The Woman Who Eats A Lot

Wednesday morning market, closing up for the day.

I finally found one that said Biancavilla.

Sweets to accompany an afternoon caffe.

I can't get enough of the arancini. The lower right corner is the lone remaining pistachio flavor

Pizza.

Various stuffed focaccia and capriciosa pizza (lower right).

Breakfast. The dark circle above the horseshoe pastry is called "iris," and is particular to this area.

Scandura's exterior ^v

Franciacorta, bought for New Year's Eve.

A modern courtyard with a preseppe.

San Francesco.

Topiary within a topiary.

This is a barber shop. I tried to get the sign and the item in the lower right corner....

....which is a wine vat. Have a drink on the patio before/after your haircut!

A pile of ficodindia sprouts from a clump of rocks and an old stone building.

The 3-legged trinacria is a symbol of Sicily, and I liked the irony of it being the logo for an orthopedist.

Mariella gave me a Pandora starter.

The day started out with me hearing Ettore's shouts from the staircase, usually "Kaaaaren! Kaaaaren!", but today he was saying something else. Normally, I peer down from above as he spirals upstairs, so I went to greet him. But Andrea, who had him by the hand, said he was going down to Mariella's to play with his cousins who have the week off school, and would I like to come and say hello? So I followed them to Mariella's, who had Agnese laying on her outstretched legs, and Elena in a chair next to her. Since Mariella feeds me all the time, she was up and in an instant she and Piera, her housekeeper, had a spread of candied orange and lemon peel, Pandoro cake, biscotti, and a ton of confections from the pasticceria. Elena often jokes and asks if I'm ever fed back in the States! "You are always eating!', she joked. "But," I said, "Mariella never sits for long, and I never see her eat!", to which she replied, "Yes, because she is vain and wants to be the slimmest most beautiful of all". I love their relationship.

Soon Rachi came in, looking sleepy but happy, and then Maria Teresa. We had caffe and confections and talked about the pandemic. Schools will begin vaccinating the children after the holiday break. Andrea left to get tested; Mariella said she has so much fear and no symptoms. I was surprised not only that testing isn't free, but that it is 15 euro each time! And the home tests are really unheard of. I mean, they've heard of them, but nobody uses them. They defer to the experts to do the swabbing. As we were conversing, I noticed Maria Teresa was wearing a Pandora bracelet, and mentioned it. Pandora is big here. Elena must wear three bracelets at once, and pendants too. I bought Elena a couple of charms for her bracelets for Christmas. We got to talking about jewelry and I mentioned that Joe bought me an Isola Bella watch. They got excited and started telling me about the artist's earring line. I said yes, I saw some of them, they are gorgeous. Very traditional Sicilian symbols, and there are charms as well. Elena said let's go to Mommy's room and look at her traditional Sicilian earrings. At this point, Mariella flew ahead of us, super upset that we'd go into her room, as the bed wasn't yet made! So she brought out a box full of earrings she's purchased over the year, casually tossing aside a lovely D&G pair while she looked for others. 

Ettore and the cousins and I played for a while with the Luigi (Mario Kart) toys, until Alessandro came down and told Rachela to work on her homework until 1:00. She protested (she does very well in school), but Alessandro insisted she does some each day because there is a lot of it to complete over the Christmas break. First of all, bummer for Rachi; second of all, bravo for Alessandro being on top of this so mom isn't always the bad cop! I've noticed that the dads, at least the ones I've seen in this family and around town, do "active duty" in child rearing, and they help out when dinner prep is going on. This would've been life-changing! I remember Nicola and Shifra's sons in South Africa also helped out with things. These Italian parents (and Shifra too) raise their sons well!

Since Ettore was going to be at Mariella's, I went upstairs to get Joe so we could get out for a walk and maybe a bite to eat. I'm still not getting enough of the arancini. As we were getting our coats on, Elena, Mariella, and the kids came up to the play room. I must've misunderstood, so I took off my coat. Elena yelled at us, "Go out! Go out and eat more; go out and get the Covid!" (I do wear my mask outdoors). Before I put my coat back on, Mariella held out her hand and said This was mine, I'm giving it to you to start your own. It is a Pandora bracelet.

We walked to Scandura once we learned Berso' is closed for lunch. The servers recognize us. I threw them off by getting a pistachio arancino today, instead of the heavenly focaccia sandwiches, which they've witnessed me finishing in under ten minutes. But their pistachio arancino is super good. We talked a bit with the waiter, finished lunch, Joe had a caffe, and then I said let's get some Franciacorta for New Year's Eve. The Ca' del Bosco "Giallo" that I wanted was "finished" (they're out), but a sommelier came from the restaurant (how do these people appear from nowhere and know to help?) to recommend another Franciacorta, which was priced the same, so why not.

Back home, I actually napped. Ahhh. That felt good. But now it's almost dark. I tried to start some laundry, but Elena has hers in process, so maybe we will just go out for the evening and I'll do it tomorrow!

*****

Our "chips" at Cafe Victor

We picked a spot that was a bit of a walk away, but passing by it last night, it looked so festive and we read great reviews. Tonight, however, it is closed. Ok; we had a back up. Let's go to Pinto, where we've eaten before; we like it. It's on the opposite end of town. I had small regrets about not wearing my flat-heeled boots, but knew I had Advil at home. We got to Pinto, and it is closed. Ok; well, let's shift our focus away from "ristoranti" to more casual food. We remembered that Victor Cafe had a porchetta panino on their menu, so we walked in, sat at a table, and ordered a couple of drinks. The menus that were set in front of us were for tea and hot chocolate; he must've grabbed the wrong ones, so we asked for the food menu. No, there is no food this time of day. I'll bring the chips that go with your drinks. Ok; well, the snacks were good. We have bucatini at home, so let's stop at the Roman butcher and buy some guanciale and I'll make Amatriciana tonight. Butcher shop was closing. Just then, a text from Vincenzo to Joe: Come downstairs for pizza. My sister is here visiting from Torino. I guess it all worked out! 

I was wearing the 'fur'-trimmed shawl Elena gave me, belted around my waist. She greeted us at the door and said Oh, you're wearing the shawl! Is this to hide that you are getting so fat? We met Vincenzo's sister, Rosalba, and her husband, Flavio, who is from Piemonte. We sat down to pizza and as each variety was passed around, Elena teased, asking how many pieces was I going to eat this time. I eat a lot. After dinner, I asked her if that was all the food she had and what was I supposed to do, go hungry?

Dinner was followed again by a tray of beautiful sweets, oranges from their grove, and Grappa di Amarone. We talked, of course, about the virus, but also about various cities and countries to visit. Flavio has not been to Piazza Armerina. Vincenzo mentioned we were just there, and what is our opinion? Is it worth the drive? Of course we loved the mosaics and the city itself, so we said yes. This caused Elena to talk about the Sicilians, saying that, if these mosaics were in Milan, a beautiful spot would be set up to enter and visit and all the world would be able to see them. I pointed out that, if they were in Milan, it would be easier. These are in central Sicily, and it has to be a destination you're willing to commit to. She said, but yes, even in Ireland they make a bigger deal of things: Oh look, here is a sheep. Let's spotlight this sheep! 

I brought up the rich language of Italian gestures that seem so simple but, as I explained, I cannot duplicate exactly. One of them is the simple tilt up of the chin, eyes lidded heavily, mouth in a moue of consternation, and sometimes, a very slight movement of the shoulder. This gesture is somewhere near the equivalent of our "but what the hell," or "who knows". Elena went through the motions slowly, showing me how to do it, it's like this. I tried. She said, and then translated for everyone else, that I looked as if I were having a seizure. We have gotten quite comfortable with each other.

I got in a call to Maria and Lori tonight, to Nikos earlier. The Denver shooting spree is enough to put Maria (and her mother) on edge. What the hell with this gun business... the rest of the entire free world can't understand what's with the US and guns. But that is a discussion for another time. Tonight, I'll sleep fast -- Ettore comes early tomorrow!