Dessert Desert

In a land renowned for its gastronomical delights, Italian sweets and desserts never cease to disappoint me. Other than a few specialties, tiramisu comes to mind, there is little for dessert junkies like Amy and me to rave about. Even there, though well made tiramisu is a fine dessert, I can think of dozens if not hundreds of things that I would rank ahead of it. Our local pasticcaria is filled with hard dry cookies, bland filled sweets and simple meringues. Even some of our new Italian friends swoon at the idea of a soft baked, American-style cookie.

Candy. Forget about it. Even large supermarkets, the equivalent of Shaws, Big Y or Stop and Shop, carry no more than a handful of kinds of candy. However, at least a few of those are chocolate so perhaps all is not lost. For instance, they do sell small bags of M&Ms at a cost of approximately 15 Euros/kg which translates to approximately $8.50/pound.

The only dessert option left is to make things for yourself and there it becomes even more complicated. I am thinking particularly of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and chocolate blackout cake, my two signature baked goods. In running down a list of ingredients, most like flour, baking soda, salt, etc. can be found with little difficulty. There are a few notable exceptions. Apparently vanilla extract is not sold as such in stores. You can buy a tiny bottle, and I do mean tiny since it is less than half a teaspoon, or you can get powdered vanilla. That would be interesting except we have been warned that more often than not it also contains yeast as well as vanilla since the kind of baking an Italian would use it for would include both ingredients. We are currently looking into buying whole vanilla beans and steeping them in vodka to make our own vanilla extract. Next comes brown sugar. They just don’t sell it here. They do have something they call brown sugar but it is really just less refined, granulated cane sugar lacking the essential moisture content of what we have in the states. Finally, there are the all important chocolate chips. In the US we have the pick of half a dozen major manufacturers (Hershey, Nestles, Girardelli, etc.) and many different flavors and bag sizes. Here we have been lucky enough to find one brand/type/size in one of the four supermarkets we have been to. I will persevere. Cookies will be made even if I need to persuade visitors to bring things across the Atlantic and secret them through customs for me.

Dining Italian Style

A full, authentic Italian meal is both a joy and an undertaking. Some Italians have their major meal at midday just before a siesta. Others have their large meal in the evenings, especially if work prohibits the entire family from getting together for the midday meal. Meals are about family. The meal is eaten at the dining room table. You don’t bring work to the table. You don’t bring your ipod to the table. You seldom bring a cell phone to the table. You come to the table to eat, relax and enjoy.

A full meal begins with antipasto: olives, bits of cured meat, cheese and crackers. Next is the primo piatto or first plate. This is usually a serving of pasta. It could be served with a simple pomodoro (tomato) sauce or something more involved such as arrabiata or amatriciana. This is followed by the secondo piatto or second plate. This is the type of dish that an American might associate most closely with dinner. For instance pork chops, steak or roast chicken. Following that would be a salad or perhaps some other vegetable side dish. “Italian” dressing appears to be something made up by Americans. Most salads would have a dressing of salt, olive oil, and vinegar. Finally, there would be some sort of dessert and coffee or cappuccino to finish things off.

There is no cafeteria at the school. It is an open campus so students can come and go as they please as long as they make it to their class commitments. They can bring food with them from their host family or they can go out to eat. However, SYA tuition includes a full meal plan so the school in Viterbo has made arrangements for students to have a meal card for the local university dining hall conveniently located around the corner from our apartment.  The SYA faculty handbook is quite specific. No meals are included except when required such as during school travel or when a meeting takes place over lunch. You can imagine our surprise when we were asked for two passport photos each for our meal cards. Apparently, Amy and I can eat there also. When I asked about the cost we were told the school pays for it! We can get either a primo OR secondo, a side dish or salad, dessert and a drink and it doesn’t cost us anything. If for some reason we want both a primo AND secondo we have to pay the 2 Euro difference as we exit. We have yet to try the food there, but you can’t beat the price or convenience so I suspect we will go there at least a few times a week

Students Arrive

The students arrived Sunday, flying in a group from Boston through Paris. The SYA France group was on the same initial flight bringing the SYA seat total to more than 120 persons. The departure was in doubt until the last minute due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Irene. A group of students had to be rerouted after the airports in New York shut down, but all arrived in time to make the connecting flight from Boston. The handoff of the students to their host families took place after lunch and a meeting at the Balletti Park Hotel in San Martino, a small town around 3 km south of the metro-Viterbo area. It was actually quite a joyful and pleasant experience as each student was introduced individually to their host family.

The lunch was interesting. There was a very nice penne pasta with basil, olive oil, tomatoes and mozzarella and then there were the sandwiches called tramezzini. White bread with the crust cut off with a bit of tomato and mozzarella and LOTS of mayonnaise. It is the first food I have been served in Italy other than dessert (more on that later) that I haven’t really loved.

Driving home we were compelled to stop for our first gas since getting our car. When the conversions to dollars and gallons were complete we had spent $9.20/gallon for gas at the least expensive place in town. No more complaining about the high price of gas from the American peanut gallery.

Dinner Out

On Friday night Amy and I went to the home of one of our new colleagues for dinner. She has a beautiful home in the countryside a little less than 5 km from the city. The house is on a hillside overlooking a small valley of trees and grass. There is a horse paddock the next field over. It was a very enjoyable affair featuring barbequed spare ribs, typical Italian dishes and delightful cake for dessert (unfortunately not chocolate).

The highlight of the evening for me was getting to meet and play with the four dogs present. There were two older shepherds, one of whom has severe arthritis, an English sheepdog and last, but not least, an 11-week-old Siberian husky puppy named Shasta. The puppy had very light coloration with just a hint of red at the shoulders and an adorable black raccoon mask. As a further reminder of Joule and Sebago, he managed to get himself stung on the eyelid by a wasp which caused his muzzle and eye to swell, just as Joule did when we lived in Greenwich. An antihistamine shot and he was good as new. I do hope we can visit again sometime.

The Best Laid Plans

Things don't always happen the way you plan. We had hoped to take our first trip out of the city by car yeasterday, but drowsiness occurred after our visit to the school to use the online resources. Then it was time for lunch and a siesta, next it was time for a late afternoon stroll around the city followed by dinner out at the Il Monastero and gelato for desert. Obviously, we never made it outside of the city walls.

Today we have no plans except to wait patiently for the plumber to fix the toilet and bidet and then to go to a cookout for dinner. Hopefully more to report tomorrow although we still have no internet in the apartment and the school will be closed through Monday morning so further posting might have to wait until then.

Some random thoughts on differences

This is my first entry. Packaging in Italy is different than that in America. For example, the butter I bought came as a log and was wrapped in wax -lined paper that was fastened on each end by a small, doughnut-shaped rivet. The default carton of eggs is a six-pack, but you can easily buy individual eggs, as well. The largest container of milk one can purchase is a liter. There's full-fat and low-fat, but no fat-free. Lots of milk is shelf-stable. Produce at the corner Frutta e Verdura is actually ripe, has no stickers on it and isn't wrapped in cellophane. It's very hard to find unscented soaps and detergents. There are no dry ingredient measuring cups anywhere. I haven't yet found brown sugar or vanilla extract. If you buy meatballs at the deli, they will weigh the meatballs and price it, then they'll add the sauce for free. Decent wine is very inexpensive. Buying fitted sheets is a trial, since there are so many variations in mattress size. You can buy an enormous roll of paper towels that are dispensed through the center after you remove the cardboard tube (like a tube of refrigerated bake-in the-oven rolls). Most glasses are tiny, so you refill your drink multiple times. More later, as I think of them.

The Internet Saga Continues

Two important things occured yesterday afternoon. The first was a visit to our apartment by Dave to look at the bidet and Fulvio and Marco to deal with the internet/modem issue. The bidet will need more tools than were available so we will continue to function (easily) without it. The internet posed more of a problem. After an hour of fiddling with both our laptops and the ipad, Fulvio expressed the opinion that perhaps the brand new modem was not working correctly. He called Telecom, we have DSL service through our phone provider, and after being on hold forever was informed that somehow in the 10 days since the service was installed our number has been placed on the "black list". This is usually done to people who are delinquent with their bills, etc. It will take them up to 48 hours to get us off, We hope it will be sooner but, 18 hours later we are still waiting, Unfortunately, the two day window takes us to late Friday afternoon and if nothing has happened by then we have little recourse but to wait out the weekend. We have been assured by Fulvio that once our service is returned that our computers should all be good to go with minimal fuss.

The second significant event is that we located our car! It had been parked in a small lot outside the city walls for most of the week we were here. We managed to find it, start it, and navigate our way to the Leclerc Supermarket outside of town where we picked up a few things. So, now we are officially mobile beyond the pedestrian and public. Of course, we still don't actually own the car. We are not allowed to do that until our immigration process is complete and we have our permesso. Once that goes through we can do the sale, register it in our name, get insurance, and do all the little things we need to do to finalize our ownership. Right now we are driving it as friends of the owners who have graciously continued to insure the car themselves.

More Official Dealings

This morning we had another round of dealings with Italian officials. We went to the local prefettura to apply for our permesso. After many grumbles, signatures, stamps, a trip to the school for more copies of papers and shuffling of documents we left with our coda fiscale which is essentially the equivalent of a social security number. We then had to make a trip to the post office to send the paperwork down the street and around the corner and pay more processing fees to a surly female postal worker. The process is not yet complete. Next up is a trip to the local police in early September for fingerprinting, etc. They then have up to 45 days to produce our official card which says we have permission to be here. Until then we carry around a bunch of paperwork which we can be asked for at any time by any official. Not having it is NOT good.

Think about it, we can be asked by any official at any time for this official paperwork saying we are legally in the country. What a concept.

Hoping to have internet this afternoon. Will keep posting.

Our Apartment

Our residence is Via Vetulonia 16 just inside the ancient city walls by the Porta Romana. It is a first floor apartment which means it is actually on the second floor since the Italians begin their numbering with zero.You enter the apartment into a long hallway which divides the space in two.The first room to the left is the kitchen. It is somewhat small, but quite functional with a double-basin wash sink, gas stove, brand new dishwasher and fridge. Staying on the left we come to a pair of bathrooms. Each has a toilet, sink and bidet. One has the washer and a phone booth sized shower, the other has the dryer. At the end of the hall is the entrance into the first of the two bedrooms. It has a queen bed and a giant wardrobe against the wall. There are no closets anywhere - wardrobes stand duty as places to hang clothes. All of these rooms overlook an overgrown interior garden. As far as I know, we have no access to that which will make life interesting should we drop anything out of the windows or if anything falls off of the clothesline which stretches from the kitchen to the further bathroom.

If we continue around we are now on the street side of the apartment and at the second bedroom, across from a bathroom. This one has a pair of twin beds which we have pushed together to create a second queen sized bed. Inspite of the street noise, this is the room we have adopted as our own room since it is larger and we find the beds more to our liking. The next room is the dining room which is across from the other bathroom. It has a nice table for six and several china cupboards with enough space in them to store all of our stuff in Springfield. Those of you who know what we have there will realize we will NEVER fill all the space we have here. The final room is actually the first door to the right as you enter the apartment. It is the living/tv room. It also has a small desk where we will work at home.The couch pulls out into a double bed meaning we can comfortably sleep as many as 4 guests as long as they are willing to pair up.

There are stone floors throughout which, given our lack of animals and other mess producing quantities, should be relatively easy to keep clean. Amy's mission this morning after we complete our visit to the school is to find an appropriate mop. The apartment walls are all 16-18 inches thick so, even though there is no AC, the place stays somewhat cool as long as we close the shutters and windows. So, we open the windows at night as the sun goes down over the west-facing garden and close them again as it rises into the east-facing road.

Internet at home is still an issue so I am writing from school. Thus, no pictures - at least not yet. I hope to add some in the near future.

iPad+free wifi = post

Standing next to the gelateria where we have found the best chocolate gelato sucking up the free wifi. The technology situation at home remains the same. Having a mini heat wave here, temps in the low 90's for the next few days. Will continue to post when possible, hopefully with a bit more information than just being alive.

Viterbo

Viterbo is pretty much everything we hoped it would be. We spent Thursday wandering around picking up things for our apartment, buying food and getting the lay of the land.We found a most excellent fruit and vegetable store down the street, a well placed cheese and cold cut spot a block in another direction with a meat store across from it. We still need to locate a local bakery but we have some leads on that. There is a fresh pasta store across the street from the fruit place so all of our basic needs are nicely met. We still need to find a large supermarket to get some basic things. It would be easier with a car, but we have yet to figure all that out. We do own one, we just don't know where it is!

We had dinner last night at il Monastero, a pizza place a few blocks away. It was crowded to overflowing by the locals which means it must be highly regarded since there were 25 pizza places within a few blocks and they weren't getting the same kind of traffic. The menu said (in Italian) that they were "two plate pizzas" but we didn't realize what that meant until each of our dinners arrived draped across two large plates. It was a good thing they were very thin crusts so that we were able to each finish without feeling too stuffed.

I intend to post more about the apartment, etc. and to include some pictures eventually, but we are still without internet in our apartment. We have the modem and all, we just can't seem to get something to click. Right now I am posting from the school. The next chance I will have to do that will be on Tuesday, so this may be the last you hear from me until then unless we can get the HDSL issues in our apartment resolved.

Travel

Our travel adventure began with an uneventful trip to the airport via Gina Shuttle in her new Volvo. We arrived just as the SwissAir counter was opening and there was nobody in line ahead of us so it seemed the check in would be a piece of cake. And then they weighed our carry-ons! Both of us were over, me by 4 kilos and Amy by 10. Fortunately, their scale disagreed with mine at home since they felt there was still room for 2-3 kilos in each of our checked bags. So, there we sat, on the floor of Logan Airport, repacking all of our bags. The customer service representative conspired with us to allow us 10 kilos in each carry-on rather than the specified 8 so we were just able to get everything in. A few things went into our "personal item" which then went back into the carry on once we cleared customs. It was a good thing they didn't weigh my computer bag since it was actually heavier than my carry-on!

The plane ride was short (compared to Bangkok) and we transited through Zurich without a glitch. Our bags were checked directly to Italy so that was not an issue. We arrived in Rome approximately 5 minutes ahead of schedule and collected our bags which was where round two of fun began. Each of us had to negotiate with 3 rolling suitcases and a hand item totaling 145 pounds each. How do you pull three things when you only have two hands? Somehow, we made it to the train station where Amy quite adeptly negotiated the ticket purchase process at which point we realized the train we wanted to be on was 100 meters away and about to leave. Sprinting with the same baggage load was quite a spectacle but once again fortune smiled on us and we made it with a few seconds to spare thanks to the help of several onlookers who assisted us getting all of our luggage through the door.We had to change trains at Trastevere (in Rome) and then scoot north for almost two hours to Viterbo where we were met by Alessandra and Eleonora from the SYA who showed us to our apartment. The little car they brought was overflowing with our bags so I walked the few hundred meters to our apartment. It is literally that close to the train stop and yet still inside the old city walls.

Dinner of pizza at a place around the corner and then the unpacking of bags and exploring of the apartment ensued.

Time to Travel

All is as prepared as it can be and it is almost time to put the computer to bed for several years. Diesel heads to visit Orlando in a few minutes. We leave for Boston around 4 pm. Our itinerary has us leaving Boston a bit before 10 pm, transiting through Zurich and arriving in Rome a little after 2 pm. About 10.5 hours in total. Generally speaking, Italy is 6 hours ahead of the US east coast so our arrival is around 8 am EDT. After that we will need to collect our bags, make it through customs and immigration, buy train tickets and take a pair of trains to Viterbo where we will be met and taken to our apartment. IF all goes smoothly we should be there by 6 pm (noon). I will try to post again once we have our internet situation figured out, but that could be awhile. In the meantime, it is likely that Amy will update her Facebook status using her iphone.

We are excited but also anxious and sad. We are off on a wonderous adventure but will miss all of our peeps in the US. Know that you are in our thoughts and that we hope to see many of you when you visit us in Italy! Ciao!

Finishing Touches

It is finally down to crunch time. We handed over a set of keys to the house last night. Tony and Michael are ready to go. We dealt with notifying all of our credit card issuers that we will be traveling in Italy and Europe for an extended period. We have both finished packing except for the few last minute things that need to be thrown in tomorrow. Our four checked bags are each just a few ounces shy of 50 pounds according to our scale. I hope they don't take on too much water before we check in! Our friend Gina is set to drive us to the airport tomorrow afternoon.

Still left to be done is to clean out the last of the garage the then put the Mini in, make one last trip to the bank, clean out the fridge, buy Diesel supplies and sit back and wait to find out what we have forgotten.

Visa Success - Part II

Being away from my computer for the last few days while Amy was Matron of Honor at her friend Becky's wedding has kept me from reporting on my highly successful trip to Boston on Friday. The bus ride from Springfield was late on arrival by 1 minute, there was one person ahead of me in the visa room at the Italian Consulate and I exited the building less than 15 minutes after checking in with both of our visas in hand! After a two hour wait in South Station I caught the commuter rail to Worcester where Amy picked me up in route to the wedding. Using public transportation brought me quickly back to all of our European travel. I have to admit, I have slept better each of the past two nights. I guess the stress was influencing me somewhat.

Jury Duty

Yesterday I got my summons for jury duty. I used the online site to successfully request to be disqualified as a juror. In an interesting twist, the reason for my disqualification was that I will be out of the county for at least a year. Ironically, both Amy and I first read it as out of countRy. Either way, the commonwealth agrees I will not be able to serve.

More Evidence We are Getting Close

It was a revelation to me yesterday when I went on to weather.com and looked at the forecast for Viterbo. The 10 day forecast includes time where we will be present - and not just on the last day! That left me tossing and turning all night as I fretted about all the little things which need to happen between now and next Tuesday. Exciting, yes. Stressful, absolutely!

August is usually the worst month for heat in Italy. We have been in Rome during August when the temperatures hit 100 and are routinely in the 90's and were in Bolzano when it was 104. However, the forecast for Viterbo seems quite reasonable. Sunny and in the low 80's for most days with overnight lows in the low 60's. The only real question is the level of humidity. If it is reasonably dry then it will be quite pleasant even though the apartment almost certainly has no air conditioning. Air conditioning is relatively uncommon in private homes although it is becoming more common. The thick stone walls tend to keep the temperatures cooler as well as making it difficult to vent air conditioners and condensates.

The Excitement is Building

Paradoxically, the time before we go seems to both fly when it comes to getting everything done but to drag when we anticipate arriving in Italy. Our plans seem to be coming together. We have disposed of two of our vehicles. My Mom took back the Sebring that she had given me 4 years ago and Amy's niece had been in the market for a skooter so she took the Vespa. That just leaves stripping the coverage back on the mini to nothing and putting it in the garage. Tony and Michael have been by several times and are figuring out where everything is in the house. The going-away parties continue. Maggie hosted a very nice gathering over the weekend for family and friends.  That should be the last "official" party, but our departure is so imminent that each goodbye said to a friend or neighbor is that much more likely to be the last until our return - unless they visit us in Italy. Don't even get Amy started on saying goodbye to the pets!

Speaking of pets, today we need to chase Diesel's vet records so that Orlando has them and continue to gather his supplies. Then there is a bit more packing to take place and a few more small projects around the house. Finally comes the biggest decision of the day, which of our favorite restaurants do we want to hit tonight for the last time before our departure?