Posts in November 2008

A Walk in the Mountains

Posted by Serena
Nov
19
2008

Anyone who has done a bit of walking in Italy will, sooner or later, notice the little red and white stripes seemingly mysteriously painted on trees, rocks, telegraph poles, old buildings etc. These segnali (signs) mark the routes of sentieri (footpaths) most of which have been created by CAI the Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Alpine Club).

Going for a camminata (ramble or hike) in Italy can be a pretty hit and miss experience due to a: a lack of accurate and up to date maps, and b: idiosyncratic marking of trails. I don’t know who it is that paints those little red and white signs but they probably know the route pretty well and fail to understand how a misplaced sign could confuse someone unfamiliar with the area. For example, a common scenario is that we’ll be exploring a new sentiero and, happily, the red and white signs seem to be in profusion, in fact perhaps too profuse, I mean do we really need one on every third tree when there are no other trails in sight! But hang on a minute what’s this, a junction. In front of us the trail forks in two directions, in the middle of the fork is a tree and beautifully hand painted on that tree a red and white sign, but no hint of which fork to take, no arrow, and as our map is basically a reprint of a military map from the late 19th century (the ‘latest’ version available) guess what, no detail there either.

Fortunately the majority of sentieri maintained by CAI are not like this and the volunteer workers of the Italian Alpine Club do a great job in helping walking enthusiasts to enjoy Italy’s amazing, rugged landscape.

The Club Alpino Italiano was formed in August 1863, just three years after the unification of Italy, by Quintino Sella, scientist, politician, economist, and statesman.

Sella was a passionate Alpinista (mountaineer) who wanted to raise cultural awareness of the Italian Alps. The idea to form CAI was born during the first Italian expedition to scale the summit of the 3,841m Monviso in the Piemonte region, of which he was the leader.

These days CAI has grown into a huge organisation with around 500 local branches which between them maintain around 60,000 km of footpaths and 700 mountain refuges or bivouacs which are available to all those who enjoy “l’andar-per-monti” (mountain walking). The main objective of CAI remains that of promoting: “mountaineering, the knowledge and study of mountains, specifically those in Italy, and the protection of the environment”. They also aim to create a “cultura della sicurezza” (lit. Culture of safety) and to this end they have founded mountaineering, alpine skiing, and rock climbing schools. If you would like to know a bit more about CAI and its activities check out this link: Club Alpino Italiano .

 

Buona passeggiata!

 
Posted under Culture, Travel
Tagged with , , , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

L’alfabeto telefonico

Posted by Serena
Nov
15
2008

It’s always tricky trying to spell a word over the telephone because several letters are difficult to distinguish from each other, e.g. p and b, m and n, etc. Of course you can use the international alphabet system: alpha, bravo, charlie … but I personally can never remember it. In Italy we use a system that is based on the names of Italian towns. Here it goes:

 

A = Ancona         

B = Bologna

C = Como

D = Domodossola

E = Empoli

F = Firenze

G = Genova

H = hotel

I = Imola

L = Livorno

M= Milano

N = Napoli

O = Orvieto

P = Pisa

Q = quadro

R = Roma

S = Siena

T = Torino

U = Udine

V = Venezia

Z = zeta (or Zara)

 

As you can see there are no Italian towns starting with “h” (this letter is called “acca”), or “q” (“quadro” isn’t the name of a town, it means “picture”). Another peculiarity of the Italian alphabet is that officially we don’t use the letters j, k, w, x, y, but we have a name for each of them:

J = i lunga; k = kappa; w = v doppio; x = ics; y = ipsilon.

 

So, if I’m booking a hotel over the telephone and they ask me “come si scrive il suo nome?” (Lit. how do you write your name?), I would say: S come (= as in) Siena, E come Empoli, R come Roma, E come Empoli, N come Napoli, A come Ancona.

 

N.B. This list of towns is not totally strict and there are some variations such as S = Savona or Salerno, and O = Otranto, but they are all fairly famous Italian towns with the exception of Domodossola. All Italians know this name because of the telephone alphabet, but very few of us know where it is! It’s a small town in the North of Italy on the border with Switzerland.

 

Buona fortuna!

 

 
Posted under Grammar 2 Comments | Post a Comment

A Hat Full of Cherries

Posted by Serena
Nov
12
2008

I’ve just finished reading Un cappello pieno di ciliege (A Hat Full of Cherries), the last book by Oriana Fallaci posthumously published on the 31st July 2008, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006) was a famous journalist, war-reporter and writer. She had always been interested in her family history, an interest nurtured by the memory of a chest containing family memorabilia, which included a lute, a paper model of a sailboat, a pillowcase covered in handwriting, and a homemade Italian flag. When a few years ago Fallaci was diagnosed with cancer, she felt compelled to investigate her genetic heritage, to discover why she was the person she was, and which distant members of her family she felt more related to. Whilst the family history is thoroughly researched and documented, the book is clearly a work of fiction and not a biography as such. In fact while researching through archives and parish registers, Oriana felt that she could imagine the lives of some her ancestors very clearly, and that she had to give voice to them by developing them into autonomous characters. This voluminous novel (864 pages) is in fact divided into four separate books, each one portraying one couple of progenitors chosen from one of her four grandparents families.

The “hat full of cherries” refers to the hat that Caterina Zani, Oriana’s arcavola (distant ancestor) in the first book, wears on the day she is meant to meet her future husband. The hat was decorated with real cherries, and at the end of the morning Caterina takes the hat off and starts eating them!

The aim of the whole book is to explain Oriana’s existence; therefore the writer’s own voice can be heard all the way through. The story is interspersed with comments such as “when I lived Caterina’s life” or “I don’t like the idea that his genes are present in my genes, but I have to accept it!” which give the idea that her ancestors lives are part of her genetic heritage, and the writer had already lived many lives through her progenitors. However the most remarkable thing for Oriana Fallaci throughout the book is the fact that so many times over the centuries, because of the hazardous nature of chance events, she “had run the risk of not been born!”

Another peculiarity of the novel is the fact that the writer speaks directly to the reader with remarks such as “do you remember?” as if he or she were present at the event.

I don’t really want to say too much about the book, as I would only spoil it. I simply want to say: thank you Oriana for your last beautiful present!

 

Grazie Oriana!

 

 

 
Posted under Culture
Tagged with 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

The Olive Harvest

Posted by Serena
Nov
11
2008

November to December is the period in which the Raccolta delle Olive (Olive Harvest) generally takes place here in Toscana (Tuscany) and last weekend we were busy helping our friends who have several hectares of Olives near Pistoia to collect their harvest.

At this time of year the ground under the olive trees has to be kept clear, and any vegetation is cut with a trimmer or more traditionally a falce (scythe). This enabled us to spread the large nets underneath the trees which makes it much easier to pick up all the olives.

There are four main ways of harvesting olives:

 

1. Brucatura

This is the traditional method in which the olives are harvested by hand and it is undoubtedly the best in terms of the quality of oil produced because neither the olives nor the ramoscelli (twigs) are damaged. The downside is that it’s very labor intensive and time consuming. We usually use a kind of small rake to comb along the stems thereby pulling the olives off so that they fall into the nets spread out below.

 

2. Bacchiatura

This involves beating the branches of the tree with a bastone (stick) or canna (cane) to make all the mature olives fall off. This method is often used if the tree is too big to make collection by hand practical.

 

3. Scuotitura

Scuotere in Italian means to shake, but the shaking in this case is done by machines, which are attached to the trunk causing the tree to vibrate and the olives to fall. This method would only really be used by big commercial growers due to the cost of the machinery involved, but in the long term it’s far more cost effective than hiring a labor force to pick by hand.

 

4. Cascola naturale

This is probably the least labor-intensive method. The olives are literally left to fall off the tree in their own good time into the nets set out in advance. The quality of the oil produced in this way is, however, pretty poor.

 

The method that we used was a mixture of Brucatura, hand collection with rastrellini (little rakes) and mechanical Bacchiatura. Instead of using sticks to beat the trees we used an Oliviero (a mechanical olive beater). This consists of a metal pole with a rotating head powered by electricity (provided by car batteries!). The rotating head has four plastic prongs, which beat the twigs and knock the olives into the nets and, well just about everywhere else! In fact you have to wear goggles and a hat because olives are pretty hard, especially when flying down from a height of four meters or so, ouch!

The raccolta delle olive on a small scale is more of a Festa (celebration) than work, a bit like the Vendemmia (grape harvest), and it was of course obligatory to stop for pranzo a mezzogiorno (lunch at midday) and to eat a few hunks of Tuscan bread, Pecorino cheese, salad and potatoes liberally sprinkled with this years best?….. Yes you’ve guessed it, Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva.

 

Buon appetito.

 

 

 
Posted under Culture, Food
Tagged with , , 		4 Comments | Post a Comment

Il Cinghiale in Italia (The Wild Boar in Italy)

Posted by Serena
Nov
7
2008

It’s wild boar hunting season here, and that means that twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, we have to be very careful where we go for our camminate (walks) as it’s not just the cinghiali (boars) that might get shot, those hunters use some pretty serious hardware to bring down their quarry. Luckily as we live next door to one of the hunters he can usually tell us where they will be doing their battuta (beat) so that we have less chance of being shot!

The contadini (farmer/peasants) have always seen the chinghiale as destructive, and in fact with their large tusks set on a powerful head, and weighing in at between 100 – 200 kg  (220 – 440 lbs) the wild boar can do a lot of damage to crops, vineyards, stone walls etc. as they root around for nutrition. But it has been the reduction of their habitat together with the virtual extinction of their natural predators that has pushed the cinghiali out into agricultural areas.

In fact within their natural habitat, i boschi (the woods), cinghiali have a beneficent effect. Their large tusks are used not just in self-defense but also to excavate for the roots, insects, and even small animals that make up their diet, and it’s pretty awe inspiring to see an area that has been ploughed up by these creatures, almost like someone has been at it with an industrial digger! This rooting around helps to bury seeds and destroy harmful insects thereby nurturing the woodland.

The cinghiale has a thick bristly hide with few blood vessels. This helps to protect it from injury and infection in the Macchia Mediterranea (the typical scrubby Mediterranean vegetation) and from the bite of animals such as the viper. The males in particular have a thick layer of protective fat, especially in the mating season when they frequently fight with their rivals, (men huh!). The female excavates a tana (den) and camouflages it with bushes and other vegetation, rearing her young in February and March. She usually gives birth (in Italian we say dare alla luce lit. give to the light) to between two and four cinghialini (little boars), but in a good year she can have up to eight, what a handful!

The usual social structure of the cinghiale consists of branchi (packs) of females: the mother and her new babies plus those born in the previous year. The young males leave these packs after two years and live a solitary life or join up with other small groups of males (sort of a men’s club) until the mating season.

Cinghiali are common throughout Italy, from the Valle d’Aosta in the north to Calabria in the south, and the islands of Sicilia and Sardegna. We often see their impronte (hoof prints) and excavations when we are out walking or searching for funghi in the woods but, as they are quite shy and well camouflaged, we very rarely see the animals themselves. We did have one however in our garden a couple of weeks ago, Gigetta is a young female cinghiale who has been adopted by Pietro, one of the local hunters. He told me that he found her abandoned and nearly dead down by the river, he took her home and one of his dogs suckled her, now she has become a pet. I gave her a stroke on her bristly back and she stretched out on the ground with her legs extended in front and behind just like a puppy! Did she know that her savior and benefactor was a dedicated cacciatore (hunter)? “She looks healthy” I remarked to Pietro. “Sì, lei mi sopravviverà” (“Yes, she’ll outlive me) he replied.

 

Gigetta la cinghialetta

Gigetta la cinghialetta nel nostro giardino (Gigetta in our garden)

 
Posted under Italian Language 0 Comments | Post a Comment