The Anatomy of a Kitchen

After our post on the new kitchen, I had several people ask about different elements of the layout. I therefore decided to share some of the features and explain some of the differences between a common American kitchen and a basic/not hugely expensive Italian kitchen.

To begin with, the cost of the kitchen redo was a fraction of the cost of a typical American kitchen. Kitchens are NOT included in a house sale, so they are typically not built-in, but rather are modular units (think Ikea style). As a result, market forces have driven local costs down over time. For reference, Michael priced a similar set of Ikea cabinets in the US versus here (it wasn't completely available, since not all the appliances are comparable)...and the cost in the US was roughly five TIMES the cost of the Italian version.

Let's start with the fridge. Our fridge is much larger than we had before and is considered a medium-sized fridge by local standards.

The fridge is the right-hand cabinet

It also includes...a freezer! Our former freezer was a corner cut out of the fridge, much like you would find in a dorm room.

Freezer!

Okay, so the fridge is a wee bit small compared to American standards. What do I not like? Well, the obvious: it doesn't hold as much. What do I like about it? We don't waste anywhere near the same amount of food as we did before. We buy daily. The food is fresh. And we generally know what our needs will be for that day. It also uses a fraction of the energy.

Next: the oven. Generally ovens are electric, and generally have a convection setting. Note that ours has a preset "pizza" cooking level. This is a normal oven, and is rather small by my standards. It is plugged into the wall rather than being hardwired, and just has a normal plug.

Pizza: bottom center

Now for the stove. Stoves here are virtually all gas. You will occasionally find an auxiliary electric burner built in. However, there are two considerations: electricity here is rather spendy and you have a limited electrical service (meaning only one major appliance can run at a time...in this case, one burner would be a major appliance). So, gas stoves are the stovetop of choice.

Note the gas hookup in the corner. Yes, it is surface-mounted gas piping. And, yes, that is a non-GFCI-protected outlet into which plug the fan and the stove (for the ignition! No more lighters!). None of the outlets in the kitchen have GFCI protection.

Gas must be switched off if you leave
for vacation

Not required in an Italian kitchen, but considered a major plus:

Yes, that's right. The fireplace. The kids and I did a smoke test the other day and determined that the chimney does draw. So we think we may even learn to cook over the fire this winter!

What do you notice I haven't mentioned? Did you guess? The dishwasher. Dishwashers certainly exist here -- and plenty of people have them -- but they are by no means considered an indispensable appliance. We elected to continue without a dishwasher (or rather, with 5 dish washers), but did upgrade to a double sink: a luxury.  (Oh, and under the sink, they have a metal liner rather than the expected MDF, which should help with the longevity). Our reasoning? Again, a dishwasher is a "major appliance" and we really wanted the cabinet space instead.

Love,

Alexandra

The Cycle of Life

Since we have been here, there have been three deaths that have affected us more or less directly (knowing the person or relatives, for example), three weddings, and three births.

The most recent death is terribly sad, and I wanted to tell you about how the town has mourned together. A local businessman who was very much in the forefront of the commercial community here ended up in tremendous debt (according to local gossip; I have no real information) and hanged himself in his shop just after lunch one day. He leaves his wife and two small (3 and 6) children.

We didn't know him personally, but we were very touched to see the collaboration among the shops inside and outside the walls. The death occurred on a Friday. Saturday morning, you could see in EVERY shop window (no exceptions) a printer-size piece of paper with a black ribbon and "Grazie Roberto" written on it. Saturday afternoon (a huge business day for everyone, particularly since we're at the end of the tourist season), all the shops closed to honor him. And Sunday, the day of the funeral, all activities were called off. The funeral was at Crocefisso (just outside the walls, and very near his shop), and it was absolutely swarming.

In the midst of this grief, I was heartened to see the coming together of the community. This has been such a tough time economically for this small city, and of course during stress, tensions can come into play. All of this was put aside in order to allow everyone to grieve together.

On a happier note, Florence, Jeremy, and I sang at a wedding on Sunday down at Consolazione. It was an absolutely charming affair, and rather different in a few ways from other weddings we've attended. To begin with, the church was still occupied by the earlier event (50th anniversary Mass) at 11:30, the time the wedding was supposed to begin. At 11:35, participants started pouring out of the church, and so others pushed their way in simultaneously (the choir included!).

At about 11:45, there were partially robed guest priests looking for the bathroom (to be found at the bar across the street...no water in the church), a singer warming up, the PA system being balanced, and just general mayhem.

At 11:55, something lovely happened: while to all appearances, nothing was going to happen anytime soon, our conductor told us to start the first hymn. Okay, then! We started up this cheerful hymn with the theme of the Wedding of Cana, and the entry doors were suddenly surrounded by guests, and the priest was at the doorway greeting the couple -- who walked inside arm in arm. The three of them walked up together.

Since it was a Sunday Mass, we had the regularly scheduled readings. The priest shooed off the photographers during his homily, stating that he and the couple had worked very hard to prepare for this homily, and that they were just being distracting (!!!). Good for him. The sweet thing? He was able to chew them out by name because of course he knew them all. Later, when he needed help handling everything (no altar servers, for some reason), he called another fellow up onto the altar to give him a hand... All in all, it was a very warm, loving, family-oriented wedding and we felt very fortunate to have had the chance to attend.

And babies? It's such fun to see "my" babies coming up or down the street and to snatch a cuddle!

Love,

Alexandra

Pests

When I was singing at a wedding yesterday, I saw a smallish creature crawling around on the floor of the church. Cricket? Largish spider? I couldn't quite tell.

But that got me to thinking about the pests we have here.

I haven't seen a cockroach since we've been here...and since that is my least favorite of the possible pests, that makes me happy.

So, what pests do we have?

Depending on the season (and because we keep the doors and windows open most of the time), we have big, fat, lazy flies that you can kill with your hand...or (as Michael and Jeremy prefer) by shooting a rubber band.

Late spring, we have something nasty called pappataci (a type of sandfly), which will give a wicked bite: looks like a mosquito bite, but bigger and with a clear liquid head on it. Fortunately, their season isn't long. Of course, we have mosquitoes, too, but there don't really seem to be that many.

At some time, we get fruit flies. They were at their peak about 2 weeks ago, so that could give you some idea.

Bigger stuff?

Well, hmm. Depends on what you call a pest. With the windows open, we have had bats fly into the house a couple of times (easily removed...the first one, I just shut the door from the family room to the rest of the house and pretended I hadn't seen it. By the morning, it was gone....the second got stunned and we covered it with a hat for safe removal). We've also had a young swift come in by mistake.

And it would be dishonest not to tell you about rats. Yes, rats. But, before you get hysterical, I have to say that the very few I've seen have been tiny (size of a gerbil) and rather cute. I did see a flat corpse in the road once that looked like it might have been the size of a small domestic rat, too. They have not been in our main apartment ever, but we did have a funny story with one that entered the second apartment over a year ago, which is far too long to type. If you're desperate to hear it, ask Michael!

I nearly forgot to mention the lizards, iguanas, and pigeons. Depending on your tastes, I suppose those could be considered pests. We've never had a pigeon enter the house, but we do occasionally have reptilian visitors.

It's all a matter of taste, I suppose. But I have to say I LOVE the lack of cockroaches...oh, and those nasty crickets that used to get in our basement!

Love,

Alexandra

Making New Friends!

I had to take Faith to the vet today for some immunization or other. As is usual for me in Perugia, I got lost. But I digress.

As we were chatting, the vet asked what I would think about taking on a guinea pig. Hmm. I asked how the pigs generally get along with bunnies, and got a positive response. So we decided to introduce them.

Meet Rose! (and she and Faith are even color coordinated!)

Love,

Alexandra

A Knighting Ceremony

A week ago, there was a knighting ceremony in the piazza, for the knights templar. Arcus Tuder was asked to participate, and we did… but we didn't shoot. Our job was to process through the piazza, stand in a circle around the knights during the ceremony and process up some steps, into a government owned room, where we listened to a lecture on the Knights Templar. And then repeat the whole process in reverse. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of tourists took pictures of me, because I was the only one smiling.

I'll attach a few pictures.

Ciao,

Florence

Living High off the Hog

The other day, I had a hankering for Brunswick stew. And I still (gloating) had the ingredients for cornbread. Believe it or not, I had found a packet of "barbecue" spice in Verona which I had been hoarding. Obviously, it was all coming together.

The only trouble was the meat.

In the US, I generally used Boston butt for that sort of dish. But how does one translate that? Culo (ass) di Boston? Probably NOT.

Woefully unprepared, therefore, I went to visit Paola and Andrea (the butchers). I explained that I was trying to make a sort of soup/stew that required a fairly fatty pork that could be roasted and then stewed and not get dry.  I explained the name, and said I had a hunch that it might be the ham, based on the name, but of course not cured?

After a bit of consultation, Paola confidently showed me a large hunk o' meat that had bones in it. "Nope, no bones."

"No problem; we'll take them out." Turns out that this piece was from the neck! Go figure. Since she thought it was my best bet, and I have absolute faith in her, I blithely walked out of there with a large chunk of boneless pork neck.

Curiosity got the better of me, though, so I did further investigation. The rest of you probably already know this, so I am therefore exposing my complete ignorance: Boston butt refers to a cut of meat commonly stored in barrels (butts, as in a water butt) and eaten in or coming from Boston. And guess what? Said Boston butt is the meat cut from ... the neck! Paola and Andrea come up spades again!

Love,

Alexandra

p.s. Guess what the word for "butt" is in Italian? In the context of barrel, it's "botte"

p.p.s. The Brunswick stew was delish

Boxing Day!

I was thrilled to find an antique lap desk when we were in Ashburton. This is an item that has enchanted me for more than two decades: the early version of an ipad, if you will. The concept of a lap desk is that it holds paper, ink, pens, and every accoutrement required for correspondence. Generally the wooden box unfolded to reveal a velvet writing surface -- the optimal surface for older dipped pens (quills, early fountain pens) -- inkpots, penrest, and little storage slots. The velvet serves as a hinge to open the panels that conceal the larger storage bins for paper and envelopes.

This particular lap desk was rather dilapidated: the silver of the inkpots' caps was worn to base metal, the glue had come away from the velvet, meaning that the panels opened freely rather than latching, and (most sadly) there was no key. Further, the ribbon loops that would have been used to open said panels had pulled away, damaging the velvet.

However, I took one look and knew that we could take care of nearly everything with the local skills that I had available in Todi, no problem. The shopowner and I came to a deal that was less than half of the original price...and well below any price I'd ever seen anywhere. Sold!

Once back in Todi, I set off to my local friends to get started on the repairs. First stop: Luciana to talk about the silvering. Could she, in fact, get the tops resilvered well for us? And (the big secret) could she engrave the lids with an F? Because of course, having seen Florence's eyes, it had become apparent early on that this was to be a gift for her.

On the silvering, no problem. Luciana couldn't do the engraving, but reminded me about Paolo, a jeweler down the hill. Off I trotted with the lids, with the instruction that he needed to have them finished by the next morning...Luciana was taking a batch to the silverer that day.

I zipped a few shops down to Daniele and asked him about repairing the glue job with the velvet. He thought that he could get it done, but wanted to see the box before he promised.

As I was hanging out with Roberta at Pianegiani later that day, I got the call from Paolo to say that the engraving was finished. Excellent! I called Jeremy to bring down the box, and went down with Roberta to pick up the lids and to visit Daniele.

The lid pickup went without incident, aside from Paolo's fussing about the fact that I had no key for the box. I asked him if he had ideas for obtaining one, but he was fresh out of ideas. Jeremy had previously told me that his cello teacher knew of a place in Perugia we could get old keys, so I wasn't overly worried. But still, a personal referral to a local wouldn't have hurt.

Down to Daniele's. He oohed and aahed over the box, said he'd never seen anything like it, and got started with a will. He scraped off the old glue carefully, puttered around to put on new rubber cement (I never would have thought of rubber cement, incidentally), and then checked out the box while the glue was drying.

The lack of a key distressed him unutterably. He shook his head. He muttered a few imprecations. He pulled the lock out to see exactly how it worked. At that point, the light bulb above his head flashed on. Rummaging around in a drawer, he fished out a key! It was the right general form (hollow tipped cylindrical shaft), but the blade (I don't know key terminology) was too long. Drat.

Nothing daunted, our buddy pulled out a file and started filing down the key to the correct shape...complaining the whole time that the key itself was too long and not really the right one, but it would be better than no key. About this point, he offered us coffee, which we accepted. His assistant went across the street with the order (coming back a moment later with everything in china and glass, on a tray)...and Daniele lost the file.

We spent about 10 minutes looking for the file. Roberta and I learned several new-to-us cursewords and other picturesque turns of phrase. Giving the file up for lost, Daniele went back to the fabric and glue job.

Luckily, his beer must have sparked his imagination, because he then found the file hiding under the press! Back to filing.

Eventually, after many tries, Daniele decided that the key was ready for prime time. He put the lock back into the box. He tried locking and unlocking using the key (with the box open) and then asked me with a grave expression whether I was willing for him to try it with the box closed. "Why not?" After all, the lock and key seemed to work just fine.

Eureka! We had a working key. Which was admittedly long. At this point, Daniele had spent 2 hours on the box, plus spotted us two coffees.

But, no, he wasn't done with us yet. Holding up his hand, he disappeared into what I had previously thought to be a closet ... turned out to be basement stairs. After a few minutes, during which time Roberta and I raised eyebrows at each other, Daniele emerged...with a shorter, more ornate key. Huh?

Daniele put it in the lock, and it worked the first time! So he gave us both keys.

We had a long discussion about the missing loops, and he recommended a ribbon attached with superglue. He repaired the velvet as best he could, and then we were on our way...having paid nothing and having gained a repaired box, two keys, and two coffees. Go figure.

Just a few steps away, I saw my shoemaker in the street, and inspiration struck! Leather pull tabs! So I showed him the box, told him the story, and explained that I'd like some thin leather scrap. No problem...just send one of the boys over.

The next day, James zipped over and came back with leather the perfect color and thickness...and a mighty generous "scrap" it was, too. I cut the leather to shape and superglued it to the edges.

And today, just over a week later, I picked up the inkpot lids from Luciana!

Florence finally has her lapdesk. Expect lots of letters from her!

Box lid

Inkpot on the right plus pen tray

Inkpot on left plus key

Little receptacle under pen tray for spare nibs, etc.
The little leather tab is also visible!

Spot for paper and envelopes

Upper slot for paper

Inside view!

Love,

Alexandra

A Second Semi-official Gara

Today, I had my second gara (FYI, gara is the italian word for any sort of competition; for example, a swim meet is a gara, an archery competition is a gara, and so on). It was a lot closer than the other gara; it was near Terni. The Lucaronis picked me up at about 7:00 (they are a really really nice family, I can't say so often enough). We set off, and after a short drive, we got to Collescipoli, where the others changed…I was already in my costume, so I didn't have to worry about that.
When we got into the city, we had a few minutes of milling around, enough time to greet those we know, but we started fairly soon after we got there.
The targets were hard for me because they were mostly about accuracy, which comes with time and practice. Given that I've only been back a week and a half, I haven't had a lot of practice as of late. However, I had a good time, and that was the point.
I was told that the second competition is never as good as the first (point wise), and that certainly held true for me. Today, I scored 208 points whereas last gara I scored 239… but I thought that it was a perfectly decent score, and I placed 6th in my age group.
I had an absolutely fantastic time!
Ciao,
Florence

Everyone thought it was highly amusing to see me leaning up against the wall (it was sloped); I thought it was awesome because the wall was cold.

My piazzola 

Matteo getting his prize.
The target behind him was timed AND fairly far away AND up some steps

Alessio and his dad's piazzola 

You had to shoot at this one on your knees, through the hole, and with your arrow sticking through the hole (before you pulled back)

This was quite a bit uphill 

After the last target 

Alessio

Dinner's problem solved!

At the end of the day yesterday we still had no water as a result of the kitchen adventure. However, luckily the archery dinner had been moved from Friday to Thursday night. Meaning that we wouldn't have to eat at a restaurant...but would get awesome food nonetheless.

We arrived to find the chefs using the outdoor oven to roast two geese. The geese belonged to Oriano (the gentleman in the white shirt in the photo below), and weren't previously named. I came up with "Oscar" (the name for goose is "Oca" in Italian, so it made more sense), but Oriano informed me they were both female. I then changed one to Carolina. The boys' fencing teacher (also an archer) Albano came up with Joan of Arc...sick, I agree, but very funny nonetheless!

Ashley talking to Albano

Meet Giovanna and Carolina

The large outdoor stove

A serious pot for the pasta

Albano's sauce, made with fresh sausage, wild-picked mushrooms, and homegrown tomatoes

Albano made this ladle. Gorgeous, huh?

Ashley's hand for scale...it's huge!

Michael taking a bit of bread with some of the bacon
 (originally to flavor the goose, but taken out of the oven in time for appetizers)

Come and get it! Oh, I forgot to mention
the incredible roasted potatoes...golden, herbed, and seriously yummy.

One of the many wine bottles, this came
from the gara where Florence placed third

The dinner was rounded out with a crostata (jam tart), after-dinner drinks, and coffee.

Final cost? 5 euros ($7) a head.

Love,

Alexandra

Out with the Old, In with the New!

We finally did it! The old, ruined, nasty kitchen that we were faced with when we arrived has been replaced! 

Michael and I woke up a few mornings ago to find the boys in the kitchen dismantling all the cupboards. They were doing such a nice job that we didn't want to interrupt them, so we went out for coffee.

When we came back, an entire wall cabinet was in its component pieces, and a friend (Alessio) had arrived to help out.

There was a lot of carting items down the stairs, because Oreste (our landlord) wanted to keep the kitchen...because you never know!

Cupboard doors off! More dismantling to go...

James and Michael dismantling the fridge cabinet.

After much fiddling, it's out! We're so happy to see the end of that nasty thing.

Yes, that is SOIL from decayed particle board.

Peninsula out! Time for the upper cabinets!

This is the mess in B, a result of moving everything from the kitchen in our main apartment into the smaller apartment!

The remains of the kitchen, as seen from our balcony.

Cleaning where the stove was. Those girls are saints.

And it's gone! Do you see the pipes leading to the orange bucket? Those are active water pipes. Meaning, we had to shut off water to the entire apartment in order to remove the sink. Thank goodness we have a bathroom in B, even if we did have to take a number!

All clean and ready to go!

Here comes the truck.

Oreste (the little one) and the installer checking out the situation for parking fines at the police station across the street from us.

Technically, they had a dolly. But once they got to the stairs, it was no use. They carried everything on their backs.

Jeremy liked the carabiner closure on the toolbox.

Working on the wall cabinet!

A little bit done on the sink and stove side of the room

The wall cabinets are put on rails for easy mounting and dismounting

Starting to look like something!

We liked the aluminum pan in the sink cabinet...nifty, huh?

Counter installation. A whole lot easier than granite...albeit less durable.

Voilà! A kitchen, complete with coffee cups.

The other side.

The interesting thing about kitchens here is that they are considered furniture rather than installations. As a result, if you buy a house, it comes WITHOUT a kitchen. The only thing that will be in the room will be pipe stubs. Therefore, kitchens come with a variety of price tags (obviously, the sky's the limit) and can be bought for rather modest sums. We priced a similar kitchen at Ikea in Atlanta just for curiosity, and it came to about 2-3 times what we paid. Go figure.

Love,

Alexandra

p.s. We changed out the ugly light fixture today. Michael has hated it since we moved in, and I had the new one delivered and installed for a $20 surcharge.