A Quick Look At Italy

I feel it is time to direct my blog to interesting places and foods in northern Itally. There are so many things that a tourist never has the chance to see. Let's face it, you fly to Italy and have a week or less, and you find it is impossible to see everything. I have known people who were in Sicily, Naples, Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice in such a short time. Talk about whirlwind tours. 3 would have been enough, 2nd trip for the rest!

Just minutes from where we live are several large farm houses, almost big enough to call them a villa, but not. What makes them interesting to me is that they have these towers built into the structure. I always wonder if the owner wanted to be able to watch his peasant workers better to make sure he was getting good work for what he was paying them. Or maybe it was a competition, like in San Gimignano, where the elite citizens tried to out build the other towers and make them taller. Or..... this was the mother in law quarters? Regardless, I would not want to live up there, think of the stairs!

Verona. Romeo and Juliet, you read it, did you know their families lived here and if you visit Verona you can visit the balcony and do the usual tourist experience. However the big tourist draw in Verona is their colliseum which is smaller than the one if Rome, but still impressive. You can buy a ticket and go inside, or better yet, if you are lucky there might be a concert or an opera at night and you can enjoy a hard marble seat high up. We took in a rock concert there and the acoustics were powerful, but what I remember most was the stairs going up were not the usual height. They were really high and there is no handrail to hang onto. So not only did I lose more of my hearing but those Roman steps gave me a fright!

The next best thing in Verona is that they have a whole row of tourist restaurants with a terrific view of the collisseum. Some vino, and a pasta dish and you are "there". Watch the birds fight for position on top of the statues of Italy's patriots, watch the unsuspecting tourists get button holed by sellers, view people in Roman soldier or gladiator costumes. It all makes for a few hours of entertainment.

The food. The food between regions has some differences. Some areas use butter more, while others use olive oil. Why? Where do olive trees grow best? Some areas prefer a bit of spicy flavor in their sauce, others almost run from any heat of a chili pepper. Inland you find more meat, near the water more fish. Menus in restaurants are never the same, it is not all spaghetti, and certainly never meatballs.

I am lucky and have a wife who does her research before we go for a few days away from home. One trip a bit south we found massive mussels cooked in a spicy sauce. The place was along a big canal 200 yards from the Adriatic Sea. The next day on the way home we stopped along the road and found that they were cooking little meat sticks, which is a specialty of the area. You can see their barbecue specialist flipping over the sticks. Since Italy might keep their borders locked down, this trip to taste more mussels is on our list. We have high hopes on travel, no matter where!

The Little Things. They do make a difference, you can discover so many customs that Italians have kept through the years. I have always been interested in uniforms not only of the soldiers but the bands that make the ceremonials outstanding. This shot I took in Padova. Note the exact way these fellow are holding their hands in back. Those hats, 3 of one type and one of another come from the past.

Every year Italy has a big parade in Rome for the Italian National Day - Festa della Repubblica. The uniforms are spectacular. Here are some shots from this parade taken several years ago.

With the salute from the Red Cross drum major, I will sign off and wish you all a safe week. Ciao.