There are a few dishes that ever fail to save the day. The first one is “Spaghetti Oil & Garlic, ” from there it can be upgraded to “spaghetti oil & garlic AND peperoncino” the spicy one 🌶, best if fresh; then “spaghetti with the above + anchovies.” Eventually, add capers, and freshhly chopped parsley […]
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Something not to overlook when visiting any Italian city are the Monte di Pietà buildings. Often they are the most prominent buildings of the city. The “Monte di Pietà” was nothing more than the common “Pawnbroker.” What makes it very different in Italy is the beautiful, richly decorated building that once was the “Pawnbrokers” of […]
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What can we do with all those zucchini now that the season of plenty is coming up? A Tart We can’t feed the ducks with the overproduction, therefore I always look for new ways to cook them, and if I do not find a new one, then I adapt liberally from others, substituting one ingredient […]
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Not Quite! With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, it may not be a very good idea to schedule for the upcoming Spring/Summer season 2021. A “third wave” of coronavirus infections has been spreading across Europe; although Venice is not the most COVID-infected area, but there have been plenty enough of COVID-19 cases, and deaths have […]
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Another Easter in Lockdown Per se it is not that bad, it is just Easter but less pretentious. More intimate, no travel to fashionable places, nothing much. It is even less stressful. I recall I thought the same about Christmas, and NY Eve. Some traditions can be maintained nevertheless, like having the typical “Colomba Pasquale” […]
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Italy and the EU is struggling with high numbers of infected people, hospital emergency rooms are full, and the vaccine is not coming in fast enough.We are living last year situation all over again, and we are expecting even more restricted rules for the upcoming Easter weekend. Roaming the Empty Streets We still can go […]
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Maybe I was too busy before and never paid the proper attention, but now that life suddenly slowed down a lot, I just noticed how blue the sky is. Maybe because the air traffic diminished considerably, and so did the land transportation, the industry and power generation, shipping and aviation during the lockdown. That for […]
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Mr. “Whatever It Takes” We now have a top of the line man to lead the country; the great “Whatever it Takes,” Super-Mario himself. Miraculously all our politicians fell silent! That was good actually! And so a famous Chef stopped suddenly inviting restaurateurs to the “revolution” against the Conte government? No more news of a […]
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I miss wearing lipstick! I am longing for Normal (capital N) life, and for all the things we took for granted just a little more than a year ago. I’d like to shake hands Hugging a friend, kissing loved ones. Going to theater, crowded ones too. Yes, elbow-to-elbow events! I do miss the social life, […]
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So here is another Spring season that we can only admire from the window, in the privacy of our homes. As of today, March 15th, Italy is (almost) all in Code Red, meaning a total lockdown. Once again stores are totally closed, except the strictly necessary ones; supermarkets, pharmacies, and a few other businesses considered […]
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Catherine de Medicis wasn’t beautiful, and not even charming. Her great-grandfather, now dead for about forty years, was the great Lorenzo, known as The Magnificent, Lord of Florence. She had very little to be happy about. Her mother died a few days after her birth and her father, Lorenzo II, also died two weeks later. […]
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As we celebrate International Women’s Day, #IWD2021, I would like to give a Mimosa to Meghan [Markle]. Not because she married a Prince, nor because she is a Duchess. But because of all the online bullying she has been subjected since she started dating her now-husband until now. These days she is again mercilessly bullied […]
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