Porto Antico at Poggio Mierteto Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 24" 40 x 60cm \
Meyer Lemons Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 12" 30 x 30cm
Tiber at Poggio Mirteto Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvaspanel 14 x 20" 35 x 50cm
Wedding Blair Pessemier (commission) 10 x 14" 25 x 35cm
Young Turk Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/newspaper 23 x 17″ 63 x 41cm
Preparing Wednesday’s lunch (pasta with radicchio, walnuts
and oranges), I heard the most unusual sound outside of our window. It was the shepherd, playing his “pipes”. He was all bundled up, as shepherds often
are, ready to recline in the field with his flock, his floppy black felt hat
sporting a red ribbon. He was playing
house to house; “aspetta! (wait)” I told him, as Blair found a euro to drop in
his basket. If we don’t support this
sort of thing, it will disappear altogether.
We try to buy from our (sometimes
overpriced) local merchants, as well, because if we don’t spend a euro more on
those vegetables, we may have to drive five miles in the future to support a
big store. My family always had that
philosophy, and we used to buy from the local markets in Winsted, which one-by-one
went out of business anyway, but hopefully later than originally thought,
because we supported them.
Our lemons have ripened, 10
altogether. They are that brilliant
meyer lemon yellow, and are fabulously delicious. I used one with a spicy pork and rice
dish: yum. I am cooking all the time here – frankly, one
can only eat so much Italian food and it is what most of the restaurants
offer. Exotic restaurants of the Chinese
and Indians, French and Russians are the realm of the Anglo-Saxons, in England
or the USA. There are a few in our big
cities – we hope to eat Indian in Rome on Thursday, but I am not holding my
breath.
Thursday this week we went to Rome
for a meeting of the American Business Group at the Savoy hotel. It’s a fun thing, with Americans and other
English speakers, and the food can be just ok, but they have a great guest
speaker every time. This week we had a
Turkey Dinner! An early Thanksgiving for
all of us, and our only Thanksgiving with others this year. It was a real turkey, on the bone. There was
no stuffing however, and the gravy contained what the Italians think of as
cranberries; in fact, they are “red blueberries” and to my palate, it had a
serious blueberry flavor. It was still
all delicious, and I drank lots of wine and chatted with many.
The speaker, Riccardo Bruscagli, was truly great. He talked about Dante. But before you think, “oh, how long-hair”, in
fact, he brought Dante Alighieri down to an everyday, useful level. He believed Dante could be a way of
life: from dismay, to self-examination,
to redemption and happiness. His
delivery on this topic was so passionate, I came home and took Dante’s Divine
Comedy down from the shelf and am reading it (translated into English, of
course). And he’s not the only one who
believes in Dante. Riccardo is currently collaborating with historical film
maker Ric Burns on a documentary regarding Dante and the Divine comedy for a US
television network.
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and
raise a spoon of stuffing to us.
Salute!!!
