Final posting

This was a travel blog, not an ongoing one. So, as my trip is now finished, so is the blog. I've uploaded more photographs (see various postings) and inserted some recipes (see entry "Anchovy and Trofie"). I hope readers enjoyed the vicarious journey. I leave you with the view from the Cinque Terre trail, coming over the mountain to behold the village of Vernazza. Ciao! --mn

how cool is this?

This has nothing to do with my trip but I just had to share it with you: the underwater restaurant at Rangali in the Maldives (thanks to J for the link). Those are real fish swimming just outside the dining room, which has 270-degree view (overhead and all around, save for the entry way, which leads up and out. For more photos, see LINK, left) Perhaps they could use a guest-lecturer in U.S. history?... I returned to Chicago yesterday, where it is warm and humid. I am happy to be home. As my trip is over, this blog will come to an end. But I will upload my own photos taken on the trip and also some recipes of the dishes that I've been describing--so check back for the enhanced version.

mind the gap

A day in London before returning home. Lunch with my American friends living here, at a pub in Notting Hill near their home. A departure from all the pasta I've been consuming: English asparagus (just in season) with goat cheese, and roasted hake over garlic-mashed potatoes with baked tomatoes and spinach--lovely. A visit to the Tate Britian museum, which was showing the life work of the modernist painter Prunella Clough. I really like her work; the earlier works are quasi-abstract paintings of workmen and work scenes; then they become increasingly abstract and urban inspired. (PHOTO above, "Electrical Landscape") For review of the show, and a commentary on British women painters generally, see LINK, left. I also loved the work of Arthur Wallis (1855-1942), described as a "seaman, ice-cream seller and rag-and-bone man" before becoming a painter late in life. His paintings convey his sense of the sea as he remembered it, though they not at all nostalgic. (PHOTO below)

My friends had a small dinner party; the other guests were two women from the neighborhood who jointly own a shop in London (actually, three branches). They specialize in home decor and furnishings; all bought directly from artisans and companies abroad (Europe, India, etc). See their website, BRISSI, left. Dinner was a home-cooked Indian meal, with lamb kebabs eaten with lettuce leaves (the lamb marinated overnight) and served with Bollinger; chicken sauteed in Indian spices; and rice. I cannot do it justice because I do not understand the spicing system. (My next project??) Dessert: vanilla clotted-cream ice cream with See's peanut brittle. Dare I say: it rivals gelato!

More immediately--to the airport, home, and diet!

CIAO

My last day in Torino. A morning walk in the city center, quiet because the city forbids private cars in the city center on Sundays, in order to curb pollution... Then a final lunch with M&M and a friend of their's, an art historian, at a restaurant in the Parco Valentino along the River Po. It was warm and sunny, a beautiful day, especially after a week of rain. We walked first through the "medieval" village and castle, which was built for the 1884 international exposition in the style of 15th-century Piedmont; and then in the botantical garden. Lots of people--bikers, walkers, families; people rowing and kayaking on the river...

Lunch: The restaurant is on the river. If you look closely at the photo of the medieval castle, you can see the restaurant in the foreground, right. The meal: to start I had a tarte made with roasted-red peppers, anchovy, and cheese. (Red peppers, by the way, are called peperoni. How this name became used to describe a kind of pizza topping in the U.S. is unknown; but my menu-reading has been confused until M. explained this to me. He also informed me one cannot find "bologna"/baloney in the city of Bologna.) Then little potato gnocchi with baby squid, shrimp, and zuccini, in a Piedmont sauce made with tomato and cheese and some spices that I could not identify. Very tasty! M&M had as their starter a lovely pasta dish, made with green (spinach) and yellow (egg) pasta, that they call "straw and hay", with asparagus and a creamy but light cheese sauce. It was beautiful to behold. The cheese is a local product called Raschera, they said it was probably not availalble in the US but I would not be surprised if Fairways had it.

GRAZIE MILLE to my hosts and new friends in Italy!

papadoupolos

A dinner party last night at the home of FV, a young Italian historian at U-Torino, who is writing a book on the Statue of Liberty (did you know it was originally intended as a French monument at the mouth of the Suez Canal?). Her parents live in an apartment with a view of the Alps (on a clear day--not yesterday--I'm told you can see Mont Blanc); they are retired teachers--he a philosopher professor, she a schoolteacher. Another amazing home-cooked meal, including various appetizers; beef (brisket?) in a delicious sauce; red-peppers and onions (I think you just throw it in a pot, the trick is to simmer for one hour). For dessert, a chocolate cake made with nuts, fruit, and egg-whites, called papadoupolos--from Trieste, of Greek origin, but a Venetian recipe (nobody could really explain this genealogy)--served with zabalone sauce. Mrs. V. also makes her own dessert liquers, one from herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, and others) and one from orange peel. F is engaged to a Norweigan scholar and there was another guest who is an Italian American from New York who has lived in Italy for 15 years so there was lively conversation about cross-cultural and transnational life.

Breakfast-clarification

I have received some emails to the effect that we have been eating all of that breakfast described a few days ago. Please! those are all the choices that are available. We are not eating all of it!!

Leather

Yesterday -- steady rain all day and my last day of teaching in Vercelli; in the afternoon K., my traveling companion, gave a workshop to Univ. Torino women's studies and leaders in city government about workplace-sexual harassment. I had dinner with a colleague, an Americanist scholar in Torino, and his wife, at their home on the other side of the Po River. Home-made pesto with potato gnocchi; roast beef; a vegetable-cheese-ham loaf, grilled eggplant, zuccini and roasted peppers. For dessert, fresh strawberries dressed with lemon juice, a nice combination. Dolcetta wine that came from a friend-of-the-family's vintner's jug. Discussion ranged from influence of the Pope in Italian public policy to the Sopranos and Borat.

Today: K left for home this morning, after breakfast. I went with M&M to Serravalle, a designer-outlet mall about one hour from Torino. It is well situated, about equidistant from Torino, Milan, and Genoa (though a bit closer to the latter two). Although there are single-manufacturer-factory outlets in Italy (the Prada one in Tuscany is notoriously hard to find) the outlet mall is a new thing in Italy. To which we say: Bravo! Now, this was *serious* business. The Prada store was a bust (wierd shoes, no bags) but other stores had fantastic stuff, even if just to admire (Cavalli, Versace, etc). The Italian shoppers are keen on the US-brand outlets (Nike, Timberland, Calvin Klein) but of course I skipped all of these and concentrated on the Euro stores. I left with leather, leather, and more leather (jacket, bag, and bag...) plus some gifts for the folks at home.

Victoria

I did not tell you about our hotel here in Torino, the Victoria. It is in the center of the old city, close to cafes, shops, museums, and the like. The two notable aspects are (1) the breakfast and (2) the spa. Breakfast (for which they have won an award, from whomever gives out the awards for best-hotel breakfasts) is a lavish buffet, with assorted cheeses, ham and salami, croissants (regular, chocolate, and filled with marmalade), breads and rolls, desserts (linzer torte, fruit tart, chocolate cake, cheese cake, cookies, etc.), hard and soft boiled eggs, various cereals, fruits (fresh, as salad, and dried), nuts (hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts), greek yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh grapefruit and blood-orange juice, an amazing assortment of preserves and nut-butters (I tried the pistachio-butter; it tastes like, well, pistachio). I saw a super-model type one day eat nuts and a piece of toast. But we love the soft-boiled eggs (fresh, with orange-y yolks and cooked just right, precisely three minutes), eaten with toast with ham. Also the baked apples (with the core removed and the space filled with currants, pine-nuts and cinnamon) with some yogurt. And OJ and cappuccino, of course. (Then, to go, a pain-au-chocolat wrapped in a napkin, and a blood orange. Some dulce and vitamin-C for later in the day.

The spa has a roman-style pool and whirlpool (for more photos, go to LINK, left). There are jets that come out at your back, of course, but also two at calf-level (one for each leg), and then two from the floor, for the bottom of your feet. There is also a great steam-room with an adjacent aromatic shower. This is a semi-darkened, tiled room with a shower-head that is like a waterfall. Then in the ceiling there is another fixture that sprays warm water over your head that is either “tropical” (which smells like citrus, and an orange glow come on in the room) or “strawberry” (blue light). There are also spa-treatments available but we have not done these. The only negative is that it does not open until noon so it’s not available for a morning swim and we are usually out all afternoon and evening, but we went a couple times.

Mole

Yesterday I spoke at a conference at the Univ. of Torino, on undocumented migrants in the US and Europe. I certainly learned a lot about the high immigration rates in southern Europe, the informal economy, and the many "regularization" drives that have legalized the undocumented here. Interestingly, there are many Romanian "illegal" immigrants here but when Romania joined the EU they magically became "welcome" and even have the right to vote!

This section of the university is in the neighborhood of the Mole Antonelliana, a 19th century synagogue with a 167-meter tower (PHOTO, view of the tower and the Via Po). At night an art-installation by the artist Mario Merz creeps up the spire, a series of illuminated-red numbers (very quickly understood as a mathematical progression, even by this math-dummy: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...etc.) The building now houses the national museum of cinema.

Dinner after the conference at a restaurant, Sotto la Mole (under the Mole) with colleagues, learned about Italian academic politics, especially clientism, though that is beginning to change. A flan made of goat cheese with a piquant marmalade-like sauce; followed by risotto with asparagus and cheese. Risotto is *the* Piedmont dish, creamy and less dry than what you get in the U.S. For dessert, a pistachio gelato, specialty from Sicily (where the pistachio comes from)--stunning flavor, including a slight saltiness, just like eating the nut. Amazing! And little chocolates by the famed choco-maker Guido Gobino, a creamy chocolate-hazelnut concoction. I'm off to buy a case of it today to bring back.

PS. I figured out how to post larger photos so corrected the postings from the Cinque Terre. See earlier postings for full appreciation.

FIAT + Bartok

Tonight I went with M., my host's wife, to Lingotto, on the outskirts of Turin. Here is the former FIAT factory, built in 1927, the first Fordist facility in Europe, over 350,000 square meters, famous for its rooftop track (featured in The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine). Now it is a complex with shopping mall, a hotel (the Meridian), movie-plex, restaurants, etc etc., the conversion was designed by Renzo Piano and opened in the mid-90s. We went to the concert hall with state of the art acoustics (photo below). The program was the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, playing Strauss (symphony no. 30--picture that ape's arm coming down), Wagner (prelude to Tristan and Isolde) and Bartok (suite from Miraculous Mandarin). All very well done, especially the Bartok, heavy but not heavy-handed. For more on the Lingotto project see link, left.

Lunch earlier today with my host at a charming restaurant in Vercelli. Puff-pastry filled with asparagus and cheese, with a cream sauce (divine) and spaghetti with sardine and fresh tomato. It was the first time I had fresh sardine--really excellent, but I think I like the anchovy better yet.

May Day rock

Took the train back to Torino today. It is May 1st, worker's day. In the US we have "labor day" in September because the Americans didn't want to associate with a socialist tradition. It was a rainy day and I did not got out until 8 pm. By then the parades and speeches were over but there was a big sound-stage in the main square, a rock band (pretty good) and a couple hundred people, mostly young people. Dinner: grilled crayfish (huge shrimp) on salad of mache and goat cheese (amazing); ravioli with fresh porcini mushroom sauce (too salty).