The Flavors of an Italian Fall

By October, the weather in northern Italy begins to change. Mornings and evenings turn chilly, though the afternoons remain sunny and mild. The leaves are changing too, every day brings a little more gold and red to the trees. The squares and cafes are still full of people, though by mid October and into November they are now wrapped up in sweaters and scarfs as they sip an afternoon coffee or an evening aperitivo. 

As the weather changes so do the foods that are served. Restaurant menus are revised - gone are the dishes with asparagus and artichoke served in spring. Gone too are the summer salads, like panzanella, full of ripe tomato. In their place are somewhat heartier dishes perfect for cool temperatures and full of ingredients from the fall harvest.

In autumn the markets are still brimming with fresh produce. Fragrant porcini mushrooms are the stars in early fall. The markets also display baskets of peppers, fresh garlic bulbs, nuts, and fall fruits, such as clementines, pomegranates, and grapes.

Roasted chestnuts are a seasonal delicacy found in nearly every fall market. The scent of them roasting filled the air in the markets I visited, from Tuscany to the Veneto.. 

Chestnuts roasting in Lucca

Chestnuts roasting over a wood fire in Verona

This popular booth at Lucca Picante sold both warm polenta topped with cheese and necci filled with fresh ricotta.

In late September the Lucca Picante festival gave an opportunity to sample many fall tastes. This festival was a celebration of peperoncini (peppers) as well as other products of the Garfagnana region -proscuitto, polenta, cheese, chestnuts. The chestnut is an important ingredient in cucina povera (traditional foods eaten during times of scarcity). Chestnut flour (farina di castagne) is used in making pastas, porridge, cakes, and - my personal favorite - necci. Necci are thick chestnut flour crepes filled with fresh ricotta. Yum!  They are a uniquely Italian flavor and a perfect fall treat. 

Artfully displayed peppers

Peppered cheeses

Delicate proscuitto at Lucca Picante

Risotto is a favorite Italian dish in any season. In spring, risotto features tender seasonal vegetables or delicate meats (such as guinea fowl). Fall risotto dishes are a bit bolder, with more intense flavors.

I tasted 3 different risottos in Italy this fall - one with leeks and pancetta, another with fresh porcini, and the third with pumpkin and small bits of sausage. All 3 were wonderful, but it's the one with pumpkin and sausage, fragrant and served steaming hot at Gigi Trattoria, that I will long for when I'm home. 

Meat dishes are also featured on fall menus, often paired with pasta, potatoes, or polenta.  Dishes such as pappardelle con cinghiale (wide noodles with boar sauce), coniglio arrosto con fagioli bianchi e patate (roast rabbit with white beans and potato), and peposo (peppery stewed beef) appear on fall menus. In Verona, I was served a rich, perfectly tender guanciale di manzo (beef cheek) stewed in local Amarone wine, served with polenta.  All of these dishes are perfect fare for cool fall nights in Italy.

Pappardelle con cinghiale

Coniglio con fagioli bianchi e patate

Peposo con polenta

Guanciale di manzo con polenta

Many of these dishes will remain on menus well into the cold winter days ahead. Porcini mushrooms will be dried and used all winter in pastas and soups. Polenta is a definite holdover for winter meals, and hearty soups will join the winter meat dishes on Italian tables. And I will be home in New Mexico, remembering these wonderful meals, and working to recreate some of them at home.                     post by JMB

Arrivederci Lucca

Piazza Anfiteatro (the Roman Amphitheater) 

Last days in Lucca are always bittersweet. I look forward to returning home, to reconnecting with family and friends. I miss my kids and grandkids when I'm away; I'm sure the little ones have grown inches taller while I’ve been in Italy. And yet, I am terribly sad to say goodbye to Lucca, which feels as much like home to me as does New Mexico. Returning to Albuquerque for the late fall and the holidays means missing those wonderful seasons in Italy. Staying in Lucca would mean missing them in New Mexico. This is the challenge of a life divided by place - just where is home, and where is away? Which is "here" and which is "there"?

By necessity my last day was partially spent sorting through things I've accumulated in the last weeks, clearing out the refrigerator and kitchen in my apartment, and packing. But I also spent a lot of time wandering through Lucca and saying arrivederci to people and places. As I wandered, I tried to commit to memory my favorite views - rooftops, gardens, towers, statues, churches, medieval streetscapes, cafes, and squares. 

A favorite bar / cafe just off Piazza San Michele, Lucca

I stopped for a late morning cappuccino - an Italian ritual I will sorely miss at home. I tried to absorb the sounds and scents of the city and the magical sound of the Italian language (oh how I will miss my classes at Lucca Italian School).  And of course I took a long walk on Le Mura (the walls) and sat on "my" bench overlooking the back of the church and bell tower of San Frediano and the gardens of Palazzo Pfanner.  Of all the views of Lucca from Le Mura, this is my favorite.

A delicious farewell lunch at Gigi Trattoria.

I had a long, slow lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Gigi Trattoria. They served a fabulous autumn dish, risotto con zucca e salsiccia (pumpkin and sausage), alongside delicate verdure fritte (fried vegetables), a vino bianco frizzante (sparkling white wine)  and 2 little homemade cookies (Biscotti di Gigi). Knowing I would be gone for the next 4 months, they wished me not only Buon Viaggio but also Buone Feste (happy holidays), Buon Natale (Merry Christmas), and Buon Capodanno (Happy New Year ). We parted with the traditional Italian kisses and a "ci vediamo in Marzo" (see you in March). This welcoming friendliness, this willingness to embrace a straniera (foreigner) is one of the many reasons I love Lucca.

Late in the afternoon, because looking ahead makes leaving a bit easier, I walked past the apartment I have already rented for spring. It's right across from the Torre Guinigi (the tower with the trees on top) and around the corner from the Boccherini Music Institute. I know that I will hear music from the  student rehearsals drifting through my windows when I return in spring. Until then, I will be writing about my experiences in Italy this fall, daydreaming about Lucca, cooking Italian dishes at home, trying to build stronger language skills, and doing all I can to remain in an Italian frame of mind.            post by JMB

The Torre Guinigi, near the apartment I have rented for Spring 2018.

Shakespeare's Verona

Many people who visit Verona want to see sites tied to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” I, on the other hand, wanted to find the two gentlemen of Verona. (Can you blame me for opting for Italian men over star-crossed teenagers?)

References to "Romeo and Juliet" abound in Verona; this is a contemporary sculpture of the couple by Nag Arnoldi.

Even though Shakespeare set more than just one play in the pretty northern Italian city of Verona, that ill-fated couple, Romeo and Juliet, seem to get the most attention. You can visit Romeo’s house, Juliet’s house, Juliet’s (spoiler alert!) tomb, hotels named after the pair, stores named after the girl, restaurants named after the boy. You get the idea. This is a city devoted to romance (even if it is tragic romance).

When I visited the courtyard with the balcony immortalized as the place where Juliet stood while Romeo serenaded her, so many people were crowded into that tiny square that I had to wonder how many understood that Juliet was actually a fictional character.

Juliet's balcony in Verona draws crowds of tourists. Many touch the left breast of her statue in the belief that it will make them lucky in love!

The Juliet house belonged to a family with a name similar to Capulet, which was Juliet’s cognome (surname) in the play. Now the house is where throngs of tourists go to snap photos and leave love notes on the walls.

One of many notes left on the wall of Juliet's courtyard. 

There are other nods to Shakespeare in Verona. A bust of the playwright adorns a wall near Piazza Bra, along with a plaque that reads (in English and Italian): “There is no world without Verona walls, but Purgatory, torture, Hell itself. Hence banished is banish’d from the world, and world’s exile is death.” That line is from Act III, Scene III of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Shakespeare's likeness and words on a wall in Verona

As for the two gentlemen, they are harder to find. Believe me, I searched for them. I even researched the play for clues but I never found the two men. A friend of mine did stumble on one near the end of our recent visit: A hotel in the historic center is dubbed The Gentleman of Verona. It seems Shakespeare was prophetic about how his play would be remembered when he wrote in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “They do not love, that do not show their love.”

Finalmente (finally), a Shakespearean reference unrelated to "Romeo and Juliet"

Nevertheless, exploring Verona with Shakespeare as the guide was a fun way to spend part of a day in a city brimming with sites to see and beauty to breathe in.

-post by JG

Autumn in Italy

It's difficult to pick a favorite season it Italy - who wouldn't enjoy a gentle rainy spring, a warm early summer, or the festive winter holiday season. But autumn - autumn is magic in Italy. So if I have to pick a favorite season, it would be autumn. 

Fall color along Le Mura (the walls) in Lucca, Italy

Colorful vines in Bellagio, Lago di Como, late September 2016.

October brings cooler temperatures, changing colors, along with the fall harvest and vendemmia (grape harvest). There are many sagras (food festivals) including sagras to celebrate castagne (chestnuts), porcini mushrooms, chocolate (is there a better place to celebrate chocolate than Perugia?) and wine. Fall is truffle season and the hill town of San Miniato, in Tuscany (along with a number of other Italian villages), hosts several weekends of truffle events. November is also the traditional month of the olive harvest and the time in which new olive oil is pressed. For foodies, fall in Italy offers a wide variety of gastronomic experiences including classes on olive oil and wine and even the opportunity for hands-on participation in the vendemmia and olive harvests.

Grape vines at Agriturismo Cretaiole, near Pienza, ready for the harvest in early October 2016.

This beautiful costume is from a photo shoot for a previous year's Lucca Comics and Games.

In addition to food celebrations there are many fall cultural events and festivals throughout Italy.

In Lucca, where I spend most of my time, the big event is Lucca Comics and Games, held each year in late October / early November (this year's dates were November 1 - 5). If you are a fan of comics or gaming, or dressing up in fantastic costumes, this is definitely the place to be in fall. Over 250,000 people attend (it's the largest comics event in Europe), most dressed in costumes to fit the year's theme.

There are other fall events as well, celebrating everything from Italian cinema to saint's days to medieval competitions. There is no shortage of things to do during an Italian autumn.

As for me, my favorite fall activity is walking along the walls in Lucca as the trees change from green to gold and red, hearing the crunch of leaves below my feet, feeling the autumn chill in the air, and just breathing it all in.                                                        post by JMB

Intimissimi on Ice

In a country where it’s hard to get ice with your drink, I recently witnessed great Italian appreciation for ice at a performance of "Intimissimi on Ice” in Verona. It was a wonderful show of ice skating, ice dancing, vocal performances and technological wizardry. But for me, there were two especially cool (pun intended, sorry) aspects to the evening: 1) it was held in the Arena di Verona and 2) the guest singer was Andrea Bocelli.

A large replica of a female's face graced one end of the arena for the ice show (seats there are empty because they are behind the stage).

The Verona arena is a Roman amphitheater built in the 1st century. It is known worldwide for the opera performances held there. And, for the past four years, it has hosted the ice show. The arena seats about 15,000 people today but is said to have held twice that many in ancient times. It was great fun to sit on the stone seats (my companions and I were in what would be called the bleacher section in the States) and think about who might have sat there nearly 2,000 years ago.

The Verona arena was built in the 1st Century. Only this wing of the outer ring (on the left) remains - the rest was destroyed in an earthquake. Most of what is visible today would have been the inner ring of the original amphitheater.

The structure is considered one of the best preserved of its kind. I could see why as we made our way into the arena, passing through massive stone arches and climbing steep, uneven stairways. As I always am when I see the Colosseum in Rome, I was awed by the arena’s architecture, design and sheer size.

Images were projected onto the ice for each performance/song. To the right is the choir.

The show itself, “A Legend of Beauty,” featured such Olympic greats as Charlie White and Meryl Davis, the American ice dancing pair who won the gold medal in 2014, and Evengi Plushenko, the world-renown figure skater from Russia. Elaborate images were projected onto the ice during each performance while an orchestra and choir provided music. It was engaging and entertaining.

Andrea Bocelli was the special guest for the show (he can be seen at the top of the photo in the black suit).

And then there was Bocelli. He only sang four songs but he wowed the crowd and brought tears to my eyes with the power and tenor of his voice. He ended with “Nessun Dorma” while Plushenko skated. Magical, simply magical.

-post by JG