News from Italy

Blogging Break

2011-12-20T18:29:00.001+01:00

Buon Natale – Happy Christmas – Italian Christmas Music Selection 2011

2011-12-18T18:15:00.001+01:00

This will be my last post until well into the New Year as for the next few weeks I will be busy devoting myself to celebrating the Christmas and New Year holidays with family and friends as I imagine will most of you who visit ‘News From Italy’.

I decided that while I am away I will do the same as last year and leave you with a selection of Italian Christmas music to listen to. Hopefully there will be something among my selection to every ones taste. I look forward to returning in 2012 towards the end of January and continuing to share our little piece of Italy with you all.

Along with my husband David I wish each and every one of you

Buon Natale – Happy Christmas

My first choice this year is a beautiful rendition of one of Italy’s favourite Christmas songs ‘From Starry Skies Descending’,

Natale - Christmas - Tu scendi dalle stelle

Uploaded by lorpre87 on Nov 29, 2008

Next something from a popular Italian singer

Irene Grandi - Buon Natale a tutto il Mondo
Uploaded by cristallodicarbonio on Dec 24, 2008

The title certainly says it all Merry Christmas to all the World

Italian Lyrics to Buon Natale A Tutto Il Mondo

Dicembre
odore di castagne per le strade
eheheh
Fa freddo e il vento va dicendo nei camini
almeno questa notte
dimentichiamo il male
Buon natale a tutto il mondo
che stanotte veglierà
Buon natale
sotto la neve
ogni casa risplenderà
Se a te nessuno
stanotte vicino sarà
da te la mia voce verrà
Buon natale a tutto il mondo
Buon natale con tutto il cuore
Se a te nessuno
stanotte vicino sarà
da te la mia voce verrà
Buon natale a tutto il mondo
Buon natale con tutto il cuore
Buon natale a tutto il mondo

English Lyrics to Merry Christmas To All The World
December
smell of chestnuts in the streets
eheheh
It's cold and the wind is saying in the fireplaces
at least this night
forget the bad
Merry Christmas to all the world
it will watch tonight
Merry Christmas
under the snow
each house will shine
If any of you
tonight will be near
you will be my voice
Merry Christmas to all the world
Merry Christmas with all my heart
If any of you
tonight will be near
you will be my voice
Merry Christmas to all the world
Merry Christmas with all my heart
Merry Christmas to all the world

A short and sweet catchy little song from Nat King Cole.

Uploaded by dany200786 on Dec 5, 2008

Now for something from Michéal Casteldo an Italian born Canadian who has just released a new album Extravergine from which I have chosen one song to share with you. For details of the album and where to purchase visit his Official Website

Micheal Castaldo - E Nato il Bambino Gesu - What Child is This? From the Extravergine CD.

Uploaded by livecell on Dec 6, 2011

My fifth and sixth choices are from an American pianist John Tesh who although not singing in Italian , just performing some of my favourite Christmas carols, the accompanying films are made in Italy, in one of my favourite regions the Amalfi coast.

Silent Night • John Tesh Christmas in Positano, Italy

Uploaded by TheJohnTeshRadioShow on Dec 1, 2009

Uploaded by TheJohnTeshRadioShow on Dec 2, 2009

There are lots more like this that I would have liked to have shared but I do not want to make the post too long, so here is the link to a list of more John Tesh Christmas Videos in case you are interested.

My final choice is from a selection of six Christmas song videos of a children's choir Canzoni di Natale posted by YouTube user Marchetti47, clicking on either link will take you to the rest of the videos. as I have just embedded the first one here. Lots of familiar tunes which I think you will find you can enjoy without translations.

Natale - canzoni natalizie Italiane - Parte 1°

Uploaded by marchetti47 on Nov 27, 2009

Last year I shared the following songs and the link will take you to the post if you would like to listen to any of them. Italian Christmas Music Selection 2010

Corale Canepa - Astro del Ciel - Silent Night

Natale - Christmas - Tu scendi dalle stelle – You come down from the stars

Irene Grandi – Bianco Natale – White Christmas

White Christmas Jazz 2010 (Gianni Gandi & Orjana)

Andrea Bocelli - Andrea Bocelli & David Foster: My Christmas (2009) - Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Natale 2010 - Christmas - O Mio Signore - Cliff Richard

The graphics are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy and all the music was found by conducting a search on YouTube.

I hope you found something to your taste here and I look forward to catching up with you all in 2012.

Our Persimmon Tree

2011-12-16T14:05:00.001+01:00

As some of you will already know we have our very own Persimmon tree just outside the kitchen which provides shade on our terrace during the summer. During the summer the fruit is hard and looks very similar to a large green apple, not good when they drop off as part of the natural process, narrowly missing those seeking shade by sitting under the tree! The fruit gradually softens and changes colour from pale orange through to an almost tomato red orange colour. The redder they are the softer they are and you need to pick them and eat them at this stage as they do not seem to store for long. The done thing is to pick and enjoy for pranzo, lunch or cena, supper straight from the tree. Despite losing what seemed like hundreds during the ripening process it is still covered in what are now Orange Balls, just like Christmas Decorations. The art is in picking them before they drop on the terrace or a passing person if you are unlucky, by now a rather messy process. We have had some near misses but no direct strikes yet!

As you drive around the area you see lots of these trees now bare of leaves adding a Christmas feel to the landscape.

We know our neighbours enjoy the fruit and eat them regularly at this time of the year but wonder how many of those free Christmas Decorations are left on the trees as like us Italians generally find they are a fruit which is of very acquired taste, not something everyone enjoys by any means. Meanwhile the birds enjoy the fruit and we appreciate its attractiveness!

Parts of this post may seem familiar to readers who have been with me for over a year, but I have written about the Persimmon again as I really wanted to share an amazing recipe for using this fruit with you all.

Last year we asked for ideas of how to use our surplus Persimmon fruits and this is what was suggested to us by Heiko from Path to Self Sufficiency

I will reproduce the recipe here but if you want to read the original post on Heiko’s blog Path to Self Sufficiency from 2007 you can do so here

It really is very easy - 1 kg of persimmon, peeled and chopped, add 350g brown sugar, 250 ml white wine vinegar, 2 tsp of dried ginger and 2 bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45-60 minutes until cooked to a pulp that is thick and jam-like. Pot up in hot jars, seal and store.

You may also know this fruit as kaki or sharon fruit, but whatever you call it, if you can get hold of some do try this recipe sometime. It works and really does taste like Mango Chutney!

Another recent post about Persimmon this time from a blog I enjoy reading about Life in Japan Life in Kawagoe

Persimmon Photos.

Early summer green and hard, looking like apples.

Below is how the fruit changes colour during the late summer.

November shows the Persimmon tree in all its Autumn glory.

By mid November the leaves are dropping

Finally our very own Christmas Persimmon Tree

The photos are all my own except the chutney picture which is courtesy of Heiko but I will admit that some of them are from last year including this magnificent Christmas Persimmon Tree. This year we have removed lots to make our Persimmon Mango Chutney.

If you are interested in viewing more of my Persimmon photos there are plenty in the Flickr albums Persimmon Year and Persimmon 2011

Have a lovely weekend end everyone, the last one before Christmas, so hope you are by now well organised!

Italy in Books Reading Challenge December 2011

2011-12-13T19:07:00.001+01:00

The Blue Demon by David Hewson

Paperback: 391 pages

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction

Publisher: February 5th 2010 by Macmillan

Source: Obtained in a Charity bookshop in the UK especially for the Italy in Books Challenge

First Sentence : The garden of the Quirinale felt like a suntrap as the man in the silver armour strode down the shingle path.

My Opinion: The fact that it was set in places I am familiar with added to the interest considerably.

The December post for the list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. December Reviews

This is my last entry as the challenge reaches a successful conclusion for me, I have read and reviewed a book for every month of the year. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Brighton Blogger of Book After Book for hosting what has been a fun challenge to participate in.

I doubt I would ever have considered reading this title had it not been for the Italy in Books Reading Challenge for 2011. Thrillers and mysteries are a genre I do not read a great deal of although I have a few authors of this genre I enjoy. In fact I usually only read this genre if it is one my husband has read and recommends to me. This was the case with this one and also to be honest I was hunting around our bookshelves for something set in Italy for the final book of the challenge. So although this title would maybe not be my first choice I did find it a good read and the fact that it was set in places I am familiar with added to the interest considerably.

With mainly Italian characters, lots of references to Italian history, art and culture, use of Italian and familiar places how could I fail to enjoy this novel. Having visited some of the Etruscan tombs in this region it was fascinating to read a novel weaved around the legacy of the lost race of the Etruscans. The storyline is complex with many twists and turns and will keep you guessing right to the very end.

The story commences with the kidnapping of a government minister and his driver murdered, just days before an important conference with leaders of the G8 in Rome. When a ritual murder takes place, performed it seems by someone dressed as The Blue Demon from Etruscan history. It is then that Detective Nic Costa suspects that a twenty year old case where a mysterious group committed a series of crimes in the style of the infamous Blue Demon of Etruscan history was never really solved. The group has reformed and are planning attacks on Rome with devastating consequences. Old Etruscan myths, conspiracy and murders old and new are all part of the investigation.

Well worth reading if you are not only a lover of all things Italian but enjoy a good mystery.

For those of you interested in learning more about the historical background, I have included a couple of links to get you started.

The Tomb of The Blue Demons The Blue Demons in the Etruscan Underworld.

Author Profile

DAVID HEWSON was born in Yorkshire in 1953 and left school at the age of seventeen to work as a cub reporter on one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country in Scarborough. Eight years later I was a staff reporter on The Times in London, covering news, business and latterly working as arts correspondent. I worked on the launch of the Independent and was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times for a decade before giving up journalism entirely in 2005 to focus on writing fiction.

He has written sixteen novels, as well as several travel books. Until 2005 he was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times until becoming a full-time author. David lives in Kent but visits Italy frequently. All 11 of his Italian books are now in development as TV movies.

Sources of information used in this post :-

Goodreads Author Profile Author's Official Website David Hewson - Blog

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog.
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Saturday Snapshots – Our Kiwi Harvest

2011-12-10T14:08:00.001+01:00

Early December is the time we have our last harvest of the year the Kiwi’s. Those of you that have been reading my ‘Our Garden’ posts since the Spring will have seen photos of the Kiwi vines as the season progressed and they gradually grew to become these impressive looking fruits.

We picked them this year a few days ago and my other half reckons there are about 50 kilos of kiwi’s for us to enjoy over the winter. In fact they will be kept in our cool dark cellar and last us right through until early summer. We eat the majority of them fresh, although a little kiwi jam always goes down well with my sister and family.

These photos can also be viewed individually in My Flickr Album Our Kiwi Harvest 2011

I have also linked up these photos today with Saturday Snapshot by Alyce at At Home With Books. Do call by if you are interested in viewing more snapshots or to add your own.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Festa Immacolata Concezione - Feast of the Immaculate Conception – Dicembre 8.

2011-12-08T09:47:00.001+01:00

The Immaculate Conception by Murillo, 1660, Museo del Prado, Spain.

Today is a Public holiday here in Italy in celebration of this event.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is celebrated every year on 8 December in a number of countries including Italy where the date is a Public holiday.

I do not know much about the celebrations as I am not Catholic but assume that the church has special services. There is a widespread misunderstanding of the term ‘immaculate conception’ as many believe it refers to Mary's conception of Jesus, that the date of this celebration occurs only seventeen days before Christmas should make the error obvious! Annunciation of the Lord or the Incarnation of Christ, as it is also known is celebrated on 25 March, exactly nine months before Christmas Day. It was at the Annunciation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary humbly accepted the honour bestowed on her by God and announced by the angel Gabriel, that the conception of Christ took place.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, goes back to the seventh century, when churches in the East began celebrating the Feast of the Conception of Saint Anne. In other words, this feast celebrates the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of Saint Anne; and nine months later, on September 8, we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is sunny and 10C (at 9.30am) so I think we will be working in the garden today, tidying up ready for the winter.

San Nicola - Saint Nicholas Day – Dicembre 6

2011-12-06T10:40:00.001+01:00

Over the last few days my 2010 post for San Nicola has been appearing in the side bar as a Popular Post. So I have decided to repost today an updated version as it seems Saint Nicholas is always of interest at this time of the year and lots of you will not have read it before.

Today is the Saints Day for Nicholas, December 6th not only a special day for all the Nicholas’s and Nicola’s in Italy where Saints Days are celebrated by the namesakes, but also today for many other children in Italy this day is seen as the beginning of the Christmas festivities when they receive a present from San Nicola.

This day is celebrated in many different parts of the world, several countries within Europe including Italy, as the day when one of the most popular saints in history died in AD 354. There are many stories circulating about his life, but true or not there is certainly no doubt that this is the Saint that inspired the much loved character Father Christmas or Babbo Natale as he is known in Italy.
Saint Nicholas (270–6 December 346) was born into a wealthy Greek family and at a young age he devoted his life both to God and to assisting those in need. He grew up in a Greek speaking colony of the Roman Empire

Myra, now part of Turkey, where he became a Bishop of the city. When he died his bones were placed in the cathedral of Myra which became a popular pilgrimage destination until 1087 when the Turks conquered the city and sailors from Bari rescued the remains and took them to rest in their own city.

He was well known for his generosity and acts of kindness towards others, especially children, according to Wikipedia he is the patron saint to a long list of different groups of people around the world. Children, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, the falsely accused, prostitutes, repentant thieves, pharmacists,archers and pawnbrokers, what an interesting and varied selection!
The major celebrations in Italy for St. Nicholas (San Nicola) take place in

Bari, Puglia where he is believed to be buried and is the patron of the city. Similar celebrations and traditions are observed in Sassari, on the island of Sardinia where he is also a patron saint of the city. One of the traditions carried out here is the distribution of gifts to young brides to be whose parents cannot afford to help them. This stems from the legend that Saint Nicholas once helped a man by providing dowries for his three daughters, so they could find husbands, rather than being sold into prostitution. In Trieste, St. Nicholas (San Nicolò) is celebrated with gifts given to children on the morning of 6 December and with a fair called Fiera di San Nicolo during the first weeks of December.

There has been an interesting development since Saint Nicholas Day 2009 as it has been proposed that his bones are returned to Turkey.
On 28 December 2009, the Turkish Government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of San Nicola’s bones to Turkey from the Italian government. Turkish authorities have cited the fact that Saint Nicolas himself wanted to be buried at his birthplace. They also state that his remains were illegally removed from Turkey. Apparently the town of Demre where the ancient town of

Myra, once was has plans to build a museum which once constructed will exhibit relics of ancient civilisations. There is no schedule for these plans yet as far as my research found out, but the Turkish minister stated last year ‘that once built they would naturally ask for the remains of Babbo Natale to be returned from Italy’.

While checking my facts for this updated post yesterday, I was unable to find any more recent references to this happening yet, unless someone reading this knows different?

Buon San Nicola

Italian Male Variations of Nicholas: Niccolò, Nico, Nicola, Nicolò, Nicolas
Italian Female Variations of Nicola: Nicoletta, Nicla, Nicole, Nicolina

I researched the facts quoted in this post with thanks to Wikipedia

Christmas window in Marta December 2010.

Other graphics courtesy of Google images and The Graphics Fairy

Saturday Snapshots – A November Walk to Marta

2011-12-03T11:16:00.001+01:00

When my sister was here recently to help us with the Olive Harvest we had beautiful weather with glorious blue skies and mild temperatures. Once the harvest was completed and we had free time before our appointment at the Olive Mill, we took some time out to walk from our house into Marta. Of course my camera went with us and today I am sharing with you the photos I took along the way.

Incidentally the new header photo was taken on this November walk. I thought it was about time I updated the look of the blog and the new template, which I hope you like, seems to make changing the banner photo a less demanding exercise, so hopefully I will be able to update it more often.

We have something new on the horizons around the lake, even with my telescopic lens I have been unable to get them very close as they are so far away! Can you spot them in any of these photos, yes I am sure you can? We are going to have to go out hunting and get some closer shots, as apparently this is just the start!

That’s it we arrived, have a lovely weekend everyone.

These photos were all taken on November 16th 2011 and can be viewed in larger sizes in My Flickr album Marta Scenes November 2011

Italy in Books Reading Challenge November 2011

2011-11-30T13:09:00.001+01:00

Passeggiata Strolling Through Italy by G.G. Husak

Paperback: 355 pages

Genre: Travel memoir

Publisher: Booksurge Publishing 2008

Source: Sent to me by another blogger Maggie of Normandy Life via Bookmooch

First Sentence : Prologue ‘for almost fifteen years, March has signified not only the coming of spring, but my husband Al’s and my pilgrimage to Italy.’

Quote From Amazon.com : Ms. Husak’s memoir of travels to Italy with her husband will appeal to those who love travel in general and Italy in particular.

My Opinion: Suited especially to the first time visitor or virtual traveller to Italy.

The November post for the list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. November Reviews

Although I enjoyed this memoir about this couples travels in Italy, I did not really find it excited me. I hope that does not mean I have been living here too long for a travel memoir of Italy to inspire me. Personally I feel this is more suited to the first time visitor or virtual traveller to Italy and better read in small doses as it did tend to be repetitive in parts. The repetitiveness was a shame as I felt it was due to poor editing as were some of the mistakes I found. Mistakes I hasten to add that those that do not live here or speak any Italian I doubt will even notice, so I am not going to be pedantic and will not even mention them in detail.

The Cinque Terre is one of the couples favourite places and it also saddened me somewhat to be reading this so soon after the recent disasters caused by flooding in the area. That withstanding they covered many of the major tourist centres on their annual holidays, including Roma, Florence, Venice, Milan, Orveito, Siena, Naples, Sorrento and Positano. A wide selection indeed. Some of the things that they had to say about various places and the way things work here in Italy did niggle me a bit at times. Again this was probably a case of knowing both the places and the vagaries of life in Italy, a little better in some aspects, not others) than this intrepid pair of adventurers. Also one must remember that this was the early nineties they were writing about for their first trips and times have changed a lot since then.

There is no doubt in my mind that Italy has got under this couples skin and really enriched their lives, otherwise why would they still be coming here, as we are led to believe they still do. I would be very interested in a sequel as I think they may have learnt a lot more about Italy since those early days. Although even on those early trips they soon learnt to relax and go with the flow, it is the only way to happily exist in Italy.

‘Passegiata strolling through Italy’ certainly has a lot to recommend it to lovers of all things Italian, who wish to immerse themselves in the personal details of the Husak’s adventures.

Since 1993, Glen Grymes Husak has made an annual pilgrimage to Italy. Glen brings her background and insight as an English teacher and museum docent to the history and art of Italy.

Glen Grymes Husak has travelled with her husband Al to Italy since 1993. Their adventures in Italian cities and villages and growing love for the Italian experience provide the inspiration for her writing. She brings the background and insight of an English teacher and museum art docent to historical sights and art of Italy. She tells her friends that she enjoys writing about Italy almost as much as being there.
In more recent years, Glen and Al have added other Mediterranean destinations to their travels but always end up in Italy. They have not found a place that they like better. The author is I believe currently based in Houston, Texas.

Other sources of information used in this post :-

Author's Goodreads Profile

G.G. Husak's Official Website

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog.
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Olive Harvest 2011 – Milling from Olive to Oil

2011-11-28T13:02:00.001+01:00

Once we had decided that five days picking was more than enough, certainly in one stretch, the next task was to get the olives to the mill. A good job we did stop when we did as we only just got them all in the X-Trail and the Smart Car would really have not been much help would it! If you have not yet read my post on our picking and would like to do so just click on this link. Olive Harvest 2011 – Picking

Loaded and ready to go!

Off we then went on a short drive to the Oleificio in Montefiascone, where they were expecting us. We had arranged to arrive with our crop sometime on the Tuesday morning when we we would be given a more precise appointment for our milling.

Arriving at the mill olives are unloaded into a large crate.

Our crate is the one in the top left hand picture and when we left on Tuesday it had been moved into the warehouse area for storage, photo top right. Before leaving we confirmed in the office that our slot for milling would be the next day, Wednesday 16th November verso (towards)2pm.

Having been through this process before we warned my sister that we were probably in for a very long afternoon at the mill. Fortunately she did not seem to mind, although she did take her book as I suggested she never actually got to read it, as she found the whole process interesting, well I she seemed to! We arrived at the appointed time and our arrival was acknowledged immediately, however it was probably half an hour later when someone decided to tell us that due to a breakdown during the night, they were running a couple of hours behind, so why not go off somewhere else for awhile. We took the advice and went off to the station to check the times for my sister’s train to Roma the next morning, we were unable to buy her ticket though as the Tabac (where they sell train tickets) was of course closed for the afternoon as were most of the local shops. There is a new branch of Todis in Montefiascone opened on 26th October which is unusually ‘orario continuato’ continuous opening with no afternoon closure, so we did a little food shopping before returning to the mill for our rescheduled appointment.

On our return we located our crate, now outside, see the bottom row in the mosaic above, just before 4pm our turn arrived. The crate was weighed we were given our ticket, for use later to pay for the milling process which is calculated by the amount of oil produced, then the olives were loaded into the hopper and the process began. The olives would appear as olive oil in approx two hours time, I followed the process as best I could in these photos. The first mosaic of photos show the olives being weighed, before being tipped into the hopper, the leaves are then separated from the olives by being blown and deposited in the basket outside, see bottom left of picture, before the olives are sent off into the milling machinery.

As mentioned above the leaves have been separated as the olives make their way into this first stage of the milling process where they are washed and ground.

In the next stage of the process the pulp is transferred into tanks, there are six in all and they are used in rotation, our olive pulp was designated to tank number two.

An impressive looking beast here are some close ups of the procedure, notice how red the pulp is going down the tube in the first photo, top left! The operative kindly opened the lid so that I could photograph the pulp entering the chamber.

While we waited for the oil, I will took a few photos around the mill, including where the waste product from the procedure is transferred to. It appears to lose its colour looking at the last photo ‘ stuff’ which had been around for awhile maybe used as a compost product but this is just a guess.

The setting sun, Montefiascone Duomo and general environs of the mill.

The green lights indicate that the pulp is ready for the next stage and the chamber is emptied as it passes through the next batch of machinery to the final stages, the waste product is removed and ends up where I showed you in a previous collage. It gets exciting as the procedure enters the final stages as you wait for your very own olive oil to appear.

Which it finally does and to our delight the operatives told us that not only was our oil of a very good quality, but in fact even better it was excellent, they knew this because of the transparency, just take a look at the large photo!

We are very pleased with the end result and I hope you have enjoyed my very basic description of the process, any mistakes are my own!

For those of you that are new to this blog and may be interested in the previous Olive Harvest posts, here are the links.

Olive Harvest - Phase One – 2009

Olive Harvest - Phase Two - 2009

Olive Harvest 2010 - Che Disastro!Travel Tales

Olive Oil 2010

and the prequel to this post Olive Harvest 2011 - Picking

Lots more photos can be viewed in in My Flickr Albums in the collection entitled Olives and Olive Oil.

Mosaic Monday

This is a series which I participate in from time to time and I have done so with this post. Welcome to News From Italy to anyone who has called by from Mosaic Monday at Little Red House and of course all my supportive readers who call by and leave comments both here and on my other blogs.

LindyLouMac's Book Reviews - LindyLouMac's World in Photos - Travel Tales

Friday Photo – Marta in the November sunshine

2011-11-25T16:50:00.001+01:00

As you know I sometimes have a few single photos to post here that are relevant to our life in Italy and therefore this blog and this has probably meant that most of you realise how keen I am on photography. It would hardly go unnoticed as most of my posts do have rather a lot of photos!

What many of you probably do not know though is that for the last eighteen months I have contributed almost daily to a Photography Blog - Beautiful World but sadly it is closing down on December 8th. I have decided that I do not want to stop experimenting and learning, so I have transferred my work to a new blog and will continue to post my favourite photos there. The purpose of this new blog is to share the world I have learnt to appreciate so much more through the camera lens. A lot of the photos will be off subject for News From Italy, hence the separate blog where I can be more diverse in my posting.

I would love you to join me on this journey and am therefore hoping that some of you will be willing to give me some encouragement and support for this project by following me there.

Looking forward to seeing you there. LindyLouMac's World in Photos

No this is not the photo I published there today but one of Marta in the November sunshine. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Olive Harvest 2011 - Picking

2011-11-23T10:25:00.001+01:00

After our Olive Harvest being so disappointing last year we were really hoping for a better one this year. In fact it turned out better than we had hoped for, but unfortunately we did not have the labour to complete picking in the time we had allowed this year. Two years ago when we had a massive harvest of 1,074 kilos it took four of us, two sessions of four days to pick this quantity!

Our friends who have helped us for the last few years were this year unavailable, but fortunately my sister was able to time a visit to help us and some other local friends managed to give us a few hours between them. This meant that for the majority of the time it was just three of us harvesting, for the four days we had allowed. With the mill accepting a minimum quantity of 300 kilos we decided we needed to carry on for a fifth day, which pushed our harvested weight to the 380 kilos. With time and labour there is no doubt we could have harvested a second batch, but quite honestly as this amount was going to provide more than enough for our own use and family and friends that we share with, we decided to call a halt. Shame about the unpicked olives but there you go, that’s life, no one else wants them as everyone has more than enough of their own!

David and I have been harvesting olives every year since our arrival in Italy in 2004 and quite honestly we sometimes feel we have been there and done that! Having an Olive Grove is hard work needing attention throughout the year, although of course it is extremely rewarding to produce your own olive oil. For those that do not know from previous years we harvest all our olives by hand, just using little rakes something like a child’s sand toy. This method ensures that there is very little damage to the olives during the picking, but it is of course a slow and labour intensive method. Rewarding work in the sunshine though, we have always been lucky with our timing of the harvests as regards the weather, only getting soaked to the skin once, as heavy rain arrived just as we were completing picking one year, with no option but to carry on.

We were certainly lucky with the weather this year. My sister had beautiful blue skies to enjoy while she was here and it was a pleasure to be outside in the sunshine all day.

I will follow this post up with one about the milling process soon but for now I will share photos of the harvest from November 10th to November 14th inclusive. Good timing as the following morning we had our first frost, although it disappeared quickly and we had another glorious day of which we spent a good few hours of at the mill, but that is for next time.

For those of you that are new to this blog and may be interested in the previous Olive Harvest posts, here are the links.

Olive Harvest - Phase One – 2009

Olive Harvest - Phase Two - 2009

Olive Harvest 2010 - Che Disastro!

Olive Oil 2010

Lots more photos can be viewed in in My Flickr Albums in the collection entitled Olives and Olive Oil.

Ciao Christy - La Dolce Vita

This is a series which I participate in from time to time, welcome to News From Italy to anyone who has called by from this link about sharing La Dolce Vita in Italy.

Saturday Snapshots – Narcissi in our Garden

2011-11-19T13:08:00.001+01:00

I have not shared any flower photos from our garden since Our Garden in September and as I doubt I will write any more such posts this year I thought you might enjoy seeing the Narcissi that have come into bloom this month.

I am off to enjoy lunch followed by a walk in the sunshine having spent this morning preparing posts for News From Italy on the recent Olive Harvest and I have also published a post on Travel Tales - Hong Kong Park. I am hoping that some of you will be interested in following Travel Tales and encouraging me that this new project is worthwhile, although I think it is going to make a fabulous online scrapbook of our travels, even if no one reads it.

Have a great weekend my friends where ever you live in this Beautiful World.

Olive Harvest All Done

2011-11-17T10:57:00.001+01:00

After five days of picking by hand with just three people the majority of that time we are extremely pleased with the results. We probably could have continued picking for another three days but quite honestly we felt we had done enough and we did not want my sister to spend her entire holiday working!

We were just hopeful that the results of our labour and that of friends who were able to lend a hand for a couple of mornings were going to be worthwhile. Well they certainly were as the statistics noted here show, it was an excellent percentage yield.

I will follow this post up with a couple more about the process from picking to oil as it will be no surprise to my regular readers that I took loads of photos to share with you.

Talking of photos and sharing with you those from our recent trip to Asia, I have decided that as there are so many it would be better to start a separate blog rather than overload News From Italy with off subject posts. I am hoping that those of you interested in travel will follow me over there, for now I have just reposted the posts already shared here, but lots more to follow shortly. The new blog is called Travel Tales and there I will share our life adventures outside Italy, I am looking forward to hearing what you think.

San Martino – St Martins Day - November 11th.

2011-11-09T14:56:00.001+01:00

San Martino.

Photo of stained glass designed by the students of Art of Aosta)

This date is important in Italy for more than one reason! Firstly it is when festas are held to celebrate the Vino Novello (the new seasons wine) in some parts of Italy. In fact on this day last year our own wine was ready for sealing, as the fermentation process was complete. San Martino 2010 We did not make any wine this year as we knew that we would be away travelling when it needed attention. Instead we made grape juice which we will enjoy as a breakfast drink over the winter.

November 11th is the official feast day for San Martino - Saint Martin was born in a Roman province in what is now Hungary, a Roman citizen whose father was an army officer and himself became one, later giving it up to become a monk. He is the patron saint of soldiers and wine-makers! Hence maybe the celebration of Vino Novello on this day!
Historically the story goes that while he was riding at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers, he met a poor, freezing beggar, cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with him. That same night he dreamt of Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given to the poor man and thanking him for his compassionate gesture. It is also said that at the moment he shared his cloak, the sun came out and that is why in Italy, a period of sunny, warm weather with clear skies and mild temperatures of around 21C/70F, occurring during early November is called Estate di San Martino.

We are of course hoping for an Estate di San Martino while we pick our olives this year. Weather permitting we are starting tomorrow, my sister arrives this afternoon for a working holiday. Well she did ask if she could help this year so we have waited for her arrival. The barometer is rising and the weather looks promising, today Wednesday the 9th of November at 2pm the thermometer was reading 21C so maybe we will be enjoying an Indian Summer, let us hope so. When we harvested our olives last year we had beautiful weather but a disastrous crop, but as you have already seen from my earlier photos Olives, it is looking a lot more promising for the 2011 harvest.

I am sure many of you have heard the term Indian Summer before when referring to a spell of warmer than normal temperatures accompanied by sunshine and dry and hazy conditions in the Autumn months.

In earlier times in Europe, “Indian summer” was called “Saint Martin’s Summer”, referring to St. Martin’s Day on November 11th.

The phrase ‘Saint Martin’s Summer’ comes from France where it is still widely used. In Italy, St Martin’s summer (Estate di San Martino) was expected and celebrated as a rural tradition with ancient origins.

By the ancient agriculture systems of Rural tenancy and Sharecropping the yearly rental of the lands traditionally ended just on November 11th, right at the end of the harvesting season, but still before winter.

The St Martin’s Summer often occurs around 11th November and lasts for 3 or 4 days. It is so famous and popular that in Italy there are events and festivals in many Italian cities and villages. Born as a religious celebration, it has been turned into a range of wine and food events in which visitors have the chance to taste the new wine.

I have not forgotten either that November 11th is also Remembrance Day but here in Italy servicemen who died for the nation are remembered on 4 November, when the ceasefire that followed the Armistice of Villa Giusti in 1918 began. Since 1977, this day has not been a public holiday, now, many services are held on the first Sunday of November.

In Memory of those that lost their lives for us.

For followers that have joined me in the last year my previous posts about San Martino and the Wine Harvest can be read in the following links. San Martino 2010 and Indian Summer

I am now off to spend some quality time with my sister.

Travel Tales – The Peak Hong Kong

2011-11-08T15:21:00.001+01:00

No trip to Hong Kong is complete without a ride up to The Peak on The Peak Tram and judging by the number of people we saw up there this year many tourists take the ride. The Tram station is just across the road from The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens so when we passed by on our way to another park and saw the queue for those with Octopus cards (The HK Travel Card) was empty, as I suspect many visitors to The Peak do not have these, we decided on the spur of the moment to go up and take a look at the magnificent views. We have been up there before but the panoramic views, when the weather is clear enough are worth seeing time and time again.

The Peak Tram is probably the most enduring emblem of Hong Kong's unique past. It has seen war, been featured on films and television and played host to numerous dignitaries. Tens of millions of people from every corner of the globe have taken the ride, which affords a uniquely spectacular perspective of the city.

By 1883 Hong Kong's population had reached 173,475 with some families starting to the Peak their home. Although the Peak Hotel had opened in 1873 and was attracting an eager clientele, reaching the Peak was dependent on the use of the sedan chair for transport. In May of 1881, the enterprising Scotsman Alexander Findlay Smith devised a plan to speed the development of new residences in the hill districts with the introduction of a new tram system that would connect Murray Barracks to Victoria Gap. In 1882 approval was granted and the Hong Kong High Level Tramways Company was born. With the commencement of service on 30 May 1888, the Peak Tram became the first cable funicular in Asia, extending 1,350 metres and connecting five intermediate stations. The Peak Tram, which was operated by coal-fired steam boilers then, ended up serving 600 passengers on its first day and about 150,000 in its first year.

In 1926, an electrically powered system replaced the coal-fired steam boilers. However, following the Japanese occupation of Kowloon on December 11, 1941, the Peak Tram engine room was damaged in an attack. On Christmas Day in 1945, the Peak Tram service resumed but part of a Japanese shell was lodged under the main base plate of the two haulage drums. A 72-seat, lightweight all-metal tramcar was introduced in 1959 before the Peak Tram began service in its present form in 1989 following a HK$60-million overhaul to upgrade it.

From its earliest days of operation, The Peak Tram has been the focus of artists and photographers who have tried to capture its spirit while simultaneously documenting its service. From amateur shots meant to preserve a personal memory, to professionally prepared views intended for commercial sale, The Peak Tram has proven itself a particularly compelling subject. The early years of operation seem to have produced the most varied scenes, with shots taken not only at both the upper and lower stations, but also at many points along the way. These views were reproduced by a small number of Hong Kong printing companies as black and white postcards which were then hand-coloured to enhance their beauty. From all evidence they were highly popular, with elegantly handwritten notes sent around the world commenting on the remarkable views and surprisingly efficient and comfortable service.

By the end of the Second World War, photographers seemed less enthralled with the tram as subject matter. Perhaps its novelty was wearing thin in the face of new advances in transportation, or was overshadowed by Hong Kong's rapidly changing skyline. Cards from the late 1960s and 1970s focussed more on the newly built Peak Tower and the panoramic vistas that some visitors claimed yielded views as distant as Macau.

Throughout its long history, The Peak Tram has remained one of the most visited and photographed sights in Hong Kong by offering not only an enviable view, but also a quiet respite from the city below.

For a fuller account of The Peak Trams History please visit my source of information. The Peak

The best way of letting you view a large selection of photos easily is by sharing some collages.

I hope you enjoyed the photos I selected to share here, there are more if you are interested in the album The Peak Tramway at Flickr.com

Previous Travel Tales The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

Saturday Snapshots – Olives

2011-11-05T17:57:00.001+01:00

The olives are looking healthy and ready for the forthcoming harvest which hopefully weather permitting we are planning for the end of next week, while my sister is staying as she has expressed an interest in helping and an extra pair of hands is always welcome.

Travel Tales – Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

2011-11-03T18:49:00.001+01:00

A Halloween Welcome to the Gardens!

Travel Tales is what I have decided to call the series of posts I have planned, to share some photos from our recent travels to Asia to visit our eldest daughter. I hope those of you coming here to read about Italy will not mind too much if I diversify with these articles as it is at the request of some of my readers, that I share our experiences here. I am hoping you will enjoy them!

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens were one of our favourite places on our first visit to Hong Kong last year, so it was somewhere we decided to revisit very early on in our trip this time. It is such a surprising oasis of peace right in the city centre amongst all the skyscrapers. We did not spend much time there this visit as we had a couple of other destinations planned for the same day and had after all seen it all before albeit at a different time of the year. Although if I lived in Hong Kong I would certainly spend many happy hours there with my camera, there is so much to see. If you want to see more photographs of the Gardens taken last Spring you are welcome to peruse my Flickr Album China 2010 - Hong Kong Volume 4

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens ( 香港動植物公園) is one of the oldest zoological and botanical centres in the world. It occupies an area of 5.6 hectares at Mid-levels, on the northern slope of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Founded in 1871, its first stage had been opened to the public in 1864. The Zoological part of the name was in fact only added in 1975 when the Gardens were renamed to reflect the increased number of zoological exhibits.

The park was previously named Bing Tau Fa Yuen (「兵頭花園」) "Bing Tau" literally means "the head of the soldiers" or the "Commander-in-Chief". Some said it was named such way by the Chinese because it was once the private garden of the governor. Other said Bing Tau was just the phonetic transliteration of the first two syllables of the word botanical.

At the southern entrance to the gardens, at Upper Albert Road, is a memorial arch dedicated to the Chinese who died assisting the Allies during the two World Wars. The inscription on the lintel reads: "In Memory of the Chinese who died loyal to the Allied cause in the Wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945". The granite arch in the shape of a paifang was erected in 1928. Reference to the Second World War was added later.

Memorial Arch

By far the easiest way of letting you view a large selection of photos easily is by producing some collages, the photos can be viewed individually in larger format in my Flickr Album by those of you interested in more detail. Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

The photograph in the middle of this second collage is a bronze statue of King George VI which was erected in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of British colonial rule over Hong Kong (1841–1941).

More can be learnt about The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens by visiting Wikipedia and the Official Website.

The complete set of my photos can be viewed in the Flickr Album Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

All Saints Day

2011-11-01T12:14:00.000+01:00

Google images.

These dates are celebrated primarily by Catholics, but not just by Italians. There are also Church of England dioceses that honour these dates with special services, although I believe not so often recognised these days as it was many years ago.

November 1st is a public holiday in Italy for All Saints Day where it is known as Tutti i Santi Ognissnati. All Saints Day is the Catholic holiday, commemorating the Saint Martyrs and the following day is All Souls Day, which is set aside to honour loved ones who are deceased. Italians celebrate the two days together and traditionally they visit the graves of their loved ones and leave some flowers normally chrysanthemums.

This is why you must never take chrysanthemums as a gift to an Italian household, as it is considered unlucky to have them indoors.

To those of you that have been reading News From Italy for more than a year, the above words may be familiar as I wrote them here last year.

Forgive me my lack of originality but although we are now home from our travels in Asia, having had a really wonderful time, I have lots to do before I will have a lot of time for blogging.

Although News From Italy is primarily about our life in Italy I have from time to time posted about our travels outside Italy as family and friends including my faithful readers have expressed an interest in me doing so. I will therefore be posting photos and maybe a few comments on our Asian travels over the coming months. For those of you that already know I am a keen amateur photographer it will be no surprise that I took many more than I will be sharing with you here! I have not loaded the photos yet but I will be doing so to my Flickr for those of you that are interested in viewing all the albums.

I will also be sharing many of the photos I have taken on the photography site I contribute a daily photo to, please consider becoming a follower there if you are a photography fan and appreciate the beauty of the world around us.

I shared this photo there yesterday.

Chinese Ladies - Hong Kong Ladies Market

Beautiful World

Musica per Ottobre – Fabrizio Moro – Gianni Gandi - Patrizio Buanne + Think Pink October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2011-10-08T18:01:00.001+02:00

As promised in my earlier post while we are away I am leaving you with a selection of Music starting with a very appropriate song for the season, which I featured here last year but I am sure those of you who listened to it then will not mine doing so again. I have lots more lovely friendly followers than I had this time last year and I am grateful to each and every one of you for all your support.

Ottobre - Fabrizio Moro

Uploaded by PoliticalWarrior93 on Feb 19, 2010

La sera ormai è fresco
ma ogni tanto sento ancora una zanzara
maledette zanzare
sono più inutili dei democristiani
mio figlio inizia a parlare
e io amo quello che dice
anche se non lo capisco
ma d'altronde neanche lui capisce me
e in tv continuo a vedere le stesse identiche facce di sempre
come se avessero capito
che non li stiamo a sentire bene
tu sei sveglia da poco e apri la finestra
sorridi e dici amore ormai è arrivato è arrivato
ottobre
ottobre
con i suoi colori grigi che io amo
a ottobre mi sembra che inizi un nuovo anno
ma perchè non è a ottobre il capodanno
Mi guardo e vedo
che ho perso qualche kilo maledetti kili in meno
mi viene in mente la salute che va
tu sorridi e mi dici stai bene
non ti preoccupare devi solo stare più calmo
ma come faccio in questo mondo qua
e quando ti stringo sento
che i tuoi vestiti sanno già d'inverno
mi viene in mente l'inizio della scuola
e la festa della nostra borgata
e allora ti bacio ancora
e torna tutto qui
e tu ripeti si è proprio bello
è proprio bello
ottobre
ottobre
con i suoi colori grigi che io amo
a ottobre mi sembra che tutto sia più chiaro
è tutto dolce a ottobre anche l'amaro
ottobre
ottobre
con i suoi colori grigi che io amo
a ottobre mi sembra che inizi un nuovo anno
ma perchè non è a ottobre il capodanno
ma perchè non è ottobre tutto l'anno.

Translation of Lyrics to English is courtesy of Google and I apologise if there are glaring mistakes, I did not do a through check so please let me know if it is wrong. At least it gives those of you with no Italian the gist of the meaning.

The evening is cool now
but sometimes I still feel a mosquito
damn mosquitoes
Democrats are the most useless
my son starts talking
and I love what it says
even if I do not understand
but then even he understands me
TV and still see the exact same faces as always
as if they had understood
that we do not hear well
you are awake and just open the window
smile and say now you got love has arrived
October
October
with its grey colour that I love
beginning in October seems to me that a new year
but why not to October, the New Year
I look and see
I lost a few kilos less cursed kilo
I am reminded of health that goes
you smile and tell me you are well
do not worry you just feel calmer
but as I do in this world here
and when you feel squeeze
already know that your clothes in winter
I remember the beginning of the school
and the feast of our village
and then kiss you again
and returns all here
and you repeat it is just beautiful
it is beautiful
October
October
with its grey colour that I love
in October it seems to me that everything is clearer
October is all too sweet to bitter
October
October
with its grey colour that I love
beginning in October seems to me that a new year
but why not to October, the New Year
but why is not throughout the year in October.

I also featured this instrumental by Gianni Gandi last year, here, but like it so much that I just had to share with you again.

Autumn Leaves (Gianni Gandi)

Uploaded by mediterraneosproduct on Aug 9, 2010

My third choice is taken from an Autumn Album released on September 20th 2011 ‘Patrizio’ from Patrizio Buanne an Italian that sings beautifully in English. The first video is him talking about his new album and there is an interesting write up as well on YouTube, apparently he is already gaining a following in the UK and Australia, so some of you may already be fans. The second video is Patrizio performing ‘Solo Tu’ which he performs in a mixture of English and Italian. My final selection is Patrizio having great fun performing, ‘Mambo Italiano’, I hope you will enjoy his singing as much as I do.

Patrizio Buanne – Patrizio

Uploaded by concordrecords on Aug 2, 2011

Patrizio Buanne - "Solo Tu"

Uploaded by pgh2257 on Apr 4, 2011

Patrizio Buanne - Mambo Italiano Hey Hey It's Saturday LIVE Australia

Uploaded by vidiyeo on May 11, 2011

If you have called by today hoping for something new to read rather than listen to music please visit my last post, Our Garden in September, where you will discover I have linked to lots of other interesting blog parties to keep you busy blog hopping while I am away. Maybe if you are a reader you will also consider calling by my other blog LindyLouMac's Book Reviews, where I have posted lots of new book reviews this week.

For those of you that were not following News From Italy this time last year, here are some links to seasonal posts for Breast Cancer Awareness, Chestnuts and Wine making that may be of interest. Whilst they may be rather diverse subjects they are both part of October here in Italy. We will miss these events while we are visiting our daughter but will be home in time for the Olive Harvest, which we are hoping will be better than last year Che disastro.

Think Pink For Breast Cancer Awareness Another Pink Post Italian Pink Ribbon Campaign for 2011 Grape Harvest and Winemaking

Chestnuts and finally Wine Making Continuation

My reminder with this beautiful rose from my garden to you all to Think Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a charity I support as my Mum was a Breast Cancer Survivor for many years, until her death in June 2011, not from cancer. For more Think Pink Info please visit Breast Cancer Info and Susan Komen

We Fight Back – Tim Halperin

Uploaded by fineartvideo on Jan 8, 2011

Have a lovely October everyone and do let me know if you enjoyed any of my choices for Autumn listening.

Italy in Books Reading Challenge October 2011 + Tribute to Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

2011-10-07T13:34:00.001+02:00

I have decided to post this today instead of on my return from our travels, as a tribute to Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011 as by coincidence he is quoted in the book as you will see if you read on. An amazing and erudite man that will be sorely missed but leaves us a lot to remember him by.

Recipe For Life by Nicky Pellegrino

Paperback: 340 pages

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Publisher: Orion Books 2010

Source: Sent to me by another blogger Maggie of Normandy Life

First Sentence : ‘At Villa Rosa there was an old dog barking in the garden, running between the straggle of artichokes, chasing a bird as though he was still a puppy.’

Quote that Starts Part One: “Your time is limited so don’t waste it leading someone else’s life” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Inc.

Review Quote : ‘Set against a backdrop of love, life and friendship, the description of Italian food will make your mouth water.’ Cosmopolitan.

My Opinion: A pleasure to lose myself in for a few hours.

The October post for the list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. October Reviews

A blogging friend of mine Maggie from Normandy Life joined this challenge after reading about it on my blog. I enjoyed her review of Recipe For Life which you can read here and in response she kindly sent her copy to me.
This is the first title by this author that I have read and I doubt it will be the last as I believe they are all set in Italy. Although I am already here living the dream it was a pleasure to lose myself in the setting for this delightful novel for a few hours. A very relaxing read and the sights and smells felt almost real, it is obvious that the author knows those sights and smells for herself and is passionate about Italy.
The story is told by the two main female characters, Alice and Babetta in alternating chapters. Alice a young British girl has had a traumatic incident in her life which has caused her to drop out of university and for her whole life to change direction. She wants to make the most of her life but seems somewhat confused as to how to go about this. The other protagonist is Babetta the typical Italian mama figure who has spent her life tending to her family’s needs. Babetta is feeling lost as her husband seems to have lost his zest for life. leaving her feeling useless. One summer these vastly different women are brought together, thanks to the beautiful Villa Rosa. Despite not being able to communicate easily, cooking and growing fresh food enables these two women to build a special relationship.
If you are passionate about Italy then there is no doubt you will enjoy this story. There is a lot of romance but there is also so much more as our protagonist discovers that life’s lessons are certainly not learnt easily.

Image credit: New Zealand Woman's Weekly.

Biographical Information
Nicky Pellegrino was born in Liverpool on January 01 1964 but spent childhood summers staying with her family in southern Italy. A shy, tall, gingery child she never really fitted in with her exuberant Italian cousins and had a tendency to stay quiet and observe things.
When Nicky started writing fiction it was her memories of those summers in Italy that came flooding back and flavoured her stories: the passions, the feuds but most of all the food.
Nicky now lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband Carne (and yes she does find it slightly odd being married to a man whose name means “meat” in Italian), her large poodles and her even larger chestnut horse.
She works as a freelance journalist, has weekly columns in the Herald on Sunday newspaper and the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and her novels are distributed in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and have been translated into 12 languages.
She loves cooking for friends, drinking red wine, walking on New Zealand’s amazing beaches, riding her horse through the forest and lying in bed reading other people’s novels.

The TV advert played in New Zealand to promote ‘Recipe for Life’

Uploaded by AlisonHachette on May 4, 2010

Nicky Pellegrino discusses her novel ‘Recipe for Life.’

Uploaded by orionbooks on Mar 18, 2010

Information, photo and video used in this post is with thanks to the following websites.
Nicky Pellegrino - Official Author Website
Goodreads Profile
YouTube - Nicky Pellegrino

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Our Garden in September - Il Nostro Giardino in Settembre

2011-09-30T19:24:00.001+02:00

The end of September it is time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos with you. Once again I have had difficulty selecting which ones to share with you, I am trying something different this month, instead of just showing you individual photos I have made some collages.

I looked at last year’s post before I published this one, Our Garden in September 2010 interesting to compare as it was cooler and wetter during September. Those of you that were not reading this blog last year might be interested in reading more there about an unusual fruit we have in our garden, the Jujube, which we knew nothing about until last year. It has a very interesting flavour a cross between an apple and a date. I featured the Jujube in another post, Jujube - Italian Bloggers, an idea I never got around to doing any more of last year maybe this winter I will introduce you to some other Italian Bloggers.

Jujube.

Despite what we thought was heavy watering of our Orto we have for the second year running not done well with our vegetables during the heat of the summer, it seems we really should not expect much to grow really apart from tomatoes and a few salad crops. Spring and Winter seem to be the only times we are going to get much in the way of vegetables, but at least we manage to produce enough for the two of us. As for our fruit crops well they certainly enable us to eat as much fruit as we want all summer long without having to buy any which is a great bonus. We did have to buy melons this year, as ours just did not get going, lack of water again.

The majority of colour in the garden has been provided by the Autumn Daffodil – Sternbergia Lutea and the yellow daisies that reach for the sky plus our various tubs and pots on the terraces.

Autumn Daffodils

Daisies, Plumbago, Lilies, Lantana, Impatiens, Ice-Plant, Cyclamen and Petunias have also given us pleasure with their blooms this month.

Persimmons are starting to ripen and my husband is hoping for a good crop to make some more of the wonderful chutney he made with them last year. The recipe came from another blogger in Italy, some of you may already know him but I shall save it for a post when we harvest the Kaki as the Italians call them. The Pomegranates are probably already ripe enough to enjoy now, I must try one this weekend. The grapes are from just one of our vines and after I took this photo they were turned into fresh grape juice for us to enjoy with breakfast or other times when you do not want wine! The second fennel crop looks as though it might produce seeds and the kiwis will be picked just before Christmas and last us through until early summer.

Other crops we have enjoyed from the garden this month, all edible except for the giant gourds! Figs, Pears, Quince, Sweet Chestnuts and Walnuts. We also have apples but very few and all picked, last year we had many more than we could cope with. Apples, Apples, Apples.

Olives and Rosehips rambling up an olive tree. The olives are looking good and the harvest for us should be early November. We are just hoping for a better result than last year’s disappointing harvest. Olive Harvest 2010 - Che disastro! Fingers crossed. We just have to pray no major storms arrive and damage the crop, they just need some gentle rain to swell and time to ripen.

The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden in September 2011 where the photos can be viewed in a larger format.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this collection of photos taken around our garden this month and remember if you would like to see more views of the garden taken during 2011 please visit the collection of albums at Flickr.com entitled Our Garden 2011

We are enjoying the most gorgeous late summer weather here in Italy and the forecast, for at least the next week, is for it to remain this way with temps in the high twenties centigrade.

This summer seems to have flown by and I cannot believe it is October 1st tomorrow. October is going to be a very quiet month for posts here on News From Italy as we are going to visit one of our daughters who lives in Hong Kong. We are also travelling to Thailand with her while we are away, so I will hopefully have a lot of photos to share with those of you that are interested on Flickr and Beautiful World on our return.

There will be one more post published before we leave for our trip and as many of you have commented on how much you enjoy my Sunday Song posts I have decided to make it a musical one.

Meanwhile I am also linking this post to as many of the great linky parties that I participate in, that seem appropriate, as hopefully it will provide plenty of opportunity for visitors here during October to do some blog hopping and hopefully discover some interesting blogs, amongst this selection.

Best Posts of the Week, Bloomin' Tuesday, Fertilizer Friday, La Dolce Vita, Mosaic Monday at Little Red House, Our World Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Post of the Month Club, and Potpourri Friday.

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

I hope you have found some pleasure in sharing photos from my garden in Italy. I have made so many virtual friends from around the world via this blog, such a friendly network of people. While I am away during October I hope that you will maybe do some blog hopping and discover some new bloggers for yourselves. Have fun exploring, the wonderful karma of blogging!

Before we leave on our travels, (see back up the page if you missed that bit), I hope to have time to catch up with as many of you as possible because while we are travelling my online presence will be kept to an absolute minimum. I will I expect be signing in to Facebook - News From Italy from time to time; so if you are interested in finding out what News From Italy is up to over the next few weeks please consider becoming a fan of our Facebook Page.

Have a lovely October everyone, where ever you may be in the world and what ever you are doing. Take Care.

Italy in Books Reading Challenge September 2011

2011-09-28T19:46:00.001+02:00

The Summer House by Christobel Kent

Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011

Paperback: 373 pages

Genre: Mystery Fiction

Publisher: Penguin 2005

Source: Purchased Oxfam Bookshop in UK

First Sentence : ‘Genova sprawls on the northern Mediterranean between two mountainous spurs that dip into the sea, a snarl of industrial steel, bridges, tunnels and peeling tower-blocks.’

Review Quote: ‘Well drawn, Kent manipulates her transplanted inglesi and loquacious locali with unfussy authority’

My Opinion : Realistic Italian background.

The September post with a list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. September Reviews.

Another thriller with a realistic Italian background for this months choice, a different author though, but one I have read for this challenge before back in February. A Party in San Niccolo

The story centres around Rose Fell a divorcee who left a secure job in journalism and family in London to move to a beautiful but isolated village in Italy near Genoa. After a year there she is still finding it a struggle to integrate, however when she is asked by a colleague from the UK if she can write an article about another local her life changes. At about the same time a young girl is found dead on a local beach and another young local woman disappears. Rose finds herself embroiled in this local mystery. Ania, the young woman that is missing was until the time of her disappearance working for the once famous model and film star Elvira Vitale that Rose is due to interview. Elvira and her younger British husband whom she no longer seems able to trust spend every summer in Italy and winters in the UK, hence the British press interest in the couple. The danger that is lurking closer than either of them realise throws these women together.

To repeat what I said about the last novel I read by this author, there is enough suspense skilfully built into the story that kept me turning the pages to make this a very quick and entertaining read.

Christobel Kent was born in London in 1962 and now lives in Cambridge with her husband and four children; in between she lived in Florence. She worked in publishing for several years, most recently as Publicity Director at Andre Deutsch. Her debut novel A Party in San Niccolo, was published in 2003. The about the author section in the book I have just read states they have five children. I have not been able to confirm which information is correct.

This list of titles by her may well be of interest to those of you taking part in the Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011

Biographical and other information including photos and videos are courtesy of the following websites and from the paperback itself.

Goodreads - Christobel Kent

Amazon Author Page

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Notte Bianca a Marta

2011-09-26T18:22:00.001+02:00

Last year Marta held its first Notte Bianca which turned out to be a great success so it was repeated again this summer. I posted about the event last year Notte Bianca a Marta 2010 and also featured the one held earlier this summer in nearby Capodimonte Notte Bianca a Capodimonte 2011

There is actually not an awful lot one can say about these events. Apart from repeat the history of these evenings for those of you that are new followers of the blog.

The evening of the fourth of August 2011 was the second white night to be celebrated in Marta. What are White Nights? According to Wikipedia in this particular format they are White Night Festivals, all-night arts festivals held in many towns and cities both in Italy and worldwide in the summer and I also learnt there that the first one held in Roma was in mid September of 2005.

The crowded steps of the Campidoglio in Rome during the 2006 Notte Bianca

The centre of town was closed to traffic and participating shops, restaurants and other businesses went to a lot of effort to decorate their premises provide food and or entertainment where appropriate. There were also various market traders and a car club exhibit in the streets which added to the party atmosphere. Also in the squares and at various other locations there was live music varying from pop groups and discos to more traditional accordion music. Also the local band and majorettes marched through the streets. In fact while walking through the streets you hardly left the noise of one entertainer behind before you came across the next one.

I find it is difficult to explain events such as these with words, so I will let some of my photographs from that evening do the talking with some mosaics to try and recreate the atmosphere.

I took fifty-three photographs that evening and have not quite shared all of them here with you, if you are interested in viewing the full album or any photos in a larger size you will find them in My Flickr Album entitled Notte Bianca - Marta 2011

I hope in fact that you will find time to look at the rest of the photos as all the businesses I took photos of had put in so much effort and there was no favouritism intended in the photos I selected to publish. I would have liked to share them all to be fair but it was not feasible so it was difficult choosing exactly which ones to include. I am also certain that I missed some good photo opportunities completely.

I am linking this post to La Dolce Vita and Mosaic Monday at Little Red House the latter where you will find lots of other beautiful Mosaics. Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

Skywatch – September Full Moon

2011-09-23T11:06:00.001+02:00

The beautiful view of the Moon from the lakeside at Marta on the evening of September 13th.

This last photo was actually taken on the night of the Full Moon September 12th, but I think the moon photos low over the lake, the following evening are much more interesting, although unfortunately I did not have such a good camera with me, so the quality is not brilliant.

What do you think which is your favourite?

If you would like to see the photographs full size please visit the collection at Flickr.com in the album entitled Full Moon - September 2011

I am linking this post to Potpourri Friday at A Potpourri of Life at 2805 and to Skywatch Friday Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend and do take a minute or two to enjoy the sky.

Montefiascone – Fiera del Vino 2011

2011-09-14T15:10:00.001+02:00

The 53rd Fiera del Vino (Festival of Wine) was held in Montefiascone from July 31st - 15 August 2011. During that period there was a full calendar of entertainments and lots of cantinas open for wine tastings to celebrate 900 years of Est Est Est.

Est, Est, Est is the name of the wine for which the town has become famous, it is a good quality white wine that is recognised nationally and internationally. There is a fascinating legend as to how the wine came to bear this name.

The legend suggests that the Abbot Giovanni Defuk was travelling towards Rome, accompanied on his journey by the most loyal of his servants, Martino, who was a great lover of wine and viticulture.

Courtesy of Fiera del Vino Official Website

In fact, every time they passed a town or village Martino would visit the most important inns that served the best wines. Martino would then, as a signal to the Abbott, write on the door of those inns “Est!”.

After a few days the Abbot arrived at Montefiascone and sent Martino to the most important inn to taste the wine. The servant, who was amazed by the good taste of the local product, remained so pleased and ecstatic that this time, instead of just the usual signal, decided to write on the inn door “Est!!Est!!Est!!!” and so, according to the legend, comes the name of the wine of Montefiascone.

You can read more on the history of the wine fair here

A selection of photos taken in the Centro Storico of Montefiascone during this years Fiera del Vino.

It is something of a tradition to buy yourself a pouch and a glass to take around the cantinas with you, mine is now hanging up in our kitchen.

I am sharing a video of the Fiera del Vino 2011 made by a YouTube friend of mine 5quinto5

Uploaded by 5quinto5 on Aug 11, 2011

I hope this selection of photos and the video have given you a good idea of the atmosphere at this event and if you want to see the full album of 32 photos it can be viewed on Flickr in My Album entitled Fiera del Vino August 2011 - Montefiascone

My previous posts about the Fiera del Vino are Fiera del Vino 2010 and Fiera del Vino 2009

Posters and prints are Courtesy of Fiera del Vino Official Website

Skywatch – A Beautiful September Evening

2011-09-08T14:47:00.001+02:00

I think most of you reading News From Italy will have noticed that I post lots of photographs here. Photography is something I have always enjoyed so now with time to experiment and the opportunity to share some of the results with you here, I seem to be taking more than ever.

Yesterday evening the colours in the sky were beautiful and there was a haze around the moon. By coincidence the Beautiful World Themed Thursday subject this week is Haze, so I took a series of photos which I am sharing here and one over there.

For sometime now I have also been thinking about linking up with a popular meme called Skywatch Friday, this series of photos has given me the opportunity to do so.

The photos were all taken from our roof terrace on the evening of September 7th 2011.

Finally the haze around the moon in close up that I posted for Themed Thursday on Beautiful World

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this collection of photos, if you would like to see the photographs full size please visit the collection at Flickr.com in the album entitled A Beautiful September Evening

I am linking this post to Potpourri Friday at A Potpourri of Life at 2805, and to Skywatch Friday Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend and do take a minute or two to enjoy the sky.

A Stroll Around Bolsena.

2011-09-03T15:34:00.001+02:00

The town of Bolsena takes its name from the lake of the same name, it is on the north eastern shores of Lago di Bolsena. Bolsena has I think a much more touristy seaside feel to it than the other towns surrounding the lake, with more in the way of campsites, agriturismo’s, hotels and holiday homes it attracts a lot of holiday makers. The resident population of around 4,000 normally grows to approximately 10,000 during the summer months.

If you are interested in learning more historical facts and other information you can always visit Bolsena - Wikipedia or the Bolsena Official Website

We started our walk at the top of the town, high above the lake and rooftops and strolled downhill. For those of you that were asking me where I took the chimney photo from that I posted on Beautiful World, the fourth mosaic, shows the spot by the archway.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this collection of photos taken around Bolsena during a visit when my cousin was staying with us last month, if you would like to see the photographs full size please visit the collection at Flickr.com, the album entitled A stroll in Bolsena

I have featured Bolsena on News From Italy before and more vistas can be found in the following posts. Bolsena, Bolsena - Scenes From a late Summer Stroll

I am linking this post to Potpourri Friday at A Potpourri of Life at 2805, Scenic Sunday, La Dolce Vita and Mosaic Monday at Little Red House the latter where you will find lots of other beautiful Mosaics. Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

Did you spot the boot and the unusual tomatoes?

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Our Garden in August - Il Nostro Giardino in Agosto

2011-08-31T09:42:00.001+02:00

A Single Wisteria Bloom Spindle Berry Bush Wild Clematis Wild Convolvulus

Another month has flown by and it is time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you. Once again I have had difficulty selecting just a few from the many I have taken over the last few weeks. The garden has been somewhat disappointing this month with not much in the way of colour, it has been way too hot for many flowers to survive for long. The fruit has been productive this month with us enjoying pears, figs, peaches and even a few early apples. The orto, vegetable plot has been very disappointing all season and has virtually ground to a halt with production this month apart from tomatoes and a few lettuces that managed to survive the heat.

The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden in August 2011 where the photos can be viewed in a larger format.

I have just looked back at last years post Our Garden in August 2010 and it was interesting to note that some of my comments this year, were very similar! The only produce the orto gave us in any quantity was tomatoes, so it seems that August is not a great month, not just this year but most years. At least the copious amounts of fruit that this garden produces means that we are able to eat very healthily, certainly more than the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables.

An occasional rose has bloomed briefly this month and delighted us with her beauty.

The chicory in the meadow shared her beauty with us every morning for just a few hours.

Apple

The Apple trees are heavily laden.

The fig harvest has been abundant as we have been picking a bowl like this at least a couple of times a week.

The grapes on our vines are ripening well.

Tomatoes

Peaches

Very few blooms on the Canna Lily this year, but what a beauty this one is.

Finally I just want to share a Canna Lily close up shot with you.

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants of Post of the Month Club, Our World Tuesday and Outdoor Wednesday thankyou for calling by. I hope you have found some pleasure in sharing photos from my garden in Italy, a popular regular post that I hope will encourage you to call by again. I have made so many virtual friends from around the world via this blog, such a friendly network of people, many that also have blogs of their own that they publish for a multitude of different reasons.

The wonderful karma of blogging!

Sunday Song - Adriano Celentano – Confessa - Confession

2011-08-28T10:04:00.001+02:00

Adriano Celentano was born in Milano, Italy on 6 January 1938 and is famous in Italy as a singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host. He has been active in his career since 1957.

Heavily influenced by his idol Elvis Presley, the 1950s rock revolution and by the American actor Jerry Lewis, he has retained his popularity in Italy for the last 40 years, selling millions of records and appearing in numerous TV shows and movies.

He has released forty albums, his most famous songs are 'La coppia piu bella del mondo' which sold over one million copies and 'Azzuro'‘

I am sharing here with you today 'Confessa' one of my favourites from this artist.

Uploaded by maskir on Sep 17, 2006

Italian Lyrics: Confessa

Su confessa amore mio
Io non sono piu il solo, lunico
Hai nascosto nel cuore tuo
Una storia irrinunciabile
Io non sono piu il tuo pensiero
Non sono piu il tuo amore vero
Sono il dolce con fondo amaro
Che non mangi piu
Ma perch tu sei unaltra donna
Ma perch tu non sei piu tu
Ma perch non lhai detto prima
Chi non ama non sar amato mai
Che ne hai fatto del nostro bene?
E diventato un freddo brivido
Le risate, le nostre cene
Scene ormai irrecuperabili
Io non sono piu il tuo pensiero
Non sono piu il tuo amore vero
Sono il dolce con fondo amaro
Che non mangi piu
Ma perche tu sei unaltra donna
Ma perche tu non sei piu tu
Ma perche tu, tu non lhai detto prima
Chi non ama non sar amato mai
Quando viene la sera
E il ricordo pian piano scompare
La tristezza nel cuore
Apre un vuoto piu grande del mare
Piu grande del mare
Ma perche non lhai detto prima
Chi non ama non sar amato mai
Che ne hai fatto del nostro amore?
E diventato un freddo brivido
Le risate, le nostre cene
Scene ormai irrecuperabili
Io non sono piu il tuo pensiero
Non sono piu il tuo amore vero
Sono il dolce con fondo amaro
Che non mangi piu
(ma perche non lhai detto prima
Chi non ama non sar amato mai)

English Lyrics : Confession

Come on, confess, my love.
I'm no longer the only one, the sole one.
You've hidden in your heart,
a story that cannot be renounced.
I am no longer your thought,
I am no longer your true love.
I am the sweet that is bitter inside,
which you no longer eat.
But why are you a different woman?
But why are you no longer you?
But why did you not say it before?
Who does not love will never be loved.
What did you do with the good thing we had?
It has become a cold shiver.
Our laughs, our dinners,
By now irrecoverable scenes.
I am no longer your thought,
I am no longer your true love. I am the sweet that is bitter inside,
which you no longer eat.
But why are you a different woman?
But why are you no longer you?
But why did you not say it before?
Who does not love will never be loved.
When the evening comes,
And the memory slowly disappears,
The sadness in the heart,
Opens an emptiness larger than the ocean,
Larger than the ocean.
But why did you not say it before?
Who does not love will never be loved.
What did you do with the good thing we had?
It has become a cold shiver.
Our laughs, our dinners,
By now irrecoverable scenes.
I am no longer your thought,
I am no longer your true love.
I am the sweet that is bitter inside,
which you no longer eat.
But why did you not say it before?
Who does not love will never be loved.

Italian to English translation – With the help of Google, Dictionaries and You Tube, please be aware that this is not a word perfect translation, it is just to give you the gist of the meaning if you do not know any Italian.

Information for this post and the photograph was obtained from the following websites.

Adriano Celentano - Wikipedia

Official Website - Adriano Celentano

Adriano Celentano - Facebook Profile

Buono Domenica Tutti

Festa del Villano 2011 a Marta

2011-08-25T09:51:00.001+02:00

On the 30th and 31st of July Marta celebrated the eleventh Festa del Villano, the workers of the land, with food, gastronomic stands and music.

This event is organised by the Associazione Culturale “Marta senza confini” ( Cultural Association of Marta) in collaboration with il Comitato Festeggiamenti Madonna SS.ma del Monte (Festival Committee For the Church of Madonnna del Monte). Thanks to the success of last year’s event there was an extra sponsor this year, Federazione Italiana Cuochi (Italian Federation of Chefs).

On these two evenings it was possible to enjoy supper, live music and good company in the open air and we took my cousin who was staying with us at the time, along to experience a typically local event.

Of course the food was the highlight of the evening and was delicious, Bruschette miste, Pasta del Villano, Braciola di Miale alla brace (Pork Chop cooked on an open fire), Fagioli con le cotiche (Beans with pork rinds), Patate fritte. Finally for a dessert some Cannaiola (a local sweet red dessert wine) and ciambelline ( a sort of biscuit).

While this may not be every ones idea of a fine dining supper it was certainly tasty.

The funds raised from this event are used to help maintain the church of Our Lady Madonna del Monte that overlooks the town and has been the destination of pilgrims for many years.

I will let my photos tell the rest of the story.

The open fire provides the hot embers that the pork steaks are cooked over.

These pork steaks were so tasty.

The service area.

The dining area.

The food.

The market stalls.

The market stalls from further along the promenade.

I also posted about this event last year Festa del Villano - Marta - 2010

There are more photos to be seen, including my market stall close up shots from the event in the album on Flickr .com. Festa del Villano - Marta - July 2011

Italy in Books Reading Challenge August 2011

2011-08-22T14:26:00.001+02:00

A Death in Tuscany by Michele Giuttari

Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011

Paperback: 381 pages

Genre: Crime Mystery

Publisher: This edition Abacus 2009

Source: Charity Bookshop in the UK

First Sentence : The girl, little more than a child, was found on the road above Scandicci, scantily dressed, without papers and dying of an overdose, at dawn on Sunday 29 July and was taken to the Ospedale Nuovo.

Review Quote : ‘The leading Italian crime writer’ The Times

My Opinion: Atmospheric of Italy with a sadly feasible plot.

The August post with a list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. August Reviews

Whilst the title for this book is not very imaginative, it is the reason I was drawn to pick this up for the Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011. This is not a genre I read a great deal of and the author is not familiar to me so I do not feel I can compare him with others that write books set in Italy in this genre of which there are quite a few.

Michele Giuattari is a former Florence Police Chief so he does have an insiders advantage on the understanding of how the police and legal system work within Italy. This I think is certainly the sort of case that is sadly based on current issues in the real world, so fiction that has fact behind it.

The story is about the investigation into the death of a young girl hardly more than a child, whom it is assumed died of a drug overdose. The case is taken on by Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara and he quickly realises that this is far more than a simple overdose death. He believes that the girl was murdered and as he investigates becomes convinced it is part of a much wider conspiracy. It even turns out that there is a sinister connection between this case and the disappearance of a close friend of his!

The speech appears stilted at times but I think this is just because English is not the original language. There are many characters and I did not find any of them particularly memorable, but the plot line was strong enough to hold my attention in what was a quick light read. What was of interest is the setting of Florence and the surrounding countryside, appealing if you know the area and maybe tempting you to visit if you do not. An average read then for those of us interested in Italy and or the crime novel. I doubt if I would have picked this up if it were not for the Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011 though.

Author profile photo from Facebook.

Michele Giuttari was born in Messina, Italy in 1950. in 1975 he graduated with a law degree and three years later joined the Police Force., where fro 1995 until 2003 he held the position of Police Chief. In 1997 he began working as a writer of detective novels, soon becoming known both nationally and internationally. His books are translated into major languages and published in over 100 countries.

Information for this post is with thanks to the following websites.

Facebook Profile Author's Official Website

Michele Giuttari - Goodreads Author

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog
LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Sunset over Lago di Bolsena from Montefiascone

2011-08-17T21:26:00.001+02:00

A series of photos that I took recently as the sun was setting over Lago di Bolsena.

It was so wonderful to be able to watch this sunset. However many times I witness this scene it never ceases to impress me.

I am linking to four other sites today to share these images with other lovers of the great beauty of Mother Nature.

That's My World, Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants from the above links, thankyou for calling by.

Sunday Song – La Notte di San Lorenzo – Cristiano de Andre and Notte di San Lorenzo - Franco Simone

2011-08-14T12:29:00.001+02:00

As promised in my Notte di San Lorenzo - Perseids Meteor Shower post I am continuing the theme today for Sunday Song by sharing with you some songs about this night.

Uploaded by dolcenera92 on Jun 10, 2008

The first song is sung by Cristiano de Andre an Italian singer songwriter and multi talented musician born in Genoa on 29th December 1962. I will feature him in more detail in a future Sunday Song post but for now if you are interested in finding out more about this artist you can visit his Official Website.

Italian Lyrics to La Notte Di San Lorenzo : composed in 1995 by C. Sanfilippo

Era la notte di San Lorenzo / cadde una stella illuminando il lago / mentre un addio uccideva un sogno / piano suonavo
Seduto in mezzo tra la pietra e il pino / come un dolcissimo deserto / fatto di dune e di memoria / buio scoperto
Ho visto nascere e morire luci / nel vento buono di collina / Ho chiuso gli occhi la mattina / dormendo sul confine
Gli equilibristi sono carte matte / sognano solo desideri / In viaggio fanno curve strette / senza pensieri
Era la notte di San Lorenzo / fatta di atlantiche illusioni / e di pacifiche scoperte / in vie deserte
Ho ridipinto gli orizzonti persi / lasciando ovunque tracce chiare / di questa tenebra lucente / voglio cantare
Ho visto nascere e morire luci / nel vento buono di collina / Ho chiuso gli occhi la mattina / dormendo sul confine
Gli equilibristi sono carte matte / sognano solo desideri / In viaggio fanno curve strette / senza pensieri

English Translation of Lyrics to La Notte di San Lorenzo :

It was the night of San Lorenzo / fell a star illuminating the lake / and a farewell killed a dream / I was playing up
Sitting in the middle between the stone and pine / sweet like a desert / dunes made of and memory / dark discovered
I was born and dying light / good in the wind of the hill / I closed my eyes in the morning / sleeping on the border
The acrobats are cards matte / dream only want / Travelling make sharp turns / carefree
It was the night of San Lorenzo / illusions made of Atlantic / Pacific and discoveries / on the deserted streets
I repainted the lost horizons / leaving traces everywhere clear / glossy darkness of this / I will sing
I was born and dying light / good in the wind of the hill / I closed my eyes in the morning / sleeping on the border
The acrobats are cards matte / dream only want / Travelling make sharp turns / carefree

Italian to English translation was with the help of Google. Please be aware that this is not a perfect translation, it is just to give you the gist of the meaning if you do not know any Italian.

Uploaded by saintVito91 on Aug 11, 2008

The second song with a slightly different title is is performed by Franco Simone an older Italian singer born in Acquarica del Capo, Italy on the 21st July 1949. I will also feature him another time so here is the link to his Official Website as well.

Italian Lyrics to Notte Di San Lorenzo : composed in 1983 by Franco Simone

NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO DI AUTOGRILL E BENZINA,
MA CHE NOTTE POVERA SENZA UN CHIARO DI LUNA.
AH AH AH
NOTTE CHE LA TRISTEZZA SCENDE DALL’INFINITO,
CUORE NON SALTARE MA IO MI SENTO PERDUTO.
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO NOTTE BUIA E SGOMENTO,
MENTRE VIAGGIO DA SOLO STANOTTE NON SONO CONTENTO.
QUANTO E’ LUNGA L’AUTOSTRADA MOSTRI COME CALAMITA,
SE INCONTRASSI ADULTA LA MIA FORTUNA,
AL MIO FILM STANOTTE STANOTTE CAMBIEREI QUALCHE SCENA.
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO BATTI CUORE CHE CRESCE,
QUESTA NOTTE E’ UNA NOTTE STREGATA, LA VITA FINISCE,
SENZA STELLE NÉ LUNA NEL SILENZIO DEL CIELO,
QUESTA NOTTE SPIETATA HA DECISO DI TOGLIERSI IL VELO.
—
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO MUOVI PIANO LE MANI,
ARIA NUOVA IN MACCHINA TU, TU TI SVEGLI E MI CHIAMI.
AH AH AH
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO SE TI HO FATTA SALIRE,
SENZA NOME NÉ GUANTI DI SETA, ACCAREZZAMI IL CUORE.
CAMBIA FACCIA L’AUTOSTRADA, MIELE DOLCE TRA LE DITA,
DIECI STELLE TORNANO PER CADERE,
PER CAPIRE TUTTA LA NOTTE, CI VOGLIONO MONTAGNE D’AMORE.
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO IN UN AUTO CHE CORRE,
UNA DONNA HA PORTATO IL PROFUMO DI MILLE CHITARRE.
NOTTE DI SAN LORENZO MI ABBANDONO AL RICHIAMO,
QUESTA STELLA CADUTA VICINO, MI PORTA LONTANO.

English Translation of Lyrics to Notte di San Lorenzo : Translation by Simona Bellone,

NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE OF AUTOGRILL AND GASOLINE,
BUT THAT POOR NIGHT WITHOUT A CLEAR OF THE MOON.
AH AH AH
THE NIGHT THAT THE SADNESS FALLS FROM THE INFINITY,
HEART DON'T JUMP BUT I FEEL LOST.
NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE DARK NIGHT AND DISMAY,
WHILE I TRAVEL ALONE TONIGHT I'M NOT HAPPY.
WHAT HOW LONG IS THE HIGHWAY, MONSTERS LIKE MAGNET,
IF I MEET ADULT MY LUCK
TO MY MOVIE TONIGHT, TONIGHT I WOULD CHANGE SOME SCENE.
NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE BEATS HEART THAT GROWS,
THIS NIGHT IS A NIGHT BEWITCHED, THE LIVE ENDS,
WITHOUT STARS NEITHER MOON IN THE SILENCE OF THE SKY,
THIS MERCILESS NIGHT HAS DECIDED TO REMOVE THE VEIL.
---
NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE MOVE SLOWLY THE HANDS,
NEW AIR IN MACHINE YOU, YOU WOKE UP AND CALL ME.
AH AH AH
NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE IF I HAVE MADE CLIMB YOU IN,
WITHOUT NAME NEITHER SILK GLOVES, CARESS ME THE HEART.
CHANGE THE FACE THE HIGHWAY, HONEY SWEET BETWEEN THE FINGERS,
TEN STARS RETURN FOR FALL,
TO UNDERSTAND ALL THE NIGHT, IT'S NEED MOUNTAINS OF LOVE.
NIGHT OF ST. LAWRENCE IN A CAR THAT RUNS,
A WOMAN HAS BRINGED THE SCENT OF A THOUSAND GUITARS.
NIGHT OF ST LAWRENCE I ABANDONMENT ME TO THE CALL,
THIS STAR FALLEN NEAR, TAKES ME AWAY.

I think both of these songs are beautiful.

I hope you are all having a great weekend and to those of you that are celebrating here in Italy Buon Ferragosto, more information about the significance of this holiday can be found by visiting, Ferragosto – Wikipedia.

Tuesday August 16th 2011, I have made some corrections to this post as Simona Bellone, see her comments below, has kindly pointed out that they are in fact two different songs with completely different words, which means I really was not listening properly when I selected these two was I. My apologies for this careless error.

I am delighted to say that this post gets a mention on Italy Tutto this week in Sunrise - Sunset - Stars

Saturday Snapshots – Santa Marta Fuochi d'Artificio - Santa Marta Firework Display 2011

2011-08-13T12:00:00.001+02:00

The Santa Marta celebrations which started with the Santa Marta Processione ended with a tremendous Firework Display over the lake at 11pm on July 29th. No words are needed, the photos and videos say it all.

Finally a selection of our video experimental films of the fireworks, all very short but they give a better impression of the event than the still photos. I hope you will enjoy if you have a few minutes to spare.

If you enjoyed these and would like to see more Firework photos and videos they can be viewed in my Flickr.com albums. Fireworks Santa Marta 2011 and last years at Santa Marta Fireworks 2010

or last years post on News From Italy - Santa Marta Fireworks 2010

Have a lovely weekend everyone and Buon Ferragosto to all my friends here in Italy.

La Notte di San Lorenzo – Perseids Meteor Shower

2011-08-10T11:58:00.001+02:00

August 10th is La Festa di San Lorenzo, the saints day for Saint Lawrence and it is considered a special day by many Italians as this is the time of year when the earth passes through the Perseids Meteor Shower. These streams of light are known by the Italians as 'Le lacrime di San Lorenzo' ‘San Lorenzo’s tears’

If the skies are clear it is a perfect opportunity to, if you are lucky, see a shooting star and if you do so you make a wish on this ‘ La Notte delle Stelle Cadenti’ ‘The Night of the Falling Stars’. The Perseids Meteor Shower appears around this time every summer and is potentially visible for weeks depending on location and weather conditions. The source of the shower is debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, which has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity"

It is thought that this year visibility, even if the weather is clear may well be compromised by the fact that there is a full Moon on August 13th whose brightness will make the fainter falling stars much more difficult to spot. The shower is expected to remain visible this year until August 24th, so even if you are not lucky enough to see one for La Notte di San Lorenzo, there is still time, although not sure if your wishes will still come true.

If you are interested in a few more facts about Saint Lawrence and to learn, for instance what professions he is considered patron saint of please take a look at my post from last year Notte di San Lorenzo 2010 - News From Italy.

No surprise that I do not have any shooting star photos to share with you but I think the firework photos I have included taken recently at the Santa Marta Processione give a pretty good impression of millions of shooting stars!

Good Luck - I will certainly be out star gazing this evening.

Uploaded by LabEquipment on Jul 26, 2011

This video is very interesting and tells us about the summer Perseid meteor shower getting underway as Earth enters the debris stream from comet Swift-Tuttle.

With thanks to the falling websites for the information for this post.

Chiff.com – Perseids Wikipedia - Perseids

Wikipedia - Swift Tuttle YouTube – Perseids

I am linking to Outdoor Wednesday today

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants, thankyou for calling by.

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

This coming Sunday I plan continue the theme of Notte di San Lorenzo and post some lovely versions of the song of the same name, I hope you will be able to call by and listen to them. Happy Star Gazing.

Santa Marta Processione con le barche - Santa Marta Procession with boats.

2011-08-09T14:27:00.001+02:00

The 29th of July is the Saints Day for Martha who was the sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany, a village about three kilometres from Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. In honour of sharing a name with Santa Marta, the town of Marta celebrates in her honour. The celebrations start with a Procession the previous evening by the fisherman in their boats on the lake and a procession along the streets of Marta culminating with a service and blessing. The next day in honour of Santa Marta is a local holiday with everyone in a festive mood with a large market during the day and finishing with a magnificent Firework display at 11pm. Today I am sharing with you a few of my photos from the procession on the evening of July 28th and a very short video. The complete album of the event may be viewed on Flickr.com Santa Marta July 28 2011.

The first part of the procession takes place simultaneously on land and water. We sat on the wall that runs along the lakeside towards the Fisherman’s beach where the procession was heading, from here we had excellent views of both the processions and the fireworks.

The bust of the Virgin Mary is placed on a boat decorated with lights and starting from the harbour travels along the lakeshore to the Fisherman’s port at the other end of the town, accompanied by a procession of decorated boats. After docking and a blessing the Virgin Mary or Madonna is carried back through the streets accompanied by many of the citizens of Marta. Arriving back in the centre there was a service and blessing conducted from the Commune building.

Candles were placed all along the wall beside the lake.

The Madonna statue can be seen in the first boat.

Madonna and Procession arriving at the Commune Buildings in centre of Marta.

Blessing conducted from commune office window.

The Madonna

A very short video of fireworks showing the Madonna arriving at her port destination.

LindyLouMac

I also wrote about this event last year and the post can be read here.

If you are interested in reading more history about this saints day, there is an explanation in Italian at the following link La Festa di Santa Marta.

Thanks to http://www.parrocchiamarta.it/ricorrenze/SMarta.html for the first picture, the rest are all my own from LindyLouMac Photo Collection.

The complete album of this event may be viewed on Flickr.com Santa Marta July 28 2011

Our Garden In July - Il Nostro Giardino in Luglio

2011-07-31T13:35:00.001+02:00

A corner of our terrace.

Another month has flown by and it is time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you. Once again I have had difficulty selecting just a few from the many I have taken over the last few weeks. Just under 200 again this month, it is just too easy to get carried away with digital photography but I do enjoy myself. Did you spot me in the first photograph?

The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden - July 2011

Agapanthus have put on a beautiful display for the entire month.

Another plant providing splashes of blue in the garden this month has been Plumbago, the colour is so intense I just had to show you a close up.

The Crape Myrtle has flowered really well this year and what a stunning colour!

You will notice in the above photos of the hibiscus trees that we were not the only ones enjoying them!

Our Garden is also just as much about productive plants as it is about colour so I must, I feel include a few produce shots.

This month we have enjoyed plums, greengages and some very early pears as well as these delicious peaches.

The orto (vegetable plot) though has not been producing very well at all this year, enough for two of us but not much in the way of surplus crops apart from courgettes and we have no real idea why. We are growing three different varieties of tomatoes and these cherry tomatoes are producing the most fruit so far.

Finally it looks like the apple harvest will be another bumper crop.

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants of Post of the Month Club, thankyou for calling by. I hope you have found some pleasure in sharing photos from my garden in Italy, a popular regular post that I hope will encourage you to call by again. I have made so many virtual friends from around the world via this blog, such a friendly network of people, many that also have blogs of their own that they publish for a multitude of different reasons.

I will not be posting here on News From Italy again until sometime early next week as my cousin is staying at the moment and I shall want to spend time with her not blogging, although I may have a book review ready to post over on LindyLouMac's Book Reviews during the week. I will also continue to post a daily photo on Beautiful World maybe you will join me there.

Thanks to Mademoiselle Poirot for the August Break Logo.

Saturday Snapshots - Notte Bianca a Capodimonte 2011

2011-07-30T16:12:00.001+02:00

There is not actually a lot one can say about Notte Bianca Nights but I can share here with you a selection of the photos I took last Friday evening July 22nd 2011 of the many things for sale and people enjoying themselves. For those of you that are not familiar with Notte Bianca - White Nights you will find a short explanation and links to more information on the post I wrote last year.

Notte Bianca 2010

These are just a few of the random shots I took last week, the full album can be viewed on Flickr.com if you are interested.

Notte Bianca Capodimonte 2011

Have a great weekend everyone wherever you are in the world.

Serenata a Piazza dell’ Olmo – July 21st 2011

2011-07-29T18:59:00.001+02:00

We had a relaxed and enjoyable time at this fund raising concert last Thursday evening. I took quite a few photos and even attempted to take some video footage. However the amateur that I am, I am afraid they are very poor and also I stupidly did not realise that you can not rotate the camera if taking videos! As I would like you to hear my favourite performances from Domenico Cannizzaro, who has a wonderful voice, they have still been included in my album, Serenata a Pizza dell'Olmo – Marta at Flickr. The best of my dreadful attempts at filming are also shared here with a selection of photos. Hopefully some of you will be interested in seeing and hearing more and will visit my album and Domenico’s Official Website, as usual clicking on the blue links will take you to the relevant sites. You will also find some brilliant videos of him singing at the Australian Opera House on the website.

The evening was organised by the owner of local restaurant La Vela in Capodimonte whose son died from leukaemia and the performers were all locals who gave their time and talent to perform at this concert, to help raise funds for leukaemia research.

The best of my poor videos, please listen though it is worth it!

Domenico Cannizzaro by LindyLouMac

Finally the locals still wanted to party on when it was time to pack up!

Thankyou to everyone concerned for providing us with a very varied evening of great entertainment for a good cause.

More photos and videos can be viewed in My Flickr.com Album Serenata a Pizza dell'Olmo – Marta

Italy in Books Reading Challenge July 2011

2011-07-28T18:04:00.001+02:00

Beyond The Pasta by Mark Leslie Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011

The July post with a list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. July Reviews

Beyond The Pasta is so much more than just another Italian cookery book as besides providing great recipes Mark writes a diary about his trip to Italy to learn authentic Italian cooking. The added wow factor for me was not just that it is set in Italy but in our region of Viterbo. I loved all the local recipes, some of which I had heard of but others were new ones. I shall definitely be getting my husband to try these out for us, as he is the chef in our household. Mark’s diary of his time here in Viterbo was absolutely fascinating, particularly as we know and love the places he visited. It was interesting to read his take on places that we are very familiar with. As for instance his impression of Marta, as a place with a long line of hotels lining the lakefront. Sorry Mark, but first impressions were deceptive, there is only one hotel along the stretch he wrote about. In fact at the time of writing there was only one hotel in the whole of Marta and that was ‘Otello’s’, attached to the restaurant he visited, one of our favourites. He was right about the restaurants though as there are three in a row just in that stretch of lake frontage. I guess it must have just looked impressive.

Besides being an account of the everyday experiences of his month in Viterbo immersed in Italian culture,both language and cuisine, it is also as I already mentioned a cookery book, a record of Nonna’s amazing sounding recipes. I have no intention of sharing any of them here with you as I have yet to discover my favourites. You can discover some of them by visiting the links below.

It is with thanks to Michelle at Bleeding Espresso and her review that I learnt of the existence of this book. It was her review that convinced me I had to have a copy of my own. Maybe my review will tempt some of you to also buy a copy! Having said that it will be no surprise that I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Italy and all things Italian.

I hope one day that Mark will be back in Marta so that he can autograph his book for me!

Mark Leslie

Do spare a few minutes to watch this video.

Uploaded by 334mdl on Jul 23, 2010

Here is Nonna~ the grandmother of the family Mark Leslie lived with in Viterbo, Italy. She is the central character in his book "Beyond the Pasta: Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family" which was released on September 1, 2010, by Gemelli Press. Please visit http://mark-leslie.net for more details. In this clip, Nonna is telling a story about her mother--you can truly see her sense of humour as she tells the story. She made him laugh every day while he was there...and she will make you laugh in the book, too!

Information for this post is with thanks to the following websites.

YouTube - Mark Leslie – Where you will find a selection of great videos from Mark publicising his book.

Beyond The Pasta - Mark Leslie's Official Website

Beyond The Pasta - Facebook Page

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog

LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

Il Castello Templare di Castell’Araldo del XIII Secolo - Marta

2011-07-26T17:26:00.001+02:00

Recently we had the honour of attending an investiture for I Cavalieri Templari a Marta - Marta Knights Templar held in a beautiful location, The Templar Castle and church dating from the 13C dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie and their surrounding grounds.

Before work commenced.

After

The three photos prior to and just after restoration of the church are with thanks to http://www.castellaraldo.it/index.htm

Castell’Araldo is a Templar Castle and church dating from the 13C, located on the road to Tuscania just a few kilometres outside Marta, on a hill 313 metres above sea level high with the river Marta in the valley way below. The Knights Templar Monks built it to defend the road and during that era it was important amongst the Bishops and Abbots of the region, also the local parliament of Montefiascone. After the dissolution of the order the castle passed to the order of Knights of St John in Jerusalem. In 1434 it was occupied by mercenary troops and started to fall into decline until it was destroyed in 1459 by the inhabitants of nearby Canino. The Knights of St John in Jerusalem continued to own and maintain the site until 1889 when the church was sold to the town of Marta.

It has always been considered an important site over the centuries as it was crossed by an important road, which joined the Via Aurelia and Via Cassia. It was also part of the Via Francigena, used by thousands of pilgrims travelling to Rome from Northern Europe.

Up to 2006 (and probably from the fifteenth century) the Castle and the Church remained only ruins covered with vegetation, work on recovery and restoration of the church was completed in 2008. It is wonderful to see the Castell’Araldo restored to its former glory after hundreds of years of neglect.

The management of the Church and the whole site is now organized by the Marta Knights Templar (VT), under the supervision of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of the Lazio Region of Italy.

Occasionally feasts and ceremonies "Templars" are held in the presence of various authorities and local citizens at the site. It was our presence at one of these ceremonies that enabled me to take these photographs.

The purpose of this post is to share some photos plus a little history of the Il Castello Templare di Castell’Araldo del XIII secolo but if you are interested in finding out more about either Castell’Areldo and I Cavalieri Templari a Marta - Marta Knights Templar I have included some links to two websites that may be useful.

http://www.castellaraldo.it/ Official Website dedicated to the site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar

Sunday Song – Amy Winehouse Tribute

2011-07-24T12:05:00.001+02:00

Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was a British singer-songwriter known for her powerful voice and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz.

Sad and shocking but not a total surprise Amy Winehouse was found dead in her home in Camden, London yesterday afternoon July 24th 2011. She was popular in Italy which is why I decided to pay tribute to her today with a Sunday Song.

The disturbed but talented singer has had a turbulent career in recent years, surely the pressures of fame contributed to her depression and drug problems.

Last weekend she had been due to appear at the lLucca Summer Festival 2011 but the date was cancelled due to health problems, after her recent Belgrade performance when she appeared to be drunk on stage.

Amy Winehouse was just 27 years old as were all these other artists when they died, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones just tragic coincidences I am sure but still one that makes me shiver.

Amy Winehouse may not be among my favourite musicians but she had a huge talent and it is extremely sad that she was never able to find peace whilst alive with her talent or success. She led a rollercoaster life style that was destined to end in tragedy but she will live on in music history.

Uploaded by 89H2 on Feb 12, 2008

Uploaded by iConcertsTelevision on Sep 5, 2009

Information for this post was obtained from the following websites.

YouTube - Amy Winehouse Facebook Fan Page Amy Winehouse - Wikipedia

More Sunday Songs can be found by visiting Sunday Song at 5 Minutes Just for Me and Sunday Session at Doireallywannablog

both Australian blogs.

Buono Domenica Tutti

Friday Photo - Plum Harvest

2011-07-22T18:28:00.001+02:00

Our plums look nothing like this antique image but like this!

A slideshow presentation of the Plum Harvest which can also be viewed here Plum Harvest 2011

LindyLouMac

The Antique Print of Plums is courtesy of The Graphics Fairy a blog that searches the internet for antique images we can all use freely.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Corpus Domini in Marta

2011-07-18T12:48:00.001+02:00

Corpus Domini, which is also known as Corpus Christi is a Catholic feast day in honour of the Eucharist. It is an event which is celebrated all over Italy with Infiorate/flower displays on the streets made with petals, from fresh flowers where possible but augmented with paper ones.

Whilst Marta’s celebration of the event may not be one of the larger events that take place in Italy, it is still something that many people in our little town are proud to take part in.

I decided the best way to share this civic pride shown by our residents was to make a slideshow of the event we attended on June 26th. The slideshow shows the preparation of the route through the town and then follows the procession as it walks through the streets of Marta.

Corpus Domini in Marta Slideshow

Uploaded by LindyLouMac on Jul 18, 2011

La Dolce Vita Ciao Christy

This is the second in a series which I hope to participate in from time to time, welcome to anyone who has called by from this new fun theme.

Religious graphic is with thanks to The Graphics Fairy

Friday Photo – Farfalla – Butterfly

2011-07-15T09:52:00.001+02:00

Patience eventually paid off and I managed to take a photo of the Swallowtail Butterfly in our Lucerne Meadow.

Happiness is for me appreciating the beauty of Nature all around us.

Linking here this week.

XIV Cronoscalata Lago di Montefiascone - Montefiascone Hill Climb - 2011

2011-07-11T10:48:00.001+02:00

A rather different sort of event from the ones we normally attend and that I post about here, nonetheless just as enjoyable. This year I have made the still photos I took of the cars into a slide show presentation. I present my interpretation of the Cronoscalata for those of you that appreciate cars!

LindyLouMac

If you would prefer to view the photographs as stills they can be viewed on Flickr.com in my album entitled XIV Cronoscalata Montefiascone 2011

If you have some time to view them these videos produced by a local TV station are very interesting and create a good impression of the event, even if you do not understand the Italian. On the YouTube page itself you can read the names of some of the participants, there were over 100!

Uploaded by ORVIETOSITV on Jun 22, 2011

I also featured this event on News From Italy last year XIII Cronoscalata Montefiascone 2010

These Hill Race Climbs take place all over Italy and more information can be found about the events at the website dedicated to the Cronoscalata

La Dolce Vita - Ciao Christy

This is the first in a series which I hope to participate in from time to time, welcome to anyone who has called by from this new fun theme about sharing La Dolce Vita in Italy.

Friday Photo - Girasole – Sunflower

2011-07-08T12:33:00.001+02:00

Fields of sunflowers are a wonderful sight at this time of the year in Italy. One of our neighbours has grown them this year as a crop interspersed with the maize (sweetcorn) and other plants as a forage crop for his animals.

Soft Beauty – Wordless Wednesday – A Rose After Rain in Our Garden

2011-07-06T19:33:00.001+02:00

Sunday Song - Biagio Antonacci - Buongiorno Bell'Anima

2011-07-03T11:49:00.001+02:00

Google images.

Biagio Antonacci is an Italian singer songwriter, born in Milano, Italy on the 9th of November 1963. He has been active on the music scene since 1988, although his rise to popularity was slow at first. He is a well respected and popular artist, in 2005 he won an award in the USA for "Best Male Selling Italian Artist" for selling over a million copies of the album Convivendo.

Biagio Antonacci is on tour at the moment and is today performing at the Colosseo Roma, Rome, tickets are still available at 89 Euros according to Songkick.com, if you just happen to be in Roma. It is also possible to view the concert live via Sky Italia – Primafila for 6 Euros.

The performance is at 9pm this evening and Biagio Antonacci will be performing for free as this musical event is for charity, organized by the Italian National Commission for UNESCO , in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome. The goal of the evening is to contribute to the promotion of cultural heritage by raising awareness among young people and with the proceeds funding scholarships for young archaeologists from countries at war. There will be a small public audience but the concert will be shown live exclusively on Sky Primafila and repeated on 4th, 5th and 6th of July. All proceeds from the viewing fee of €6 will be donated to UNESCO to support the project by Sky Italia as they wish to help support the preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage.

I will unfortunately not be enjoying either of these options so I decided to share one of my favourite songs with you here today on Sunday Song.

I have included two different videos of the same song today, the first is the official video and the second one includes the words of the song as I know some of you like to be able to follow along reading the Italian.

Uploaded by BiagioAntonacciVEVO on Jan 26, 2011

Biagio Antonacci - Buongiorno Bell'Anima + Testo – Hello Beautiful Soul + Text

Uploaded by aleseta1 on Jun 4, 2010

Italian Lyrics

Cosa fai, scappi già
dammi il tempo di un caffè
non ce n'è, non ce n'è
sei bell'anima per me
hai qualcosa di me
ho qualcosa anch'io di te
Che paura mi fai
buongiorno bell'anima, caffè
Voglio fare con te
l'amore vero quello che
che non abbiamo fatto mai
quello dove alla fine si piange
si leccano le lacrime
quello che adesso so
di poter fare solo con te
quello che ora posso dare
solo e soltanto solo a te
buongiorno bell'anima,buongiorno bell'anima
Tra me e te, fantasia
giochi aperti e grandi idee
che cos'è? dillo tu
cosa siamo insieme noi.
Siamo tutto e di più
se hai bisogno divento dottore
e l'attore che è in me
saprò farti non abituare
buongiorno bell'anima, caffè
Voglio star con te
ma questi fantasmi ancora in noi
sono più vecchi di ogni età
e hanno poca fantasia
ingabbiano senza logica
e tu mia piccola virtù
tocchi il più alto punto in me
tanto che non torni più
tanto che resterai quassù
buongiorno bell'anima buongiorno bell'anima
Voglio fare con te
l'amore vero quello che
che non abbiamo fatto mai
quello dove alla fine si piange
si leccano le lacrime
quello che adesso so
di poter fare solo con te
quello che ora posso dare
solo e soltanto solo a te
buongiorno bell'anima buongiorno bell'anima buongiorno bell'anima

Italian to English translation – With the help of Google, Dictionaries and http://lyricstranslate.com. Please be aware that this is not a perfect translation, it is just to give you the gist of the meaning if you do not know any Italian.

What you do, you already escape
give me the time of a coffee
it is not of it, it is not of it
soul you are beautiful for me
you have something of me
I also have something me of you
What fear you do me
good morning beautiful soul, coffee

I want to do with you
the love true that that
what we have never done
that where at the end he cries
the tears are licked
what I now know
to be able to do only with you
that what time I can give
only and only only to you
good morning beautiful soul ,good morning beautiful soul

Between me and you, imagination
games open and great ideas
what is it? say you
what us are together.
We are everything and more
if you have need I become doctor
and the actor that is me
I will know how to make not to accustom you
good morning beautiful soul, coffee

I want star with you
but these ghosts still in us
I am more old men of every age
and they have little imagination
they cage without logic
and you my small virtue
you touch the tallest point in me
so much that doesn't return anymore
so much that you will stay, good morning beautiful soul good morning beautiful soul

Information for this post was obtained from the following websites.

YouTube - Biagio Antonacci Songkick.com Official Website - Biagio Antonacci

Wikipedia - Biagio Antonacci

More Sunday Songs can be found by visiting Sunday Song at 5 Minutes Just for Me and Sunday Session at Doireallywannablog

both Australian blogs.

Buono Domenica Tutti

Our Garden In June - Il Nostro Giardino in Giugno

2011-06-30T19:10:00.001+02:00

Geraniums

This time last year when I wrote the post Our Garden in June 2010 I started it with almost the same words as apart from a few differences that needed changing I wanted to say exactly the same!

How can it be the end of June already? It is the time once again for me to share some of my favourite garden photos from the last month with you, selecting just a few from the many I have taken over the last few weeks. I think I went rather overboard this month as I have to select my favourites from a total of 298 in all!

The interested gardeners and photographers amongst you will find the full album on Flickr. Our Garden in June 2011

The photographs I have chosen from the month of June for you to enjoy are to try and give you an idea of the wide variety of plants in our garden. You know where to look if you want to see them in their full glory in a larger format. When choosing I also avoided the macro flower shots this month as if I had included them there would be twelve of those, as I find macro photography such fun to experiment with. I post many of these on Beautiful World a site where I have been posting photos for just over a year now. I have not included any photos of the plum harvest either as I thought I would save those for another post.

Jasmine

Poppies Californian and Wild

This photo was also posted today for Beautiful World’s Themed Thursday which this week was ‘sizzling’

Ornamental Leeks

A Favourite Corner

Yucca Plants

Pears

Apples

Apricot

Bears Breeches

Small Orto from roof terrace

Impatiens

Persian Acacia and in front of it Magnolia.

To appreciate the beauty that these two trees provide you need to see the flowers in close up.

Persian Acacia Flowers

Magnolia

Finally in the last day or so the Agapanthus is coming into bloom.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this peep at our garden plants this month and remember if you would like to see more photographs of the garden taken during 2011 please visit the collection of albums at Flickr.com Our Garden 2011

Italy in Books Reading Challenge – June 2011

2011-06-29T18:36:00.001+02:00

Ask Me If I’m Happy by Kimberly Menozzi

Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011

Paperback: 492 pages
Genre: Romantic Fiction
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services 2010 and Good to go Press 2011
Source: eBook provided by the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Review Quote: "A wonderful debut novel by a talented writer. Nell Dixon, author of "Animal Instincts"
A Favourite Quote: “The role that ancient mythology has in modern fiction is little appreciated, but nonetheless undeniable. All modern themes are merely re-workings of ancient tales and have been told around the fire since time immemorial…”
My Opinion: I doubt I would have chosen to read this if left to my own devices. However I am so glad I had the opportunity to do so.

The June post with a list of books that the other people taking part are reading this month has already been posted. June Reviews

Ask Me If I’m Happy is a strong romantic novel strengthened by the setting and the use of the Italian language, which make this novel a perfect read, not only for fans of romantic novels but those who love all things Italian. The Italian presence is very evident and the author shares her flaws not just her beauty.

The two protagonists are Emily Miller and Davide Magnani they fall in love at first sight! I am not sure I believe in this actually being love when there is an instant chemistry between two people. I think love and true friendship is something that grows from those first attractions. It is not a simple relationship though as these feelings strike on the day Emily is leaving Italy to return to her native America, she thinks for ever after having had her heart broken by another Italian male. We all know that the path of true love is never simple and these two certainly have a rollercoaster of a relationship with coincidences, lies and hidden truths all getting in the way before Davide is able to convince Emily that Italy is where she should be.

Kimberley's writing is very realistic and her characters all feel very believable while her descriptions will make you feel you are in Italy. As I am not a great fan of too good to be true romance I was at times a little frustrated with their behaviour but I got caught up in the dream. I was a little surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. I think it was because of the talent of this young lady in her portrayal of a modern love affair.

A very enjoyable choice for my Italy in Books - Reading Challenge 2011 this month.

Kimberly Menozzi – Facebook Photo.

An aspiring writer from the age of eight, American born Kimberly Menozzi began writing her first stories instead of paying attention in school. In 2003, she met, fell in love and married a year later an Italian accountant named Alessandro. She has lived in Italy ever since and in 2007, inspired by her love/hate relationship with Italy the novel Ask Me if I'm Happy was completed in 2009.

Information for this post is with thanks to the following websites.

Amazon - Kimberly Menozzi

Authors Official Website

Facebook - Kimberly Menozzi

I also post these ‘Italy in Books’ reviews on my other blog

LindyLouMac's Book Reviews

The Cherry Harvest - La Raccolta delle Ciliegie - 2011

2011-06-27T14:46:00.001+02:00

We are back in Italy after our third trip to the UK within the last six weeks, all for completely different occasions both happy and sad. Although it is always a delight to see family and friends the most recent visit was a very emotional one and we are glad to be home for a period of quiet reflection.

These trips have meant that my promised post about the Cherry Harvest for this year which took place at the end of May is only just being shared with you here today.

We had a dilemma at the end of May because our cherries were already ripe and ready for harvesting. There is a local tradition that cherries should never be harvested before the first of June, this was a problem for two reasons. Firstly they were ready early due to the weather and secondly the bank holiday at the start of June when locals traditionally harvest, was the weekend we were in England for a wedding. If we had postponed the harvest until our return the birds might well have had them all! In fact it turned out to be the rain while we were away that ruined the cherries we left on the trees, although we did harvest a few more on our return, it was mainly to enjoy instantly while pottering in the garden!

We have a number of smaller cherry trees plus the two mature trees which yielded us twenty kilos each tree, picked on the 29th and 30th of May.

As you can see from the photos, two different varieties but names unknown I am sorry to say. I think cherries are at there most delicious fresh so we eat as many as we can that way, it is surprising how long they stay fresh if left in plastic trays in the fridge. We are fortunate enough to have a large second fridge which is useful for such occasions and we are still eating fresh cherries a month after the harvest. The rest we mainly freeze with a few stored in jars both with and without alcohol, which will see us right through until the next cherry season hopefully.

All the photos I have shared here were taken by myself between May 8th and May 30th 2011.

Cherry Harvest Collages

I have also included a slide show of my Cherry Harvest photos which I hope you will enjoy and feel that it transports you to Italy for a few minutes. These photos were all taken in our garden between the 8th and the 30th of May 2011.

Cherry Harvest 2011 by LindyLouMac

If you would prefer to view this video either as stills or in a larger format please visit My Flickr Album Cherry Harvest 2011

My post about last years Cherry Harvest can be found here Cherry Harvest 2010 where it is interesting to compare how much later we harvested.

I am linking this post to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House where you will find lots of other beautiful Mosaics.

Welcome to ‘News From Italy’ to the other participants from Mosaic Monday, thankyou for calling by, I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today.

Happy Memories of Italy.

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…………… after Mum’s funeral which we are spending a few days in the UK for. Meanwhile I am leaving you with a few old photographs of some of the places we took my parents on their visits to us in Italy. Happy Memories.

The Roman Viaduct just outside Tarquinia.

Tarquinia in the distance.

There are a number of stretches of viaduct that can be seen in this area.

Tarquinia Museum.

Basilica of San Pietro in Tuscania.

The Etruscan necropolis at Sutri with many of rock-cut tombs, there is also a Roman amphitheatre cut from the tufa rock.

Vetralla as seen from the surrounding countryside.

Outside one of our favourite places in Viterbo the Gran Caffe Schenardi, which has been a cafe since 1818!

Enjoying our Garden

My Sister and Mum in Marta, this one and the remaining photos were taken a few years later.

Partial view of the Lago di Bolsena taken from Montefiascone.

Capodimonte, the town on the left in the photo above.

Finally Mum loved the wild cyclamen that grow here in carpets in the woods in the late summer early Autumn. Simply glorious I will now always think of her when I see them.

If you want to learn more about any of the places I have mentioned just click on the blue links within the text.

See you all next week.

Saturday Snapshots - Sunbathing Lizard

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Photos taken in our garden last Saturday afternoon!

Anyone else besides Louise from A View From Carmine Superiore spot the other reptile?

Have a lovely weekend my friends wherever you are in the world and what ever you are doing.

Friday Photo – Luna Rosa

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I thought the eclipse of the moon on June 15th was spectacular but last nights moon was stunningly beautiful!

More photos on Flickr.com in the albums entitled Luna Rosa - June 16th 2011 and Eclissi di Luna - June 15th 2011