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What Makes You Think of Italy?
Oh yeah, sexy woman, fast cars, fancy shoes? No, no, we all know it is much more than all that. It is the .......
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Hot guys. ;-) The art. The food.
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The wine!! ((b))
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Porcini mushrooms.
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Amore!
((L)) |
Caffe corretto with grappa! Limoncello! Good olive oil, pasta, pizza and the likes. :)
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Approaching by boat on a cool fall morning and having the sun slowly burn away the mist to reveal the grand city of Venice.
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The rosemary bushes, the hunks of cheese, the gelato, shutters on the villas, the slices of pizza!!
Can't wait :) And can I say the wine even though Budman said it already???? Vino |
Gelato!
((L)) |
Pepperoncino dark chocolate. Pecorino cheese. Roasted peppers. Short Grammas in black. Old men smoking pipes. Dark green Cypress trees.Ancient crumbling walls. Rich red rooftops. Il dolce niente.
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pickpockets
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Oh wow - my list is endless :)
panforte sfogliatelle gorgonzola al mascarpone fettuccini al salmone pesto brunello di montalcino bellini panettone ... Steve |
Bees buzzing in the grape vines along a path on Capri.
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Getting bundled up and walking around a sleeping city in early morning or late evening.
Listening to the church bells echo off ancient walls |
For me:
1)The scent of jasmine and lemons in the air. 2)Torrone! |
October 11th makes me thing of Italy...that's when we leave Tampa for Rome & Tuscany!!!
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The Sistine Chapel in Rome
The town of Bellagio on Lake Como "The Last Supper" in Milan The frescoes In the Church of San Francesco in Arrezo The Giotto frescoes in Padua The Palladian villas on the Bretna Canal The Uffizi in Florence The view of Florence from Fiesole The crypt of Saint Francis in Assisi Piazza San Marco in Venice Florians in Venice Capri and the Amalfi Coast Portofino Granitas at Rosati in Rome and yes the food! |
When my "Italian" daughter makes us gnochi for dinner...and when she starts "going off" in Italian sometimes...and opera and Andreas Bocelli...and the smell of fresh oregeno and really good tomatoes...
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Church bells
Beautiful piazzas The history The various centuries of architect The Italian people The love of life The food The wine The customs The fact that some of my friends live in buildings that were built before Columbus arrived in what is now known as America The love of their land The Italians sense of style and design Did I mention the food and wine?? Yes degas I did but it is worth mentioning twice The variety in this long narrow country including the microclimates. The mountains, the plains, the rivers, the seasides, the cities, the small towns, the villages, the islands The slow way of life and at the same time the fast pace especially when drinking an espresso at the bar, driving a car, talking If you are a friend you are a friend and if you are an enemy you are an enemy Italy..I love it!!! |
A novel called "The Food of Love" by Anthony Capella. It's about an American art student in Trastevere, her love of food, Roman guys, etc etc. Great fun and a perfect light read if you've been or are going to Italy.
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A restaurant near my home where the owner and his friends watch Soccer games on the Italian channel on tv ,during the day ,while we have lunch :)
Then he kisses both my cheeks when we leave ~ |
dreaming
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my countdown to our may 8 trip!!
I can't wait, and I think I am making hubby nuts in the process! |
Talking with one's hands.
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The Uffizi and Michelangelo's David in Florence
Gelato Capri, the Blue Grotto, and lemons The beautiful Tuscan countryside The graciousness of the people we came in contact with |
The amazing lemon trees and seafood in 5 terra. Also, looking at the sea glass I collected from the beach in Monterosso.
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Late afternoon sun, golden and slanting across the trees. There's no light like the Tuscan Sun.
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me: the calendar--only 113 days and a wake-up before we get to go!!!!
hubby: my wife-will not let me forget the above, with a daily update ((o)) |
That special shade of goldy-yellow of so many of their buildings. I've tried to recapture it in my living room but something about the light in the Midwest just doesn't cut it.
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the language
olive trees olives olive oil scent of orange and lemon blossoms basil wild fennel donkeys combination of mountains (not really high ones) and sea unpaved switchback roads leading to hilltop towns Greek ruins various folkways, traditional celebrations, folk proverbs old ladies in black granita Eastertime foods things made with almond paste--cookies, marzipan, almond milk drinks political history of independent city-states in central/north-central Italy Dante Machiavelli Medici and other ruling families in other Italian city-states some specific Florentine sculptures burned into my brain, especially some by Donatello Michelangelo all aspects of Da Vinci--drawings, paintings, inventions, writings, etc. late medieval and Renaissance and Baroque painting medieval architecture and streets Renaissance architecture all sorts of crafts--leatherwork, jewelry, ceramics, glass, "Florentine" paper, Sicilian marzipan figures, lace, furniture, etc. many many writers from medieval to modern opera--ones by Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni, etc. old Sicilian folk songs popular Neapolitan songs home-made after-dinner liqueurs wine routinely had with meals from an early age, along with traditional attitudes (in south and Sicily) that drunkenness is shameful and weird towers (this image is partly from real-life, from travels, but also from the pictures of towers that I loved on those little boxes of torrone that we'd have after holiday dinners when I was a child) marble political posters puppets--those armed traditional from Sicilian popular theater and also the Pinocchio puppets from Tuscany little groups of retired men chatting in public places in small southern towns women sitting outside their front door crocheting, also in small southern towns There are really too many things that make me think of Italy or, too many things that Italy makes me think of. However, they seem to be split regionally. Most of my strongest impressions of Italy are either of central Italy and the things associated with the city states and early Italian literature and the most famous late medieval and Renaissance art, or they are things associated with southern Italy and Sicily. While I love Venice, in some ways my impressions of it are separate from my gut impressions of the rest of Italy. |
Gorgeous, charming men
Warm, wonderful people Food to die for Biscotti dipped in sweet wine grappa wine Birth of Venus Gorgeous, charming men :) |
Leather bags, stylish shoes, beautiful scenery, Michaelangelo, Piazza della Signoria, Renaissance Art, Canals, Lemon and Orange trees in clay pots, Pinocchio, Gelato, Marble statues, Endless bottles of Limoncello, olive trees, church bells, lost luggages, yachts, crowded trains (aka: refuge line), Chianti, sunflowers, warm summer breezes, ancient towers, climbing to the tops of Duomos, midnight runs for milkshakes from McDonalds with my mom :)
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Whenever the air feels especially clear and beautiful in Maine (where I live) I recall standing on a terrace at the Villa Cimbrone in Ravello, overlooking the Bay of Salerno, and an unearthly feeling of peace washes over me...
Conversely, whenever we're in traffic and smell diesel exhaust, my 11 year old son says "Mom, it smells just like Rome!" LOL |
Parasol pines and cedars on distant hilltops...
the smell of caffe (espresso)on a cold, crisp day... not giving a second's thought to the cars and scooters whizzing by as I walk across busy piazzas... conductors who say that maybe the train will be on time...maybe not... deciding whether to have a large-portioned and rich antipasto and skip the secondi...or vice versa. |
you mean what in my out of Italy experience reminds me of Italy? The sound of vespas and the sound of a bike horn. The smell of diesel. The taste of a good bottle of wine. The feeling of cold fresh air with a scent of the sea on my face.
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good looking men, shoes, handbags, stylish cars.. style in general!
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Since my first trip to Italy was to the Amalfi Coast, it's the smell of lemons that does it for me every time!
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- Tuscan bread dipped in olive oil
- Limoncello - drinking red wine on a balcony - long, animated dinners that end with vinsanto and grappa - a small bottle of lotion I had with me when I lived in Florence & still have; every time I open it and sniff, I'm taken back to my apartment on Via Venti Setembre! - gelato, gelato, gelato - although I have yet to find any good gelato in central PA |
Ice Cream - everytime I eat ice cream I wish it was the kind in Rome by the Trivi Fountain !!
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- Olympic games (Torino)
- a stare that would kill if it could (the way Barbara Fusar-Poli looked at Maricio Margalio after a fall during the figure skating dance) |
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