Culture – Page 25

Bed & Breakfast Cavallino

Posted September 21, 2009 by Walter Leave a Comment

B&BCavallino

By Walter Sanders

Sharon and I wanted to explore Lecce, the spectacular capital city of Puglia — often referred to as the “Florence of the South.”

We needed to find a place to stay that would position us near Lecce, yet keep us within easy striking distance of nearby attractions and points south. Plus, we didn’t want the hassles of city parking.

It was my turn to choose a place so I perused booking.com for accommodations near Lecce.

The B&B Cavallino looked perfect: an intimate property (3 suites), outside of Lecce, reasonably priced and boasting some of the highest customer ratings of any lodging establishment in the area. We e-mailed and were able to procure a room.

B&B Cavallino proprietor Paola Danielli (right) and her husband Paolo Mercurio.

Upon arrival, we met the luminous proprietor Paola Danielli. Efficient, lovely, charming (and fluent in English), she showed us to our “room.” What an exciting surprise! We had a spacious apartment with two floors, two terraces, a kitchen, and a huge bedroom overlooking a quiet green campo.

The apartment really felt like our home away from home for the next few days. Every morning before we set out, we brewed our own coffee and feasted on a lavish tray of local pastries that Paola had purchased for us. As Sharon always says, “You have to love a country where they eat cookies for breakfast.”

cavallinocolazione The only minor glitch during our stay turned out to be the source of more joking than frustration. Due to local street repairs, access to and from the southern route to the Salento peninsula ran through an AGIP gas station. It was so well trafficked, we took to calling it the AGIP autostrada.

We couldn’t have been more fortunate in finding this jewel of a B&B. It’s easiest to reach by car, however, with proper advisal the hosts will provide transfers to and from the Lecce train station.

B&B Cavallino is the perfect starting point to explore the many attractions of the Salento peninsula south of Lecce.

The Movies of Cinema Paradiso

Posted September 16, 2009 by Sharon 6 Comments

Nuovo_cinema_Paradiso

Reading that Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore’s new film Baaria opened this year’s Venice Film Festival — and wishing I were there! — sent me to my DVD shelf. I reached for Tornatore’s Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in the Italian release) and popped it into the player.

This is a movie that improves every time I watch it. It’s a bittersweet tale of an irrepressible little boy Salvatore, nick-named Totò, in post-war Sicily who finds both father figure, and his future, at the local movie house Cinema Paradiso.

An important element, and one that’s really fun to watch, are the dozens of clips of movies we see — through Salvatore’s perspective – that are showing through the years at Cinema Paradiso. Some of the movies I recognize. Others are unknown to me.

Curious if I could find a roster of all these films that appear in the movie, I started searching the Web. Finally, on Italian Wikipedia, there they were.

I like the variety in Tornatore’s choices for the Paradiso. He’s not a film snob. In a movie that’s really a love letter to the cinema, Tornatore mixes Capra’s American middlebrow It’s a Wonderful Life with Vadim’s tacky Euro-flick And God Created Woman with Visconti’s art-house La Terra Trema with Ford’s classic Hollywood Stagecoach.

From Charlie Chaplain’s City Lights to Fellini’s I Vitelloni, the clips just keep on coming. If I had to pick only one, however, for sheer entertainment value, it has to be Silvana Mangano’s crazy dance to Il Negro Zumbon in Anna. (A nun with a past!) You can catch it on YouTube.

If you love Cinema Paradiso, check out the director’s cut. It’s a much longer and very different flim. If you’ve seen both, which do you prefer and why?

Sommelier, M.D.

Posted September 11, 2009 by Walter 5 Comments

An Inner Italian Moment

Poggio il Castellare Brunello di Montalcino 2003 may be just what the doctor orders.

By Walter Sanders

Recently, I had a routine medical procedure that necessitated anesthesia.

The anesthesiologist had gone through the drill thousands of times. He used well-practiced patter to recite a comical sedation flavor menu…to put me at ease, I’m sure.

“Today we have orange, vanilla, peach, watermelon, bubblegum, strawberry, and lemon. Which do you prefer?”

I paused.

“What I’d really prefer is Brunello di Montalcino. Is that available?”

That stopped him cold. Real cold.

Seconds passed. Yikes. Had I broken his rhythm? Had I crossed the sacred line between anesthesiologist and patient? Was I stealing his attempt at humor?

Finally, with a touch of wonderment in his voice, he said “That’s my favorite red wine.”

“Yeah, one of mine, too,” I said.

“Where did you learn about it?” I asked.

“Three years ago in Tuscany my wife and I took a side trip from Florence to Montalcino and I had my first glass with dinner there. I love that wine.”

We talked a little more about Italian vino. I felt much more at ease being in the capable hands of a mellow Brunello fellow.

Then he put me under. The procedure was a success.

Unimpeachable

Posted September 9, 2009 by Sharon 2 Comments

Torta di pesche in a tender butter cookie crust.

I’m living in a kind of peach frenzy.

Peaches and ricotta for breakfast. Baked peaches blanketed with pastry cream. Peach sorbetto. Peach tart in a sweet cookie crust.

Pondering how long my supplies will last, I just spoke on the phone to the friendly clerk at Bechtold’s Orchard in Bucks County, PA. She said peaches will be available for about one more week. O-N-E week? Sadly, the days of peaches dwindle down to a precious few.

Like a squirrel frantically stashing nuts for the bleak days to come, I’m stockpiling peaches in my freezer. It’s easy enough to do. Submerge the ripe but firm peaches in a pot of boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer them with a slotted spoon to a big bowl of ice water.

A Bechtold's Orchard peach emerging from a refresing ice water bath.

Start peeling with a sharp paring knife at the stem end and the skin slips off as easily as a satin robe gliding off the shoulder of a 1930s glamour queen. Halve or quarter the peaches and lay them on a tray lined with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for a day and then pack the frozen peaches into a resealable plastic freezer bag or plastic freezer container.

Peeled peaches ready to be flash frozen.

And, while you still have the chance, you can bake a homey Italian peach tart with the following recipe. It’s sweetened with fruit preserves to intensify the flavor of the fresh fruit filling. Sometimes I replace half the preserves with ginger-peach chutney from Tait Farm Foods in Centre Hall, PA. It makes a sweet, slightly hot filling that’s bliss.

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Jim Russell Records

Posted September 3, 2009 by Walter 10 Comments

Denise Russell manages the world-famous Jim Russell Records in New Orleans.

From the shady side of the Magazine Street, Jim Russell Records shop didn’t look like the Top 10 of anything — let alone one of the Top 10 record stores on earth as my daughter Tess had advertised. It was a simple store front with a weather-beaten sign that was probably the original from 1969.

The front door was open. It was warm inside the store. Denise Russell, daughter-in-law of Jim Russell, was behind the counter. She greeted us and we said hi.

The store extends deep to the back walls. Bins of CDs, deeper bins of vinyl LPs and slats of single 45s, 78s, tapes, movies, and all sorts of music-related memorabilia covered the walls. Tess began to explore.

I told Denise that we were visiting New Orleans and Tess had read that Jim Russell Records was famous. Denise nodded and said, “It is kind of famous.” Maybe even more famous to people living outside of the city.

She went on to tell stories about renowned performers who have visited the store. Most were friendly and real like Bruce Springsteen who appreciated the store and Jim Russell himself.

Denise went on to say that she gets lots of international visitors, and that Jim Russell’s has been written up in many foreign tourist guides as a must see in New Orleans.

As if on cue, in walked the Italians. They were a 30-ish couple, casual but stylish, great sun glasses and both sporting nifty miniature backpacks. They began looking around. In a few minutes the woman came up to put some purchases on the counter while her companion continued to shop.
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Cal-Ital

Posted September 3, 2009 by Sharon Leave a Comment

width="140" Dante would be proud.

The great Florentine poet who authored The Divine Comedy–and is widely credited with fathering the modern standard Italian language–has many bilingual offspring in Northern California.

As Patricia Yollin reports in this San Francisco Chronicle article, the Bay Area is nurturing many little Inner Italians who are learning to speak la lingua piu bella del mondo.