What Fills My Plate

  Hello from sunny Italy.  You can go out and feel the warm sun for most of the day here.  Rain predicted later this evening.   There are a lot of Italians out with a stop at their local bar.  (coffee, mostly.)  You see my espresso, which consists of a bit more than 2 large tablespoons of strong coffee. Here is a snapshot of my local coffee bar, you can see it is clean and it is time for most people to begin to leave and continue their day.  10:40.   I remain and write in Italian, working on my vocabulary list. You can also see few jackets, Spring has arrived!   The barista is busy cleaning tables and her working area.  Today she was busy and my request was met with a short comment.  This makes me miss the bar in Due Carrare where I went almost everyday for ten years,  Covid closed it.  I miss seeing my friends there.   It is difficult to make friends in Italy.  People who visit coffee bars ar...

Scroll down below foto  and CLICK ON  READ MORE TO OPEN   And....I'm back.  Greetings to all.  I want to first catch up on life, etc.  The next  blog will be more about life in sunny Italy.     My last posting was made in 2022, covid had destroyed most of my motivation.  It was such a mess, creating shutdowns, lockdowns, and economic turmoil . I still wash my hands much harder and longer than before covid.  I stayed in the house as asthma and old age were factors in surviving.  Tom Seaver, Larry King, Gaylord Perry, Trini Lopez and Charley Pride, all famous people who were victims known by old guys like me. Jumping ahead in time:  We moved to a suburb of Padova, Abano Terme, famous for thermal water used by a great number of hotels here.  We have old Roman ruins of thermal pools.  The Romans were like us, loved to travel and enjoy new things.  They would pack up and leave for over a year to travel....

  Finally , a visit to Italy’s first Starbucks which has opened in Milano.   My wife had a knitting convention in Milano and she came   through with some photos to show my blog readers.   I had written about this Starbucks insertion a few times, and it certainly took some years to finally open for business.   Previously, the originator and American owner of Starbucks had promised never to open a Starbucks in Italy, but as you will see, he changed his mind. The plan was to purchase the old main post office of Milano which is across the plaza from the Duomo (huge cathedral).   The main shopping area for exclusive clothing, etc., is also just steps away, so a great influx of tourists was to be expected to make a visit and leave their euros behind.   You must have heard stories about construction jobs in Italy and how turtle speed is the progress.   This project is a prime example.     The Entrance Brewing Display This is not your normal Sta...

 I belong to a cooking forum on the internet.  The majority of people who write or make comments live in the USA.  I have lived in Italy for 14 years and over this time I have realised the huge differences between the majority of Italians and many Americans.  I won't estimate the latter but I think, maybe a lot of them.   Cooking and devouring what is set before us has become more important than in the past.  Cooking channels, Cooking contests, Youtube recipes, info on where to eat where to go, and even eating challenges like Man Versus Food are popular. Let's start with the Italians.  If you sit in a restaurant here you will see their plates with a small serving of one item.  The menu offers  3 courses, but I usually see Italians ordering only 2 of the offerings.  Their main course will not feature many items on the one dish and also items not touching.  You will never see a plate of pasta, with some cooked vegetable next to i...

Buon Giorno Tutti!  This past weekend we drove south of Venezia to the area where the Po River empties into the Adriatic Sea.  This area attracts us for many reasons, the calm feeling, the old structures, the bird watching areas, and the food offered, mainly fish items and fresh off the boat.  You see above an old brick factory, now abandoned.  There are many of these scattered around as bricks were the main item used to build homes and farms many years ago.  Tower Building surrounded  by pay to fish pond In order to get to an area I wished to paint we had to cross a bridge held up by large metal boats.  In the middle of the bridge a man collects a small fee,  Our car bobbed up and down and a bit side to side when we stopped to pay.  I bet the man who collects goes home feeling the movement long after leaving. Ibis When you drive through the country side you have a chance to see many birds because there are canals and ponds by the sea.  ...

  My blog is called Whats On My Plate.    These past few days, the news of the war in Ukraine show us that lives of millions have been changed forever.   Facts on the war is being   blocked for many to see.   Freedom of speech is an important piece of democracy.   Here are some parts of articles I have read today, Feb. 5. The sanctions on Russia by the US and its allies continues to feature one glaring omission: an embargo on oil and gas, which accounts for nearly half of Russia's export revenue. While an oil and gas embargo would help cripple Russia's financial resources, the nation's "stranglehold" on the Western energy supply may prove too damaging for the US and its allies, says Bill Browder, Russian President Vladimir Putin "kind of has us in a stranglehold, which is why the energy sector has been more or less left untouched," says Browder, the CEO of  Hermitage Capital Management  and a longstanding critic of Putin. "It's going to be ha...