A Couple More Italy Videos!

The first video was taken near the Duomo in Florence and the rest in this post are from Roma! I'll be posting some more videos soon, so check into the blog for updates! These were taken in August during our summer vacation!

More Italy Videos!

The first three of these videos were spent with our neighbors, Roberto and Giovanna. The first one was our last night at our home in Mugello Valley in Tuscany. Their son, Massimo, was with us for dinner as well.

The next 2 videos are at Sette Ponti, a winery near Arezzo, up in the Tuscan hills. We had an incredibile lunch there hosted by the owners sister, Giovanna Moretti.

The last video is at the beach in Forte dei Marmi along the Tuscan coast. We went for a day trip, but it ended badly as Linda got sick and we spent the day in Ospedale. That story was mentioned earler in another post. I had said earleir that Ambulance was Misericordia in Italian, but it's really Ambulanza. Misericordia is mercy in Italian as in putting you out of your misery!

Italy videos the first few days of our trip

There are many sunflower fields growing in the Mugello valley, so this year we finally took some videos of them as they are truly beautiful! Also in this post is the walla of Il Giova, one of our favorite places to eat in Florence. It's a local eatery and the owners, Stefano and Grazia, are wonderful people and incredibile cooks!

Also in this post is a video of Steffy's hair salon in Borgo San Lorenzo. Linda had just got her hair cut and she's talking with Sara, Steffy's niece. We'll be posting more videos, but we're limited to clips of 100MB or less, so some of my better videos will be left out. Ciao for now!

Carrara's post about her recent Italian vacation

It's time to sit in the shade and talk of love.

This is Carrara, and David said I could write a post about my trip to Italy. I love being here with my mom and dad. The countryside is beautiful, and the air is so clean, you can smell the flowers and leaves. The nights are completely quiet, molto tranquillo. No noise, no light, just stars. I enjoy watching the bugs and lizards, though I haven't seen many of the later on this trip. They even taste better than the ones in Los Angeles. So when someone says everything tastes better in Italy, they mean everything.

I was very pleased that my boyfriend came calling. Mario. Say it loud and there's music playing, say it soft and it's almost like praying. He is no longer the scruffy little kitty I remember, but a young man. Handsome and well mannered. I don't know if he's well connected, and the age difference might raise eyebrows in some circles, but we enjoy one another's company. I was flattered that he hadn't come by the house at Christmas when I wasn't here, though my mom and dad anxiously looked for him. He confided that he should have visited, since generous treats of branzino and bistecca are always offered.

I enjoyed hearing Mario's stories from the countryside. He is friends with the local dogs, and jokes with one of them (Tony) that they were separated at birth since they have the same markings. He takes naps in the morning sun, and knows a secure place to doze in the shade on a long summer afternoon. Mario was equally interested by my life inside, and on 2 continents. He said he can't imagine what it's like to sleep on a bed plus a layer or 2 of down comforter, or to have a special blanket that was my mom's when she was a girl. However, he did like the idea of being brushed every day. I smiled to myself since David always tells me about the scruffy kitties in the park, and how they would love being pampered. Being Italian, Mario was not sure about my food. He tried some of my lamb-and-rice pate, and he ate it hungrily. While he said it was acceptable, the taste of a fresh field mouse might outweigh the convenience of foods appearing in a porcelain dish twice a day, and hearing him describe the crunch of the bones and the juicy flesh almost made me want to try. We both agreed that sometimes it was good to throw up for no other reason than because we could.

Since our house is about as far north as Cooperstown, New York, the summer sun sets late, and Mario and I could talk for hours in the gentle light of evening. The hands of the clock turn but don't sing of nocturne just yet. We listened to the cow bells as the mukki moved from the pasture back to the barn, away from any cinghale who might want to include beef as part of their diet. And Mario identified the bird song as they began their serenade, nightengale or lark, and he laughed when I say I recognized the rooster.

He complimented my Italian, too, and was impressed that my mom was making sure I knew it. It's a wonderful language, full of music. My mom and dad's friends are calling us Romeo e Giuletta.

I must also mention my sister, Elli, my best friend. You will see the sketches my mom did of us when she wrote the screenplay, "Aloha Kitties", inspired by our stay in Hawaii. Elli has been gone almost 3 years now (as my mom reminds me, she is with her grandparents, and Elli used her special talent to turn them into cat people, too!), and I know she would love Italy. The fish, the air, the branzino, the flowers, the orate, the stars, the latterini, the cream, the pesce, the mukki (local cows), the seafood, the sun, the tonno. Ah, she taught me much about fine dining. My mom is writing a story about us in Italy, and she's calling it "Kitty Ciao". I'm excited about reading it. It won't have a scary Madame Pele scene, but she says there will be reference to Vesuvius or Etna or Stromboli. I send you a bacione, Elli, and know we all think about you.

We spent 2 nights in Rome. We stayed at our favorite hotel in Trastevere, with it's cool, emerald-colored marble floors and high windows. It's a city again, but even in closed hotel room, the feeling is different than Los Angeles. The humidity makes one's skin feel better, and carries the sounds and smells of antiquity. I met a lovely friend named Alice, who spoke with a different voice, English but kinder and smoother on the ears. And she used the word "brilliant", which has an energetic sound. I think I'll start including that in my vocabulary, too. But Los Angeles is my home town, and that means it is a part of me. We 3 are back to our "normal" lives, and I look forward to future trips to la bella Italia.

Our last night in Italia...Roma!

We spent our last night in Rome having dinner with Fonzo & Liliana, friends of ours who we met thru Linda's office. They are Romans who have always taken us to the best local restaurants and this time was no different. We had a fabulous meal close to our hotel in Trastevere and it had been 2 years since we had seen them. They are really sweet and I thanked them for sharing the Rome that they know with us.

Carrara, our cat, has requested that she be able to blog about her recent Italian vacation, so the next blog will be from Carrara and her tails...oops...tales!

Now that I'm back at home, I'm going to post some of the videos of our trip seeing how I have a faster high speed internet connection.

Ciao for now!

Our last day in Italia... Roma!

We met our new facebook friend, Mimmy Zaccardini, in Rome today and walked around for a couple hours taking in the sites. I love the Bernini sculptures in Piazza Navona and "Three Rivers" was just cleaned, so it was looking incredibile! The Pantheon is always a favorite of ours and the sun was coming thru the Occulus.

Next was Giolitti gelato and then to Sant Eustacchio for some great caffe. It was really hot today, so we cut our usual walk down so we could enjoy the pool back at the Grand Hotel del Gianicolo. We stopped by "Gatto Citta", which is my name for Torre Argentina and then headed to Trastevere which is all uphill to our hotel.

Remember, Rome was built on seven hills! The pool was splendid today and it's the first time we used the pool as this is our third summer in a row staying there. We just have had too many places to see!

It was great to relax before going out to dinner with our Roman friends, Liliana and Fonzo, on our last night in Rome knowing we'd have to deal with the airport, customs officials, and all the other stuff that goes with international air travel. It'll be a long day tomorrow and then back to reality and work on Monday. I hope everybody enjoyed our posts!

Fotos of last night's dinner with the Meriggi's

Our last night in Mugello was spent with the Meriggi's, our neighbors who live next door to us. Giovanna made pasta with pesto and grilled Roberto's amazing vegetables. I grilled steaks and sausages on our grill and then took everything over to the Meriggi's as they have such a great set up outside of their house. It was a wonderful feast!

Tonight we're having dinner in Rome with Alice Gledhill Hall, who we met at Cinecitta studios a couple of years ago. She really wants to see Carrara!