An Italian Thanksgiving

Seth and I had been waiting for a couple weeks to see how Italians would pull-off Thanksgiving at I Tatti. The villa tries to observe both American and Italian holidays, so every year they host a big Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. We were fed alongside 61 other academics, their families, and the staff, with the guest of honor being Drew Faust, the president of Harvard.

The table settings
Stefano showing off the second turkey. There were two, for
a total of about 34kg (or 75lbs)!

It started off with zuppa di zucca (squash soup) followed by a fairly typical Thanksgiving dinner plate: turkey, chestnuts, mashed squash, cranberries FedExed from Cambridge, MA, and spinach (no mashed potatoes and gravy or stuffing--Atkins approved). The pink thing at 5 o'clock might be Zampone, a very delicious sausage made with pig's trotter/paw typically eaten at New Year's Day.

Then came the Italian flare. For the first time at an I Tatti Thanksgiving they passed around cinghiali (wild boar). Ironically, I had half-joked that they would be serving this in place of turkey, and I was delighted that they should happen to have this as an additional dish--I had been really keen to try it since we first arrived in Florence. It was almost indistinguishable from beef: dark, lean, tender, and very, very good. Those yellow triangles circling the plate are fried polenta.Lino, the director of I Tatti, giving his toast. President Faust is to the left, under the Virgin Mary.

Dessert consisted of apple cobbler with a scoop of vanilla gelato followed by Tuscan cantucci e vinsanto -- basically biscotti dipped in sweet, potent wine made at the villa. I always get so nervous at these I Tatti events--you never know who you meet and who you will have to make awkward conversation with (this is the hard part for me, though the bountiful red wine helps). At least everyone is really nice and I always end up having a good time.

The walk home provided one last treat--they finally lit up the lights near our apartment! We are going to enjoy taking walks downtown to see even more :o)

Through the lights you can see the carpenter (falegname) next door, peeking out at us over the "falegname" sign. Since reading Pinocchio I always get a little excited watching them work.

Though we got out of having to cook a single thing, we also don't have any leftovers to show for it. To remedy this, we are doing Thanksgiving dinner all over again for just the two of us--I'm roasting a tiny chicken tonight (and I do mean tiny--it's only a 2.5 pounder!) with some stuffing, winter squash with walnuts, gravy, rolls, and cherry preserves instead of cranberries. With the size of our oven being rather restrictive, last night I made up an apple cobbler and roasted, for the first time, a batch of chestnuts (a local favorite).

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Roasted chestnuts for tonight

Cooking, Cutting, and Coluzzis

This week started off with a sort of cooking lesson at I Tatti, and Anna, the director's wife, was kind enough to invite me to join them. Several people couldn't make it, so it was just her, Andrea (an Italian-Australian Fellow), and myself, standing around the chef in the kitchen as he prepared lunch for the day--pasta with mushrooms, pancetta, and sausage with a side of artichoke souffle. We also got to peek at the pastry chef as he prepared fresh bread for morning tea (schiacciata), olive rolls for lunch, the dessert (castagnaccio--a chestnut flour cake with pine nuts, saltanas, and rosemary), and pans of shortbread cookies for afternoon tea. Like I said before, they eat really well at I Tatti! In some ways I am glad I don't eat lunch there--the food is pretty heavy, with lots and LOTS of olive oil (people have been complaining of gaining weight), but I would still love to taste it every now and then so I can try making it at home, with less oil! The little cooking observation was a nice treat in that sense, though I don't think there will be many more for me to attend.

Yesterday was a little nerve-wracking for me because I finally got myself to go in for a haircut. With short hair I typically get it cut every 2 months at Great Clips (or some other 'family cutters'), but it had been over 3 months since my last trim and the clump of hair on my head was looking pretty overgrown. There are no generic chain cutters here so I had to make an appointment at a salon, which I had never done before. Not speaking Italian made this hard enough to force myself to do, then I stressed myself out even more before going in. When I sat down I knew enough Italian to ask for 5cm off the front and back but being a salon I guess this wasn't specific enough, so I was made to flip through a book and point to a picture of what I wanted (other people were doing this too). The stylist was really nice and tried chatting with me but I was too nervous to understand and he gave up on trying to talk to me, which was embarrassing enough (I could hear him talking to another girl there that I don't understand). This was all traumatic enough, and in the end my haircut is a bit too different from what I usually go for, plus it is too short. At least it will be a long time before I need to go in for a cut again.

The rest of the day I was also stressed out and nervous over meeting Ivana Coluzzi and her family, visiting for the day from Rome to see a Rugby match. Seth found her on facebook about a year and a half ago, though they don't know how they are related. Both her family and Seth's are from Carpineto Romano, about 10miles from Rome, so there must be some sort of connection (unlike the name Landstrom, Coluzzi is not very common and we think there is only one family line). I was worried because she doesn't know English and I didn't feel like standing there looking like a dumb vegetable unable to say anything, but when we met for drinks last night she was very nice and understanding. She spoke very slowly and even reminded her 13 year old son, Lorenzo(!!), to slow down when he would get excited and start talking quickly. Her husband, Rafaele, spoke some English, which also helped take the edge off the nerves. All in all, it was great meeting some Coluzzis, and it will be fun to meet up with them again next time we are in Rome. Hopefully by then I will be able to say a few more things to them.

Rome

Last night we returned from our four-night trip to Rome--my first visit! It is so large with so much to see and do that at first I was hesitant to go; I would rather go to smaller towns for short trips than be overwhelmed by a big city. However, the fellows at I Tatti were offered 'an opportunity of a lifetime' to see several rooms at the Vatican people are not normally allowed to visit, including the Pope's private chapel (Capella Paolina, painted by Michelangelo), several other 'off limits' rooms, and a special after-hours visit of the Sistine Chapel. Of course we had to go, and we stretched out the visit a few extra days for some extreme art-heavy sightseeing (i.e., hitting as much in the Rick Steves' Rome as possible!).

Day 1: After cruising along at 150mph (250km/hr) for less than an hour and a half on the super fast train from Florence, we checked into our Rome hotel. Located near the Colosseum, it was run by a very friendly, though somewhat overly attentive and motherly, Chinese gentleman called Lorenzo. We could have all the tea we wanted, but we couldn't heat the water ourselves. It was "too dangerous."

The first thing on our agenda was to make our way to our reserved two-hour time slot at the Borghese Gallery, a villa on the north end of town holding a diverse collection including a few stunning Bernini works. That museum, right there, was probably one of the best parts of the trip.

Day 2: The following day of course had to rain. This made running in a city with confusing, trafficy roads more frustrating than it already was, so we figured we would go where the Romans would go, the Circus Maximus. This Ben-Hur chariot racing track had to be swamped so we tried the 2300-year-old mega highway, the Appian Way, which apparently is still a mega highway...

We spent our first afternoon at the Church of St. Peter in Chains, home of Saint Peter's chains.

My Protestant side doesn't buy into reliquary, but I did LOVE seeing Michelangelo's Moses with rays of light shooting from his head which suspiciously look like devil horns. An art-loving lady police officer pointed out the image of a face that appears in the shadows on the side of Moses's face. Can you see it?

Chocolate shop!

This building and its telephone wire should do some pruning.LunchTrajan's Forum (with the 100-foot column from 100AD)

The view from Campidoligo, near Trajan's Forum

In the afternoon we also went into the Cappuccin Crypt, which was several small, intense, chapels decorated in intricate patterns with the bones of 4,000 Capuchin friars. We then went on to Santa Maria Vittoria to see Bernini's Ecstacy of St. Teresa before ending up at the Pantheon.

A classy dinner back at the hotel

Day 3: We got up extra early the next morning to run around Michelangelo's Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill Square) before heading to the Vatican.

Seth took off for his VIP tour of the Vatican while I got to wait in line with the rest of the bums to enter the Vatican Museum.

...but Laocoön was worth the wait!

...as was the Belvedere Torso. These are two ancient Greek pieces that were (and are) the inspiration for many artists, including Michelangelo.

A Vatican courtyard

A quarter-mile-long hall of maps

St. Peter's Square in Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica, largest church in the world and permanent home of Saint Peter... maybe.

But St. Peter's is home to is Michelangelo's Pietà. I think this was my favorite work of art in Rome. While I was here feasting my eyes, Seth was busy getting a private showing of the Sistine Chapel and subsequently missed it.Swiss guard

St. Peter's by night

Day 4: This morning we tried again running along the Circus Maximus. Note the one lone chariot, racing no one.

We continued to Tiber Island--a tiny plot of land in the middle of the river with a church and some other buildings.

Later that morning we walked down the road from our hotel to see what was left of the magnificent Roman Forum.

And, in the afternoon, the Colosseum

In the evening we walked around historic downtown. There was a vigil for the persecuted Falun Gong in Piazza Navona.

Trevi FountainThere might as well be bleachers around the over-hyped fountainThe Spanish Steps, where the rule of 'no eating and no drinking' apparently only applies to liquor, but not beer. (Or at least, that's the way it is enforced.)

Day 5: Our final morning we tried again to run along the Appian Way. Though we appreciated the quieter Sunday morning traffic, it still wasn't the most inspiring run, and longer than we expected.

Later in the morning the crowds built up around the Colosseum

We got to skip the lines and took off for Palatine Hill, where Rome was born 3000 years ago. The huts currently being excavated here are where Romulus and Remus were supposedly raised.
Later this area became the location of the Imperial Palaces.The view of the Forum from Palatine Hill

A room in the newly restored House of Augustus. We loved how the frescoes show very nice 3D perspective, a somewhat simple technique to depict depth lost for about 1000 years during the Dark Ages until the Renaissance masters 'rediscovered' it. Those Romans knew what they were doing!

With a little time to spare before catching the train home, we decided against relaxing a few minutes and trekked across town to see some Caravaggio paintings in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. It was closed when we walked by several nights ago, then near closing the night before, and it was closed again this time, too. Perhaps the French truly hate us.

Overall, it was a great trip! After seeing most of the main sights, the next time we visit Rome we can concentrate on meeting with some distant Coluzzi relatives, maybe take a day trip to Pompeii, and try yet again to go to the Church of Luigi!