The rambling recipes & travels of a home baker

Greetings from San Patrignano, Italy.  This is an extra little report from my trip as the bicycles are for residents only, so last night I did a little research on a little (big!) event called SQUISITO.  It is a gastronomic festival of food items and cooking and classes held yearly (www.squisito.org) at the town of San Patrignano.

First about San Patrignano, it is a community-town that was started over 25 years ago as a place for people recovering from drug abuse.  Its mission is bold and provides dignity to those trying to recover and does not preach any one philosophy or religion.  Here, they provide training in the gastronomic and graphic arts, while helping them recover.  It is pretty amazing.  So each year, they host this three day festival called SQUISITO.  There is a huge hall with stalls of samples of food (sadly, I can only purchase those vacuum sealed and canned-jarred) where you can pretty much lunch your way through this place – cheese, cured meats, olive oil, bread, and so much chocolate – those of you in Seattle, be prepared, I seem to have covered the market on chocolate.  So that is one huge aspect of this event, and then there are the five chefs across Italy who have prepared menus that you can purchase and lunch on the lawn complete with a paper blanket.  Then they have turned the gymnasium into a part lounge and the other half is an village where you can taste wines across Italy from Piemonte to Calabria (that should be north to south, if I have my geography correct).  You pay a certain amount and get a little pouch with a wine glass and go to town.  I am sorry for all of you oenophiles, but I was unable to taste due to my inability to drink alcohol….oh well.

They also have classes that you can take and I missed the one on cake, but I don’t think I would have been able to see or understand much.  They even have a blog cafe which is where I am now writing to you.  The residents of San Patrignano are both helping to prepare foods and also run the entire event.  It is pretty amazing and I feel lucky that we saw the poster for the event while near the University in Bologna.  It turns out that this place is an 1.25 hour train ride east (just south of Rimini on the coast) and a twenty five minute bus ride, but here I am….and in less that 16 hours I’ll be on a flight back to the states.

Observations on being around Italian foodies, they like freebies and free tastes just as much as those of us in the states, the food here is just a bit more gourmet.

Well, I think I am being kicked off the computer, so I’ll log off.  Look at the website, and also read about San Patrignano, it is pretty amazing.  Seems like a tranquil place to recover.  There are thousands of residents here, hard to imagine.

Best wishes to you all, hope that I see some of you soon.

Cheers,

Marlene

ps.  Berto, you really should come up here next year.  It is just up the road from you and you get to sample foods from all over Italy. 

Greetings from Bologna-

This is going to be the last one of these from Europe, as I leave early on Monday and it is late Friday night.

Wednesday afternoon, we left the quiet sunny shores of Senigallia and took a direct train into Bologna (no, sorry all you folks who voted for Croatia, it just didn’t happen).  It is always a shock to go to a big city after being in the peace and tranquility of a region that is relatively quiet and undiscovered.  In a few years, you can rent Berto’s farm house, he’s going to be fixing it up.

Bologna is a large city, but has a really lovely historic center.  During Medieval times, it was required that people build loggias and porticos, so much of the town center is lined by tall 15-20 foot loggias which is nice because it separates the pedestrian from the cars, and even better, only buses, taxis and scooters can travel in the historic center. Bologna does however seem to need a bit of a power wash as many of the buildings could use a little love.  The loggias also take the place of street trees, so the historic center is lacking in greenery.

Like Paris, Bologna was ringed with a protective wall which now exists in plan as a ring road with assorted ruins along the way that once served as gates and entries into the city.  In the center of town is the Piazza Maggiore.  It is bordered by the Basilica of San Domenico which is fascinating as is one of the few churches I have seen with red brick structure inside.  Also fascinating is that the lower twenty feet of the church is clad in decorative stone, but up above, evidently the city decided to establish the university so the money went there and the top remains unclad.  It happens a few times in Bologna and well, Pam pointed out that it was as if Bologna just ran out of money.

What we also loved was that any sort of two wheeled bicycle, no matter how crappy the condition serves as some sort of transportation in the city.  The city has free bikes and I am planning on riding one out to a church outside of town, but I am trying to psych myself up to do so amongst the traffic and scooters.  But if I go slow, then people will just go around me…..wish me luck.  I don’t have a helmet….yikes.

Yesterday, Pam and I took the train up to Verona (think Romeo and Juliet) not so much to see anything related to that, but really, to visit the Castelvecchio Museum which was designed by Carlo Scarpa.  It is a wonderful intervention into an old medieval structure on the banks of the Adige River.  Scarpa had a hand in designing not only the spaces, but the connections holding all of the art pieces in place, from the smallest detail to the overall scheme.  It was quite inspiring to see how many details he thought about, it’s rather humbling. 

After the obligatory afternoon ice cream, we attempted to go and see the old Roman Arena in the middle of town, but it was closed in preparation for a show!  The show was get this, a ROCK OPERA, “Dracula”.  Seriously???

The arena dates back to the Roman times, but amazingly is still used as an outdoor theater for the Opera and other performances!  On September 16th, Pearl Jam perfomed there.  Random.  So we headed over across the river to the Giardino Giusti which is a hidden gem of a garden.  Renaissance statues and tightly cut foliage, strong axes and ultimately a lovely view of Verona.  They were prepping for an evet there as caterers were setting up and they had massive amounts of lights with green and red gels ready to be aimed at the statues.  I wonder what was going on, but it was going to be stunning.

This morning, we wandered over to the Museum of Human Anatomy at the University of Bologna.  In the 17 and 1800s, evidently there weren’t too many cadavers to dissect, so they would build these amazing replications out of wax.  They are extremely detailed and stunning works of art in their own right, but quite honestly, they made me (a) super thankful that I am not in the medical field (eww…gross) and (b) I like that everything is all contained in that lovely package we call skin. 

We attempted to go to the Ducati Factory just outside of town, but alas, the tour was full, so we ended up just wandering through Bologna.  For those of you who care (AK, LB) Ducati has a museum and a factory just outside of Bologna and you can take a tour if you make reservations ahead of time.  We just didn’t.  Very sad.

Other observations about Bologna, it’s a university town, so there are a lot of young folks around, the energy is high.  I hear a lot more languages and see many more folks of different ethnicities here, so not nearly as much staring.  It is a big trade show/fair/convention town, so big motor shows and such come to town often.  I truly am amazed that the Italians still take the two and a half hour lunch between 1 and 3:30pm.  It makes for a very random assortment of hours.  They dress a bit nicer here (more suits) but that could also be the fact that this is one of the larger cities in Italy, but also in general, Northern Italy seems to be much more well off than Southern Italy.  Verona in particular seemed very rich and seemed to have cranes dotting all over the area!

Of course, the food is lovely, as the Bolognese have made pasta an art form.  I however, think I am done with pasta.  It is hard to believe, but it’s true.  I love looking at it and seeing all the forms, but I am totally starched out.  Bring on the produce box!  Travelling in Italy is lovely, but I am yearning for a much simpler meal.  And as for the being “feasted upon”, I evidently taste very sweet to the Italian mosquitoes as I seem to be the natural bug repellent for Pam.  So far Pam: no bites; Marlene: at least ten.  Sigh.

Tomorrow Pam heads down to Rome to catch her flight home and I stay in Bologna two more days.  I thought about maybe going to Modena or Parma, but I am excited about getting on one of those city bikes complete with basket and bell! 

Monday starts the long journey home (via London and Dallas/Forth Worth).  Let’s just hope that my luggage makes it!

Thanks for listening and reading.  Photos to come soon.

Cheers,

Marlene

Hello from Senigallia, Italy.  I have been reunited with my luggage!  I was overwhelmed by the choice of clothing that I had!!!  More importantly, I had run out of undergarments, so I was happy to be back in business!

We took a break from Fugiano (the country house) and have come down to the coast to spend some time in Senigallia, a small city (population 41,000) on the Adriatic.  It’s a popular family beach vacation getaway for Italians during August, but once it turns to September 1st, the city empties and only the locals are around.  Sort of like what happens to Martha’s Vineyard or the Oregon coast in the fall.

In any case, once again, while travelling in the countryside of Europe, I acutely feel the “in between-ness” of being American with a Chinese heritage.  My mindset, clothes and walk feels distinctly American, but I often forget that my face is Asian.  When people ask where I am from, I think they are asking where in America, but they actually assume that I am from China.  I never think so much about being Chinese unless I’m outside of the States.  Ironically, when I travel to Asia, I feel like an outsider there and they know I’m not from Asia, and when I travel in Europe, they don’t consider me American; only in America does it seem not to matter.

So, we came down to Senigallia and we went for some fresh seafood along the beach, but alas it wasn’t as charming because the weather over Central Italy is rainy, heavy rain!  We stopped for some gelato (tartufo (chocolate), lime and mandarin – continuing my trend of trying flavors I can’t get in Seattle) and while Berto and Donald (Pam’s cousin) went back to nap, Pam and I wandered over to the Bread Festival (http://www.panenostrum.com/). 

Every September, Senigallia hosts bakers from some of their sister cities (Chester, England and Sens, France and Lorrach which I think is in Switzerland or Germany – anyone??).  OK, how excited was I that they made the bread RIGHT IN FRONT OF US??  It’s like the Food Network about baking!!!  I managed to chat with the French baker from Sens as he was making broiche (dang, that’s a LOT of butter).  Then the bakers from England returned from lunch and they started baking hot cross buns!  I could have stood there all day!  It’s like I was a baking groupie or something. 

Eventually, Pam was able to rip me away from my obsession enough to walk through town, but it was raining so hard, we stood in a doorway for a while before going to the local museum to see a photo exhibit of a local photographer named Mario Giacomelli who just passed away in 2000.  Giacomelli’s photographs are high contrast, black and white of the local country landscape as it reflects pattern and texture.  You can see some of his work here:  http://www.robertkleingallery.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=17082

On the way back to Berto’s apartment, Pam and I stopped for some water and juice, and while waiting outside of the grocery store (alimentari) an elderly Italian woman came up to me, as if I was a museum piece and she said, “Belissima Signorina” which I think translates to beautiful lady.  I uttered out a “Grazie” and a “non parlo Italiano” and smiled and ran away.  Pam just laughed.  Well, I suppose it’s better than someone coming up to you and pointing and laughing, but it relates sort of back to what I was saying above.  Ironically, this morning up in the counrtyside I took a short jog and people stared openly, but mostly because (1) no one really seems to jog here and (2) Berto is pretty sure an Asian girl running around the Le Marche countryside not a typical sight.  Ah well.

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So now it’s three days after I started that email and I’m back in Senigallia.  Tomorrow, Pam and I are going to get out of Berto’s hair and leave him peace. 

We all took a short trip to Assisi on Monday, then stayed in the mountain town of Norcia which is well known for its cured meats.  Assisi was quite lovely, but ironic that a town known for a Saint (Francis) who was known for giving up all of his worldly goods to spread the gospel is so overrun with trinkets of little monks and postcards….Then on the way to Norcia, Berto, who is getting his phd in ancient Roman architecture (mostly tombs from the time of Augustus – did I get that right, Berto?) showed us an off the roadside Roman inscription and pre-historic ledge.  Sometimes I get a little glazed over, but it is always amazing to come back and realize the ingenuity that people had over two thousand years ago and the fact that these elements still remain around us. 

This morning, we left Norcia and headed up to the top of Mount Sibillini to a little town called Castellucio.  On the top of this mountain is this flat plain called the Piano Grande and it’s a mecca for hang gliders and parachuters.  It’s also famous for its lentils so we stopped and had a hearty dish of lentils and sausage.  Yum.

We then traveled down to the town of Ascoli Piceno which is just on the southern end of Le Marche.  I am now getting tired of writing, so I won’t say too much about Ascoli except that there is a lovely Piazza del Popolo where one can have a drink and once again, there are Roman ruins everywhere. 

Who knows where I’ll write from next.  The original plan was to travel up to Verona tomorrow and visit Verona and Vicenza, but we are running into some hotel issues and we may just stay in Bologna and day trip to to Verona.  It’s not like there isn’t enough to do in Bologna as it is supposedly the gastronomic capital of Italy (could be debateable).  We did for a moment consider taking the hydrofoil over to Split, Croatia, but that could be too much….or could it?  We’ll see…..

Till the next e-mail which could be from anywhere,

Ciao!

Marlene