Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Renewing Wedding Vows Italian-Style

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By Walter

When Sharon and I married in 1978, we had to jump through secular and ecclesiastical hoops to get to the altar in Santa Croce’s Medici Chapel in Florence.

Forty years later, all we had to do was cross a small piazza to the parish church of San Michele Vetere in Cremona.

As we planned our May 2018 trip to Italy, we intended to renew our marriage vows but, unlike four decades ago, we had no formal plans.

Sharon was looking to sharpen her Italian language skills and found an immersion program through La Studentessa Matta. Sharon reserved back-to-back sessions with Elena and Gianna in Bergamo. She lived with the teachers in their homes and did EVERYTHING in Italian.

I planned to meet Sharon after her programs and we would spend a couple of weeks savoring life in a small city Italy. I flew on mileage reward tickets (thank you, United and Lufthansa) and had to travel around available dates.

That led me to spend some time in Milano then in the Lunigiana of Tuscany with old pals James and Martha of Wandering Italy and Martha’s Italy.

My Wife Has AirBnB Radar

Sharon has the knack for finding stellar AirBnB accommodations hosted by spectacular people. She has consistently demonstrated that talent on four continents and counting.

Once we chose Cremona (grazie Fred Plotkin for the recommendation in Italy for the Gourmet Traveler) as our base in northern Italy, she worked her magic once again.

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Simple Italy Greatest Hits

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Le cose cambiano. Things change.

SimpleItaly is evolving. Fresh posts will appear less frequently.  Our greatest hits, however, are always a click away. When we discover a new Italian regional recipe, destination, experience, or person, we’ll share the gems with our fellow Inner Italians.

Let’s re-visit some of our fondest timeless memories–encompassing cooking, wine appreciation, people, music, movies, art and serendipitous experiences–from a decade of SimpleItaly.

Bolognese-style lasagna

Lasagna alla Bolognese (Bolognese-style lasagna),  a dish that embodies the allure of slow food, has only four components–fresh spinach noodles, ragu, balsamella, Parmigiano-Reggiano–but each deserves attention.

Flavors of Friuli

Elizabeth Antoine Crawford traveled throughout Friuli for five years to research her new book.

 

Sauerkraut, poppyseed, and cinnamon-sugar on pasta. Is this Italian cooking? It is in the northeastern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.  These seductive ingredients and more are explored in Flavors of Friuli: A Culinary Journey through Northeastern Italy.

 

A truffle hunter with his prized partner.

On the Truffle Trail in Le Marche

Acqualagna is all about truffles. One-fourth of the residents are qualified truffle hunters and 70 percent of Italy’s truffle dogs are trained here. The white truffle is celebrated each autumn with the Fiera Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco. (This article first appeared in the November 2011 issue
 of the travel newsletter Dream of Italy.

Confetti Town

Lining the main streets of Sulmona, in Abruzzo, are shop after shop selling confetti, the confectionary for which the town is famous. It sounds simple: start with almonds, pistachios or hazelnuts and coat them with multiple layers of molten sugar cane syrup. This dessert artistry has been evolving since Roman times when almonds were coated with honey. The results are magnificent. They are edible mosaics, work so detailed, artistic and well-executed that they fool your eye. Of course these are real flowers . . . no, they are confetti.

Brides of Amalfi

Love was in the air during a visit to the Amalfi Coast.

Ragazzi Reminisce

The Leather School, tucked in back of The Basilica of Santa Croce, is the scene for this dynamic duo’s meeting.

C’era una volta. . . once upon a time. . . Max (Massimo Melani) met Wally (Walter Sanders) in Firenze. (Spoiler alert: An iconic Florentine panino plays a supporting role.) Here’s the story in their own words.

The Inner Italian Q & A: Melissa Muldoon

All of our Inner Italians shared delightful personal journeys but, so far, only one has gone on to become an Italian language and travel diva. Artist, designer, cultural conduit, and author Melissa Muldoon hosts La Studentessa Matta (The Crazy Student).

Whites for Summer

In his wine commentaries, Walter seeks out the best, most affordable, wine produced from Italian grapes. He hopes to raise awareness of indigenous varietals that deserve a place on your table.

Lemon Semifreddo

The spoon dessert semifreddo translates as “half frozen.” A cross between a frozen soufflé and gelato, a semifreddo delivers the plush mouthfeel of frozen meringue with the luxurious richness of cream. This lemon version pairs well with red berries.

Malika Ayane


Of this sensational pop vocalist, Paolo Conti said: “Il colore di questa voce è un arancione scuro che sa di spezia amara e rara.” The color of this voice is a dark orange with a dark and rare spice.

Cinema Italiana

SimpleItaly adores this hangdog comedy. What happens to those Italians left behind during Ferragosto, the national August vacation? One such scenario is brilliantly portrayed in the 2008 film Pranzo di Ferragosto released in the U.S. as Mid-August Lunch. Gianni di Gregorio, who co-wrote the script and directs, stars as the soulful Gianni who lives in the heart of Rome with his 93-year-old mother, exquisitely played by Valeria De Franciscis.

Do you have a cherished Inner Italian memory? Share it below.

The Great Flood of Florence

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Among those cleaning up the Santa Croce courtyard after the flood are Marcello Gori (left standing on the ground), who was my employer at The Leather School, and Padre Franchi (second from right) who became head of the Franciscans at the Basilica.

Some of the men who would become my friends in Florence labored to clean up the Santa Croce courtyard after the flood. Massimo “Max” Melani’s head is just visible (third from the left on the truck bed). On the ground are Marcello Gori (left), who was my employer at The Leather School, and Padre Franchi (second from left) who later became head of the Franciscans at the Basilica.

By Walter Sanders

When I moved to Florence in 1971, the city was still recovering from the disastrous flood of November 4, 1966. High water marks—stained by mud, heating oil, and gasoline—stretched like taut ropes across building facades near the Arno.

It was harsh stuff that floated to the top. And below the crest mark, on walls around the city, were murky shadows of flood residue.

These ugly reminders faded with time, but have been memorialized with plaques designating the height of flood waters throughout the city. Five floods from five different centuries are noted by these marble plaques; none are as high as those commemorating 1966.

I worked at the Scuola del Cuoio, the Leather School,  from 1972 through 1975. The workshops and showrooms were located in the old Franciscan monastery attached to the Basilica of Santa Croce, one of the hardest hit victims of the flood. I still remember the stains, and even the faint smell of fuel, on the exterior and interior walls of the courtyard.

Kayla Metelenis and Diane Cole Ahl

Kayla Metelenis and Diane Cole Ahl

Those memories rushed back when I attended a presentation “Looking Back at the Flood of Florence in 1966: Disaster, Recovery, and Cultural Conservation,” sponsored by the Art Department and The Ideal Center of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

Sharon and I had met the one of the presenters, Diane Cole Ahl, Rothkopf Professor of Art History, when she curated a traveling exhibit of “Offering of the Angels” from the Uffizi at the Michener Museum, Doylestown, Pa.

Ahls’s student Kayla Metelenis ’15, art history major, was co-presenter.

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Pazzi Chapel Restoration

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Commissioned by the Pazzi family, the Chapel

Ornate sculpted rosettes, terracotta cherubim roundels and the colourful tin-glaze terracotta by Luca della Robbia decorate the interior of the Pazzi Chapel loggia. It is built in pietra serena, a grey sandstone that, by its very nature, tends to crumble over time.

By Walter Sanders

Many fortunate lovers of Renaissance art journey to Florence, but few get to the splendid Pazzi Chapel—one of architect Filippo Brunelleschi’s 15th Century masterworks–part of the complex of the Basilica of Santa Croce. If you have been to the Pazzi recently, you may have noticed the façade is in need of some repair. After 650 years, who wouldn’t need a little touch up?

The video in the Kickstarter campaign launched by the nonprofit Opera di Santa Croce paints a loving portrait of a jewel. The Opera is seeking donations to match the 50 percent of the funding it has already raised.

I’ll focus on what the Pazzi Chapel means to me. I first experienced it as an art history master’s student. Viewing it from the courtyard, I was underwhelmed. The façade looked severe, and a little top heavy, with the illusion of the tall porch and cupola being supported by impossibly spindly columns.

But there’s something transformative about entering the Chapel. I felt serenity, order, cool spatial integrity. I was amazed how hushed the interior was, muffling clamor from nearby Piazza Santa Croce. And, over time, I learned to love the façade.

I worked inside Santa Croce, at the Scuola del Cuoio (The Leather School), and lived just off the square. Santa Croce and the Pazzi Chapel became integral aspects of my daily life. In some respects, the Pazzi Chapel became a personal escape, a calm island. I needed only to look at it to feel the peace.

Sharon and I met in Santa Croce, and four years later married there. No, not in the Pazzi Chapel but in the Medici Chapel in the adjacent sanctuary of the Basilica.

The Pazzi means a great deal to us, and we are helping to support the renovation (#crazyforpazzi).

Do you have a Pazzi story? Share it here and please consider a contribution to help restore this Renaissance treasure.

Little Shop in Florence

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Just off the luxury goods trail in Florence, Sandra's little shop beckons with hidden "treasures."

Just off the luxury goods trail in Florence, Sandra’s little shop beckons with hidden “treasures.”

Ferragamo didn’t need to open its Salvatore Ferragamo Museo just for me. I approach all the luxury goods temples—Prada, Roberto Cavalli, Bulgari–on Florence’s stylish Via Tornabuoni with a gaze-in-awe-but-don’t-touch reverence. Owning these baubles is not for me but I can admire the artistry as I would the masterworks in a museum.

So, imagine my surprise on a blindingly sunny morning in April when I wandered a few footsteps east of the Salvatore Ferragamo Museo on peaceful Via B. SS. Apostoli to discover a shop called Sandra.

Gorgeous globe artichokes fresh from Sandra's garden.

Gorgeous globe artichokes fresh from Sandra’s garden.

At 41r, tucked into a street level space no wider than a train car, Sandra was honoring her store motto: “di tutto un pò un pò di più” (a little of everything and a little more). Surrounding the entrance were crates of fruits, vegetables, braids of garlic, copper pots, painted wooden plaques, bunches of dried flowers. Sandra said she had plucked the artichokes from her garden that morning.

Stepping over the threshold was like entering a time machine back to Florence of 30, 40, or 50 years ago. On the shelves and from the ceiling were household items, oils, vinegars, herbs, jewelry, collectibles, petite chandeliers. Every centimeter offered a new treasure.

Sandra occupied the space behind the glass refrigerated display case at the back. It was stocked with salume and formaggi, no doubt to fortify serious Sandra shoppers who might want to inspect everything on the premises.

Wild fragolini and their hybrid cousins.

Wild fragolini and their hybrid cousins.

I wondered to myself how Sandra could afford the rent in this alta moda area given the price points of the merchandise. As I paid for my lovely little olive wood mortar and pestle and fragolini (tiny sweet wild strawberries—the only strawberries that would have been in a Florence market 30, 40, or 50 years ago), I said a silent “grazie” to Sandra for having di tutto up pò.

Sandra, Via B. SS. Apostoli, 41r, Firenze, (055) 28.34.10

 

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian Choose Florence

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Will Florence's 16th century Forte Belvedere--constructed to protect the Medici city-- withstand the hordes of paparazzi at Kimye's nuptials?

Will Florence’s 16th century Forte Belvedere–constructed to protect the Medici city from enemy armies– withstand the hordes of paparazzi at Kimye’s nuptials?

How hip is the Oltrarno, across the Arno River from Florence’s tourist-action-packed centro?

Extremely hip.

Hip-hop genius Kanye West will wed reality TV princess Kim Kardashian in the 16th century Forte Belvedere, perched on the southern hilltop of the Oltrarno, on Saturday, May 24, 2014.

Walter and Sharon recently explored the less-traveled quarters of Santo Spirito and San Frediano in the Oltrarno and filed this report for goitaly.about.com.