Joe Valeriano

My husband and I had a date night!

Wow!

That's really a big deal around here. More so than it would be in the States. I can't speak for all of Italy, but in our town, babysitters do not want to work in the evening. They want to go out and have fun themselves! They will work in the morning or the afternoon, but the evening is sacrosanct . . . they are quite put out if you even ask.

When my oldest son was little, I had hired a babysitter so that I could return to work parttime. I also asked her to come for two hours each Thursday night so that my husband and I could go to the movies once a week. She was shocked that I would have the nerve to ask her such a thing. She said to me, "I go out in the evenings. I'm young. You wouldn't understand!"

Thanks.

Seemed strange to me. I mean, it was just one night a week. She could go out with her friends the other six nights. And . . . I was going to PAY her, not a minor detail in my way of thinking. 

Oh, well . . . that's the kind of subtle cultural difference that would just never cross your mind to even imagine. I just assumed that babysitters would work evenings. She just assumed that I would never even think to make her such an indecent proposal. Expectation Clash!

My sons are older now and we feel comfortable leaving them alone for a couple of hours every so often, so last night we grabbed the chance to hear Joe Valeriano live in concert right here in our town.

Joe Valeriano is one of the top blues guitarists in Italy and Europe. And he's an old high school friend of my husband's. Last night he played with a local blues band, led by another school pal of theirs who is not famous at all. He was truly amazing on the guitar. He didn't just strum it, but had all kinds of amazing techniques on the strings. He even punched them sometimes!

Forgive me the lousy iphone photo...

All of my husband's high school classmates were there, cheering on their old friends, both the famous one and the unknown one. 

Finally, a night out on the town for mom and dad, yeah!

Born to Be Wild

After the Men at Play road trip with my younger son, it was only fair that my husband head out on the highway with my older son for their own unique motorcycle adventure. Accompanied by my son's friend and his father they left the sea behind and head for the hills.

The Pollino is a mountainous national park in the Basilicata region. It offers breathtaking views of natural beauty and great wide-open winding roads through it all, ideal for the traveler on two wheels. 

Along the way, they stopped to go for a swim in a man-made lake. It's actually a reservoir, but this is Italy, after all . . . no one told them they couldn't swim there.

So they did.

Notice the ever-present soccer ball.

They stopped off to visit Craco, a medieval hilltop ghost town. It was abandoned in a slow process over decades in part because many residents emigrated in the search for a better life and, more recently, because of earthquake damage.

There are no photos to prove it, but the guys claim they went whitewater rafting, guided by a national level rafting champion. Apparently, the guide was a lot of fun and took evil pleasure in splashing my husband mercilessly. He, of course, took revenge and so amid the splashing and laughing they all had a good time.

Beach Banquet

Sunday in the summertime means meeting up with friends at the local beach club for a day of sun, sea . . . and food. Well, this is Italy, right? Food is always at the center of any gathering, get used to it!

This particular group of friends has a weekly tradition of enjoying raw mussels accompanied by a few bottles of prosecco. In the photo above you can see the guys opening the mussels, while the women stand by ready to dive in, squeeze on a few drops of fresh lemon juice and devour.

That's just the appetizer, however. The real meal is yet to come. Everyone brings something they have cooked  at home to share and you had better be quick if you see something you like, it won't last long!

Unfortunately for gluten and lactose intolerant me, I have to pass on most of these yummy delights. I did enjoy some delicious baked onions and some truly divine grilled eggplant. Mouthwatering!

And, of course, there was the prosecco!

Class of 2011

I have quite a few American friends nearby, which is a great thing. Because for all that it's neat and wonderful to live in a foreign country . . . it's also really nice to have people you can talk to in your own language and who share your cultural background.

Some of these good friends are spouses of Boeing employees who are working on a collaborative project with an Italian company in this area. Four of their children have finished high school this year. Two attended an international school and have actually graduated. The other two attended local Italian high schools and will not have confirmation of having earned their diplomas until they have passed a battery of examinations over the next few weeks.

In Italy graduations are conducted completely differently from in the US. There's no formal ceremony, no caps or gowns. So, these families wanted to give their kids a celebration similar to what they would have had, had they been graduating at home in the States. 

The graduates!

Sometimes I really hate being gluten-intolerant!

Sister love!

A friend sandwich . . . the best kind!

One of the fathers made this toast which I thought was quite nice and, although he said he was drawing on his engineering background, it sounded quite spiritual to me . . . 

We are all energy and we never end . . . so let's take over the world!

Happy 2011

I spent New Year's eve at home with family and friends...a lovely evening that almost didn't happen!

We have all been sick for more or less for the past week with a nasty intestinal flu that left most of us with little or no desire to eat or drink...and what is an Italian celebration if not a celebration of food and drink? My husband and I dragged ourselves out and about to do the shopping, moaning and groaning all the while about how we felt and about what a pity it was that we were not going to enjoy the evening's feast.

Call it off you suggest? No way, that would be a solution for lesser mortals. And besides, we had invited a whole bunch of people over...it wouldn't have been right to leave them in the lurch on New Year's Eve.

Here I am with about 3 inches of makeup shoveled on to make myself presentable. One "good" thing...I lost three kilos in 3 days of stomach flu! Hee hee, but really, that's no way to lose weight!

in order of height...

Our meal was fish-based, but we combined the traditions of the Italians, Americans and Russians present.

An array of international appetizers

Broiled bass on a bed of creamed peas

I survived the evening and even managed to eat a few bites of this and that and toasted the new year with half a sip of Prosecco! I'm planning to leave all traces of that flu way back in 2010.

Let's hope 2011 is a good year for you, me and everyone! Happy New Year!

Battiti Live Concert

Had a great evening with friends in the next town up the Adriatic Coast last night. We made corn tortillas from scratch and then had a great do-it-yourself taco buffet on the roof of their house. Mexican food is a rare treat here in southern Italy, so my taste-buds were *so* happy!

After dinner we took a walk down the seafront into the center of town to hear the Battiti Live concert in the town's main piazza. It was the last show in a summer pop-rock series held around the region of Puglia.

Take a listen to some of groups we enjoyed to get a sense of what's happening in popular Italian music these days...

Lunch at the Beach

What says summer better than a long day at the beach? My kids love it when our usual mornings at the beach extend through and beyond lunchtime.

Even better if Papà and your best friend are there.

Nothing fancy, just a bit of focaccia.

Some salami, tomatoes from the backyard garden.

Some cozze (raw mussels) on ice with lemon.

Good food, good company.

Life's simple pleasures...

A Windy Sunday on the Adriatic Sea

Sunday is the big beach day around here. For many families it's the one day they can spend all together, so they organise a picnic lunch and go for the whole day.

But a very windy day at the seaside is not always as relaxing as you would like. We were all dressed but still undecided whether we should go or not...
A key consideration for me is my hair. Nothing gets me more nervous than my hair whipping about and sticking in my eyes every 30 seconds.
So up it goes, rolled into what they call a "banana" style and held tight with a butterfly hair clip.
Look at those waves. This is very unusual for the Adriatic, there is usually no wave action, just a vast expanse of blue-green water. So unusual that I wasn't the only one taking pictures...
Do you wear jewelry when you go to the beach?
No?
You must not be from my corner of Italy!
All the women here do!

This "Maestrale" wind is a strong wind that blows in from the North-West.

It made it chilly in the shade, but hot in the sun. It's always hot in the sun here in the summer! Some people are hot, others feel cold.

Did you notice the little blue glass pieces these men are using to keep their cards from blowing away?

My beach Crocs. I have a shoe fetish, be patient with me...

No comment.

"When I grow up I'm gonna be a lifeguard!"

Girl's Night Out & A Contest

I didn't realise what a challenge this contest would turn out to be, and I'd like to thank all those who good-naturedly participated! In the end, determining the six nationalities was more of a team effort than anything else! So, for the sake of fairness, I pulled a name out of the hat at random.

And the winner is...Welshcakes Limoncello!

Answer: Ukranian, Bulgarian, Moldovan, American, Italian, Russian

One evening, not too long ago, one of my best friends decided to organise an evening in which she brought together all of her international girlfriends. We went out to the Creperia, a lovely restaurant in the historic center of a little seafront town down the coast a ways. We shared good food and lively conversation and I got to thinking about how fascinating it was that none of us came from the same country. Six different women, from six different nations, chatting away in Italian, and having a wonderful time together.


So, I thought I would create a contest in which, you, my gentle reader, have to guess which countries we are each from. And I even have a prize for the winner! The first person to accurately guess where each woman in this photo hails from will win a copy of Apulia - A Film Tourism Guide, a fantastic guidebook to this region, made even more fantastic because it was translated into English by little old me!


Good luck!

p.s. anyone who is actually in the photo is not allowed to participate, for obvious reasons!

Memories of West Virginia

Our three wonderful weeks in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia have come to an end. We will always remember the new friends we made and the new experiences we had. My parents have chosen a beautiful corner of the world to make their home in. And lucky us! We get to share it with them every once in a while.