New Year's Eve in Italy-One Joyful Perspective
Jan 1st, 2004, 05:25 AM
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New Year's Eve in Italy-One Joyful Perspective
Juat spent our first New Year's Eve in our adopted Abruzzo home, Lanciano, a town of 40,000, placed with the sea at the front door and the Miele and Gran Sasso peaks of the Appenines at the back.
The fireworks start popping off right after the noon day canon. Day light fireworks have their own magic. The bells from one or other of the 15 churches ring intermittently all day long as you get ready for the big night. The passagiata (daily walk) on the Corso from 5-7 pm is especially lively with much hugging and cries of greeting even to us, so identifiably newcomers to this community that does not have a lot of tourism, despite its antiquity and beauty.
Then dinner... the restaurant, Mastroguerata, is filling as we enter. There are big family groups with small babies, kids and Nonna and Nonno all dressed to the nines, mainly this year in stylish black with white hightlights. At smaller tables, the couples on big dates hold hands. My husband, dughter of twenty-one and I are ushered to the table we selected when we had discussed the event with Gianni Vinciguerra, the owner and devotee of authenitc Abruzzessi cooking, a few days ago. He is excited, a little nervous as this is their first BIG 8 course dinner for such a momentous night. His charming wife, Anna is in the kitchen keeping the pacing just so.
The place is packed by 9 pm and we start...
Proseco and salumi,local cheeses,peppery new deep green olive oil from Gianni's own trees...
Vino novello and hot onion tart, macedonian veggies in crepe shells, polpetti ragu, all hot and fragrant and in small, manageable proportions.
The pastas were amazing and accompanied by a very good Montelpulciano d'Abruzzo (they can disappoint...). The linguini was garlicky, buttery with earthy white and black truffles... the gnocchi was flavoured with gorgonzola and chestnuts...not my husband's favourite so my daughter cleaned up his plate with some very good crusty, olive-oil and cornflour bread.
The meat dish was wild boar...just superb, gamey enough to be unmistakably authentic but not overpowering the polenta and green beans that accompanied it. The wine was the incredible Nico Illuminati which should be exported, but, I gather isn't.
Then came various disgutifs, a very good pear wine and finally a rich gingery sort of grappa variation to go with the sweets and frutta and nuts.
A few minutes before the hour, Gianni's wife came out of the kitchen, to oversee the service of the traditional lentils and pigs hock with Sicilian amber vin santo.
Anna turned on the TV so that we could all count down (this is a formal restaurant, but the only ones in this are without TV's in the dining room are those only for tourists-the Italinas love TV.)
By then she and Gianni who are only in their early 30's and very proud of their food adventures (as well they should be) were relaxed and flushed with triumph. They led the kissing and hugging that included us fulsomely, despite our tentative language skills.
Yes, we missed being with friends and extended family back home, but could not have been made more welcome. We entered back into the first day of the new year about 1:15. The moonlit sky we had left behind had truned to a night of pouring rain (well, we are 5 minutes from the sea...). We walked back to our apartment on the wall through streets of wellwishers and shouted Tanti Auguri with the rest of them. This is our home to share for one year and we are making the most of it.
And Tanti Auguri to all of you!!!
The fireworks start popping off right after the noon day canon. Day light fireworks have their own magic. The bells from one or other of the 15 churches ring intermittently all day long as you get ready for the big night. The passagiata (daily walk) on the Corso from 5-7 pm is especially lively with much hugging and cries of greeting even to us, so identifiably newcomers to this community that does not have a lot of tourism, despite its antiquity and beauty.
Then dinner... the restaurant, Mastroguerata, is filling as we enter. There are big family groups with small babies, kids and Nonna and Nonno all dressed to the nines, mainly this year in stylish black with white hightlights. At smaller tables, the couples on big dates hold hands. My husband, dughter of twenty-one and I are ushered to the table we selected when we had discussed the event with Gianni Vinciguerra, the owner and devotee of authenitc Abruzzessi cooking, a few days ago. He is excited, a little nervous as this is their first BIG 8 course dinner for such a momentous night. His charming wife, Anna is in the kitchen keeping the pacing just so.
The place is packed by 9 pm and we start...
Proseco and salumi,local cheeses,peppery new deep green olive oil from Gianni's own trees...
Vino novello and hot onion tart, macedonian veggies in crepe shells, polpetti ragu, all hot and fragrant and in small, manageable proportions.
The pastas were amazing and accompanied by a very good Montelpulciano d'Abruzzo (they can disappoint...). The linguini was garlicky, buttery with earthy white and black truffles... the gnocchi was flavoured with gorgonzola and chestnuts...not my husband's favourite so my daughter cleaned up his plate with some very good crusty, olive-oil and cornflour bread.
The meat dish was wild boar...just superb, gamey enough to be unmistakably authentic but not overpowering the polenta and green beans that accompanied it. The wine was the incredible Nico Illuminati which should be exported, but, I gather isn't.
Then came various disgutifs, a very good pear wine and finally a rich gingery sort of grappa variation to go with the sweets and frutta and nuts.
A few minutes before the hour, Gianni's wife came out of the kitchen, to oversee the service of the traditional lentils and pigs hock with Sicilian amber vin santo.
Anna turned on the TV so that we could all count down (this is a formal restaurant, but the only ones in this are without TV's in the dining room are those only for tourists-the Italinas love TV.)
By then she and Gianni who are only in their early 30's and very proud of their food adventures (as well they should be) were relaxed and flushed with triumph. They led the kissing and hugging that included us fulsomely, despite our tentative language skills.
Yes, we missed being with friends and extended family back home, but could not have been made more welcome. We entered back into the first day of the new year about 1:15. The moonlit sky we had left behind had truned to a night of pouring rain (well, we are 5 minutes from the sea...). We walked back to our apartment on the wall through streets of wellwishers and shouted Tanti Auguri with the rest of them. This is our home to share for one year and we are making the most of it.
And Tanti Auguri to all of you!!!
Jan 1st, 2004, 06:54 AM
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Hi LJ,
What a wonderful New Years Eve! I'm salivating over your dinner...thanks for describing it in such perfect detail. May the remainder of 2004 be as wonderful as the beginning. You certainly know how to live the phrase "begin as you mean to continue."
Happy New Year,
adrienne
What a wonderful New Years Eve! I'm salivating over your dinner...thanks for describing it in such perfect detail. May the remainder of 2004 be as wonderful as the beginning. You certainly know how to live the phrase "begin as you mean to continue."
Happy New Year,
adrienne
Jan 2nd, 2004, 06:04 AM
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To me , being anywhere in Italy on any day would be marvelous.
But, thank you so much for posting this!
I can imagine walking the street, the smells, the sounds .
Lucky you!
And if I am reading correctly, you are there for a year?!
Luckiest you !
Thanks again.
But, thank you so much for posting this!
I can imagine walking the street, the smells, the sounds .
Lucky you!
And if I am reading correctly, you are there for a year?!
Luckiest you !
Thanks again.
Feb 27th, 2009, 10:41 AM
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Well, it was really a surprise to me to see this thread renewed as a Trip Report...I think back 5 years ago when I wrote it, such things were not formalized (and I didn't know how to use 'spellcheck'!). But re-reading brought it all back home. Much has changed: we have celebrated New Years in 4 different homes since then (demands of the job!).
DH and I are back in Canada now, that 21-year-old has met a fine man and they will be married at our summer home in Lunenburg, NS this summer. And thanks to wonderful Fodor connections the young couple will celebrate their wedding with a trip to a villa high in the French Pyrenees! The tables of their wedding feast will also be blessed with Sulmona almonds (confetti)from trees harvested not 15 miles from the town of Lanciano: they spent a memorable week there in the early days of their courtship.
That New Year's Eve remains the standard for our family and we would all like to return there for NYE someday.
DH and I are back in Canada now, that 21-year-old has met a fine man and they will be married at our summer home in Lunenburg, NS this summer. And thanks to wonderful Fodor connections the young couple will celebrate their wedding with a trip to a villa high in the French Pyrenees! The tables of their wedding feast will also be blessed with Sulmona almonds (confetti)from trees harvested not 15 miles from the town of Lanciano: they spent a memorable week there in the early days of their courtship.
That New Year's Eve remains the standard for our family and we would all like to return there for NYE someday.
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