Christmas Warm Up

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New Shoes!

I love how many different trades there are here, and the artistry that goes into them. Today, you will meet Signor Zoppini. At 91, he is as active as ever, rheumy eyes notwithstanding, and is a joy to be around.

He recently made me a pair of custom shoes...the fourth I've had him make for me. Because my foot is a rather strange proportion, it can be difficult to find off-the-rack shoes; his prices are actually competitive with real leather, decently-made factory shoes, so I'm not complaining. This time around, we talked about the shoes I like, general look, and so on. When I left, we had agreed that he would just use his imagination and knowledge of my style to make me something I'd like.

When I went to the preliminary fitting, they just took my breath away! Of course, there was no fixed heel and the sole was barely attached. But he had just outdone himself.

Then came the day to bring these shoes home.

I love the amount of detail he put on these shoes! They have the frilly details while being serviceable walking shoes that will take me everywhere.

Love,

Alexandra

Recipes on Air

As I was travelling to the airport yesterday (I'm in England visiting Ann and James at the moment!) listening to some pop station on the radio, they had a quick program break for people to call in their favorite easy recipes. The one I heard: Fry up pancetta until golden (a decently long description of how to know when you had it exactly right), then add pine nuts (with cautions against over roasting) and fresh sage. Toss with fresh tortellini, preferably from a local shop.

(This sounded pretty tasty, so I figured I'd share...but to me, the funny part was that the radio deejays were unanimous in saying that this was total bachelor food! Didn't sound like the food of any bachelors I ever knew....)

Love,

Alexandra

None of Your Beeswax

I have been toying with the idea of playing with beeswax...lip balm, moisturizers, whatever. Having extremely sensitive and dry skin, the thought of having minimal ingredients was appealing to me. Plus, making mud pies is one of the delights of life.

And a source of beeswax was readily available: my favorite local apiarists Brigida and Federico! I mentioned it to them ages ago, and we eventually got it together. He gave me a rather unappealing double-bagged mush: he explained it was particularly special because it was the wax the bees use as the stopper rather than in the comb (I think), and blah blah blah. That's the extent of my technical knowledge, but I am sure that he knows what he's talking about.

So I had this nasty gloopy chunky stuff to deal with. Obviously, the first thing to do was to melt it down for separation or amalgamation. One way or another, this stuff had to be converted into something. I did research enough to tell me that you must use a double-boiler with beeswax, but the recipes I'd seen expected you to start with beeswax, not crumbly gloopy stuff in a bag.

Hm. Double boiler. That involved a cheapy pan from our other apartment and one of my larger pots for the bain marie. I transferred the clumpy, oozy stuff into the pan, and started heating. It was fascinating: it liquified into this clear-looking/brown grainy mixture that I then strained into a container.

Not a success.

I ended up with a nasty strainer, honey on the bottom, and a bunch of crumbly, nasty brown stuff with a little yellow wax on top. Well, that didn't work out so well! I thought perhaps reheating would release more wax from the brown, grainy mass. I retrieved it from the top of the honey (decanting the honey into a jar), and tried again. This go-round, I got a lot more of the luscious, rich yellow wax. But how to separate at the interface?

Time for more research. The first sentence hit my eye, menacingly: "Use only disposable items, because everything you use for wax separation will be irrecoverable." Well, hadn't used my disposable kitchen (!), and so far the body count was:

1 Pyrex measuring cup, imported from the US (therefore not easily replaceable)
1 large sieve
1 serving bowl
1 paring knife (my favorite, of course)
1 rubber spatula
1 frying pan
1 smaller pot
1 mug
2 spoons

Oh, dear.

The author did go on to suggest using cardboard containers (her example was a milk carton, but milk here only comes in plastic; I went native and used a cardboard tomato sauce container) to receive the wax, and cheesecloth to filter the liquid. She also confirmed my suspicion that the yucky brown crumbly stuff was destined for the trash.

Time to find cheesecloth. Luckily, I found it fairly quickly at a local cloth store, since it's not considered "home goods."

The third wax separation session took a while to get to, because of life. But it went reasonably well. I have some lovely yellow wax! I had a remainder to deal with that waited on a (much delayed) session that happened tonight. The reason for the delay, frankly, was that I knew that right after finishing it, cleaning all the utensils would be a normal expectation. And I was daunted by the cleanup, to put it mildly.

I needn't have worried. After wax separation, I followed my hunch to use baking soda and boiling water. Apart from the sieve (which I couldn't be bothered to try, to tell the truth), everything came clean beautifully and quickly after a soak!

The kitchen is completely back in business, and we have a pile of beeswax to use and honey to eat!

Sweetly,

Alexandra

Strike

Today, I had to go to the post office to send of a letter. I walked in and it was awfully quiet. I took a number. I got 001, to give you an idea of how quite it was. I of course walked straight up to the desk, and asked to send my letter. The poor lady who helped me out was very nice about helping me understand what kind of letter I wanted to send, because evidently there are different levels of security.

While I was addressing my envelope, a guy walked in and needed a banking service (the post office does those here). The lady looked at him and said, "Sorry, we're on strike. We're only doing postal services today; use the machines outside." At that point, the costumer went outside, presumably to do just that. A minute later, he came back complaining, "You shouldn't go on strike if the machines are broken."

At that point I was almost done, so I managed to get outside before laughing like a crazy person. Because obviously you go on strike to inconvenience people as little as possible.

So that was my funny story for the day.

Ciao,

Florence

Tremulous Times

After four years of relative inactivity seismically speaking, the plates under Italy have begun to move. Since August, we have been experiencing tremors and some quakes of various intensities, and it is really affecting everyone around here.

Amatrice suffered complete collapse, and over 300 deaths (I don't know the exact toll); in any case, the community is shattered physically and emotionally. Since that time, Castelluccio di Norcia (of the beautiful flowered plains) has been levelled, with the exception of some modern buildings. Several important churches in Norcia (including the Basilica of Saint Benedict) have been crushed, and photos of the road show a vertical shift of 8" and more. The amount of energy in these movements is truly impressive.

In the meantime, we in Todi continue to feel tremors, aftershocks, and so on. The tremors are happening on some level every 5 minutes or so, and while one doesn't always feel them specifically, we are walking around feeling mildly seasick.

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's real or psychosomatic, but Ashley and I in particular are feeling rather queasy and ready for this amusement park ride to stop. At times, I am awoken by the bed's shaking; it seems to happen when the quakes are 3.8 or higher. Getting to sleep can be difficult because it feels as though I'm on a raft in the ocean. There are several locals who are sleeping in their cars.

Our sufferings are absolutely trivial in the context of what is happening a few short miles away, but I figured I'd document what our experiences are.

Love,

Alexandra

Parma, then home

The last day of our trip held a visit to Parma. As it turned out, it was the day with the most free time...and the same day that all the shops are closed (Sunday)! However, we enjoyed another tour with a guide who knew how to handle our personal know-it-all (I called him the self-appointed tour guide) who had been bogging the visits down up until then. Phew!

The visit included the Duomo and the Baptistery, the exterior of many buildings, and a walking tour. Since my camera battery had died by that point, I was reduced to taking photos with my ipad; being cumbersome, there aren't a whole lot. By no means is it indicative of my opinion of the town!

The piazza felt very spacious.

Inside the church...loved the figures overlapping the edges!

Inside the Baptistery

The font offers full immersion, which was the norm in
medieval times. Imagine in winter!

LOVED the ceiling.
The statues in the arcade area are the months plus a few for the seasons;
not originally in that location, someone
decided at some point to shove them up there.

This chapel reflects the original plan: somewhat sparse,
with stylized fresco work and plain/somewhat
rough stone. The architect died partway through
and the side chapels are now a mishmash of different
frescoes with varying levels of professionalism
and a wide range of themes.

Post office

I was amused to see the pigeons nesting in a zone that had been "pigeon-proofed"
They are ingenious in this way.

Love,

Alexandra

Mantova (Mantua)!

It's taken me a while to update the blog; normal life just has a way of interfering!

So, Mantua was probably my favorite of the three cities we visited. Like the others, it was quite flat and very walkable (and bikable...lots of bikes!). We started off by visiting the Palazzo del Tè, the Tea Palace, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. It was originally built as a little get-away for the marquis and his mistress (he was not particularly charmed with his arranged marriage), and the workmen misunderstood the word "little." Built about 80 years before Versailles, Federico Gonzaga displayed an intimate understanding of how one can spend money. A single-story villa, each room is more impressive than the one before!

Ceiling panel

The ceilings were incredible

This room had life-sized horses frescoed all around...and entire barn full!

The ceiling, again...just incredible

Floors weren't bad, either, but date a bit later

Rather debauched feast

The trompe l'oeil perspective is so effective as to be unsettling

The Hall of the Giants

 The Hall of the Giants deserves special mention. Cavernous and creepy, it didn't take much imagination to perceive how creepy this would have been without natural light. Lit only by a fireplace (no longer extant, unfortunately) that supposedly was created to look like a natural cave...all rough rocks...this room with its all-over frescoes depicting the fall of the Titans is imposing, startling, and very Halloween-y. The faces of the giants are several feet (maybe even a yard) top to bottom, and the ceiling trompe l'oeil cupola just adds to the overall effect. Not, in truth, a room in which I would spend a lot of time were it my house, but great for ghost stories!

"Cupola", Sala dei Giganti

Moving to lighter topics, we have a dressing room ceiling...

 After lunch, it was time to move on to the Palazzo Ducale and the famous Camera degli Sposi. Studied in every art history class all over the world, it was time for me to see it in person. The importance of the room is in its use of perspective. For the first ti
me, we see little angels from above; from our perspective, we can see their little feet!

I took a video of the Camera degli Sposi to show you the full effect. Half of the walls are frescoed with the "stamped leather" look. The other two show scenes from the Duke's life (including one wall depicting his finding out that a relative is seriously ill...peculiar topic, I thought). Billed as "the most beautiful room in the world," I would call it an overstatement, personally. It was pretty. And absolutely the work is groundbreaking and I "get" that the technique was a complete departure from what had been done before. But for my taste, I've been in prettier rooms. Nonetheless, it was great to see in person. You get a whole new understanding of the significance of the works. For instance, I had seen the Sala dei Cavalli (the room of the horses in the Palazzo del Tè) in class, but had not really registered how huge and detailed they are.

Other photos in Mantova:

Lunar clock

In this nifty optical illusion, the arm appears to change position depending where you stand!

A high-profile thief got to enjoy some time in this cage. The tower is 115 m high, I think.

This ceiling made me think of those trendy words that came in in the 90s.

A hodgepodge of styles

You can see the above church in the center-left of the painting.
The piazza looks much the same today, minus the fighting dating to the 1600s.

An important merchant's house, this was built in the Venetian style

 I had the joy of being inside the round church, whose name I have forgotten...dates to the 1100s, and was literally hidden in the Jewish quarter for several hundred years and only "recently" rediscovered (after World War II, I think). Very odd.

Love,

Alexandra