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St John and the Farò tradition in Torino

If you are in Torino, my city, on June 23, you will see a huge amount of wood in the middle of the Castle Square, the Farò.

Farò of San Giovanni

It is the Farò of Saint John the Baptiste, patron of the city. The celebrations of the city’s protector last two days, on June 23 and 24, and include concerts, fireworks and a parade with historical dresses The night of the 23, we lit a huge bonfire, falò in Italian, which in Piedmontese dialect becomes Farò.

On the top of the big pyre of wood there is a template with the shape of a bull, emblem of the city. The Bonfire is lit at 10pm. According to the tradition, if the bull falls in the direction of Porta Nuova Station, the months which follow will be lucky and prosperous. But if the bull falls in the opposite directions, towards the Royal Palace, then unhappy days will follow.

Yesterday night, June 23 2018, the bull fell towards the right direction. Good for you Torino!

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10 Free Things to Do in Rome

Whether you have a lot of money to spend, or you travel on a budget, remember: Italy is an open air museum. You will find plenty of things to see and do for free.

If you are visiting Rome, here are my top ten places to visit for free. They are organised in the form of a one-day tour.

So, in case you are reading this post while you are already in Rome, take the metro and go to Circo Massimo. Take the exit in Viale Aventino, turn left and walk along Via del Circo Massimo (you will now have it on your right). Walk for a couple of minutes. Then, on the right, you will see a street food truck selling sandwiches and drinks. Cross the road and you will se some streets going up. One of the street stands behind a gate that is always open. Pass the gate and take that street and simply go up the Aventino hill, one of the richest and most elegant areas in Rome.

1. Take a rest in Giardino degli Aranci.

Now take Via Santa Sabina. On the right you will find Parco Sabello, known as the Giardino degli Aranci, the Garden of Oranges. This small park limited by walls is quiet and romantic. Take a seat on the lovely terrace overlooking Trastevere and Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Giardino degli Aranci

Here you can rest, listen to some street musicians or eat a sandwich before continuing the tour. I suggest you to bring your own food. You might find trucks selling it outside, but it can be expensive and not always with good value for money.

2. Visit Santa Sabina

Get out from Giardino degli Aranci and turn right to continue on the Main Street. On your right you will soon notice one the most beautiful medieval churches in Rome: Santa Sabina. It dates back to the 5th century. Even if renovated in the following centuries, the 18 wood panels are medieval. There you will see one of the first representations of Christ’s passion.

Santa Sabina

3. Watch Rome from a Keyhole.

Descend from Aventino and go back to Fori Imperiali to reach the Jewish Ghetto. But first reach Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta. Here you will find a Palace with a green door. It is the seat of the Knights of Malta. According to a word of mouth, the Knights of Malta chose this place because it overlooks the Vatican. It was a way to show their power to the Pope. Probably this story is told to be true depending on who is telling it. In any case, if you look inside the lock of this gate, you will notice a long path. At the and of this path framed by beautiful plants you will see St Peter’s Basilica.

Seat of Malta Knights

Now, leave the Aventino and go back to Circo Massimo. Take Via del Circo Massimo and descend until Piazza Bocca della Verità.

4. …Challenge the Bocca della Verità

At the entrance of a nice medieval church, Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, are the remains of an ancient fountain or maybe a manhole. It consists of a huge marble disk where the head of a bearded man is sculpted.

Bocca della Verità

The legend says that if you tell a lie while putting your hand inside, the mouth will block it. Are you brave enough to prove your honesty?

Now, let’s change area. Take the right and leave the Bocca della Verità on your left. On the left, you will notice the Portuno Temple. By taking one of the streets on the left, walk along the Tevere river. You will reach the Jewish Ghetto.

5. Take a picture at the little Colosseum

The Jewish Ghetto develops along Via del Portico di Ottavia. At the very beginning you will find the so called Little Colosseum. The Theatre of Marcello was built under the will of Julius Caesar, but the Emperor died before it was ready. It could host up to 20,000 people. The works finished under Augustus who dedicated it to his favourite nephew Marcello.

Teatro Marcello

6. Take a stroll in the Jewish Ghetto

…and try the real Roman cuisine.

Here in the Ghetto, you will find many restaurants and trattorias serving traditional dishes.

Artichokes outside a restaurant

Above all “Carciofi alla Giudia”, fried artichokes.

Before leaving this area for Trastevere, you have to pass the Tevere. Here you will find Isola Tiberina.

7. Visit the smallest inhabited island in the world

The smallest inhabited island in the world is home to a hospital and some restaurants. From the south part of the Island, you can see the remains of Ponte Rotto, or Broken Bridge, the first bridge made with stones of the Ancient Rome.

The smallest inhabited island in the world

8. Chose a book for free

Next to the Jewish Ghetto is Trastevere. Here you can have a drink or get lost in the many narrow streets. In Via della Lungaretta 23 you will find the Open Door Book Shop, a tiny shop completely packed with new and second hand books. In some buckets you will find books for one or two euros or even for free. A sign at the entrance says: “Don’t steal books, have one from the free books bucket”. So, look for it, or ask to the kind shop assistant and help yourself.

9. Admire the huge mosaics in Santa Maria di Trastevere

Probably the most ancient church in Rome dedicated to Mother Mary, this Basilica is in the very heart of Trastevere. Located in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, this building is home to amazing mosaics. The one on the facade dates back to the 13th Century.

Have an ice cream and sit on the steps of the monument which is right in front of the church before or after getting lost into one of the many narrow streets of this neighborhood.

Now, our tour is over. You should find a place for dinner or return to your Roman home. And after, you might want to look for a ride (maybe a taxi). This is the only thing you should pay for this one-day free journey. But it will be worth it and mind blowing.

10. Solve the misterious case of Via Piccolomini

If you take the street called Aurelia Antica, ask the taxi driver (or your navigation system) to go to Via Piccolomini. As soon as you reach this street, at the very end, you will notice St Peter’s Church. It will be huge and majestic. Drive or walk towards it. To your great surprise, you will notice that closer you get to the end of the street, the more smaller St Peter’s will appear.

Got it? I didn’t make a mistake while writing. If you go closer, it gets smaller, but if you walk in the opposite direction, it becomes bigger.

It seems that this optical illusion is given by the buildings along this street. The eyes will frame St Peters considering the buildings on both sides. But When you reach the end of the street, those buildings are left behind you. And they do not frame the church anymore. The eyes will reconsider the distance and you will see the church in a different perspective.

Sounds confusing enough? Go there and see it with your own eyes. It will take you few minutes but it will remain in your memories for the rest of your life.

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The FisherMan, Gourmet FishBar in the Heart of Milan

Is it possible to eat well and with few euros in the centre of Milan? Of course! Even if Milan is the economical capital of Italy, famous for design, fashion and luxurios streets like Via Montenapoleone, it is still in Italy and therefore you can always find goood value for money.

Lin, the cook at work

The Fisherman, few minutes walk from the Brera district, is a gourmet fast food where contemporary fish dishes meet the tradition. The main proposal is michetta, a loaf of bread, that can be found all around Italy. It has the shape of a rose or a star. In fact, in some parts of north Italy it is called rosetta and in the Bergamo area stellina. Here, it is filled with fish, fruit, vegetables and cheese.

I tried Michetta Missori, with carpaccio of salmon, pineapple and pink pepper which is served togerther with fried carrots.

Michetta Missori

And I shared with a friend a portion of fried fish, again paired with fried vegetables.

Fried mix of fish with vegetables

As you can see, the food comes into boxes that you can close and bring with you as a doggie bag, in case you can’t finish it.

Here you can eat with 10 euros. The Michetta is generally 9 euros, coffee and water 1 euro each. We paid 29 euros in two. You can eat there, take away or even call for you meal to be delivered. In their Facebook page you will find the entire menu with prices.

Very close to Moscova Metro Station, I really suggest you this place for a quick launch or also if you want food to take away and eat in the nearby Parco Sempione. It is the perfect pit stop after visiting the Brera Pinacoteque or during the Milan Design Week.

The Fashion Week is different. You won’t say you eat during the fashion week. And in case you do, you will never publicly admit you eat carbs. But that’s another story 😉

The Fisherman

Via Varese 4

Milan

0039-02-72003237

Tested in April 2018

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Panettone or Pandoro? If you visit Italy during Christmas you have to choose.

If you have stumbled upon this blog around the 25 December, Merry Christmas.

Christmas tree bauble

When Christmas approaches, in Italy one is the recurrrent question you might hear: do you prefer Pandoro or Panettone? To me, the first prevails on the second, but both equally resist on our tables. Certainly, one mystery has never been solved. If 90% of Italians, try to ask yourself to as many Italians as you can, hate the candied fruit Panettone contains, why do we continue to buy it? But let’s step back and see what exactly are the traditional Italian Christmas desserts.

Panettone
This sweet comes from Milan, has a cilindric base and the shape of a cupola on top. Its origins are almost legendary.
Two seems the most plausible stories.

The first one talks about Sirrah Ulivo degli Atellani, a falconer, who lived in the Contrada delle Grazie in Milan. Since he was in love with Algisa, the beautiful daughter of a baker, he was hired by his father as a shop boy. To increase sales, he tried to invent a dessert. It took the best flour of the mill, added eggs, butter, honey and raisins and then baked what he had obtained. It was an absolute blast. Everyone wanted to taste the new cake and, some time later, the two young lovers got married and lived happily ever after.

According to the second version, the cook of Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan in the 15th century, was asked to prepare a banquet for the Duke himself and other nobles. He prepared a great feast but forgot the cake in the oven which burnt. The little kitchen boy, Toni, suggested to use a dough he had prepared earlier in the morning mixing flour, butter, eggs, raisins and the cedro zest. The cook agreeed to serve it but stood behind the curtains waiting for the reactions. It was a succes. When the Duke asked the name of the cake, the cook answered : it is the “pan de Toni”, the bread of Toni, which eventually became Panettone.

From being the handmade product of bakers and pastry makers, in the XX century Panettone started to spread all around Italy.

The traditional version consists in a sourdough with a very slow leavening. It is filled with raisins and candied fruit like cedro, lemon and orange zest.

Panettone

You can find plenty of Panettone varieties. It can be cheap, you can find panettone at the supermarket for 4/5 euros, or expensive if you consider the artisanal ones made in renowned bakeries or patisseries.

For sure, my favourite is certainly the one with a chocolate crust and Piedmontese hazelnuts on top and pieces of crunchy dark chocolate pepita inside. Yes, I’m definitely one of those who do not like candied fruit inside Panettone.

Panettone with chocolate crust

And it can be also salty, like the Panettone gastronomico, a salty version with flour, butter, eggs but of course no sugar. It can be filled with ham, vegetables, mayonnaise and can be the perfect appetiser to start a sumptuous meal.

Panettone gastronomico (courtesy of @fraechruad)

Pandoro

Even if in the ancient Rome there was a cake prepared with flour, butter and eggs, the origins of Pandoro have to be found in the homeland of Romeo and Juliet. But before arriving in Verona, we have to stop in Venice. Here there was a bread called Pan de Oro, bread of gold, whose recipe dates back to the 13th century.
The current recipe is an evolution of the 19tth century of a cake famous in Verona called Nadalin.

Pandoro has a frustum base that ends with an eight pointed star and is covered with vanilla flavoured icing sugar.

Pandoro

Also Pandoro can be extremely cheap. You can find good ones for few euros and then enrich them with the cream you prefer. The easiest way is to prepare or use an already made chocolate cream, or simply mix mascarpone and sugar. You just have to cut it horizontally one or two times and then spread the cream. A widely spread tradition is to leave it on the heater and eat it warm with nutella and cappuccino the morning after Christmas.

But if you are in Torino, you must try Ghigo’s version called Nuvola. The name means cloud, as it reminds of a white cloud.

Nuvola

Ghigo is a patisserie that dates back to the mid of the 19th century. Its renowned Pandoro with natural lievening is covered with a butter cream and icing sugar. It is simply delicious.

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Fritti in un Coppo: the Italian way to eat street food.

You can’t visit a fishers’ village without trying what has been its main source of sustenance: fish. So, if you are in Marzamemi, you have to try fresh fish or traditional dishes like “sarde a beccafico”, which are also in my personal top 10 things to try in Sicily.

Coppo is the Sicilian word for cartoccio, a paper cone that can contain take away street food. And in Marzamemi, Fritti in un Coppo, is a tiny eatery which proposes fried seafood but also chips, fried vegetables, arancine and salads.

One of the eatery boys

There are only few tables in front of the eatery, but you can take the Coppo and sit right in front of the sea, where you will profit of the wonderful panorama.

Marzamemi Shore

The ingredients are always fresh and since the batter does not contain milk (yes, in some preparations fish can be fried with a passage in the milk before being covered with the beater) the Coppo remains light and easy to digest also for someone who is lactose intolerant like me.

Restaurants in Marzamemi are not cheap, so this place represent a good option with a great value for money. Considering you will eat fish, you can have lunch with a mixed Coppo and a drink and spend some 10 euros.

Fritti in un Coppo is open from 11 am to midnight, so, in case you are in Marzamemi for a night stroll, you can also eat here at noon. In this case I firmly suggest to take the Coppo near the shore or on one of the docks of the nearby harbour. Some white wine and the moon will certainly deliver you the best memories of this wonderful corner of South Italy.

Fritti in un Coppo, Via Marzamemi 3, Marzamemi, Sicily

Tested in August 2017

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Trattoria Samperone: cheap and good near Pavia

If you have visited the Certosa of Pavia and now are looking for a place to eat, you might find Trattoria Samperone quite interesting.

Located in Via Don Boschetti 33, in the village of Certosa di Pavia, it offers a menu at midday that includes a first course (primo in Italian), a second course (secondo), water and wine for the total amount of 11 euros.

Midday Menu in July 2017

When I had lunch I could choose

– a first course among: risotto with sausage, pasta with tuna fish, onion and capers, cold pasta salad

-a second among: grilled chicken breast, tidbits of perch with olives and eggplant, home salad

-a side dish to chose among: mixed salad, fries and courgette cooked in olive oil, Persia and garlic

I tried the risotto, which was delicated and well prepared.

Risotto with sausage

The perch with courgette (that could be better but for the price I really couldn’t ask for more).

Perch and courgette

But what was really incredible was the basket with focaccia and different types of bread. Warm, fresh and delicious. This basket was worth the entire lunch!

Basket with warm focaccia and different types of bread

The wine was a good Bonarda. The place is cosy and cleaned, and the stuff is nice. I really suggest to drive for five minute instead of remaining near the Certosa where you can find crowded places.

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Porta Palazzo: the biggest open market of Turin

If you want to plunge yourself in a culture, there is no better way than visiting religious buildings, a public festival or a market. And Torino makes no exception.

Piazza della Repubblica hosts what we call Porta Palazzo. The name comes from one of the doors (Porta means door in Italian) to enter the city when Torino was a Roman military camp and from the presence of a Palace (Palazzo in Italian) that in Medieval times hosted the House of the Senate.

Located in the north-west part of the city centre, you can easily reach Porta Palazzo with a five minute walk from Piazza Castello. Take Via Garibaldi and then turn right in Via Milano. Go straight on until a hug Square opens in front of you. What you see is the most important and biggest market of the city, and also the biggest market of Europe en plain air; it includes a covered space as well as many shops all around the square.

The covered part on the north-west side of the squared, is under the “Antica Tettoia dell’Orologio”, a building of glass and metal built in 1916 with several entrances, and a tower with a clock. Here you will find 88 numbered booths which sell food produce.

Antica Tettoia dell’Orologio

By taking the entrance right under the clock, on your right you will find “Dolceria Viziale” a booth that serves coffee and sweets. Don’t leave the city without having at least a cheap but delicious breakfast here. If you are lactose intolerant like me, you can find biscuits prepared with almonds, cannolo filled with zabaione, apple strudel and cappuccino all lactose free to pair with a homemade almond milk. Everything is prepared daily in a laboratory in the nearby neighbourhood.

Viziale

Next to this covered pavillion, on the right if you are watching the clock tower, there is the “farmer market” where farmers sell directly their produce. There you can also find fresh eggs, plants and aromatic herbs.

Farmers corner

After you have had breakfast, or at least coffee with pastry, take a stroll among the booths where you can find fresh, dried ands shell fruit, all kind of vegetables, cheeses from every region of Italy, cold cuts and bread.This is definitively the best place to buy healthy and cheap snacks for your long sessions into parks and museums.

Outdoor booths

In the south part, there are other two pavilions, one hosting the fish market and the other booths selling meat. While in the north-west, there is building that substitutes the former clothes market, seat of shops and a bar. Personally, I rarely visit it. Maybe because I prefer buying clothes in other markets.

As soon as you will arrive in Porta Palazzo, you will notice a melting pot of cultures and languages. That’s because the area has always been the first home of people migrating from other regions of Italy or, more recently, other countries. This can of course have negative and positive consequences. For the negative, mind your wallet! Don’t go there with jewels or expensive clothes. The high concentration of people that constantly pack the market makes this the favourite working place for pickpockets. So, probably having a low profile and constantly checking your bag won’t leave a bad memory on your visit.

But on a bright side, if you are looking for ethnic food, this is the right spot in town. I will only mention Grand Magreb in Piazza della Repubblica 24, where you can have lunch with less than 10 euros. For me here is the best cous cous of Torino.

Finally, if you want to take a seat and have a longer break, go to Galleria Umberto I. Once seat of an important hospital, this gallery, hosts a several bars and fancy restaurants, that can satisfy even the most refined palate. You find it on the right as soon as you arrive from Via Milano.

Galleria Umberto I

Of course here you can also find souvenirs even if, to me, the best memento you can bring home is intangible. It is made of colours, flavours and sounds that will fill your senses.

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Nonunomeno: good for the stomach and the heart

There is a lovely risto-bar hidden on the top floor of a public library in the centre of Alassio, Liguria. If you are at the seaside, enjoying a sunny day, take the opportunity to have lunch in a cosy, friendly and informal atmosphere.

At “Nonunomeno” the food is excellent with big home made dishes, from the rich mixed salads to the fresh and crusty focaccia. But what makes the place special is the project behind the restaurant.

The No profit cooperative Jobel manages the place employing students with special needs who attended the Hospitality Training Institute of Alassio. Different abilities are here turned into creativity… and creativity in Italy expresses itself at its best when it involves food.

The walls report sentences of famous scientists, writers, philosopher reminding that normal is just one way of being and that it is in the difference that you can spot the extraordinary.

You can find armchairs, magazine and books in a corner (remember we are in the library) to unwind yourself sipping a juice and forgetting the time passing by. But what amazed me most were the little table near the windows: the breath taking view was there to remember me how little we are.

With a lactose intolerance it is not always easy to find something to eat, or to have the right information to choose my food properly. Well, I felt pampered, the guys asked the chefs how was the food prepared and I could chose properly.

So, to sum up: the place is lovely, the people are kind, the view is stunning. And the price? Believe it or not, is one of the cheapest place to eat in Alassio. Some 10 euros for a dish, water and a coffee. Do not miss it!

Address: Biblioteca Civica “Renzo Deaglio”, Piazza Airaldi e Durante 7, 17021, 4th floor.

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St John and the Farò tradition in Torino

10 Free Things to Do in Rome

The FisherMan, Gourmet FishBar in the Heart of Milan

Panettone or Pandoro? If you visit Italy during Christmas you have to choose.

Fritti in un Coppo: the Italian way to eat street food.

Trattoria Samperone: cheap and good near Pavia

Porta Palazzo: the biggest open market of Turin

Nonunomeno: good for the stomach and the heart

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