La Mia Revisione Posted by Geoff on Jun 1, 2012
I’ve always disliked needles, especially when attached to a syringe held in the hand of a nurse who is staring intently at a nice big vein in the tender part of my inner elbow. Fortunately the nurses at our local ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale – Local National Health Service) here in Pontremoli are really friendly…
Il Parmigiano del Terremoto Posted by Serena on May 31, 2012
Obviously when the disastrous terremoto (earthquake) in Emilia Romagna struck, our first thoughts went out to the people directly involved in the event and their suffering. It’s difficult to imagine what it must be like to become homeless overnight, and to live in constant fear of the next violent tremors. But these disasters always have…
Terremoto in Emilia Romagna Posted by Serena on May 29, 2012
On Sunday the 20th of May, at 4:04 in the morning, l’Emilia Romagna was woken up by a violent terremoto (earthquake) measuring 5.9 magnitude on the Richter scale. During the quake, which lasted 20 seconds, six people died and several more were injured. Four of these victims were doing night shifts in the factories where…
Quanti Pani! Posted by Serena on May 25, 2012
Writing about traditional pane (bread) in a previous article made me realise just how many different variations we actually have here in Italy. Let’s have a look at the names of a few of the different breads that you’ll find at the panettiere (baker’s): la pagnotta is the most common name for a standard loaf…
La Strage di Capaci Posted by Serena on May 23, 2012
I recently read in John Dickie’s book “Cosa Nostra. A History of the Sicilian Mafia”, that the killing of the magistrate Giovanni Falcone was such a shock to the whole country, that most Italians can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news: On the 24th of May 1992 I was in Lusaka…
Il Pancotto di Mattia Posted by Geoff on May 22, 2012
Yesterday I published a blog by my friend Mattia who, as he himself describes in his post, dreams of becoming a professional cook. Mattia is from Puglia in the south of Italy, and like most Italians is very passionate about his region’s culinary specialities. Here, as promised, is my translation of Mattia’s traditional Pugliese recipe…
Il Giovane Cuoco Italiano Posted by Geoff on May 21, 2012
In our blogs we always try to portray as many different facets of Italian language and culture as possible, but at the same time we are aware of the difficulty of trying to depict a country as varied as l’Italia from our relatively limited perspective. So for some time now we’ve been looking for an…