords have addressed the mold issue and it is safe to return to our apartment.  We are sad to be leaving Roma tomorrow but hopefully we can come back for a few days again sometime soon(ish).