Paula's Tour Talk

Stimulating the Appetite Italian Style

Dinner is served somewhat later in the evening in Italy than in the US, and that's just fine with me. I love the civilized Italian aperitivo. "Prediamo un aperitivo," let's have an aperitif, my Italian friends say. Unlike the cocktail hour which seems deigned to ruin the appetite with sweet drinks like Cosmopolitans and Lemon Drops, or deaden the tastebuds with pure alcohol as in a Martini, the Italian aperitivo is meant to stimulate the appetite. In fact, the term, comes from che apre or that which opens--in this case the stomach.

Even the ancient Romans drank aperitivi concocted from honey, wine, herbs, and various spices. Later, medieval monks brewed potent drinks (for medicinal purposes only, no doubt) with distilled alcohol infused with various herbal and fruit flavors.

Today there are many popular aperitivi to choose from like Campari and soda, a Negroni (gin, vermouth, and a dash of Campari), a Punt e Mes (red vermouth with bitters), or my personal favorite a glass of sparkling chilled Prosecco (the Italian answer to champagne).

In most places you will get something salty perhaps a little bowl of potato chips or nuts to go with your drink. These snacks are called struzzichini from struzzicare which means to poke--in this case your appetite.

Instead of complaining about dinner at eight or nine when you're in Italy, relax and enjoy an aperitivo like the Italians do!

True Balsamic Vinegar

First of all, the stuff you can buy at the grocery store for about two or three times the price of red wine vinegar is not true balsamic. The production of real l'aceto balamico is strictly controlled and only two consortia (one in the province Emilia-Romagna and one in the city of Modena in that province) can produce the heavenly vinegar. Like Italian wines, these vinegars carry DOC special labels that attest to where it comes from, the process by which it was made and its age.

Strictly speaking, balsamico is not a vinegar at all and is produced by a very different process. The mosto, or grape must, is made  from the seeds, pulp, and juice of white Trebbiano grapes, which is simmered slowly for hours until it's reduced to about 30% of its original volume. Then it is fermented through a slow aging process which concentrates the flavors.

It is aged for a minimum of 12 years in each of seven barrels of smaller and smaller sizes. With each passage the vinegar is reduced again by half. The portion that evaporates is said to be "the angels' share." The casks are made of different woods like cherry, ash, oak, mulberry, chestnut and oak and each lends its own distinctive flavor.

The flavor intensifies over the years, becoming sweet, thick and very concentrated. To be genuine balsamico it must be aged at least 12 years. The highest quality and most expensive brews are aged 50 years. True balsamic vinegar is rich, glossy, deep brown in color and has a complex flavor that balances the natural sweet and sour elements of the cooked grape juice with hints of wood from the casks.

A three ounce bottle of the real thing will cost between $100 and $400.

Oh, and that balsamic vinegar you can buy at any grocery store for about $15 a bottle. It's just wine vinegar with food coloring, caramel and sometimes thickeners like corn starch added. It's not aged and hundreds of thousands of gallons can be produced in a day. Some of the more expensive ones that you'll find are made someplace other than Emilia-Romagna in a much less complicated process and may be  aged for a few years. These last are often used for salad dressings.

Genuine balsamico has an incredible fragrance and a sweet, dark tangy flavor. It's thick, almost a syrup, and it can enhance the flavor of everything from veal to strawberries.

A bottle of the precious liquid is high on my list of things I'd love to buy in Italy. Someday. Perhaps after I can finally afford a pair of exquisite Ferragamo shoes... 

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

I broke with habit and actually read about 30 reviews of Four Seasons in Rome on Amazon. I kept reading them because I was intrigued by the wide spectrum of opinions from "I loved it" to "it was a waste of time and money."  Those who trashed it were disappointed because it was not what they expected. Four Seasons in Rome is not a travelogue or a guide to Rome. It's not about Romans past or present. There's not even much about the food.

Instead it's a lyrical, elegantly written account of a talented American writer, winner of many prizes and grants, who is the recipient of yet another award. On the very day that his twin sons are born, Doerr receives a letter telling him of his good fortune. He has won the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters-- a fairly substantial stipend and an apartment and writing studio in Rome for a year. He and his courageous wife decide to go for it.

Now, Mr. Doerr knows less than a handful of Italian words, nothing about Rome, and he's a brand new father. Oh, and he is supposed to be working on his next novel. So he is often confused, sometimes lost, usually exhausted, and occasionally really frustrated.  But he is also fine person with a generous heart, honest and open about his feelings and experiences, curious about the world and fascinated by nature.

It's a pleasure to spend time reading about his year in Rome. I loved walking along with him as he wanders the frenetic streets and quiet back lanes of this ancient city with his little boys in their double stroller. I enjoyed the fact that his impressions are fresh and not colored by prior research, knowledge, or expectations. Doerr writes about his experiences in Rome not about "the Roman experience."

He writes about the joys and anxieties of parenthood, the pleasures and perplexities of life in a city as vibrant and bustling as Rome with its layers and layers of history and culture. He writes about the reactions of ordinary people to Pope John Paul's death and about his Filipina babysitter. He includes excerpts from his reading of the ancient Pliny's Natural History and talks about his terror when his wife gets ill.

In short, Doerr lets us into his world, his heart, and his mind as he navigates unfamiliar territory during his year abroad. Given the incredible gift of a year to nurture his writing, he shares that gift with us, allowing us to come along and see what it was really like.

I am firmly among those who loved this book. It's charming and real and a pleasure to read. It has even made me long for Rome, a city I haven't spent nearly enough time in. I think a year would be perfect.

The Odd History of Orsanmichele

One of the most fascinating of Florence's medieval structures is the church in the heart of the historic center called Orsanmichele. Its name is a contraction of Orto San Michele or the Garden of St. Michael because the church was built on the site of a long-gone monastery's garden.

But this building was not originally built as a church at all. It was granary with a grain market on the first floor, offices on the second, and the city's grain warehouse (insurance against famine or siege) on the third.

But it so happened that one of the pillars was decorated with an image of the Madonna and it soon became a place of devotion and miraculous healings. The granary was damaged by a fire in 1304 and the image gradually faded.

When a new loggia was built, the artist Bernado Daddi  was commissioned to paint a new Madonna. It's this work, known as Madonna della Grazie, Our Lady of Favors(on the right)), that you see today in the church. Devotion to the Madonna increased when the Black Plague struck in 1348, and by 1359 it was felt the place was no longer suitable for commerce and the grain market was moved, although the upper floor remained a warehouse. You can still see the chutes that were used for the wheat.

At the end of the 14th century the loggia was enclosed, stained glass windows added, and the building was dedicated as a church. All of the Arti Maggiori or principal guilds were charged with donating statues to fill the niches on the outside of the church. The wealthy guilds vied to hire the best artists to create statues of their patron saints. For example, Donatello was commissioned to sculpt St. George (at left), the patron of the Armorers, Lorenzo Ghiberti created his St. Matthew for the Bankers and also St. John the Baptist for the Wool Merchants.

The statues in the outdoor niches are now replicas of the originals which are being restored and prepared for a new Orsanmichele museum. It's fun to look at the statues and the guild emblems to see who's who.

We'll be seeing this unusual church next month on Time of Your Life Tour's  Tastes of Tuscany. It's too late to sign up for that one, but check out Tour News for all our upcoming tours, including a trip to Milan, Lake Como, and Venice in the spring with master business coach Caterina Rando.

Free City Guides for Italian Cities

I just got word about a great new website: Italy Guides. It offers free down-loadable audio guides, videos, virtual panoramas, photos, and travel tips for many of Italy's most popular cities including Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Palermo.

It's a beautiful site and easy to use and navigate. You can download the guides and listen to them on your computer or I-Pod. You can view hundreds of photos and see panoramas of important sites.

For example, you can pan all over Florence's magnificent duomo, from Brunelleschi's dome, to the colorful mosaics, to the marble columns, and even to the street level where you'll see people strolling along.

Play around with the panoramic vistas a bit. It takes a little while to get the hang of the controls and the zoom. But it really is the closest thing to being there. Actually, you can get closer to the buildings, and higher up than you could if you were really there.

The audio guides are interesting and informative,too, and they are offered in several languages. I like to listen in Italian.

This kind of website makes me love technology. Check it out and tell you what you think.