The fog is lifting...(I think)!

Aside from the foggy humidity we've had outside the past day or two (which has given us a welcome relief from the constant picking and time to clean the leaves and sticks out of the crates of olives and steam clean the stainless steel containers) I've noticed my brain feels foggy!

I've noticed that I struggle to concentrate when teaching.  Day to day here at the house I don't notice anything much different (except I'm light-headed), but loading and unloading the dishwasher or hanging up the clothing doesn't take much mental effort.  Teaching the future perfect and comparing it to the future perfect progressive (don't ask!) does.  What gives?  

I'm in my mid-fifties.  Isn't it too early for "cognitive decline"?  I mention it to the doctor and he prescribed something natural to help me sleep (melatonin--which I have used in the past) and a supplement of vitamins that I'm supposed to take for 20 out of 30 days a month.  Now I DID run out of vitamins a few weeks ago, so perhaps I am missing something important?  Who knows.

In any case, I've discovered a great website to exercise the brain in the areas of attention, processing speed, and memory.  It's called Lumosity and it's won web awards and gotten lots of media coverage.  lt's a lot of fun to work on your own "personal best"(or invite friends/family to try and beat your scores) and they offer a 30-day free trial.  If you check it out, come back and let me know what you think (and when I stop playing, I may even check my blog for comments)!

New-oil bruschetta!

Would anyone like some? It's delicious, great with salt on toasted Italian bread.

Last week two women (I was not one of them for more than a half-day) picked enough olives just from the trees around our house to make more than 150 liters of oil! Pay is five liters of oil per day's work, but because there is just so much we'll be giving them six liters per day. By the time we're all done we'll probably have more than 500 liters. Pio's brother will be taking quite a bit of it back to the States in January...and we'll have more than enough to last us through another year (or three). The trees are making up for last year's meager harvest when we got 150 liters from 400 trees...this year from less than 50!

Halloween in Italy

Halloween in Italy is mostly a big nothing. It's discussed in English class (Dante's class had to memorize "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" as homework this week) and the international schools may do something, but out here in rural central Italy, it's a quiet day, as usual.

We've given two Halloween parties over the past three years, but this year I just didn't feel up to it. I still haven't fully adjusted to working (and still being able to do anything else!), so the idea of 35 nine-year-olds running in and out of my house just didn't appeal. Plus, the bilingual woman and her teenage daughter who helped me last year run the games and prepare the food moved back to Toronto. It just seemed like too much work right now.

Luckily for D. and his friends another mother volunteered to host the Haloween party this year and the kids had a chance to run around in their Carnival costumes a few months early, eat a lot of junk food and tell scary stories. A light drizzle didn't put a damper on their fun. In the photo are just a few of those who arrived early.

We've fallen...

...back an hour, that is. Have you?



In New York Sunday meant the newspapers and eggs and bacon on a roll. Here the Sunday newspapers don't appear any different than any other day (are they? well, they certainly don't weigh 3 pounds each!) and anyway, the articles are difficult for me to read in Italian, so I usually don't bother (which assures that they'll never get any easier, I know). So, instead I catch up on the terrific blogs that so many are writing (see "Blogs I Read" section), sometimes the newspapers online (though they're often full of bad news, so why bother?) and have Pio bring home a cornetto with Nutella inside! A typical sweet Italian breakfast, except I have mine with a cup of tea instead of cappuccino.


What a lovely Sunday morning. Sunny (where is that rain that was supposed to have arrived yesterday or the day before?), warmish...and only 7:15 a.m. (OK, "what used to be" 8:15, as we'll say every day for the next month around here, I guess we have trouble adjusting our routines)!





This is welcome as we will once again be able to walk at 6:30 a.m. and not have to wear our reflective safety vests. Oh yes, it WILL get dark earlier, maybe 6 p.m., which I'm hoping will make it easier to get Dante to bed at a decent hour (kids in Italy stay up LATE by American standards, partly because many only eat dinner at 7:30 p.m. or later).

Work is going well. How I enjoy working with motivated adults (no behavioral issues, hurrah!) and they make me feel like a genius just 'cause I can speak English! The ego is happy. The regular paycheck is nice...oh, and the free lunches from their cafeteria are really good (how I'd love to bring the family so each could choose what he wanted for lunch...fruit, pasta, rice, fish, meat, vegetables, salad, then we could all bring our trays back and walk away. No messy pots and counter tops to clean, no dishwasher to load...I LOVE it!) I'm just learning, however, little by little, the differences between American and British English when we talk about the weekend (I even told students the first week that they should say "ON the weekend" instead of "AT the weekend" thinking they had chosen the wrong preposition (American friends and family, AT is correct in British English!).

Now it's time to start the day...make breakfast for Dante, get dressed, etc. We're going out for lunch later with some friends at one of our favorite places (rustic Capofiume Restaurant, in the mountains about 20 minutes from here, with a freezing cold shallow stream behind it which is just beautiful--and delicious too my son tells me!).

Oh such neglect!

Oh dear blog, I haven't written anything here in way too long! So catching up...

As I mentioned in my last post, I've started working. It's going really well, I like it, but...some of the students (all middle and upper level management in a multinational pharmaceutical company) are overworked and stressed out. Well, speaking English all day and being surrounded by stressed out people sometimes makes me feel like I'm back in NY!

I am struck by how healthy the cafeteria menu is...a choice of two first courses (pasta or risotto), meat, fish and/or frittata, vegetables, salads, fruit, yogurt and to drink: wine or water. No soda or sweets in sight. Employees pay a nominal amount for up to five items and it's really really good (cooked on site). Quite a perk in my opinion. I wish I could bring my family in for lunch everyday:).

Dante started fourth grade on 9/15. Right away the homework started, usually around 2 hours a night (up from 1.5 last year!). He seems to be handling it well with help from his tutor (the mother of the tutor he's had for the past couple of years--his usually tutor is on a semester abroad in Holland...the mother is actually an elementary school teacher in a local school). He does get out at 1 pm every day, so theoretically there is time to do it all. But afterschool activities haven't started yet...

Next Monday starts his "long Mondays", the one day a week when he stays at school until 4:30. Oh, how he used to cry in first grade on the way to school on Mondays! Now there are no more tears and it's OK...and the silver lining is usually there is no or very little homework.

Next week starts music lessons too. While he really wants to learn the guitar, it was explained that for the first year everyone will learn to read and play music on the piano where it's easier. Next year guitar. The lessons will be on Tuesdays from 5-6 p.m. and he will be in a group of four, all from the fourth grade in his school. We'll see how it goes with homework, which he'll have to do afterwards since his tutor doesn't arrive home on Wednesdays until 5 p.m. and I arrive home even later.

Also starting soon will be karate, Tuesday and Friday evenings, from 6:30-7:30. I'll see if he can only do it on Fridays as otherwise Tuesdays will be too busy. Maybe we'll do swimming instead, which has many different time slots. He HAS to do something, as physical education at school is ONLY once a week.

He's still wearing a dark blue grembuile (smock) with a white collar (but no bow anymore, thank goodness) and has a book and notebook for each subject. Something new this year--he's using a carry-on suitcase, with wheels, for his school bag. It was really too much to carry back and forth everyday on his back, although perhaps it could have counted as weight-lifting exercise!

On the home front we have way too many pets! The two dogs which we've had for a few years now (puppies of my in-law's dog Lea) have grown big. They are outdoor dogs with time to exercise everyday outside their pen. Well, the male, which NO ONE wanted to neuter (too cruel they yelled!) is escaping on a regular basis. We can't figure out how...

I have to be sure to keep the kitten away from him as I don't trust him with small, darting animals, so she's stuck inside more than I'd like, with a kitty litter box.

The turtles are truly low maintenance, just change the water and feed them...not bad.

But our guppies have gotten sick. The other fish in the tank (platties and mollies) seem fine, although one mollly did die while we were away so the theory is that perhaps they introduced a virus to the tank and the guppies, which are more beautiful but more delicate than years ago, caught it. Two have died in the last two weeks and the two remaining ones don't look so good...

Other news...

We had a great potato harvest his year and so I asked my friend to use about 10 pounds worth and make us some gnocci for the freezer. She made them yesterday. Yum!

And that's all that's new over here....(oh, my Folletto vacuum (a German brand I believe) that I've been waiting for FOREVER (well, two months) did arrive last week finally. Yea! I got busy and vacuumed my furniture and rugs, which were looooooooong overdue!

Have a good weekend everyone!!

I got a job!

I was feeling a little funky this month with the start of the school year and me not working. Or was it that the bills here have piled up with workers putting down tile around the house, the materials for said job, etc? Pio's retirement check in US $, while going slightly further than last week, doesn't go as far as we need it to. So when I was once again offered a job that I interviewed for back in March, I accepted it without thinking too much. It is 40 minutes by car from home, teaching Business Engish to pharmeutical company professionals. They all seem like nice people, but after only two days (10-6 or 5 pm) I'm wiped out! Good thing tomorrow is my last day until next Tuesday!! And when will the first check arrive? October 11th, I hope!!

Happy New Year!

New SCHOOL Year, that is! After 18 years of being a full-time student and 20-something of being a full-time teacher, the day after Labor Day is ingrained in me as the REAL beginning of a new year. Today would be full of teacher meetings and setting up ones space (I didn't have a classroom, but rather office space, my last five years.) Lots of air kisses (on only one cheek, not both) and "Hi, how was your summer" going round, and a quick glance at the pay chart to see how much, more or less, I'd be making this year.

Ah, sigh.

Over the summer I turned in my resignation letter (it was either that or go back from my leave-of-absence) after much thought. For me it was the right decision for many reasons, but that doesn't mean it was easy. I worked with the same school system since the mid-eighties and grew up with a lot of people there (most of whom will be retiring at the end of this school year--now how did that happen?!). Next September I can begin to collect a reduced, penalized pension check (don't have 30 years in, won't have 62 years of age), but it's still more than I could make working full time here in Italy! (Which only points our how bad the economic situation is here...while prices for everything are high. But that's another post.)

For all you teachers, and students, out there...have a GREAT NEW YEAR!!

(Dante won't go back until September 15, though most teachers here in Italy started yesterday.)

P.S. The figs as pictured in previous post are literally as sweet as honey! I just wish I could get at least a kilo of them all ripe on the same day so I could make jam...maybe I'll go up and check the tree this morning, early, before I head into Rome. Lots more should have ripened since Sunday. I'm eating them raw rather than baking with them...in honor of my "New Year's" resolution to lose a few pounds!

I haven't been into Rome for months and miss the chaos. Crowds should be slightly diminished, and heat too, so it's time. Visiting a friend for an Indian lunch and a bit of conversation in English.

And now it's the figs' turn...

We have a fig tree on the property, a bit of a walk uphill from the house. Pio has no idea who planted it, but I bet it was the birds. In any case, it's growing on the side of a small incline which actually makes it easier to pick the fruit, although eventually I'll need to bring a ladder to reach the top. And I'll have to keep checking on them, or the birds (or the foragers who think the tree has been abandoned) will have a feast. Today only two were ripe, within a week they'll be another 20 I'd bet. Lucky for us my father-in-law's tree has tons ripe now, so we're eating them. They're of a different variety, smaller, and obviously ripen a little earlier. They are SOOOO good.



I'm thinking of making the "Fresh Fig Crostata" recipe I found in a recent addition to my cookbook collection (which hovers around 100 titles!): The Best American Recipes 2005-2006. I got it on sale when I was in NY this summer and just couldn't pass it up. It's a compendium of recipes from a wide variety of sources: new cookbooks, restaurants, magazines, newspapers, back-of-the-box or bag and the Internet, published in the years mentioned in the title (I also have the 1999 version and 2000 ). My philosophy about cookbooks, if I find just one or two recipes that I love and make often, it was worth the money. So we'll see if this crostata recipe (a free form fruit tart on a butter crust) is a winner. I'll post a picture later and give you the verdict (now how exactly will this fit with the idea that I'm back walking for an hour every morning and hoping to lose the five pounds I put on pigging out and being a slug while in NY?).

Montepulciano fun!

When we travel we usually go to New York to visit family, and so consequently haven't really been to many places here in Italy. So when we decided to meet fellow bloggers we read regularly, Jane, Ken and their grandson Casey (Casey, Italy and Other Good Stuff and KZ in Toscana (or KC is So Cal), we chose to meet them while they were lodged in Montepulciano, a Tuscan town that we've often heard about (famous for their red wine) but had never visited.

We were lucky to get a room for three people for one night at La Terrazza de Montepulciano, a 12-room hotel right in the Historical Center of the town. The owners were very friendly and helpful and made us feel at home, but the room was a little noisy at night as our window faced the main drag. Oh well, we were so tired that after a couple of minutes we all fell soundly asleep, but I'm getting ahead of my story!

On our first day in town, we met them at a restaurant that had been recommended to us by our hotel, but we were mostly disappointed in the food, unfortunately. We then followed them back to their favorite place to stay, right outside Montepulciano, Sant'Antonio. It really is quite special with attractive one- and two-bedroom apartments, endless views and a fun pool for the kids to play in. It's a hard place to get into during high-season as they have lots of repeat customers who must book for a minimum of one week. But Dante got a chance to enjoy the pool and play with Casey and some other children there. The boys had fun while the adults chit-chatted about this and that from lunch straight through to an outstanding dinner, a Wednesday-night-only event at Sant' Antonio, prepared by a professional chef who is also part of the extended family. The meal was exquisite, perhaps one of the best I've ever had! I especially loved the famous hand-made Tuscan pasta called Pici, prepared with bread crumbs, and the ricotta cheese "pie" we had for desert which was only held down from floating off the plate by the fruti di bosco that sat on top..

The following day we walked around Montepulciano. I'm regretting a bit not buying that handmade soft leather bag I coveted (OK, it WAS one of the most expensive in the store and I would have probably needed to buy a coat and boots too that would have looked good with it...and where, exactly was I going to wear all this great stuff anyway? You see how my reasoning went, even though my birthday IS this coming week...) and then out to lunch at a small restaurant called La Porta in nearby Monticchiello. We wouldn't have found it if Ken hadn't led the way. The views of the countryside while driving there were stupendous! Rolling hills, cypress trees, baled up hay, sunflowers drying in the fields, views that went on forever, Tuscan-style. Just beautiful...and the food was really good too!

We've invited Jane, Ken and Casey to visit us next summer, especially if they go to Greve and then head down to the Amalfi coast...we're right along the way!

Tomato time has begun in earnest...

We've been getting handfuls of tomatoes every few days for a while now, that I've either quickly made into the sauce for the day or sliced up with fresh mozzarella for a little salad.
But now the tomatoes are really starting to roll in, so to speak, so it's time to make sauce. Lots of sauce. When I get overwhelmed with them, I'll put them up in jars to use during the winter, but for now I'm making sauce with them, then putting them in bags for the freezer. Ready for a quick meal with little prep mid-winter.
Some women around here even throw tomatoes in the freezer whole to use in sauce come the winter. That's easier than cutting them up, stuffing them in jars, boiling the jars...maybe I'll try it. Now wouldn't you know it, but Dante's got a stomach thing and sauce gives him a bellyache. We've been eating "pasta in bianco" (with white sauce, today it was clams) instead. I miss red sauce!

Lavender, lavender...

Have I mentioned I went a little lavender crazy this spring? I planted 42...yes 42...plants. Maybe I was just so happy I could grow them here. Maybe it's because I ordered a dozen from my local plant guy, bought them when I found them elsewhere, then felt commited to buying the ones I ordered too! (well, that accounts for 24 of them anyway!)And they smell so good.

So anyway, any ideas about what to do with all this lavender? Searching around the web I found so many sites which had lavender recipes. I had heard of lavender ice cream...but wow, I had no idea there were so many recipes in which I could use these beautiful, organic, lavender flowers! If I make something I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have you ever cooked with and/or eaten lavender or any other flower, for that matter?

Prato di Campoli

Prato di Campoli is about a 25 minute ride up the nearby mountain, and about 15 degrees cooler! It's part of a national park and has sheep and cattle grazing on the rocky hills. There are big open fields surrounded by deep dark forest (Hansel and Gretel lost in the woods dark!), picnic and camping areas and today, since August and holidays have begun, TONS of people! We were lucky to find a little space to parallel park along the road (after paying our 2 Euro parking fee) and Pio ran off to shoot a golf ball around for a while. Dante just ran around. I tried to start a new novel but the peace and quiet didn't last long. Once Pio got back we took a short walk into the woods where my ankles promptly became a feast for one pesky mosquito and we beat a retreat to the car and then the snack bar.

I forgot to bring along my camera, so no pictures (sorry) but the air was so fresh, it really was quite amazing!