Off to Church...

This past Sunday morning, while playing our daily dose of cards, Kim suddenly announced that she thought we should go to church. She'd gotten the idea from a conversation we'd had with Rita the night before. We'd just come home from our evening passeggiata (walk/stroll) and saw Rita in the courtyard. We chatted for awhile, asking her how the Christmas ritual is celebrated here--when do they open presents (mostly Christmas Eve), do they have big meals (yes with the family and some extended family), is there a midnight mass on Christmas Eve? (We don't know because neither of us could figure out that answer. We're sure there must be but we think she doesn't go).

One thing that happens with regularity is that after Kim and I have had a discussion or conversation with someone we compare notes afterward. "I think Rita said.....well, what I got out of the conversation was....did they say?......." Often we burst out laughing because some of our interpretations are a little contrary. Each of us is a good listener and we will each pepper the conversation with "si, si" as we assume that the other is understanding more. Saturday night it turns out that Kim did understand more. Where I had heard that Rita's granddaughter, Chiara, would be singing in a concert for either midnight mass or on Christmas day, Kim heard "tomorrow at 10:45AM". Thus her announcement at 10AM that she thought we should go to mass on the off chance that she was right. She continued, "I have to keep reminding myself that we are in Italy after all and we should be taking advantage of these opportunities". With that, we got dressed and headed out to San Stefano Cathedral, a five minute walk away.

St. Stefano was constructed between 1742 - 1773. Inside is a famous portrait called "The Madonna del Parto". Painted in the 15th Century, there are different versions of the painting but their collective point is to offer women a place to ask for pregnancy intercession. Rita told us that she had done this when her daughter first married. (Kim thinks she said that her daughter came... see what we're up against?)

Chiara's little choir group sang a 20 minute program prior to mass. They did renditions of Jingle Bells, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, and a few others that we didn't recognize. They were deliciously off tune, the way only children can be. In the huge cathedral their voices celebrated and brought tears to my eyes. Their innocence was comforting.

Chiara is in the lead as they bring an offering of stuffed animals to the nativity scene.

Later, for mass the children joined a group of adults in the choir--all the voices mixing and rising. Chiara is in the front row with the pink scarf.

Later after mass we met the other proud grandparents and learned that our reputation had preceded us. They let us know that their son (Alessandro--Chiara's dad) and daughter (Rosanna our realtor/manager for our apartment) had shown them our blog site. When I went to pay our rent last week, Rosanna told me that she'd seen our blog and was enjoying seeing all the pictures. She gave us a great compliment in that she said we had included "things" in Alessandria that she herself had not seen.

I have to add that I haven't been to mass since my mother's funeral. I found that I did enjoy the comfort of the rituals despite it all being in Italian. As the priest read his long sermon I allowed my mind to wander and take in the beauty of the cathedral. I thought about my life and what brought me here to this moment in time and all the others who have sat in the same pew seat over the centuries. I continued my ongoing debate regarding God's existence and the impact of religions upon the world, past and present. I was pulled out of my contemplation when we arrived at the "peace be with you" greeting. Rita took my hand and said those soothing words and the greeting continued between us, rippling towards others throughout the church for several minutes. Why, I thought can't it be this simple? Why can't we as a world community really embrace and allow ourselves to be guided by the desire that those we encounter receive from our actions a sense of peace?

Kim's Well Enough to Stroll Again....

In Piazza de la Republica the manger awaits the big day....

Two views of Santa's sleigh--day and nighttime....

Santa's sheep.... or goat....

For the moped rider who has everything... only in Italy!!

Borsolino hats are very famous and come in every style....

The Christmas tree in Piazza de la Republica....

Lights are everywhere... but these against the building were amazing....

Games, Games, & More Games!

I am writing this on my 9th day of illness...which pisses me off so much I can't tell you! I want to be enjoying my Holiday Season in Italy, not lying in bed looking at the 4 walls of my bedroom (yes I AM in Italy but still!). Having lots of time to dwell on many stupid things, I realized that we have neglected to inform you of our progress in both Cribbage and in Hollywood Gin. (We have also added a third game to our game repertoire- Bananas- that our good friend Deb so kindly gave us when Rachel was last in Seattle. We have not kept a tally of our Bananas scores but so far I believe Rachel has only won once- yes, only one time- out of many!)

The current score for Cribbage which we play each and every morning, in sickness and in health is:
Rachel-99, Kim- 62
This is pathetic on my part and I resort to all kinds of hexes, threats, and most recently, a note. (Rachel said she was a "visual" person and couldn't "hear" my threats and fervent desire for her TO LOSE...) So this was my answer to that but she refused to look. Then I had the idea of placing it on my forehead tucked under my glasses so at some point she would have to see it.

 

She finally saw it after I forced my head into her line of vision but damn her, she still won. (I would not allow her to photograph that but you get the idea)


So forget Cribbage, Hollywood is MY game (oh and of course "Bananas" now, too). But sometimes she gets a little too close for comfort, hence the flip side of my note:

 

In Hollywood the score is KIM- 232; Rachel- only a piddly 158 which if you do the math just proves that Rachel is really the BIG GAME LOSER! Ha Ha Ha.

Ugliness....

Today while walking home from a shopping expedition I came across the above truck. It's a graffiti clean up truck and I was happy to see it. One of my frustrations with Europe is that graffiti is way too prevalent and really messes up old historical sites. (Duh!) While the building above isn't hugely historical we've seen some places where the graffiti does destroy historical buildings and sites, and is quite destructive, ugly, and just plain sad. Take the recent assault upon the Muslim section of a French cemetery by Neo-Nazis




or in the Jewish cemetery in Lyon, France.

These are but two examples of a very prevalent problem. I don't know exactly where I'm taking this other than stating the obvious: It's rude, cruel, hostile, immature, obnoxious and destructive. I guess that's the point of vandalism and that makes me sad. So, to see that there's such a thing as a get-rid-of graffiti truck did make me happy. Fortunately Alessandria's graffiti, while present, is less than what we've encountered in Milan, Vienna, Turin, etc. Also, much of the graffiti here is only slightly political (anger over financial issues) or often something like "Chiara ti amo" or an attempted drawing gone awry (nothing like the complex works in Vienna). Nonetheless, I hope they will use the graffiti destruction truck much more.

Oh, the Differences........

Kim has been sick for the last week; down with a bad cold. Our neighbors, Rita and Barbara stopped by to say hello. This is how they go out....

This is how I go out....Can you pick out the differences?

I must add that having neighbors who stop by and neighbors that I like stop by is such a delight and life treat. In our many years on MLK, it took lots of time and hard work to get neighbors to talk with us; some still don't. Perhaps here, it's the fact that we live in a "compound" and see (and hear) much of the coming and going. Maybe it's like this in an apartment building or condominium. In any case, we like it!

Swapping Recipes....

The holiday lights have distracted me from writing about recent recipes--Amatriciana and Spaghetti Carbonara. Both are very similar in that they contain chopped pancetta affumicata (a very good quality of bacon), garlic, and a red chili to add some spice. The Amatriciana includes some tomato sauce and the Carbonara adds an egg and has more cheese.

The garlic and pepper infuse the oil and complement the bacon.

Rita adds the cheese-- fresh sharp romano (pecorino)

AMATRICIANA

For the Carbonara, we mixed fresh Romano and Parmesan cheese in with one egg. The heat from the boiled spaghetti, the bacon, and olive oil cooks the egg as it's all mixed together.

Rita always measures out the amount of spaghetti. In this case, for two.

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA

Since Rita has been my teacher, I hadn't made anything for her to try. With the colder weather, a hot pot of "Caldillo"-- a green chili and bean stew was called for. I had to get creative because in Italy, there are no hot Anaheim chilies in sight. Thankfully-and for those of you who know me well, you'll know how happy I am- frijoles (pinto beans) are ample. With a few spices, strips of colorful bell peppers, I was able to make up for the lack of green chili. Rita said she likes spicy and that is what she got!

CALDILLO WITH FRIJOLES, PORK AND CHICKEN

A Few Holiday Decorations....

Our neighbor Rita gave us a little bag of ornaments and I made a mobile as part of our holiday decorations. Sister Wendy is wearing her holiday angel wings. The windows are Rita's and face outward toward the street. Frosty decorates our courtyard and welcomes all of us whenever we enter. Finally, I found some red and white safety tape on the street and used it to wrap our gate--giving it a festive candy cane look! (Martha Stewart would be very proud of me, don't you think??)