Sunset in Pozzuoli

This is a picture out the living room balcony.  I tried to capture the sunset to get the red-gold colors, but it just doesn't come out right, and I had to over-expose a full stop to ever make the picture viewable.

Who says Italian freeways are always crowded?

We drove from Tortoreto Lido back to Pozzuoli today.
Very light traffic all day.
The picture is a snap taken on the A1 from Rome to Napoli.

Tortoreto Lido vs Columbus

Here are two pictures, one yesterday from Columbus, Ohio, the other today from Tortoreto Lido.  Columbus was all snowy, 3"+ of snow, Tortoreto Lido is about 60 degrees F and partly sunny. Where would you rather be?

Cena della Vigilia di Natale

(Christmas Eve Dinner)

Traditionally based on fish.
This year we had smoked salmon, seafood salad (insalata di mare), and spaghetti ai frutti di mare.

There was more, but by Christmas Eve I was pretty sick with a cold and didn't feel like taking more pictures.

I am only just now beginning to get better and am starting to catch up on my posts.

Merry Christmas to all.

School Recital

The good old school recital.  Or in this case group singing exhibition.  It's a rite of passage in Italy too.

Tonight I had the occasion to go see my cousin's 8 year old son, Riccardo, sing in a city wide school organized song event where many 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (and some older too, I'm sure) sang for the audience to raise money to help poor children in Africa.  Here's a snapshot of the entry ticket:

  Massive crowd, the organizers said that there were about 1000 children involved, and maybe 3 or 4 times as many relatives to watch.  It looked like a lot, but I sure didn't try to count them.  The event was held in a large public auditorium normally used for sporting events.  Here's an overview photo.

I could not spot Riccardo in the crowd.  I later found out he was towards the middle but in the third row.  I took lots of pictures to make sure I'd get something, and afterwards we did find Riccardo in one of the pictures.  Here he is cropped and blown up:

So good show to everyone who participated, everyone enjoyed themselves.

It's Happening!

Travel day today. Well, today and tomorrow.  It's going to be about 22 hours before I get to my destination.

 

Here's an update after I finally arrived:

I ran into a big delay in passport control at the Paris CDG airport.

My flight from the US got to Paris a few minutes early, but I only had a connection time of a little over an hour, and as luck would have it on that Saturday morning the French Police officers who operate the passport checking station (necessary to pass through when entering into Europe from the outside) were understaffed.  About 1000 people queued up and only 3 officers on duty.  Of course everything ran late and I missed my connection.

  

I was supposed to get to Napoli at 12noon, but I didn't get there until 7pm.

I had originally planned to take a bus downtown, the metro train out to Pozzuoli, and get a taxi in Pozzuoli for the short ride to my relative's house.  At noon this was a good scenario.  Arriving at 7pm it would have been a bad idea because by the time I would have gotten to Pozzuoli metro station (maybe even 9pm) there probably would be no taxis around (it's a quiet end of the road train station, just metro trains, and not much need for taxis there that time of night.)  So I ended up taking a taxi straight from the Napoli airport out to Pozzuoli, which has the expected disadvantage of price (Pozzuoli is outside the Napoli city limits so the metered fare is doubled).

I finally got to my destination about 8:15pm CET.

I had left my house 10:15am EST the day before, so that's only 28 hours door to door travel!

I was very tired when I arrived, as you can well imagine.

Tick Tock Tick Tock End of Year Approaches

Getting the itch to travel again ... have already made plans and tickets to be in Italy for Christmas and New Year's again this year.

Back in Coumbus

After 4 weeks away I am back in Columbus (sob).

Tradition has it that I put a picture of an airport terminal here:  this is the Atlanta airport where I was waiting to board the flight to Columbus.

The street under my balcony

In case anyone is wondering, these photos show what the street out the balcony looks like, looking left and right.

 

This street doesn't have it's own name; it's name is simply the first cross street of the street (that you cannot see in these photos) that you would find if you were to walk to the end of this street in the direction of the first photo above:  Via Monte Nuovo Licola Patria.  Monte Nuovo is the mountain that you can see in this third picture:

It is an inactive volcano, created over the course of only a couple weeks in 1538, which is why the it's name is "new mountain".   It's height is only about 135 meters. The center of the volcano crater is only about half a mile from where I am. From this angle you can't really tell that it's a volcano, but from an aerial view it's quite clear.  For example see this photo on this page:  http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/cagtripodi/27

You can visit the vulcano and climb up to the rim and walk around, it's a nature preserve area.
The entrance is in a park at the end of Via Virgilio which is a cross street of Via Milliscola, nearby.

This area is where I lived when I was about 5 to 8 years old.  It still feels more like home than Columbus, even though I've now lived in Columbus for nearly 40 years!

Adesso mi viene da piangere quando ci ripenso a come sono stato strappato via da qui.  Si questa zona non è una zona bella e tranquilla, ma è quello che mi ricordo come il paese mio, con tutta la mia famiglia attorno.

Procession of the Virgin Mary on Ferragosto

I am catching up a bit with some photos taken days back.

Back on the 14th of August, on the eve of Ferragosto, in Tortoreto Lido they hold a procession of the Virgin Mary.  The procession starts at the church, a few blocks from the sea, and goes down to the sea.  The Virgin Mary is put on a fishing boat and undertakes a brief tour at sea, then returns to shore and the procession proceeds a few tens of yards to a piazza on the Lungomare Sirena, where the statue is set up to watch over an open air mass.

Here are just a few photos of the boats at sea and the statue of the Virgin Mary coming back on to the beach.

Hot dinner party erupts into street

A quiet dinner party during the last few days of vacation. It was a hot night after a hotter day. Inside the house it was just too hot, so when we saw a table already out in the street ... well we rearranged things a little.

The ladies decided there was more decorum in staying inside:

The menu was based on seafood.

Risotto ai frutti di mare

Gnochetti con faggiloi e cozze

Funghi con pane con gorgonzola e mascarpone

Alice

Everybody had a good time

Things got out of hand to the point that they were dancing in the streets!

Festa a sorpresa per paolo

A dinner party to indulge in arrosticini and beer and other various things turned into a surprise birthday party.

Some random pictures:

Fireworks of ferragosto

Ferragosto is an Italian religious holiday in the middle of August. It's the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In Abruzzo it's an especially popular holiday. Traditionally in Tortoreto they have a fireworks show at night on the day of the holiday.  The fireworks aren't at dusk, as is common in the USA, but are deep into the night, at 1:30am.  The fireworks are launched from the beach and from platforms at sea. Our spot was only about 100 feet from the closest fireworks.


Here are some sample images from the fireworks:

The whole show lasted about 30 minutes.  This is just the last minute or so of the finale.

Your roving reporter.

The Feast of Ferragosto

Ferragosto is the 15th of August, and is the feast of the assumption of the virgin Mary (see http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto).
Tradition is that families will get together for a big meal.
This year, the family I am visiting decided to go for something a little lighter with a few small courses.  Then things got out of hand....

Slices of pecorino cheese topped with a cream or marmalade made from Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine:

Cremini Abbruzzesi.  Pastry cream that's deep fried.  Sickly sweet:

Olive Ascolane:  stuffed olives, fried:

Pizza di Scarola:  more or less a stuffed pizza in white.  No tomato sauce, no cheese. Filling is escarole, olives, pine nuts, etc.

Bocconcini di fior di latte:  bite size pieces of cow's milk mozzarella, served with cherry tomatoes and basil.

Tonno con maionese.  Tuna fish salad with mayonnaise

Two different appetizers on one serving plate (running out of room): salmone affumicato e carapaccio di tonno rosso:  smoked salmon and carpaccio of red tuna

Ventricina abrruzzese: a traditional abbruzzese type of salami, see http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventricina, but in the form of a spread:

Two things on this service plate:  Coglione di Mula  and  Salamino di Cinghiale:  Coglione di Mula is a type of mortadella that contains a piece of lard in the center, and they're cured by tying a pair of them on a string and then hanging the string over a pole; so they look like the balls of a mule, and that gives it it's popular name.  See http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortadella_di_Campotosto

Salamino di Cinghiale is small salami of wild boar meat.

Focaccia con prosciutto:  focaccia is a thin flaky bread that's similar to a pizza dough, here it's just wrapped with prosciutto.

Two appetizers on this tray: Fiori di Zucca Ripieni and Formaggio Fritto:  the lower half of the picture has Zucchini Flowers filled with ricotta, battered, and fried.  The upper half has battered fried cheese, usually pecorino.

Focaccia con Lardo di Colonnata: This is a thicker focaccia than that in the other picture, and it's covered with a special gourmet lard from Tuscany:

http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lardo_di_Colonnata

Fichi con prosciutto:  these are fresh figs (I helped picked them that very morning) with prosciutto.

So, if anyone is counting, that's 16 dishes so far.  Those were the appetizers.  We have not even started the real eating yet!

There were only two "primi piatti" on this day.  (I told you it was a light meal)

Timballo:  this is the abbruzzese version of lasagna, and instead of being made with pasta made from grain, it's made with crepes.

Pasta fresca con sugo di gorgonzola e pistacchi: fresh pasta with a sauce made from gorgonzola cheese and pistacchio.

Pane:  two types of locally baked fresh bread.  I am including them here with the primi piatti because the bread is so often used to help with eating the sauce.

That's it for the primi piatti.  After the first plate comes the second plate.  This was a light meal, remember, so we only had one second plate and a few side dishes (contorni).

Two things in this photo.  The meat is the "secondo piatto", it's what counts.  The pepperoni on the left is one of the contorni.

Arrosto di maiale e peperoni fritti:  Roasted pork and fried red peppers.

Melenzane arrostite:  roasted (really lightly pan fried) eggplant. The little red things are a spicy red pepper.

Peperoni con patate:  Roasted red peppers and potatoes.

That's all for the first and second plates.  All that's left is the fruit and the dessert.

Frutta fresca di stagione: fresh seasonal fruit.   Kiwi, pescocce  (a yellow flesh peach with a very solid body, see http://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percoca), grapes, banana.

Torta Sacher:  sachertorte.  Not an abbruzzese tradition, just happens one of the family recently had a birthday and their favorite cake is a sacher torte.

So that's it.  If you count all the dishes, including the fruit, the cake, and all the photos where there were two dishes in a photo, you come up with a 26-course lunch.  Not counting three wines (spumante, montepulciano d'abbruzzo, and a brachetto) and the coffee.  This is "a light meal" here.

One last picture for you all: