Italy Envy: What I Miss About Living In Italia

Today marks un anno (one year) since I moved home to Canada from Italy. It’s been a day of reflection for me as the many things I miss about living in Italy have crossed my mind at one point or another.

They are (in no specific order):

1. Speaking Italian all day, every day. (Brings a smile to my face every time.)

1a. Speaking Italian with a Siennese accent all day, every day. (Sounding like a local=even bigger smile.)

2. Flavourful, wholesome Italian food at each meal. (It cut down on my junk food cravings big time.)

Tuscan Pici

3. Living in the most beautiful city – Siena. (I’ll never get tired of looking at the Palazzo Pubblico. Ever.)

Siena

4. Spending time in the piazza. (Need I say more?)

5. Aperitivo at my favourite hangout. (And Sunday lunch there, and dinner there, and midnight snacks there…)

6. Walking (almost) everywhere I go. (Helped me stay in shape after all that pasta and wine.)

7. Learning something new – a word, a custom, an historical tidbit – each day.

Art Gallery

8. The sense of independence, pride and accomplishment I felt at being so at home in my second language and country.

9. My colleagues at my crazy job. (Mi avete salvato la vita!)

10. That “closer to life” feeling I’ve written about before.

Now that the sappy part is over, here are a few things I do not miss about living in Italy:

1. The lack of a clothes dryer. (Sheets and clothing dried in the Tuscan sun? Inviting. Towels dried in the Tuscan sun? Stiff as a board. Also, drying time in colder temperatures? DAYS. Also, risking your life by hanging out your window to get to the clothesline? Not ideal.)

Hanging clothes out to dry.

2. The 110 stairs I had to climb to get to my apartment. (Made me think twice about running back up to get something I’d forgotten. Unfortunately also made people think twice about coming to visit me.)

110 Steps To The Top

3. The general lack of availability of foods that are not Italian. (By the end of my stay in Siena however, an Indian place had opened up right across the street from my apartment. There were only 110 stairs and a cobblestone street separating me from curry!)

4.  The fact that my family and most of my friends-the two most important groups of people in my life-were half a world away. (But it was great when some of them came to visit!)

But in spite of all that… Italia, mi manchi!

Dolcetto o Scherzetto? Halloween, Italian Style

La Maestra Maldestra

 

Halloween (L’halloween, my Italian friends called it, pronounced lahl-oh-ween) is not a very Italian festa (holiday) at all, but that has not stopped gli italiani (the Italians) from jumping on the Jack-o-Lantern bandwagon in the last few years and celebrating in style. The famous phrase, “trick or treat?” has even been translated to “dolcetto o scherzetto?“ in Italian to help the holiday along.

Last year, I spent Halloween in Italy. If you’re a regular reader/follower/subscriber to this blog, you’ll know that during my time living in Siena, I hung out a lot at one particular little osteria and got to be good friends with all the staff there. As Halloween approached, they approached me and asked for ideas for the Festa dell’Halloween (Halloween party) they wanted to throw at the osteria.

I suggested that they order proper orange pumpkins from their fruit and veg supplier (there was nary an orange pumpkin to be found in Siena’s supermercati, just very un-festive yellow ones) and I buzzed around town looking for some goulish decorations to spruce the place up a bit. I helped get the Halloween posters printed so that the fantasma (ghost) came out just right, and spent time trying to get the wording right in both English and Italian for the ads we put up. “Gradita la prezenza in maschera“, for those of you who speak Italian, is how we translated “costumes welcome.“

On Halloween afternoon, the boys closed the place early to set up for the big festa. After they assured me that they could certainly carve two pumpkins (something they’d never done before) without loosing any fingers or blood in the process, I left them alone to put the finishing touches on the party preparations and worried about how the pumpkins would look when I got back. When I swung back by later, I was greeted by these two lovely “Giacomo-Lanterns“ (the Italian version of Jack-o-Lanterns, apparently) which drew crowds to the festa all night:

I like to think they were the only two carved pumpkins in all of Siena last year! The festa was a huge success (went on till 4 a.m., they tell me) and all night people could be seen taking pictures with our unique pumpkins. Please note the Italian touches of vino rosso (red wine) and castagne (chestnuts) alongside our Giacomo Lanterns!

Happy Halloween to all!

Tuscany’s Odd Mascot: Il Cinghiale

When someone says Tuscany (Toscana, for you Italian speakers) what comes to mind?

The rolling hills – check! Or the iconic cipressi (cypress trees) – certo! The world renowned wine (vino) – of course! And the fields of sunflowers – you bet! A squat, 300-pound tusked animal that wreaks havoc on the idyllic countryside? Not quite, eh?

Meet Toscana’s unofficial mascot: il cinghiale. The wild boar. Carino (cute), no? Sure he is. This little cartoon can be found all over Tuscany – on t-shirts, mugs, dishcloths, notebooks, you name it! I even found a sweet little cinghiale in peluche (a stuffed one!) to bring back to Canada with me.

These guys (the real live ones) exist in many parts of  the world, but I’m here to tell you in a weirdly proud sort of way, that the biggest ones are often found running around the Tuscan countryside. What do they do? Well, they eat the grapes that had been earmarked for wine. Dig up peoples’ gardens. Run out into the road and cause traffic accidents. Aren’t really wary of humans. Can potentially harm someone who gets in their way.  And to top it all off, they maybe gobble down an expensive truffle or two in their spare time…

On the up side, they taste delizioso on your plate…

Pici al ragu di cinghiale

If you ever get to Tuscany, be sure to indulge in one of my favourite pasta dishes which features the cinghiale: Pici al ragu di cinghiale. Pici pasta with wild boar sauce. Mmmm, buona! You can also get Pappardelle al cinghiale, but since Pici are Siennese and I’m slightly biased, I’ll tell you to forego the Pappardelle and  hold out for the Pici.

The ever-famous cinghiale also appears in places other than on your souvenir t-shirt or your dinner plate. Meet Pietro Tacca’s bronze cinghiale statue in Florence. The original is stored in the Pitti Palace, but this replica lounges proudly outside the Mercato Nuovo in Firenze. Note the odd coloured nose on this guy; when passing, tourists and locals alike believe that rubbing its bronze nose will bring good luck.  Needing all the good luck I can get, I too, patted the well-worn snout:

Il Cinghiale – Amico mio!

My worldly cinghiale friend also popped up in la Musee du Louvre in Paris. This time, he’s made from marble:

My friend the Cinghiale in the Louvre

So, if you’re ever in Tuscany, don’t be surprised to see cinghiale on the menu, cinghiale on the t-shirts, cinghiale in the countryside and cinghiale statues in the cities. The cinghiale is, for all intents and purposes, Tuscany’s odd little mascot.