The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part Three

For all the letdowns of the day, I have many great memories too. Strange how it works.

On our way to the car we discovered an amazing display of gelato. I had previously had many a cone or dish is Italy, but nowhere was the variety as great, nor the display as attractive as here.

Deeelicious!! Italian gelato contains less butterfat than North American ice cream, so eat it with abandon!!

Liana and Rory counting their pennies. These were by far the least expensive gelatos we encountered. Only 80 Eurocents ($1.30) for a scoop. Price elsewhere was 1.5 Euros.

This cone is one I had in Lucca. It was my first one in Italy. Huge gobs of chocolate that surround something a little crispy.

The other desserts at the gelato shop looked pretty good too!

If you read the previous post, you may remember that I mentioned that we had unknowingly parked the car in less than an ideal spot, right outside the local police station. When we went to the car, another car had pulled in behind us and we were completely trapped. And it had started to rain.

Gary got us out of that situation, by going in and chatting with someone. We guessed that the person behind us was unhappy that we had taken their parking spot and had trapped us there to teach us a lesson. Luckily he was in the station and was able to let us out and seemed to be somewhat amused by our lack of understanding. Whew. We didn't need another letdown.

Taking the longer but much faster and easier route back, we passed by the Ponte della Maddalena, which is nearly a thousand years old!

Typical houses in the area.

The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part Two

Despite the nerve-wracking drive, we made it safely to Castelnuovo. After Gary unknowingly parked in the staff parking of the local constabulary, we ventured out to visit the market. The time was 1pm. Anyone who has been to Italy no doubt knows that everything shuts down at 1 (sometimes earlier) until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The market was no exception, except that it was done for the day. What a letdown!!!!

So this is what my comments from the last post, about the mistakes made earlier in the morning, apply to. If we had left earlier, and if we had taken the route I originally expected to take, we would have arrived in time to see the market.

I felt so bad for Kent, because this was his "day". For our reunion we were pretending that everyone had a birthday and got to choose the activity for the day, and the foods (all prepared in our kitchen) for the evening meal. Kent is a real lover of food and cooking, so his day was falling apart.

But I had my book ("A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany") along. I quote from it: "You will find the perfect choice of local products at this small inauspicious bar/osteria at the entrance to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. Owner Andrea Bertucci is called the Indiana Jones of the Garfagnana....for his excavating of food traditions and local produce...The place is packed with jars, bottles and dry goods....

...The major attraction is a huge mortadella sausage, looking like a ballistic missile and weighing more than 400 llbs upon arrival, lying on its own fitted table next to the hams and sausages in the corner of the tavern. Slice by slice it lasts about 3 months. Directly next to it sits a large prosciutto Bazzone...its juices almost dripping.

...On the board you find lardo di Garf, a thin slice of seasoned pork fat, a cured carpaccio called manzo di pazzo ("beef for the crazy"), various sausage samplings and some wonderful cheeses of the Garfagnana, all accompanied by thick slabs of farro/potato bread."

Okay, if we had to miss the market, we HAD to find Andrea's store. We arrived at the door to Andrea's, only to find it had a sign hanging in the window, saying that it was closed until Oct 11. Major letdown #2. 
 
Hunger was overtaking us, so we found a restaurant. When we asked for tap water, a man at another table called out to tell us that the tap water was very good here (we drank only tap water on our trip, with absolutely no ill effects). Then when this same man and his friends got up to leave, he told us "Please do not think that all Italians are like Berlusconi or are Communists." Then he left. We guessed that he might have been the mayor of the town. Berlusconi is the president of Italy and his going to the birthday party of an 18 yr old model, etc, makes for some entertaining, if not depressing, reading.

I pulled out my book again and was thrilled to read that there was another food shop named. We found this one to be open. Hooray!!

The store was jam packed with food!!

What a feast for the eyes this place was. The name of this food shop is L'Aia di Piero.

Liana loved this long multi-coloured ribbon pasta. Kent was busy buying up things to take back to Baku.

The Day We Went to Castelnuovo - Part One

Thursday is market day in Castelnuovo and people come from all over the Garfagnana with their produce. A cookbook I have on food in Tuscany said such wonderful things about the market and a couple of shops there, that we just had to go.

Claudi had told me that we didn't need to first drive south to Lucca because there was a more direct route, which she pointed out to me on a map. So we set out around 10am. That was our first mistake, but it could actually be called our second, as it would probably have been better if I had not received that "short-cut" tip.

The route involved a definite uphill climb. Italy is mountainous. Despite being from the mountains of British Columbia, we found the narrow road, the hairpin corners and the drop-off on one side to make for a very memorable drive. Up we climbed, passing mountainside villages that we thought we would not even get near. We also passed a sign that seemed to indicate road construction, but since none of us can read much Italian, we blissfully continued. However, way way up the mountain, the road was closed. A worker indicated we should go via Massa, which involved going right back down to sea level and then up again.

So down we went, passing numerous marble factories. A quick glance at a map showed that we were only about 5 km from Carrara, home of the famous marble of the same name. It was obvious that marble is a large part of the economy of that area.

Then we started to climb again. Another narrow, winding, steep road. At one point we stopped for a stretch. Across a precipice I noted a mountain top was being torn apart, with huge white areas being revealed. This was obviously a marble quarry. Note that I said that it was a mountain top. I assumed we would not be going up there, as in BC roads don't go to the tops of mountain, they go over passes. However Italy doesn't seem to do it the same way. We actually went right by that quarry. We must have climbed from sea level to at least 4000' in about 45 minutes or less.

At our resting spot I heard a big truck coming. I thought it might be a truck carrying marble, so I got myself and my camera ready. It worked! Luckily it moved slowly (if I were driving a big truck down that hill, I would drive slowly too!).

The truck had just passed these signs. Can't imagine how dangerous it would be to drive that truck in the winter!! Nor to meet one of those trucks on the road in the winter.

I see that I don't have any pictures of the quarry. If I remember correctly it was starting to drizzle, or maybe it was the unsettling feeling of being on the edge of a sheer drop-off when looking at the quarry. Anyway, no close-up photo. But when one is down at sea level and looks up to the mountains, at first glance you might think  there is a glacier up there, however it is the marble quarries! And there are many. I am quite sure that the picture below is of the quarry we passed by.

Close to Our Tuscan Home

Our rental was in the province of Tuscany, but in the mountainous north of Tuscany, without any of the views that one normally associates with Tuscany.

Some building in the nearby town of Camaiore. See the light coloured dots on the mountainside in the background? That is the tiny cluster of houses that is Buchignano, where our rental was.

It was a steady uphill climb from Camaiore to our little villa. The last 1.7km was on a one lane road with tight corners. In fact the corners were blind, so that cars honked their horns when approaching a corner, to give notice that they were coming. If you met a car, one had to back up and/or pull over. The amazing thing was that this was always accomplished quickly and relatively easily, without anyone getting angry. I seem to associate Italy with impatient drivers but we saw quite the opposite. Perhaps this was due to the relatively quiet area we were in.

A very blind corner! The road was paved only about 10 yrs ago.

This old Citroen was alongside the road.

And this plant with so many interesting colours. I have no idea what it is, nor if the berries are edible. Can anyone tell me?

One of our dinners. With my inability to take a photo where everyone looks at least normal, I feel that I had better not show many of the pictures I took!

Our meals were often eaten in stages, so this table looks rather bare. Only the brie baked in filo shows there. Wait...weren't we in Italy? Why a French cheese baked in filo, which I think of as being Greek or Turkish? Ask Rory, it was his meal and he chose this. Actually, he wanted to have foods that were only available back in Roman times, so no tomatoes, corn, peppers....many of the foods we associate with Italy. But wait, cheese, butter and wheat were in that dish. Maybe it did apply.

Kent has a food blog and is showing pics of the meals at the International Blog of Food.

It was chestnut harvesting time in Italy and the hills around our rental were full of chestnut trees growing wild.

At first I tried to open a green casing (see the green one on the left), thinking that the chestnut must be inside. You can't imagine how unpleasant a task it is to try to deal with one of those prickly things. But after finally getting one open I realized that the green ones were a waste of time. Simply wait for the casing to mature and open and then the chestnuts will fall to the ground. Sheesh, its so simple when you know how....

I bought a small bag of chestnut flour, which was needed for one of the recipies for Kent's meal - biscotti made entirely from the flour. True to biscotti tradition, it was dipped in a liquid but in this case in was dessert wine called Vin Santo. Delicious!

In France I was given a bottle of an aperitif wine made from chestnuts. I am looking forward to trying it, but I am still in recovery mode from all the wine I consumed on my trip.

Olive harvesting time is November-December in this area. The olives must be black, as the one below, but by far the majority of the olives were still green in late September.

To prepare for harvesting netting is first strung between the trees like a rope, which is how it was in most olive orchards we saw. Closer to harvest time it is laid out on the ground as in the picture above. If you enlarge the picture you should be able to see the netting on the ground, though you have to look on the left side of the photo to see the contrast between the grey dirt and the dirt that looks red, but in fact has netting on it.

Once the olives turn black they are ready to harvest. Evidently there are 4 methods of harvesting, which vary from using a machine to shake the trees to simply letting the olives drop to the ground. Check out this website for further info regarding how it is done.

The Area Around Our Rental

Our rental was up the mountainside, above Camaiore, a pleasant small town not far from the coast.  Here we are in the town and I am sure you must wonder why I would include such a boring picture. Well, we were hanging out there to check Gary's ITouch (a mini computer) to find out if Rory had received our message to bus up to us, rather than us going to the Pisa airport to pick him up. At this particular spot we could pick up free WiFi, so we hung out there for 3 days in a row, checking email. I am sure people must have wondered....

Can you see read the name on the road? It says Lance. Any of you the least bit familiar with the world of cycling will no doubt associate that name with Lance Armstrong. This stretch of road was on a long winding hill and Gary knew that a bike race had been held here. The Europeans are crazy about cycling, and showed it by painting names on the road. And of course Gary needed to get a picture of it.

Our contact for the rental lived here, with this phenomenal view all the way to the coast. Can you see the Autostrada below? The Italians have gone all out to build their freeways. I thought our province (BC) did a good job building roads, but we pale in comparison to Italy!! The country is very mountainous and with the mountains often coming right down to the water, they have long stretches of freeway (between Genoa and the French border) that is almost exclusively bridges and tunnels. If you enlarge the picture below you will see that the stretch of the Autostrada is actually a bridge.

Olive groves and villas.

A day a the beach at Viareggio, a tourist mecca. Unfortunately Italy closes down from about noon to 3 or 4 everyday. Getting a group of 5 to anyplace much before noon was a challenge. So we often wandered around empty towns. By the way, just in case you are wondering, Gary has a vest shielding his head from the sun. It was nice and warm there and most of us wished we had shorts to wear.

A row of hotels in Viareggio.

Sound interesting, but it was just a small shop full of vending machines.

Rory sampled an espresso from one of the machines. I seem to have a talent for catching my family at the worst possible moment. Rory actually declared the coffee to not be too bad, though you would certainly not think that from the photo. And as far as I know, Liana does not normally sit like that.

Gary told us about a ride he got in one of these cars (a Fiat) in the early 70's. All the way through Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany. I hope they got out to stretch often!

The Family Reunion - Near Lucca in Tuscany, Italy

The main point of this trip to Europe was to have a family reunion. This was a rare opportunity to get the entire family together. Rory was starting many months of backpacking in Europe and further east; Liana is in London and may not be there much longer; Kent was available to come from Azerbaijan; and Gary was sufficiently recovered from his back operation to sit on an airplane long enough to get to Milan.

I decided I wanted to see Slovenia and accomplish a goal that I have had for many years, and that was to see the Lake Plitvice National Park (check out the blog post to see why). So I went about 10 days earlier than everyone else.

I found my flight by using Orbitz, and was able to fly Spokane-Venice return for $674, by booking in June. I could also have flown into Milan, Verona or Munich for the same price. Flying to Frankfurt, Paris or London was much more expensive.

Our reunion was held at a rental in northern Tuscany. I found the rental on a holiday rental website. By booking during the shoulder season, we were able to find a nice place, that slept 5, for just over $100CDN a night. I specifically looked for a place with a good kitchen as we planned to do a lot of cooking.

Kent requested a wood burning oven, and I was able to search for that on the above website. You can see more pictures of our rental here.

This is a picture of the kitchen, with marble countertops and sink, before the empty wine bottles began to accumulate....

 

These are bags of flour - 1kg only as big ones just weren't available. Note the bags labelled Manitoba.

Some bags are of flour specifically mixed for use in making pizza crust (the Farina Tipo 00), which is mainly soft wheat. It has much less gluten than hard wheat, which is the wheat used for bread. I much prefer the softer crust, and the crust is easier to make thin.

First you make a fire in the oven, well ahead of eating time. It must be reduced to hot coals, which are then pushed to the side, before it is ready for pizza. With plenty of flour on the underside of the pizza crust, you slide it onto a long paddle with an aluminum blade and then slide the pizza onto the base of the hot oven. Place the metal door in place, wait about 5 or so minutes, and take out a magnificent and tasty pizza! Kent had both the technique and the recipe mastered!! Best pizza ever!!

For more info about these oven, visit this amazing website: Forno Bravo. And if you decide to build or buy such an oven I would love to be invited over for pizza!

The white on top is buffalo mozzarella. Yes, its made from the milk of water buffalo. These animals produce a rich milk while eating low grade vegetation.

The cheese is very different from the firm, grateable mozzarella cheese we buy in Canadian stores. It is packed in water. Looks a little weird doesn't it? It melts beautifully. I wished I could have brought some home, but Customs regulations prohibit the import of cheese packed in liquid.

I was tempted to bring ricotta too, as it is far superior to that which we have available here, however I wasn't sure if it would be allowed.

However I was sure that Parmesan cheese would be allowed, so I did pick up quite a few packages of it, at a cost of one third of what we pay here.

Lucca, Italy

I flew with RyanAir from Zadar to Pisa for $38CDN for a one hour flight. Gotta love it! However if I were doing it again I might have opted for the boat across the Adriatic so that I could have stopped at the tiny country of San Marino, which looks like a nice place to spend a day. But the rest of the family would be starting to arrive the day after I got to Lucca, so I could not daly.

Shops selling food in the old part of Lucca had wonderful displays in their windows!

Get pizza, panini or pasta from a machine! This was in a residential area, close to my hostel.

What a shop!!

I visited an art exhibition and the artist was there. His name is Alessandro Casale,
and he is standing beside his favourite painting.

A piece of toilet apparatus that I could not figure out, so I just put it up, as if it were a lid.