Archive for the year 2010

La Tombola

Posted on 30. Dec, 2010 by in Culture

The other day I was reminiscing with some friends about games we used to play during the Christmas and New Years holidays in the good old pre-electronic games days. Probably one of the most popular cooperative games was, and hopefully still is, la tombola (with the accent on TOM-bola), which is more or less the same as Bingo.

I won’t attempt to explain the rules here, you can easily find them on the Internet by doing a search for ‘tombola regole del gioco’. However I thought it would be worth mentioning some of the vocabulary that we use when playing:


il tabellone the board, which contains all the numbers from 1 to 90
la cartella the score card, which contains 15 random numbers between 1 and 90
fare ambo double, to get two numbers in the same row
fare terno tern, to get three numbers in the same row
fare quaterna to get four numbers in the same row
fare cinquina to get five numbers in the same row
fare tombola to get all the numbers on the ‘cartella’

In Napoli they have a system called la smorfia, in which each one of the ninety numbers is associated with an image. When they call a number they add the appropriate image, for example: "48, morto che parla" ("48, a talking dead person"), or "90, la paura" ("90, the fear"). You will find the complete list on this link: http://vicolostretto.net/la_tombola_napoletana.html

Once upon a time, before they invented plastic tombola sets with little shutters to mark the numbers, we used to use dried beans or the small pieces of pasta. We would position a bean or a piece of pasta on the top of the numbers as they were called and then, inevitably, somebody would sneeze or kick the table and all the markers would roll away. We would spend the next ten minutes shouting: "È uscito il 33? è uscito il 2?" ecc. ("Has number 33 been called? Has number 2 been called?" etc.), then carry on as normal until the next starnuto (sneeze) or calcio (kick), which, more often than not, wasn’t accidental!

Buon Anno a tutti i miei lettori!

Esondazioni, Alluvioni, e Frane

Posted on 27. Dec, 2010 by in Travel

My sister in law arrived from France last Monday the 20th of December to spend Christmas with us here in Italy, having made a horrible 7 hour car journey from Nantes to Parigi only to be snowed in at Paris Airport for a couple of days.  Today is the 26th and so far she hasn’t seen the sun: Pioggia, pioggia, ed ancora pioggia, e oggi è ritornata di nuovo la neve! (Rain, rain, and more rain, and today the snow came back again!)

Nevertheless, we’ve had a really nice Christmas together, chatting, laughing, seeing friends and family. We don’t go in much for the traditional Christmas. Usually on Christmas day Geoff and I make panini and go off to do a bit of exploring and facciamo una passeggiata (we have a walk). Yesterday, the 25th of December, was no exception. We had made up our minds that, whatever the weather, we would go out for the day.

We decided to take mia cognata (my sister in law) Jacqui down to the Liguria coast near Lerici, perhaps con un po’ di fortuna (with a bit of luck)we would even see a little patch of blue sky. Well, it didn’t rain … much, and in fact we had a lovely day … unlike many of the local inhabitants, as we were to discover.

We first noticed that things were not right when we got to Romito Magra near La Spezia. Fango dovunque! (Mud everywhere). Yes, on la vigilia (the 24th December) the unfortunate inhabitants had suffered un’alluvione (a flood, or inundation) due to the esondazione (overflowing, or flooding out) of the river, carrying tons of slimy reddish brown sludge down the valley, blocking roads, making its insidious way into ground floor rooms, and generally ruining everyone’s day.

Having navigated through the muds of Romito, we headed towards our proposed destination, the small picturesque fishing village of Tellaro. But it was not to be. Strada chiusa per Frana (Road closed due to landslide) said the sign blocking our way. We checked with a lad who was standing nearby holding in his hand, rather surreally, an Elvis Presley CD, and he confirmed that yes, Tellaro was only accessible on foot by wading through mud.

Well we aren’t that adventurous! So we turned around and headed towards the lovely village of Montemarcello, which is perched up on the rocky hills above. There, we sat and shared our panini with a lonely looking silver grey cat in the gracious Piazza XIII Dicembre, then explored a few of the local sentieri (footpaths), finally arriving at il belvedere (the viewpoint) that looks out towards l’Isola della Palmeria and il Golfo dei Poeti over a rather forbidding, wintery Mare Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Sea).

To round the day off we decided to head for l’affascinante cittadina di Sarzana (the charming little town of Sarzana) in the hope of finding a bar, and a nice hot cappuccio (cappuccino coffee). Missione compiuta (mission accomplished) we drove home, lit the wood fire and cooked a rather unorthodox meal of cavolfiore gratinato (cauliflower cheese).

We did however reflect on those unfortunate people who had to spend their feste dealing with esondazioni, alluvioni, e frane. Here is a brief local newspaper report about the situation in the area of La Spezia on Christmas eve:

La Spezia, 24 dic. – Cala il rischio esondazione sulla foce del fiume Magra nello spezzino, dopo una notte trascorsa a monitorare il livello del fiume che ha raggiunto la piena verso le tre. Restano anche oggi isolati i borghi marinari di Tellaro e Fiascherino dove ci sono circa 700 abitanti collegati solo da uno stretto sentiero e stanotte non ci sara’ la tradizionale nativita’ subacquea. Ieri, in una sola ora sono caduti 50 millimetri di pioggia, provocando esondazioni di canali, allagamenti e frane in tutta la provincia. Particolarmente colpita la Val di Magra, ma in tutta la provincia una decina sono le strade in tilt di cui sei chiuse al traffico per frane o allagamenti. Rinforzi della Protezione Civile sono giunti da Genova e Imperia e mezzi dei vigili del fuoco da Torino e da Milano.

La Spezia, 24th Dec. – The risk of flooding near the mouth of the river Magra in the Spezia area has fallen, after a night spent monitoring the level of the river, which reached its fullest at around three a.m. The seaside villages of Tellaro and Fiascherino, with around 700 inhabitants, are still isolated today, the only connection being a narrow footpath. The traditional ‘underwater nativity’ won’t take place tonight. Yesterday, 50 millimeters of rain fell in just one hour, causing the overflowing of drainage channels, floods, and landslides throughout the province. The Val di Magra was particularly badly hit, but in the whole province around ten roads are in a mess, of which six are closed to traffic due to landslides and flooding. Reinforcements from the Civil Protection Agency have arrived from Genova and Imperia, and fire engines have come down from Torino and Milano. 

Il Menu di Natale

Posted on 24. Dec, 2010 by in Culture, Food

When I lived in England and taught Italian, at this time of year my students would ask me: "What is the traditional Italian Christmas meal?" They were very surprised when I told them that we don’t have a standard national pranzo di Natale (Christmas lunch), but each region has its own culinary tradition. So, this year I decided to do a bit of research and asked a few friends who come from different parts of Italy what they eat at Christmas.

Whatever the region, the main Christmas meal, which is eaten alla vigilia di Natale aspettando la Messa di mezzanotte (on the evening of the 24th while waiting for midnight Mass), generally follows the simple rule of being di magro (lit. ‘of lean’), that is without meat. Here are the traditional Christmas menus from three different parts of Italy. I’ll start with that given to me by my friend Vilma from Pontremoli in Lunigiana, northern Tuscany:

Cominciamo con frittelle di sedano, poi la torta di porri seguita da stoccafisso in umido con patate oppure stoccafisso fritto. Come dolce mangiamo la spongata.
We start with celery fritters, then leek pie followed by stockfish in tomato sauce with potatoes or fried stockfish. For dessert we have spongata (a thick mixture of dried fruit and chocolate encased in a thin layer of short crust pastry).

My friend Elisa, who is from Lecce down in Puglia, told me:


Come primo mangiamo ciciri e tria (pasta e ceci), poi ci sono la parmigiana di melanzane, i rapicauli stufati (cime di rapa stufate), i lampasciuli (cipolline in agro dolce) e le pittule (frittelle di pasta di pane con dentro le acciughe e i capperi). Per dolce abbiamo i purceddruzzi (palline di pasta fritte ricoperte di miele).
As a first course we have ‘ciciri e tria’ (a thick soup with chick peas and pasta), then there is ‘parmigiana di melanzane’ (baked aubergine / eggplant with tomato sauce and Parmigiano cheese), ‘rapicauli stufati’ (stewed turnip tops), ‘lampasciuli’ (small sweet and sour onions), and ‘pittule’ (bread dough fritters with anchovies and capers inside). For dessert we have ‘purceddruzzi’ (small fried pastry balls covered in honey).

Last but not least, Immacolata from Nicotera in Calabria sent me this menu:


La vigilia di Natale mangiamo tradizionalmente tredici portate, compresi il dolce e la frutta. Cominciamo con pasta col pesce, e poi baccalà fritto e molte verdure fritte come cavolfiori e zucca. Per dolce abbiamo le zeppole.
On Christmas eve we traditionally eat thirteen different things, including the dessert and the fruit. We start with pasta with fish, and then fried salted cod and lots of fried vegetables such as cauliflower and pumpkin. For dessert we have ‘zeppole’ (sweet fried pastry).

As you can see from the examples above, these menus are all ‘di magro’, but definitely not suitable for people on a weight loosing diet or with cholesterol problems! Oh well, Natale viene solo una volta all’anno! (Christmas comes but once a year!)

Buone Feste a tutti i miei lettori!

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