The reason Serena and I went to Italy in the middle of August, the height of the peak season, is because she was a witness in her friend Catia's wedding. Being a witness in a European wedding isn't like being a witness in a trial (there are some obvious jokes to make here about the similarities between getting married and being sent to prison); a 'witness' at a wedding is what we would call a 'bridesmaid' or 'groomsman' in the States.
Catia and Assagid's wedding was in Francavilla, a town next to Pescara where Catia grew up. Assagid is from Ethiopia, and the two of them met while living and working in Würzburg. Serena and I flew into Pescara from London the day before the wedding, where we were met by Claudia, a friend of Serena's from medical school, who drove us to the hotel in central Pescara.
The morning of the wedding, Serena and I walked around central Pescara, which was pretty quiet outside of a street market that took up a few of the blocks between the hotel and the train station. It turned out to be a good find, since I forgot my belt and had to run out to get one from the market just before the wedding. Nothing like practicing my Italian with a street vendor - I even haggled to get a little discount.
The wedding was held in a small, simple, pretty church. Although I've been to more Christian weddings than Jewish weddings, and several of my childhood friends went to Catholic school, I would hardly say I was an expert on Christianity. This became apparent when I showed Serena's father this picture:
If you look closely, in front of Catia and Assagid you'll see a statue of a man lifting up his gown to reveal one of his legs. I found the statue very strange, but I waited until we were in Salerno before I asked Serena's father the question I was dying to ask someone at the wedding:
Why is Jesus lifting up his gown to show his leg?
Needless to say this question was met with a quizzical look. However, understanding that I was completely serious, he simply replied,"That's not Jesus, it's Saint Rocco." He followed that up with something to avoid any confusion in the future:
If it were Jesus, he would have been on a cross.
'nuff said. We all had a good laugh, as I explained that I had no idea why there was a dog next to the man depicted in the statue, and figured it was Jesus' pet dog, rather than the dog who saved St. Rocco's life by offering him bread.
Anyway, I put this question out of my mind as soon as we left the church and we all took little bags of rice, chocolate covered almonds, and coins to throw on Catia and Assagid as they left the church. I decided that the coins and chocolate covered almonds would hurt, so I pocketed the coins and ate the almonds before chucking the rice on the newlyweds.
The reception was held in a banquet hall on a hill overlooking Pescara, and it began with the antipasti, which were served outside as the sun set. It was hard to believe that we were going to get more food after the appetizers, which included a huge selection of different types of fish, seafood, and meat from the region. We had dinner inside in the main dining hall - more dishes with seafood and fish. The food was delicious, even if it was a little too much for a fan of the kiddie menu like me. Dessert was served outside by the pool, and was a buffet with as many choices as you could ever hope for. The only downside was that by the time we were all done eating, it was extremely late and everyone was stuffed and tired, so we didn't have a chance to dance. It was a shame, because I was looking forward to doing some traditional Ethiopian dancing with Serena:
A trip to Italy always involves food. On this trip I had the chance to have some of my favorites, try some new dishes, and even have a new version of an old favorite.
Pasta e fagioli The first time I had this was at Vicolo della Neve last Christmas. It made my list of favorites then, and is still near the top of the list. Vicolo della Neve was closed the first time we tried to go on this trip, but fortunately they were open again before we left so we could get our fix.
I tried two other things during dinner at Vicolo della Neve. The first was polpette, which are meatballs, and the other was ciambotta, which is a mixed vegetable stew. It's impossible to capture just how delicious each of these were. Clearly there were more things in the polpette than just meat, and more ingredients in the ciambotta than just vegetables. I have no idea what the other ingredients were, but if I grew up with these I would have been a much bigger fan of meatballs and vegetable stew!
Panzerotti Serena's mother made these during the Christmas holiday last year. This was also on my list of favorites then (as 'calzoni'), and is worth another mention now. Apparently these are popular in South Jersey, although I suspect they wouldn't even come close to the ones Serena's mother makes. We had them one evening for dinner on the patio overlooking Salerno and the Mediterranean Sea. Bellissimo.
Panzerotti
Arrosticini We had this traditionally Abruzzese dish at the dinner the night before Catia and Assagid's wedding. The dinner was at Catia's parents' house, and they made the arrosticini by hand. As far as I could tell, this was just grilled pieces of sheep on a skewer - no seasoning, no sauces. The simplicity, and the fact that the meat is extremely flavorful, is what makes this work. All you need is some bread and red wine, and you're all set. Buon appetito!
Home-made pizza Growing up in the US, we made pizza from scratch a few times (when I say 'we', I of course mean my parents). I remember my mother (or was it my father?) rolling the dough out onto a circular metal pizza pan with a Tupperware cup, spreading the tomato sauce, covering it with mozzarella, and putting it into the oven. We didn't have pizza often, but when we did it was a real treat.
When I heard that Serena's brother Antonio would be making pizza, I had a feeling he would do things a little differently. For one thing, Serena's family has a coal/wood-burning oven outside that looks like the kind you see in a real pizzeria. Also, I've heard the water in Naples is supposed to make the pizza taste better.
The result was impressive - fresh, light, delicious pizza. It was a team effort (as far as I could tell... I was too busy eating them as they came out of the oven), and Antonio, Silvana, and Serena made several pizzas with different toppings. Serena's father told me that the 'house speciality' is topped with tomato, mozzarella, and arugula.
As any Italian will tell you, nobody works in August. Well, almost nobody. The people who work in the restaurants and bars at the beach are kept very busy taking care of all of the beach-goers... and believe me, there are a lot of beach-goers. We visited three different beaches during our week in Salerno, and although each beach was slightly different in terms of the surrounding area, the routine was the same:
1) Rent a couple of chairs and a big umbrella. 2) Set all of our stuff down. 3) Go for a swim. 4) Lay on the chair either in the sun (Serena and her parents) or under the umbrella (me) until dry. 5a) If hungry/thirsty, go for a snack at the bar. 5b) If not hungry/thirsty, repeat 3) and 4)
In spite of the similar routine, each beach had various strengths and weaknesses:
Beach #1 - Paestum A friend of Serena's father recommended a visit to the beach in Paestum, a city known for its Greek temples that date back to between 220 BCE and 550 BCE. So the day after we arrived in Salerno we made our first beach outing with Serena's parents. The beach in Paestum was amazing. The sand was soft and fine, and the sea was so clear that you could see the bottom even after swimming quite a ways out. The little bar by the beach had a pretty big selection of panini, ice cream, and drinks. There wasn't much of a backdrop, just clear blue skies.
Sand: 9/10 Sea: 8/10 Bar: 8/10 Backdrop: 6/10
Beach #2 - Amalfi Serena and I visited Amalfi during our driving tour of the Amalfi Coast with her brother during the Christmas holiday last year. It's a truly beautiful town with a main street packed full of shops just off of a little square. We took a boat from Salerno to Amalfi, together with Serena's parents, and walked about 2 minutes (just next to the port) to get to the beach. After dropping off our towels at our beach chairs, we went for a little swim. When we looked back from the Sea, we could see the road we took with Antonio, followed by an amazing view of Amalfi looming over the beach. Absolutely stunning. The fact that the sand, sea, and bar weren't as nice as Paestum didn't matter. It's hard to imagine a nicer backdrop to a beach.
Sand: 6/10 Sea: 6/10 Bar: 6/10 Backdrop: 10/10
Beach #3 - Salerno Although it's hard to imagine a nicer backdrop to a beach than the one in Amalfi, the beach at the Lloyd's Baia Hotel in Salerno, which we went to with Serena's parents on our last day in Italy, is close enough to give it the same score. When you look back at the beach from the water, you see a huge bluff with an elevator on the side going up to the hotel, which overlooks the coast.
The ride in the elevator is probably not something my father (or grandpa) would enjoy, but before we left we took it to the top to take some pictures of the amazing view.
The sand and sea were better than Amalfi, and although the food selection at the bar wasn't that good, I was intrigued by the dancing lessons they were giving on the patio, which is why I scored it slightly higher than the bar in Amalfi. If Serena had joined the dancing lessons, it would have scored even higher.
Arrived back in the States last Sunday after an amazing week with Serena and her family in Salerno and the surrounding area. I'm still working on getting the pictures up, but in the meantime I thought I would post some of the highlights of the trip. Here's the first chapter, about my sagra experience.
A sagra is a local festival with food that is often centered around a particular ingredient or item. During one of the evenings, we went to a couple of the sagre around Salerno. The first one was a little on the quiet side, but the second one - Festa del Boscaiolo - was exactly what I had imagined from Serena's description of a sagra. Boscaiolo means woodsman, so the food at this sagra was centered around things you can find in a forest. It was in a small town called Calvanico, and when Serena and I arrived with her brother Antonio and his girlfriend Silvana, we were met by a crowd of people walking among the stands for the wine (gratis), pasta, or panini. We bought tickets to try the 'Penne alla Boscaiola' and the 'Panino do' Cravunaro (patate e funghi)', grabbed a glass (plastic cup, actually) of wine and settled into the food lines. While we ate, we listened to a band playing folk music, and watched a couple of little kids dance like they were at a Grateful Dead concert. Maybe they had too much of the free wine...
Will have a chance to post a longer entry, but just wanted to recap the last few days of my life:
Friday: Day flight to London. Saturday: Early afternoon flight from Stansted to Pescara. Had what was the equivalent to the American wedding rehearsal dinner. Sunday: Late afternoon wedding in Francavilla, followed by dinner/reception. Monday: Bus ride from Pescara to Naples, met by Serena's parents to take us to Salerno. Today: Trip to the beach in Paestum and a visit to the Greek temples.
Back blogging in Terminal 8 at JFK. Feels like I was just here. I was just here. Taking the day flight to Europe instead of the overnight this time. Definitely some things are unique to the day trip overseas.
1) Packing the night before is a must. 15 more minutes of sleep isn't a big deal, unless it's the difference between waking up at 3 vs 3:15am.
2) Supershuttle is much faster in the morning. Maybe it's the lack of traffic at 4am, but we absolutely flew to JFK this morning. No problem getting here 3 hours before the flight. Still double-checked with the driver that we were going to the right airport (trust me, it's worth doing).
3) All of the shops are closed at JFK at 5am. Except - McDonald's! Whew! Thought I wouldn't be able to get a good breakfast before the flight!
My little cousin Cody (who isn't so little anymore) used to skateboard. In fact, I think he spent some time in skating parks, where they have ramps and rails for the skaters to try different tricks.
I never saw Cody skateboarding, but I remember watching the X Games in the late '90s and seeing Tony Hawk's amazing half-pipe runs.
Always trying to push the envelope, the X Games now has 'Mega Ramp', which at some point is almost certainly going to be called 'Death Ramp'.
There's no doubt that the skateboarders in the X Games are athletes. But when the athletic feat is merely performing a task without killing yourself, rather than performing a task better or faster than anyone else, is it still sport?
My first visitor of the summer arrives Friday night. My niece Raven is 14, and this weekend she's staying at Chateau Jaffe. I'm excited, but as the time gets closer, I'm also a little nervous.
What do you do with a 14 year-old in New York City?
