The Library...

August 31st, 2008

I believe we have written a few times that we have visited our local library. Today is a good day to pay homage and to discuss it further.

It's a very nice library which appears to have been recently remodeled in probably the last 5 or so years. The outside is a building of strength and tradition while the inside is more modern with an inner steel cabled staircase that takes you up to the third floor (which is the main floor). The three flights up always cause me to break out in a good sweat, like exercising in a warm room. But, upon arrival to the top floor, all patrons are rewarded with an air conditioned environment.

It's a friendly place with computers, "televisione internazionale", copy machines, a nice children's section, large DVD and CD collections, places to sit and do homework, as well as a nice machine that one can buy espresso or other beverages. (Water is a real bargain at .30 Euro!) We have found a section of books in English and most of them are classics. This will provide us a good opportunity to catch up on all those classics we never read at some future date. Our favorite room is the newspaper and magazine room; it has chairs to sit and read and is brightly lit with natural light.

There are signs throughout the various areas to maintain our silence and if not, there is always a librarian to quickly shuuuush the offenders. I am often struck by the fact that it's also a place of trust. Each time we have gone, I have seen women's purses just sitting, half open on a table, or a laptop computer sitting alone for long periods of time; car and house keys are often left on tables. These sights always challenge me as I am the person who has her laptop cable locked to the frame of the pull out guest bed and makes sure that our doors are tripled locked each time we leave.

Within the vast quantities of magazines are two in English: Time and Newsweek. During each visit, we take turns reading and switching and when we run out, there are British newspapers. I always enjoying reading the British paper for their perspective, insight, and phraseology. There's also another small paper that is published infrequently; it's a paper for African Nationals which serves as a news-link but also a resource guide to living in Italy. The last edition went to great length about the new Italian laws that forbid and financially penalize Italians who rent to illegal immigrants. The article was in depth, serious, foreboding and left me feeling sad.

Then, there are ALL the wonderful cooking magazines and who needs to read the language when one can look at the pictures? Being that cooking is one of my favorite things to do (next to spending time with Kim, inserting acupuncture needles, gardening, traveling...)it just takes a good picture or series of "how to" pictures to keep me happily entertained. Before we know it, a few hours have flown by and we descend the staircase (which Kim says is only two floors) slowly acclimating to the warmer temperature preparing us for the outdoors. As we exit, we pass an office that we guess is where one goes to get a library card. To date, we have been too shy/intimidated/fill in the blank about going in and signing up for one. We keep saying that when we run out of books at home to read, we'll hit that classics section. We then begin our walk home. It's usually time for happy hour and for me to make dinner while watching Rex, the wonder dog.

Photographic Interlude...Cittadella

These pictures are examples of some of the exhibition rooms within the Cittadella for the series, "Shapes of Time".
The final picture is the setting of the performance that Kim wrote about....

The Performance

 

 

August 30th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, following our visit to the Cinque Terre, I had confided to a few folks that I was questioning our choice of Alessandria for our year “sabbatical.” Citing the fact that I had never before lived anywhere “landlocked,” I bemoaned how much I missed being near water and why oh why didn’t we choose to live in a more beautiful place, preferably with an ocean view and lots of flowers? (While I was at it, I also should have whined about not having a villa…) Rachel pointed out my tendency to think the “grass is always greener” elsewhere and asked if I really would have wanted to be around so many tourists for half of the year and that there isn’t much else to do there except look at the ocean. I am nothing if not stubborn when I am in a “mood” so I didn’t respond, stayed disgruntled, made plans for a 3 day ocean visit in September and finally my 48 hour “bug” passed. I was once again happy to be here.

I’m a city girl at heart. The day after I graduated from high school my friend Jean and I moved to Boston- to get away not only from our parents but from what I felt was such a sterile, white and culturally barren environment. We may have been only an hour away from New York City but to me it may as well have been Ohio. So having lived in Boston and Seattle, and loving London, Paris, Rome and New York, did I really think I’d be happy spending a year in a small village by the water? Well yes and no- it is Italy after all and it’s not all that far by train to get to a big city…but I can get easily bored and I love art and architecture… so then you might ask why not Rome or Florence or Venice? 2 reasons I guess- high rents and tourists. In our sweet town of Alessandria we still have not heard anyone speaking English on the streets and even at museums and other “cultural events” no one speaks English- which is surprising on one hand (and only occasionally frustrating) but most delightful on the other. And in our fair city, there are museums and music festivals (such as the recently concluded every Thursday night Summer Blues festival) and some exceptional art exhibits. The number of bookstores will be the subject of another blog someday-obviously my other passion.

We are avid collectors of all the tourist brochures that Alessandria has to offer and one that we have admired all summer is the “Shapes of Time,” not because we can read the Italian (we can’t) but because it was so nicely done (see photo). As a matter of fact we have been so smitten with the brochure and with the billboard posters that we failed to pay attention to the fact that this extraordinary multi-site photography and video exhibition that opened in June was scheduled to end August 31st, THIS Sunday. (see www.biennalealessandria.it) In other words, we have been scrambling to see the Shapes of Time only in the nick of time. (No small feat as the hours have been limited, for example, Tues. and Thursdays only 16-19 or Friday- Sunday 16-19 or Sat and Sun. only 15-17.) And while in the last 10 weeks we have become much better at navigating the streets of Alessandria, we now know even more of the city from tracking down all the different exhibit spaces. These venues alone have been an architectural treat. (middle photo is the outside of one such space)

The photography and video installations have been extremely interesting, all with the broadly interpreted theme of time. Tonight we will return to the Cittadella (fist photo)to see the remainder of what we didn’t finish last night. We hadn’t intended to see the exhibit last night but the performance we had gone to see was delayed by an hour (interesting in and of itself- the delay, I mean, when a number of folks had arrived on time just to mill about in the dark parking lot with the haunted abandoned military buildings to keep them company). We opted to stroll the grounds and discovered the largest “Shapes of Time” exhibit thus far. (One that should have closed by 19 per the brochure but inexplicably, except to the Italians, was staying open til midnight). If only we had known what we would soon witness, we would have stayed where we were instead of hurrying back across the grounds to see “the performance.” But then we wouldn’t have seen the celebrity who was being honored prior to “il spectacolo.”

We should be embarrassed to admit this but we had never heard of Anton Corbijn, often referred to as the “fifth” member of U2, the director of all the U2 and Depeche Mode videos and photographer of both bands, photographer of all their big coffee table books, and probably a zillion other things. Not to mention we hadn’t even gotten to his photographs which were being exhibited in the space we had just wandered away from. But there he was all skinny and practically 7 foot tall with his wife and young son (we think), looking very uncomfortable slouched in his front row seat, as a woman on stage went on and on, and on and on some more (kind of like this blog) about his life and work (we’re pretty sure). Followed by another guy who took forever to shut up about this godlike Anton (we think) and then another guy who appeared with an award (or gift?) for Sir Anton. By the time Anton himself stood on stage, he had forgotten all his Italian (or so he said, probably figuring he could shorten the show by simply pretending) and so said a nice short 3 line thank you speech in English which his (supposed) wife had to spoil by speaking in Italian for 5 more minutes. Show off, I say). Okay so this all took at least an hour on top of the initial one hour delay and now it is 11 pm and all 25 or 30 of us (maybe 30) were breathlessly waiting for the performance of “Ragli” (“Queens” we think but I don’t know why it would end with an “i” the masculine plural- and the word wasn’t even in my Oxford Italian/English dictionary).

Let the performance begin! The lights dim, well except for a big spotlight pointing directly into the audience’s eyes from behind the stage, temporarily blinding us all… Then we see (sort of) 3 women in Venetian gowns and holding masks slowly stepping on to the rather small plexiglass stage. A caped man enters, approaches each of them, seductively takes off his cape revealing his incredibly lithe ballet dancer body, and jetés around them a number of times (he was obviously talented as a dancer but all we could do was worry that he’d fly right off the too small stage). A few minutes later, the spotlight again blinds us while more stuff happens (we would have known what stuff( if we could see) between one of the women and our dancer and then the lights go off. After a few long seconds, someone claps in the front row, so we all clap, wondering if it was already time for an intermission- after all it had only been 10 or 15 minutes, tops. But no, it wasn’t intermission, it was THE END.

And just like our blog readers, we stayed until the bitter end… through the curtain call and another speech. We managed to leave as soon as it was polite to do so (how fortunate you are as readers that I will never know when you give up on my blogs…but in case you hadn’t heard, there could be a “pop quiz” at any time). We exploded with laughter when we were far enough away to not be heard and continued “reliving” all the special seconds of the performance and the hours of our cultural evening all the way across the river, back home.

(& Nikki, be careful what you wish for)

Basil

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Kim has had two dreams in which she has been told that our blogs are too long. So, to remedy this for now, here is a short blog about basil.

The picture above shows how we buy basil at the market and grocery stores. It comes rooted in soil and so I have potted it allowing me to have more on hand. (One can also buy it in just leaves without the roots but then I find it always goes bad too fast.) At home in Seattle, all summer, I have basil growing and take great delight in going outside and snipping what I need.

I have found that basil here is a tiny bit more of a delicate flower than Seattle basil. This basil reacts to the hotter weather and easily gets chewed upon by some type of bug. So, I put it outside for a few hours each day and bring it in at night.

My Point of view....

August 26, 2008

Now just a moment; I’m sure many of you are wondering what has gotten into Kim. You are not alone. An honest confession is that, since we’ve arrived, both of us at different times have announced to the other, “It’s going to be a long year….” This, for me, is one of those moments. So I will try to clarify and give my own version and ask that you take a quiet moment out of your day and send me good wishes…

I first met Signore Angelo about a month ago when I was out shopping. At the time, he was very kind and asked me a number of questions about why I’m here, etc. I did let him know that I was here with “una amica” and didn’t see him again until Jean, Kim and I walked by and we stopped to say hello. Kim gave a passable version of that occurrence although I don’t know about the “only had eyes for me part”. I tend to not notice those things mostly because I’d rather just ignore and not get drawn into those life events.

Our encounter of which Kim speaks happened all very quickly. We shop at his place because he’s been friendly and we wanted to support his business. I greeted him with a “Buongiorno, Signore” to which he quickly replied, “To you, I am Angelo” (a comment that I would later identify as foreshadowing). As I started picking out my veggies, he began asking when we’d return to the US and couldn’t we just hide him in our suitcase? HA! HA! HA! We all laughed and smiled; Kim chose a couple of bottle of red wine. Then “IT” happened. As I paid him he reached out to me and I thought we were going to do the traditional quick kiss on each cheek, followed by arrivaderci and ciao! But, he pulled me c l o s e to him, did the two cheek connection, but then wouldn’t let go and began hugging me with a bit of force. As he hugged, he whispered in my ear (I could feel his whiskers tickling my ears!) to the effect of “We could have much love while you are here”. I pulled away and said, “No, Signore! Arrivaderci” and walked out the door. As I got out of ear shot I burst out laughing and told Kim what he’d said. She laughed and laughed leaving me to wonder and ask, “Why are you not jealous”? As we walked home, Kim starting singing, “Rachel has a boyfriend…” And that is what happened.

Next thing I knew, Kim was blogging her twisted version.

(I fear she doth protest MY version too much, non ѐ vero?)

Rachel has a Boyfriend

I can't remember if Rachel ever blogged about the man who owns the little vegetable and wine shop around the corner from us? She came home one day about a month ago and told me how nice the shop owner had been to her when she was looking at the wine bottles on sale outside his shop. They had a nice long "moment" together- he liked the fact that she was American yet was living in Alessandria for a year and that she was here with a "friend". She came home saying she had a new best friend. Somehow I never met the new best friend but I believe now that she probably kept me away from him so that she could have him all to herself. However when Jean was visiting and obsessing about finding balsamico glaze, we tried all the little stores nearby in our search and so went into his. He seemed to enjoy having all 3 women in his shop, asked us about ourselves and if we had husbands, surprised that none of us were married. He commented that Jean, although American, looked so German, so fit and strong. Despite the fact that it was I who was trying to speak in Italian to him, he only had eyes for Rachel- I swear! Then he gave Rachel a complimentary hot red pepper to try at home. Hmmm HOT red pepper, in retrospect I should have been more suspicious...

And while I could kick myself now, when we passed his store today it was I who insisted we look for wine there. If only I hadn't been so foolish I tell myself now... But today they could contain their passion no longer- no more secret longing between them. I may as well have been invisible for it was obvious they only had eyes for each other. To save face, I should have walked out but it was as if I was frozen to my spot near the door. Angelo (ha!, Il Diablo he will forever be to me) had Rachel in his arms, in such a sustained intense embrace, it makes me blush to write. I could hear him murmuring in Italian something like ooh, my little hot tamale, we could make such beautiful love together. At that, Rachel pretended to tear herself away from his arms and moved toward me. But the damage was done- their love revealed. I fled home locking all the doors behind me while she stood at the window and begged me to forgive her. I shut my fabulous Italian windows and can hear her no longer.

A Special Guest Blog!

 

After being home for a week now, I thought I’d better do my guest “blog” (what an ugly word! Is that the abbreviation for something?) before I forget about all the fun.

First of all, it was great to see Kim and Rachel again –and, it was great to see for myself if their life in Alessandria is anything like they’ve been describing it.

Now, I know there are a lot of other faithful “La vita Alessandria” readers out there who miss the girls and look forward to Kim and Rachel’s almost daily reports on their life in Italy (and are disappointed when they leave out a day of report/reflection) but I thought it might be interesting for them to read some comments from a somewhat more “objective” person.

Here are a few of my observations:

Oh yes, their little apartment is quite cute. The ceiling is a really ornate pattern of arched brick. Although the apartment’s small, it certainly gives them more of a “european experience”, where there just isn’t all the space everyone’s so used to in America. Rachel failed to mention that she uses the bidet to soak her feet on a hot day. I don’t know if any other reader noticed but Kim and Rachel have mentioned a number of times that people can see into their apartment. Now, I tried to explain to them that people can only see in if it’s lighter inside than out, which in the time I was there was only at night, when they closed their shutters anyway. But I’m glad they got their little gauze curtains cuz this will help with the mosquitos that eat poor Rachel up (I guess Kim and I aren’t sweet enough!)

About the cars and the noise…the courtyard outside their apartment seems to have the same acoustics they used while building the amphitheatre in Verona where Kim and Rachel enjoyed an opera. If you just talk normally while going from the apartment to the street or vice versa, your voice is carried and amplified as if you were on stage with a big set of Bose speakers. And although they mentioned that the cars have the right of way over all other modes of transportation, they failed to mention the SPEED with which the cars drive down the narrow little cobblestone streets! While lying on the pull-out couch in their living room (having chosen not to close the wonderful soundproof windows), on the morning of “the Ascension of Mary”, I thought I heard Lewis Hamilton drive by -the noise of his racing car also being amplified by the courtyard. I’m surprised no one is killed stepping out of their driveways.

Now, about those bikes Kim and Rachel wrote about -in the 6 days that I was in Alessandria, I remember they were pointed out to me only once. However, it seemed nowhere near where they live. I found that strange! Apparently, you have to travel to get to your bike in this city.

Do you remember Rachel saying that the phone technician spoke a bit of English? Well, I guess he probably moonlights as a national interpreter cuz I met NO ONE (with the exception of the beautiful student in Genoa, who helped explain to us the efforts of the train personnel) who spoke a word of anything other than Italian. We tried English, Spanish and German at the hairdressers but no go-just Italian. Luckily, Samuele and Co. knew what to do with hair AND were very friendly. So, Kim and Rachel found a place where they really have to learn the language and I was very impressed at how well both were doing at that.

As the last part of my guest blog, I’d like to go into a little more detail about the changing/showering situation at the beach on our trip to Cinque Terre. (Please refer to “the Odyssey Part 1”- third picture down). One had to throw all inhibitions to the wind because there just wasn’t any room to do otherwise. I took this picture of my oldest and dearest friend, naked, wrapped only in a flimsy towel, standing in the open public hallway of the shower/changing facility. Unfortunately, I failed to capture the people passing her on their way to the soda and ice cream machines located next to the cashier, who was seated behind me. What a pity! Good going Kimberly!!!