People

One Day in Genoa

Posted April 5, 2019 by Sharon 10 Comments

By Walter Sanders

They Say Genova. We Say Genoa.

Piazza Caricamento fronts the Porto Antico.

My previous experience in Genoa was in the airport in 1999 to attend a Financial Services Congresso (Conference) in nearby Portofino.

I recall the view from the car window upon leaving the airport as uninspiring: a mixed bag of grungy industrial sites, grim housing, busy highways.

So, upon an 8:15 a.m. arrival at Genoa’s Porto Principe railroad station to meet our guide Filippo Zamparelli [fzampare@fastwebnet.it] for a walking tour of the city, I am a blank canvas.

Filippo (right) captained our little group through the old port of Genoa.

Filippo is a delight. Bookish, fine command of English, a sharp sense of humor, a deep and abiding interest in history (his major field of study at the University of Genova) and a lifelong resident of the city.

We get to know each other informally over a caffé. He loves history of all types … including US history. Turns out that he follows the Chicago Cubs who until 2016, share a lovable losing history akin to the Genoa soccer club, which Filippo also closely follows.

From the get-go of the tour, Filippo emphasizes how the city is changing itself. Long a port of global importance, and a major industrial city of Italy, Genoa found itself falling behind other port and industrial cities. The competition was killing the city and it was unable or unwilling to react.

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Simple Italy Greatest Hits

Posted February 6, 2018 by Sharon 1 Comment

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.

Taxi Tales: Part 1 Naples

Posted September 28, 2016 by Sharon 2 Comments

By Walter Sanders

It was an ideal day of touring in Naples. Via Tribunale was lively with shoppers and tourists taking selfies with the bronze Pulcinella. The funicular ride to Castel Sant’Elmo high above the bay delivered us to a breezy, fresh air mass much cooler than the busy streets of the centro. I shot pictures and videos with my phone.

We splurged on a late lunch overlooking the city, bay, and Mount Vesuvius in the distance. Plates of fresh seafood kept coming. I wandered the terrace and took group photos of families.

It was late afternoon by the time we took another funicular down toward the port. We got off, but we weren’t near the port. I G-mapped to try to figure out our location. At street level, it was hot and humid and we were tired and getting grumpy. We decided to grab a cab and return to the Hotel Palazzo Decumani.

I always like to sit in the front seat in a cab when the driver agrees. Ours did. The cab driver was a delight. We talked about his two sons…the oldest was a partner in the cab business. We stopped at an ATM for some cash. He took us at the hotel and we were glad to be back in air-conditioned comfort.

Salvatore, the spirited Neapolitan bar man at the hotel lounge, was on duty. I reached for my phone to share some of our videos of the city that Salvatore loves. The phone was not in my pocket.

I was devastated. I scrambled. “Sharon, do you have my phone? Have you seen it?”

How stupid to leave a phone in a cab. How dumb to leave a phone in a cab in Naples. I asked Sharon to call my number from her phone. No answer. I asked the hotel desk to call the cab stand where we had caught the cab. “No, we didn’t the driver’s name (but we knew about his family!), we didn’t know the cab company, we didn’t have the driver’s mobile phone.”

I got on-line via my lap top to chat with the phone service provider: Google’s Project Fi.

She asked me whether I wanted to deactivate the phone. “No, not yet,” I typed. “I want 60 minutes. The cab driver was such a good guy.”

We camped out in the hotel lounge on a sofa with a view of the front door. An hour went by. Then 90 minutes. I opened the lap top to chat with Project Fi again. The service person, Michael, pulled up the thread via my mobile number and asked whether I wanted to deactivate the phone.

“There he is!” called Sharon as she jumped up to run to the front door.

It was the taxi driver holding the phone up like a trophy. He saw me. I gave him a big hug and he kissed me on both cheeks. I thanked him, and thanked him again.

“May I offer you something…a glass of wine, a beer?”

“No thank you” he said.

I asked him where he found the phone. He said he had five more fares after us. When he was cleaning out the cab for the night, he noticed a black phone sticking out from under a black floor mat under the seat. He saw English language on the screen cleaning pad attached to the back of the phone. “This belongs to the simpatico Americano who I brought to the Hotel Decumani.”

I hugged and thanked him again. I gave him 50 Euro and waved goodbye as he drove off. When I got back to the lap top and the chat, there were a series of “Walter, are you still on line?” entries.

I typed “Yes! You won’t believe this but the driver just returned with the phone.”

I hogged a full page in the hotel guest book with a drawing of a beaming guy holding a mobile over his right shoulder, a cartoony drawing of a taxi cab with a smiling grill, and a recap of the phone story. That’s when I realized that I had neglected to get the driver’s name.

Sharon and I then traveled to some seaside towns for two weeks. Because we enjoyed Naples so much, we decided to return there earlier for our return flight on Meridiana back to JFK. Sharon booked an AirBandB on lively Via Tribunale and we stayed for a couple of nights.

Francesco Aragiusto, the hero of our taxi tale, with Walter.

One afternoon we enjoyed some time and wine at the port. We decided to grab a cab back to the room. There were a couple of cabs on our side of the street, but no drivers. So we crossed the street to a different cab stand with dozens of drivers at the ready. I acknowledged the nearest, told him where we wanted to go, and asked if I could sit in the front seat. He said yes.

Then we got a better look at each other. He said “I remember you! You left your phone in the cab.”

“And you found it and returned it!” We rubbed each other’s heads and had a mini celebration.

I asked for his name: Francesco Aragiusto. One of the many upright and honest citizens of Naples.