There was a wedding next door yesterday. Being a florist, it was easy to decide what to give - FLOWERS, of course. I set out to find fresh flowers in our little town and returned with a beautiful orchid, which I then creatively re-potted into a glass container and adorned with decorative sand. I added a nice card and was ready to drop it off next door when it hit me: Maybe I need to find out first, IF it was appropriate to give flowers as a wedding present and more importantly which ones. As I found out there are many superstitions and feelings connected to certain types of flowers. I learned a lot from this interesting article. Bottom line: No matter the type or event, it is always a pleasure to receive un mazzo di fiori, a bunch of flowers, but the right one!
Upon exploring the terrace garden at our new home, I came across a little pear tree. I picked up the pears that had fallen because I hate to waste anything, especially food. I ended up making a yummy compote with them. A tasty companion for ice cream or yogurt. You can't go wrong pairing pears with amaretto. Here is a link to one of the many recipes out there! Enjoy! And "say NO to food waste! Now I need to figure out what to do with all those limes! Ever tried to function in Italy in the middle portion of the month of august? Even been to a non-touristy city in that period? Or tried to speak to someone in an office? Well, its like Italian cities have become ghost towns- empty. But why? Everyone is on holiday celebrating Ferragosto. Here is how we celebrated part of Ferragosto in our little town of Monte di Procida. I was recently talking to someone about my childhood obsession with Italy. As a child, I would cut out articles and photos of all things Italian and I would glue them into a type of diary. Why? I don't know. I had this strange obsession with Italy, all its towns and landscapes. I had never been there, had no friends from there nor did I even know anyone who had traveled there. Although not knowing what brought this on, I did know that one day I had to go there. Days before leaving Canada, while going through this recently found, peculiar little book that I could barely remember putting together about 40 years ago, I came across an interesting article. It was an article about the earthquake that shook the Campania region in 1980. It left 3000 dead and 10.000 injured. And now, just before I was heading for a new life to THAT VERY SAME region, I was wondering whether this could really be coincidence. Intrigued, I started to do a bit more research on the topic of earthquakes in Italy and how people coped in the aftermath. I found a lot of fascinating facts and photos about these so called Città Morte and I decided that I must visit some of them!!! If you are also curious, here are some links: Ghost Towns in Southern Italy and Ghost Towns in Northern Italy.
I was going to make myself a little sandwich for lunch and look what fell out of the bread bag? Even the bread in Italy is "all about AMORE"!
This might sound like an ad for Residence Villa Toscana....because it is! This Hotel, located in Lago Patria with a view of the Nato base, might not have the fancy, schmanzy pool area with bar or view of the Med BUT it has a lot of heart. Proudly family owned, the staff goes out of their way to please the guests. We had to move apartments, YES, the second move in two weeks (after having moved here from another hotel) as someone else had pre-booked our apartment. We knew this ahead of time so it was no big deal when the moving day came. However, Anna, Grazia and Evelyn felt so bad for us that they continuously apologized and thanked us for being so flexible. They then showed up at our door with a beautiful floral arrangement (and I don't usually admit that other florists' arrangements are beautiful;), a bottle of Prosecco and a tray with Espressos and chocolates for Two. Maybe we will just have to stay here for the entire three year posting!
A great event this evening at Vulcano Sulfatara - "Estate in Sulfatara".
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AuthorClaudia CategoriesArchives
May 2016
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