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You wouldn't expect to find the largest space center in the world for civilian use in the middle of farm fields outside the tiny town of Ortuccio in Abruzzo, but Google Earth shows the importance of this complex. Built in 1963, the Fucino Telespazio Center contains over 100 working dish antenna radio telescopes, and dozens of control rooms that do everything from guiding the launch of satellites into their final orbit to interpreting data and images studying weather, agriculture, water, oceanography, deserts, population, and intelligence. Fucino also hosts one of the control centres that will manage the 30 satellites and the operational activities of the European satellite navigation system Galileo. It's very fitting to see Galileo's vision come so far in Italy... 
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 Lady and the Tramp would have missed that first kiss if she had the meatballs and he had the spaghetti! There are many things that are familiar to Italian-Americans eat in the States that just don't exist in Italy. Spaghetti and Meatballs is an iconic dish... handball sized spheres of ground beef (sometimes with pork or veal added) with onions, breadcrumbs, garlic and spices. Either fried in olive oil or baked in an oven to browned, meaty perfection. Often they are thrown into a tomato sauce as it cooks for hours, creating the legendary Sunday Gravy I wrote about in another post. Throw a couple of meatballs (or 3 or 4) on a plate next to a good helping of spaghetti topped with "marinara" and you'll make anyone happy. Well, you won't be able to find it in authentic ristorante in Italy. You will find spaghetti. And you will find meatballs--named polpette--but they will never be on the same plate. You see, Italians never eat meat with their pasta, unless it's mixed into the sauce as in a Bolognese or ragu sauce. The first course in a meal is called Antipasto (literally, before pasta) where you might have an assortment of cold cuts, prosciutto, cheeses, olives, bruschetta and the like. Next comes the Primo (first course) which can contain risotto, lasagna, polenta soup or pasta. The Primo never contains meat. This is when you would have your spaghetti. If it's on the menu at all, polpette (meatballs) would be listed under the Secondo course, along with sausage, pork, steak or beef (including stews), turkey, chicken or types of fish. If you want a side dish, you wouldn't ask for a side of meatballs, you'd look at the Contorno (literally, the edge or side) part of the menu and select from an assortment of vegetable dishes. For a salad select from the Insalada listed. You can try this, though... Order a spaghetti as your Primo and then order a Secondo of polpette. Now all you have to do is see if the chef can deliver your Primo and Secondo at the same time. Put the meatballs on the pasta plate and presto--you have your spaghetti and meatballs! Truth be told, don't worry too much about the order of courses in Italy. In most places you are going to get what you want by ordering ala carte off the menu anyway... If you want only pasta, just order that and forget about the Secondo. It's rare to find a restaurant that forces you to order all the courses on the menu. I don't think I saw a single prix fixe menu (where the entire dinner is included in the price) in all of Italy.  Harvest time comes and it was the time for hunting, putting up sausages and prosciutto, harvesting wheat, turning it into flour and making bread. It was a village effort. The reason why Italy never evolved into our way of eating is that they didn't have to.... or rather, they had to do it the other way. For the contadina (peasant/farmer) in Italy, most meals were without meat anyway, until and IF something was being slaughtered. It was a seasonal thing too.... meat eating was enjoyed during holidays in Italy--no wonder they were called (and still are) Feast Days. Some meats were only available village-wide if someone donated his buffalo or pig in a type of bartering system... in the same way that the miller would grind everyone's crops of wheat into flour for them, and the baker would do communal baking for the entire village periodically. No cash exchanged... everyone shared their harvest or special skill. So if you had your season's supply of rice or corn meal (for polenta) or flour (for pasta), this was your staple meal. When meat arrived, it was thought of as a separate thing... to stand on its own. And nothing was wasted... the pig was made into sausage, roasts, ribs, and even the pig feet, ears, brains, nose and head were special dishes to enjoy. Add to this the randomness of hunting for birds and game and you have even more uncertainty of having a decent protein on your table. When Italians emigrated to America it truly was a golden life when compared to the war and poverty back home. In the late 1800s when Italy became one nation, most of the resources went to the north and Rome, leaving the southern regions in terrible shape. When the immigrants came to America, they moved into low quality housing in tenement apartment blocks. In these neighborhoods they at least had a chance to survive--and eventually--flourish. And they could finally afford to buy things in abundance--meat, tomatoes, ready-made sausage, cheese, deli meats--and all at their corner market or from a street vendor just outside their front door. (These vendors were also Italian immigrants trying to make their way in America.) They didn't have to wait as they did back in their home village to slaughter, or to bake, or to make the cheese, or the grind the flour. Everything was available whenever they wanted it. So, they started putting courses together into one big bowl, often the only bowl they could afford. My father talked of this family style of eating, and used a Molfetese dialect word that took me quite a while to find the actually Italian word. Phonetically, he called it "Bah-BOOK-eeya" . The real word is papocchia or papocchio (in Puglia, the "P" is easily heard as a "b" sound), which can be defined as "a mess" or "all messed up". According to Dad, this Molfetese word meant "everything in one pot, all mixed up"-- or, "a mess" as opposed to the proper way to eat meal courses back in Italy. That's the way his growing family ate in their American home in Hoboken, N.J. As Dad described the scene at their kitchen table, he, his sisters, brothers and parents were all digging into meats and pastas and vegetables all cooked and mixed together and eaten from a big bowl or platter in the middle of the table, containing the entire, single course meal. A large loaf of bread was passed around and pieces torn off. Dad described their early days before they had individual plates, reaching with their forks into the large Bah-BOOK-eeya bowl. His Dad served wine he made himself from grapes bought from a fruit cart vendor. In a few years, Dad and his "kid brother" had their own cart selling fruits and vegetables to seamen coming from the many ships docked in Hoboken harbor... a cart pulled by the only horse they could afford--a "three-legged horse" as Dad called him (lame in one leg). We have to remember that over 4 million (mostly) southern Italians came to American within a short 40 year window around the turn of the last century. There was a lot of talent in that group of people. Some had specialty skills, like my Grandfather (tailor) or other skills, but most were listed on the ships' manifests as "laborer" or "farmer". Of these, many knew some sort of cooking, butchering, smoking or baking. The best of these began selling their wares from carts then gradually opened their own shops. This is where a new type of village began--the Italian-American neighborhoods.  Little Italy, Mulberry Street, New York City, 1900 Clustered in these "Little Italys" were the Formaggeria for cheese, the Panificio (bread bakers), the Pasticceria (pastry & cakes), Macelleria (butchers/deli), Pescheria (fish monger), Frutta e Verdura vendors (fruit and vegetable) and more. They could have what they wanted, when they wanted it. And it was cheaper too... In Italy most of a family's income went toward food to eat--especially in the days when the taxes on flour and bread skyrocketed. In American, only about 1/4 of a family's income went toward food. Big improvement in their quality of life. For the first time, they had some expendable income, but most chose to save and hope. As my Grandmother used to tell me when I first started my own business, "Pay yourself first". So there are many reasons why you won't find spaghetti and meatballs or Chicken Parmesan in Italy. You might find a chicken dish as a Secondo and you will find a baked pasta dish or two as a Primo but not merged into one single casserole dish. Funny... just last night for dinner Lisa made a big casserole of baked Chicken Parmesan. Enough for two meals in our 3 person famiglia. So we carry on the Italian-American tradition... and now understand why we do it. I will admit that once in a while, I'll purposely serve the pasta first and plate the meats separately... as a nod to our real Italian heritage.
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 That's right... more than 10,000 page views since we started our blog back in September. We want to thank all of you for coming back again and again to take this Grand Voyage along with us. This blog has evolved a lot since before our passports were stamped... it's become a place not only to share travel tips but to continuing the exploration of La Bella Italia, even if from our own homes. There's still a lot to discover about our Italian roots, the history of the Italian people, their culture, the food, the wine, and the often simple yet many times puzzling and complexity of the way Italians live in their day to day life..
This blogging Voyage has a mean learning curve, but little by little we are getting it. If you want to see Grand Voyage Italy grow even more, please SHARE our posts, LIKE us on Facebook or Twitter and pass along our grandvoyageitaly.weebly.com web address to your friends. And check out our new pages on Pinterest and Google... and by all means, remember that this is a large, two-way viale (boulevard), not one of those one-way, narrow back streets of Molfetta that could barely fit a Fiat 500 through. Start a dialog with us by leaving a COMMENT. Two way communication! What a concept! With your help, perhaps we can make Grand Voyage Italy a destination all on its own, almost as complex, compelling and interesting as the real Italia. We hope to keep sharing what we experienced and what we are still discovering: the history of Italy, the wonderfully crazy lifestyle, travel tips, profiles of unusual and wonderful places in Italy to visit, the art, the music, great photography, authentic recipes, and some laughs as well. So again, we want to send a mille grazie to the over three thousand people that have joined us on this Grand Voyage of Italy. That's right. There have been over 3000 of you visiting the Piazza at Grand Voyage Italy. Come incredibile! Oh yea... we now have our own hashtag... #grandvoyageitaly Ciao! --Jerry, Lucas and Lisa Italy is a study in contradictions... This video proves it.  Just a bit of funny stuff... Street artists remaking signs.  First of all, there is no 911 in Italy. There is 113. There are other emergency numbers too, but there is also a language problem. When you're in a traffic accident, or in the middle of a medical crisis, it's often difficult to say things correctly in English, no less in another language. I remember one time when calling 911 for a small fire in our house, I stumbled over the address a few seconds. It can happen to all of us.... so when traveling in Italy or especially when planning an extended stay there, a little emergency planning is well worth the effort. First off, here is a list of emergency numbers. I suggest programming them into your mobile phone before leaving for Italy, with a description of each. Or simply create a list and print it on a business card to place in your wallet. Useful Numbers in Case of Emergencies:
 The Fire Brigades The Vigili del Fuoco, literally the Firewatchers, (official name Corpo nazionale dei vigili del fuoco or CNVVF), Italy's institutional agency for fire and rescue service. As a national service it is under the oversight of the Ministry of the Interior. Much of Italy (depending on which region you are in, and what deal they have with Rome) have nationally funded fire brigades. There are also volunteer fire fighters at the local level. In general, in case of fire, call 113 to report a fire and say: "Vi è un incendio _say the address_" ("There is a fire at _address_", Click the link then click the speaker icon for pronunciation). Ambulances/EMS Calls Emergency medical services in Italy consist primarily of volunteer organizations providing ambulance servicea, and by physicians and nurses who perform all advanced life support procedures. The emergency telephone number for emergency medical service in Italy is 118. Emergency medical services are under Public Health Authorities control in each Italian Region; the ambulance subsystem is provided by a variety of different sources. The method of delivery can vary considerably from one location to another. In some locations, responsibility for the provision of EMS has been undertaken by the local hospital, while in others, services may be provided by a range of volunteer organizations, such as the Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana), ANPAS (National Association for Public Assistance), Confraternite di Misericordia, other associations commonly known as "Cross" (Croce), usually followed by a colour (White Cross, Green Cross, Yellow Cross...), or by private companies. In a life-threatening emergency, such as a heart attack or serious accident, call the free public first-aid number 118. State clearly where you’re calling from and the nature of the emergency, and give your name and the telephone number from where you’re calling. Don’t hang up until the operator asks you to. The appropriate emergency service is sent to you. Provided you call in response to a genuine emergency, you won’t be charged for the use of the emergency services. Two basic phrases to say: "Ho bisogno di aiuto medico!" ("I need medical help!" Click the link, then click the speaker icon to hear the pronunciation). "Sto male, aiuto!" ("I am hurt, help!" Clink the link then click the speaker to hear it spoken) Spelling on the Phone in Italy In Italy there is some help, albeit a bit confusing and new to the American traveler. When spelling on the phone in Italy they use the alfabeto fonetico—the Italian phonetic alphabet. It is similar to the U.S. method of spelling.... such as, "Alpha Bravo Charlie" (A B C) used in the military (or when speaking to company service representatives) to avoid miscommunication when speaking on the phone. The only thing is, Italians use names of Italian cities--some you might not have heard of--Ancona, Bologna, Catania, etc. To spell my last name, I would say "Firenze, Imola, Napoli, Zara, Imola"... F I N Z I. Alfabeto Fonetico: A come Ancona B come Bologna (or Bari or Brescia) C come Catania (or Como) D come Domodossola E come Empoli (or Enna) F come Firenze G come Genova H come Hotel (acca) I come Imola J (gei or i lunga) come jolly (the joker in Italian card games) (or Jugoslavia) K (kappa) come Kursaal L come Livorno M come Milano N come Napoli O come Otranto P come Palermo (or Padova or Pisa) Q come Quaderno R come Roma S come Savona (Sassari or Siena) T come Torino (Taranto) U come Udine V come Venezia (Verona) W (vi/vu doppio) come Washington (Wagner) X (ics) come Xanto (xilofono) Y come ipsilon (York or yacht) Z come Zara (Zurigo or zeta) Or, believe it or not, an easier way is to simply practice saying the Italian alphabet... the way the Italians do. Learn it. Sure it will take a little practice, but it's very helpful when in Italy. I had to spell my name several times when I was there and never resorted to the military style above. Really try to say each letter with an Italian accent. Here is an excellent video which will teach you not only about how to say the names of letters in Italian, but will teach you what sounds the letters make when used in words: Words and Phrases
And for more, here is a link to a more comprehensive list of phrases to use in emergencies... So, there you have it, a little primer on how to call for help in Italy. I hope and pray you won't even need this stuff, but it pays to be prepared (and I was never a Boy Scout!). Stay Safe! --Jerry Finzi If you found this post useful, please LIKE it by pressing the buttons at the bottom of the page. Grazie mille! Copyright, Jerry Finzi, Grand Voyage Italy, All rights reserved  Meatballs, Ribs, Sweet sausage, and Brasciole  Sunday crumbcake... more crumb than cake. Nearly every Sunday of my early childhood my Mom made something most Italian-Americans (especially those from Naples) called Sunday Gravy. Simply put, Sunday Gravy is making a large batch of tomato sauce and introducing various types of meat into it. In Italian, the word salsa means sauce... a sauce is made from something other than meat. Like putting a fruit or cheese sauce over meat, chicken or fish. The Italian word sugo means gravy. A gravy is made from the liquids and fat that are rendered from various meats--like using turkey drippings to make a gravy. The all-day cooking of meat in tomato sauce gives off a heady scent, that would fill our apartment, and waft out into the hallway for the entire building to smell--"Ahh... the Finzi's are making Gravy today!" The secret of Sugo the slow cooking or pippiare (cook slowly). Sunday Gravy has it's origins from a beef stew popular in medieval XII-XIV century, way before tomatoes were introduced from the New World--a clay cooker slow cooked the stew of beef and vegetables for hours and hours. This beef stew turned into a ragù and eventually Neapolitans evolved the dish by the eighteenth century for the noble courts, using very fine meat, such as beef and veal, but no tomato. (Tomatoes didn't gain popularity right away in Europe... they were thought to be poisonous). This dish was mainly prepared on Sundays, the sauce used on pasta and meat served as a second course. One historian described a Sugo using tomatoes in 1857 that was being served in taverns in Naples. Sunday Gravy is a hybrid of sorts... it starts out as a tomato sauce and becomes a gravy after meats have been added and have rendered their flavors during a long cooking period--the Sunday Gravy. But Sunday Gravy wasn't a meal, per se. It was an event--a gathering. It was reminiscent of an entire village doing communal cooking... coming together to make pasta, make bread, make the olive oil, tend the olive trees, fix a roof, gossip, laugh and be together. My Mom started making Sunday Gravy sometimes on Saturday... or even the Thursday before. She was a working Mom and was frugal with her time. She would make a meat dish one night--maybe the meatballs. Then she'd give us a simple dinner with some of them, but hold most of them for adding to the Sunday Gravy pot. Maybe on Saturday after shopping, she'd make the brasciole and brown the pork ribs under the broiler. These would also go into the fridge, ready for the Sunday Gravy pot. Sunday morning would come and I'd go to Mass with one of my sisters and then stop at a bakery to pick up "buns" for our whole family--even my Aunt Rose's family who lived upstairs. "Buns" were anything sweet from the bakery... cream donuts dusted with cinnamon, raisin "buns" (my favorite), a crumb cake with crumbs as big as my 5 year old fist, a cheese danish that would fill a plate, and maybe a dozen "mixed buns"... assorted goodies that the person behind the counter would surprise us with. After all, Sunday Gravy wasn't just about the one meal. It was also about what we'd be eating in the coming week. Lots of leftovers in that big pot. The gravy might even allow us to cheat a little on "meatless Friday" by using just the tomato sauce without any meat on pasta, ravioli or with fish. And everyone knows the Gravy only tastes better over the next few days. The flavors of all those meats meld into the sauce turning it magically into a true gravy--rendered from meat. It's a carnivore's manna--nectar straight from our Roman and Greek bloodlines. My Dad's very large family ate from a single pot.... and a single bowl in the middle of the table. You can imagine the Sunday Gravy there with brothers and sisters taking a meatball here, a rib there... a couple of these meats, a piece of bread or pasta and some of this gravy and you had an incredible meal. Filling, nutritious and delicious. There were lots of mouths to feed--seven of us in our family, and the dog. My cousins would stop by, too. It was about the famiglia... the heritage... the food... the tastes that even our memories had forgotten but unknowingly were our a link to our past.... Naples, Molfetta... and my Grandmother, Mariantonia Delulia. (Once I learned her real name I was compelled to say her full name over and over... like poetry off an Italian tongue.) She made her own version of Gravy... everyone does it slightly differently. She'd add more peppers and large chunks of onions, and pignoli in her meatballs. A cut up pork shoulder (the affordable cut for poor immigrants, when they could afford it) was the star along with hot sausage.  Our home made tagliatelli and gravy topped with fontina  Mom and the Sunday Pots at work. The Sugo is in the pot at the rear, which I inherited--aluminum, with stains from the acid of the tomatoes still marking the height of her Gravy.  We'd carry the big white bags and boxes tied with string back home to our street, then stop at the candy store to pick up the Sunday papers, thick and heavy like the sauce Mom was going to make. We didn't have breakfast on Sundays. We had "buns" and comics. Mom and Dad would have coffee with theirs, and the five of us kids would dunk our "buns" in milk and read Dick Tracy, Mandrake, Little Orphan Annie and Blondie...  Spicing the sauce. Before we would get through the comics, our little railroad apartment would start to smell differently.... sweet, pungent... Italian. Mom would start by taking a huge onion and cutting it up into small pieces... and sautéing them in the bottom of her huge stock pot on the kitchen stove until they were soft and glistening and letting off their pungent scent. After that, my Dad would get the wine from the cellar (he'd sometimes have jugs of some home made wine he got from an Uncle down there) and pour some into the pot. Not sure how much.... maybe a couple of cups. Next, Mom would let one of us open the cans--big cans of imported tomato puree. It was fun opening cans with the wall hung can opened over by the dumb waiter door (nailed shut by Dad so us kids wouldn't try to go for a ride.) About four or five cans would go into the pot. Next came the spices. A handful of sugar to cut the acidity, half handful each of dried basil, oregano, thyme, garlic powder (or a 5-6 cloves of fresh when Mom had it), a good sprinkle of red pepper flakes, a tablespoon each of salt and pepper, then a quarter cup of olive oil. If Mom had any leftover rinds of cheese from a grating wedge, they'd go in too. Then she'd take out the meat... lots of it. A rack of ribs cut up would be layered in like logs at the bottom of a red lake. Then would come the sausage browned and cut up into 2 inch pieces, then add the meatballs. Next the brasciole... all tied up like neat little meaty packages. Then the Sunday Gravy pot is put on the back burner--the smallest one--and starts to simmer and simmer, bubbling like a crater of lava from the old world. The aromas get more and more intense as the day goes on--you can taste the flavors turning the tomato sauce into something... luscious. My siblings' friends come and go with an open door policy, my mother always inviting them to have a "bun" or sit down for a meatball sandwich. There was more than enough... a few would never be missed.  The Sunday Gravy finished. As for us, we would taste the Gravy all day long by getting a piece of bread and spooning some on top. What a treat. I still do this when I make gravy--or sauce. Taste it on top of a piece of bread... fine tune the spices, then simmer some more. Lucas is growing to love this little snack way before dinnertime. In the Fifties we would sometimes eat Sunday "dinner" at 2 in the afternoon if my Mom was lucky enough to get the Sunday Gravy in the pot early enough. Otherwise, we'd eat by 5 or so. There was no set dinner time on Sunday's in our house. Besides, we had "buns" in our bellies--the starch, fat and sugars keeping our fluttering young hearts going. No one went hungry on Sundays.  Lucas and me making tagliatelli This Easter I made Sunday gravy, as I described above. I didn't follow a recipe... I followed my memories. We've already had two meals from it. It all came together for Easter Sunday's late afternoon meal, as my family had done time and time again so many years ago. We'll probably freeze half of it for future meals. We made home made tagliatelle to have with it the first night and a risotto for the next night. But we also had each other. We shared garlic bread and wine with it--Lucas had a little glass too. I'm teaching Lucas how to drink with a meal rather than drink to get drunk. He places a small forkful of meat in his mouth, chews a bit, sips some wine and discovers the flavors as they mingle and merge into something Godlike. It was a family Mass with a prayer beforehand. It's a joy to watch his eyes light up as he discovers great flavors. Lisa helped me with some parts of the meat preparations as early as Thursday. Lucas helped make the meatballs and the pasta. Lucas is also a spice expert, so I told him to "Make an Italian tasting spice rub for the ribs". He nailed it. Mom made the risotto we had for our second meal... the Gravy mixing with the rice turning it into something dreamy. Traditions--or perhaps I should say--rituals are important in our family... and in our food. After all, the food holds ties to our heritage and the food eventually becomes us. Literally. Happy Easter. --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this post, please SHARE with your friends and click the buttons below to LIKE it. Ciao! Copyright 2015, Jerry Finzi - All Rights Reserved
 Reaching to the heavens in Italy often manifested itself in the design and construction of free standing bell towers, defensive towers and privately owned towers built by successful merchants and aristocrats as a sign of their status and a protective measure in times of siege. The bell towers are known as campanili. But some perhaps reached too high and built on sandy and clay soils or in areas frequented by earthquake. This resulted in some towers leaning, and even collapsing entirely (many were lost this way). Still, many are still with us... as the uber-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. But there are other leaning towers in Italy...  The Island of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon, is a contrast from the drab colors of Venice, having multicolored houses. The kaleidescope of colors is this island's main appeal, but it also has a leaning tower, the bell tower of the 15th century San Martino Church. The island is also known for lace making.  The Torre delle Milizie --Tower of the Militia--is a medieval tower in Rome located near Trajan's Market in the Imperial Forum. It is said to have been built between 1198 and 1216. An important medieval monument in Rome, the Torre delle Milizie measures 10.5 × 9.5 m at its base. The original height of the tower is unsure (it was taller when originally built), but following an earthquake in 1348, the top floors were removed as a safety measure, reducing the structure to the current height of 160 ft. The 1348 earthquake also resulted in the slight tilting of the structure to make it one of the many leaning towers of Italy.  Built in 1536 by Greek Orthodox refugees fleeing from Turkey during the rise of the Ottoman Empire, San Giorgio dei Greci has thin white bell tower. The tower was built in 1603 but it began to sink into the Venice lagoon from day one and still today has an pretty serious lean toward the canal.  Between the 12th and the 13th century, Bologna had as many as 180 towers but less than 20 are still standing today. Two of the most interesting are simply called the Two Towers, the taller named Asinelli is 318 feet tall and the shorter one called the Garisenda is 157 feet tall. They have become the symbol of Bologna. Both built in the early 1100s, Garisenda leans much more than Asinelli but being so close together, the effect of leaning is enhanced.  The imposing Church of San Pietro, was established in the 7th century. It has an obviously leaning bell tower (built by Codussi in 1482), and was the Cathedral of Venice from its origins in eighth century.The present building was built at the end of the 16th and in the first three decades of the 17th century. It contains the Throne of St Peter, a 13th century seat cut from a funeral stone and inscribed with words from the Koran.  Built in the 1100s, The Church of San Michele degli Scalzi in Pisa has a Lombard Romanesque bell tower measuring 75 feet tall. The city of Pisa is built on soil that is barely above sea level and is composed of an unstable sand-clay mix which caused not only the famous Leaning Tower to lean, but also San Michele deglie Scalzi's tower to lean toward the River Arno.  The late Renaissance bell tower of San Stefano in Venice, built in 1544, is tilted more than 7 feet from vertical. Its leaning is caused by problems in cellars under the tower - the original wooden pilings are in bad condition, and it was built on sandy lagoon sediments. Hopefully this beautiful bell tower will not follow the fate of the original St. Mark's Campanile which collapsed in 1902.  North of Lake Trasimeno in Perugia outside of the town of Vernazzano is a unique leaning tower. This tower is a remnant of an ancient castle built before 1089. Vernazzano was an important defensive unit along the ancient road that led from Perugia to Cortona and was inhabited from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It was abandoned by the 18th century when rocky mountain under it moved after a strong earthquake. This leaning tower is frequented by hikers, Driving to Vernazzano, parking and walking along a wooded path to the dangerously leaning tower. This tower is being held up by an installation of steel girders and cables.  The Cathedral of Modena boasts its own tilting tower known as Ghirlandina, taking its name from the two rows of garland-like balustrades which crown it. It is viewed by the people of Modena as the symbol of their city. Ghirlandina did not only have the religious function deriving from its status as cathedral tower, but was also a defensive tower used to store important civic documents and charters. It reaches upward next to the cathedral nearly 290 feet tall. It is a combination of two architectural styles: the original square base is in Romanesque style, while the octagonal and pyramidal upper parts are Gothic. Work on the upper part began in 1261 and was completed in 1319.  Dating from the 11th century, the Campanile of the Cathedral of Santo Stefano in Caorle, just east of Venice, is a wonderful example of Romanesque style of architecture. It stands a proud 148 feet tall and sports a conical spire above its cylindrical shape. It was more than likely built as a watchtower or lighthouse for this small port town before becoming a bell tower. The tower is tilted nearly 1.4 ° east-Southeast, around about 1/3 the lean of Pisa's famous tower. Do Leaning Towers Ever Fall? After the collapse of St. Mark's tower in 1902  In a word--Yes. As far as we know, Venice’s famous St. Mark’s Campanile wasn't even leaning before it collapsed. During its 500 years it had been repeatedly struck by lightning, burned and damaged in several earthquakes. It might have been best to scrap the whole thing and start over after having suffered so much damage. Instead, they simply rebuilt the damaged parts, occasionally adding more height (and more weight) to the tower that was originally constructed sometime between 1148 and 1157. That wasn’t the greatest idea, given that the tower’s foundation consists of no more than vertical oak pilings driven into a bed of clay in the lagoon, then filled in with sand.  It took 10 years and $88,000 to rebuild St. Mark's tower. It’s no big surprise that the tower finally collapsed on July 14th, 1902. A large crack formed in the morning, rising diagonally across the main corner buttress. Falling stones within the bell chamber prevented any fatalities by warning bystanders that something was amiss. A new tower, with a much sturdier iron foundation, was built in the lost tower’s image. That is the tower we see today.  Many other towers have also fallen throughout Italy's history. In a country so geologically active, it's inevitable. For example, in 2012, the 13th century Torre dei Modenesi in the town of Finale Emilia (the name is rather foreboding), was partially collapsed by an earthquake that also killed six people. Following an aftershock, it collapsed completely. In keeping with the Italian spirit, it proudly stands today, rebuilt by its stubborn residents.  Some collapsed towers aren't meant to be rebuilt, it seems. Such is the case with the Torre Civica of Pavia which collapsed without warning in 1989. The reason for its collapse is still not known--perhaps the reason it hasn't been rebuilt. So, the next time you're in Italy and want to climb one of these towers, you might want to pause and imagine what it would feel like if even a small earthquake shook underneath your tower... Perhaps carry along a travel-parachute? And if you're in Bologna and stop dead in your tracks, gasp and look up at the leaning Twin Towers, just make sure you're not standing in the direction of their lean... --Jerry Finzi Copyright, 2017 Jerry Finzi/Grand Voyage Italy, All rights reserved   Honey - It doesn't have to be just clear and amber anymore.  Raisin Bagel, Millefiore Honey & Blueberries Italy does influence you after having soaked up the lifestyle... In this case, our love of Italian Millefiore honey for breakfast. Typically, a quick breakfast for me is some Frosted Flakes, skim milk and a bunch of blueberries--heart healthy, tasty, sweet, crunchy and fast. After all, as a 64 year old guy helping to get his 11 year old son ready for school, mornings can be a real rush. Sometimes not in a good way. Italians also like their breakfasts, but they are always much smaller than ours. No bacon, eggs and toast and coffee.... they like it light, simple, quick and sweet. In fact, most working Italians have theirs standing up in the local bar/tabacchi (more coffee/snack shop than what we know as a bar)... a quick espresso and something dolce--like a cornetto or a pasticiotte pastry--and they're on their way. I do make my own pasticiotti usually once a year (a sweet pasta frolla crust with vanilla custard filling). And although for breakfast, I'd love to have an almond filled cornetto (my favorite), I've never made one, and there are no Italian bakeries in the hills of Pennsyl-Tuckey where we happen to live. So, with the influences of Italy driving me, once in a while I come up with something really simple that reminds us of the tastes and lifestyle of Italy. We first fell in love with Miele di Millefiore (honey from a thousand flowers) in Tuscany and became engaged with it by the time we traveled in Puglia... now at home, we are married to it. We ate our supply in Italy before coming back home, so Lisa ordered a bunch of jars from an importer. Fantastico! I never really liked the pungent, gloppy, stickiness of American honeys. Those little golden bear bottles that you drizzle into a cup of herb tea when you have a cold--good enough for that, at least. The texture on my tongue was off-putting and the taste was OK, but nothing like Millefiore. The first thing you notice about millfiore honey from Italy (I tried one from Germany... way too harsh!) is the thick texture. It's more like a jam than honey. The colors of these types of honeys in Italy vary, from beige to yellow to orange, red, purple, brown and gold, depending on what type of flowers or trees the bees are working on (wildflowers, like in millefiore, chestnut trees, acacia trees, oranges, lime, etc.). The next thing is the taste. It's nutty, sweet but not too sweet like some jams, and very smooth on your tongue. Lisa describes it as creamy. When you put in on any warm bread it melts a bit... As it enters your mouth it melts further. The creaminess envelops your palette. Delizioso! So, this isn't really a recipe post, but an attempt to point you in the right direction in experimenting with Italian honey--miele di Italiano. There are many being sold in specialty gourmet shops, and you can find them when visiting the Italian mecca, Eataly in Manhattan. Ma... che cavallo... you can even find them on Amazon! So when you're being rushed in the morning, there's always a way to think and live Italian and tell yourself, "pour espresso from the Mokka, now... something bready, something sweet, bagel and creamcheese.... naw... where's the millefiore? What fruit do I have to top it off? Si! Mangia bene!", even if you have to take bites while you're standing or running around getting an 11 year old's lunch box ready, stuffing his backpack with an art T-shirt, cash for Pretzel Friday, his permission consent for the class trip, and last night's messy homework... oh, and that's right... gotta drive him 'cause the bus driver has been late all week... (Grabbing the bagel and honey as we go out the door...) Ahh... la vita è bella. --Jerry Finzi If you like this post, pour an espresso to perk you up, grab an English Muffin and honey and click the buttons down below to LIKE it. Buon giornata! Copyright, Jerry Finzi, Grand Voyage Italy, All rights reserved  The salami/mozzarella panini with passata dipping sauce.... Ceramic dipping cup made by Lucas in his ceramic class!  Our panini press In Italy, there is a saying,"buono come il pane"... or, "It's as good as bread". This saying is used to compliment the best cooking. Think about it... that's how high Italians value a food as simple as bread, to compare other meals to it. You can't get simpler or better than the humble panino... During our Voyage throughout Italy, one of the simplest lunches was the affordable and cheap panino. We were making panini long before we went to my Babbo-land, but since we got back, I think they've gotten better and better. One of our favorite appliances is the Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler. Lisa uses the flat plates for making pancakes and I use the grill plates to make panini. We buy ciabatta with olive oil from the supermarket and can make fantastic panini in about 5 minutes. A Short Panino History: The word "panino" literally means "little breads". In Latin, panis means bread. A panino doesn't really need to be heated, as in Italy it is often eaten as a quick snack on the run, in the field, or in the case of an Italian bachelor.... "Ehi! Mamma, make me a snack!". Stuff some peppers and ham inside a small bread roll and Mama gives her big "bambino" a satisfying, quick snack without much effort. (She thinks, "After he gets married, HE is going to look after ME.") This type more precisely is called a Panino imbottito, literally "stuffed little bread", i.e. a sandwich. Throughout early history, bread was considered an entire meal, until it became the support or container for a condiment or filling--the sandwich. The first reference of a panino appeared in a 16th-century Italian cookbook, with the first mention of "panini" appearing in 1954 in the New York Times in an article about an Italian festival in Harlem: "The visitors ate Italian sausage, also pizze fritta, zeppole, calzone, torrone, panini, pepperoni, and taralli." Panini as we know them today, became trendy in Milanese bars, called paninoteche, in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, in Italy during the Eighties, a cultural fad developed in Milano where teens would meet in panino bars,... the teens were called paninnare. In Sicily, Panini cresciuti ("grown rolls") are fried Sicilian potato rolls containing ham and cheese. Today in Italy, shops that specialize in panini are called panineria, although many of these have morphed into offering a smörgåsbord of many types of sandwiches, not just the classic panino. In Italy, sandwich shops traditionally wrap the bottom of a panino in a sheet of white paper, a way to keep hands clean while making this a true finger food. Our Panino: This time I made our panini with slices of salami-mozzarella roll (Boar's Head brand "Panino" roll is nice and spicy, and they also have a Prosciutto version), becoming a commonplace item in the supermarket fresh cheese section. I learned in Italy that some of the best things can be very simple. This lunch is a good example of this philosophy. You can also get more creative too... using grated cheeses like fontina, asiago, smoked gouda or cacciacavalo and using leftover chicken, prosciutto, sausage, caramelized onions, olives, peppers... whatever. I highly recommend using a bit of smoked cheese which adds tons of flavor. Today's panino, however, was an ad hoc, simple lunch, like the ones I threw together in Italy. I cut the ciabatta in 5 inch long sections the sliced each horizontally and unfolded them to open. I then slice the salami-mozzeralla into slices a bit less than 1/4" thick and lay 4 on each ciabatta. Some say you need to butter the outside of your bread or brush it with olive oil to make grill marks or a crust, but I omit this step, preferring less fat intake. I prefer nothing on the outside makes for a crispier, less greasy crust. (This is a finger food, after all). Generally speaking, if you want to cook in an authentically Italian manner, don't use butter. Butter is rarely used in Italian cooking and is never spread on bread. Drizzle your ingredients with a little olive oil or perhaps a good balsamic, or even a decent store bought Italian dressing. I like to add slices of one large cherry tomato to give some moisture to my panini. Black olives are great also or other giardinaria (pickled veggies) are also a good choice. My son, Lucas loves sweet pimentos on his. Setting my panini press to "grill" and to high heat, I let it preheat for a couple of minutes and then loaded in the panini (I can only do 2 at a time of this size). I give it a good pressing at the beginning and try to position the bread (front to back... there's a sweet spot) so the press lid sits flat. After about 2-3 minutes, I give a final press--hearing the panini sizzle. I hold this press for about 30-40 seconds, pull them out, plate them and slice diagonally into triangles. With panini, the longer you press it and hear the ingredients sizzle, the more crunch you will have in your bread. Too many people think a panini is buttered and grilled bread with cold cuts put inside unheated, and many restaurants order packaged sandwich bread with grill marks factory-burned into their crusts, then use it to make make a normal sandwich, calling it a panini. Shame! A true panini must be pressed and heated to meld the ingredients (that's meld, not melt) into one cohesive, gooey mess of deliciousness. And take note, if you use cold cuts and sliced cheese, the cheese must be placed both on top and on the bottom--the melted cheese helps hold the bread together. A panini is not a sandwich... you should not be able to lift the bread off after it's been pressed and cooked.  Passata In Italy, a passata is the most basic of tomato sauces--in fact, it's usually the base of a good sauce recipe. Typically, you can buy passata in bottles in a supermercado or alimentari with "passada pomodoro" on the label. (Click HERE to try Cento brand Passata on Amazon) Passata is nothing more than uncooked, crushed and sieved fresh tomatoes--usually a very high quality tomato at that. What I made was quick-cooked version... with spices added. Also, this is not a "marinara" sauce. The Italian word "mare" means sea. A true marinara is a tomato sauce for or with a fish ingredient... clams, mussels, anchovies, etc. To about 1-1/2 cups of passata I added 1 teaspoon of dried oregano (use double of chopped fresh if you have it), plus 1 teaspoon of dried basil, a pinch of salt, a quick shake of pepperoncino (red pepper flakes) and 1 teaspoon of sugar. (The sugar is needed to cut the acid of the San Marzano tomatoes typically used to make passata). That's it. I stirred it, nuked it for 1 minute 45 seconds in the microwave and presto... a fantastic, fresh tasting dipping sauce! Enjoy... Buon Appetito! --Jerry Finzi Copyright, Jerry Finzi, Grand Voyage Italy, All rights reserved
 The Department of State has developed a Passport Card as a more portable and less expensive alternative to the traditional passport book. The passport card is a basic component of the PASS (People Access Security Service) system announced in January 2006, and meets the specific requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) to secure and expedite travel, a provision of the Intelligence Reform Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires citizens of the United States, Canada, and Bermuda to have a passport or other designated document that establishes the bearer's identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. The passport card is the credit card-sized travel document that can only be used to re-enter the United States at land border-crossings and sea ports-of-entry from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. The card provides a less expensive, smaller, and convenient alternative to the passport book for those who travel frequently to these destinations by land or by sea. The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air, however it can be used as proof of identity in Europe. Valid for international travel by air, sea, or land. The passport card has a vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. Laser engraving and state-of-the-art security features minimize the possibility of counterfeiting and forgery. The card is issued with a protective sleeve that prevents the card from being read when not in use. The RFID technology used in the passport card will enable the card to be read at a distance by an authorized CBP reader mounted alongside the traffic lane (for instance, Canadian border crossing). The chip contains no biographic data as is the case with the e-passport. The chip will have a unique number linking the card to a secure database maintained by DHS and State. However, to address concerns that passport card bearers can be tracked by this technology, the card comes with a RFID shield sleeve that will prevent the card from being read while inside it. There are travel wallets that also contain such shields. Should I Carry a Passport Card to Italy or other European Countries? Even though it's is only recognized at border crossings for Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Carribean, I think it would still be a useful addition to your travel wallet. You should always keep your regular passport in a secure place--some keep it in hotel safes, but I suggest using a money belt, leg wallet or other secure method of carrying it. I would use the Passport Card as a backup in case your Passport is lost or stolen. One person can carry the passports, the other can be responsible for the Passport Cards. Keep it in a separate place away from your normal passport. I might even keep it in my money clip wallet with my daily cash, main cash card and driver's license. It would function as a second method of identification, such as when renting a car or with local officials, such as the police. I would NOT leave the Passport card with anyone as it has your passport number on it. Think if it as merely a backup to your regular passport. Even then, I would still keep a scanned image of your normal passport in a secure file on your smart phone (preferably via an online storage service like DropBox.) Keep in mind, the Passport Card doesn't show your visa and/or entry stamp so they can't determine if you are in the country legally or not. So, it may be accepted as proof of WHO you are but not WHY you are in the country. So, for I.D. and backup use, and to help in case you lose your regular passport, yes. For international travel documentation in Europe, no. How do I get a Passport Card? To apply for a card, you use the same form that you would use to apply for a passport book (DS-11 or DS-82). There is a checkbox on the form for you to indicate that you are applying for a passport card. If you already have a passport book and you are eligible to use Form DS-82 (renewal by mail), you may apply for a passport card using DS-82 even if this is your first passport card. Otherwise you will need to use form DS-11 to apply for a passport card. The same one photo requirement for the passport book is true for the passport card. Valid when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry. Not valid for international travel by air.
Cost for first time applicants when buying regular passport and card: Adults: $165 Minors: $120 --Jerry Finzi
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