There are 209 families with the Finzi name in Italy. This is what I discovered after using the mapping tool on the ITALIANNAMES.COM website. The tool is one of the best of this type that I've found on the Web. It's easy to use and can zoom into to particular regions. After typing in your family name and doing the initial search, click the "see how they are distributed in Italy" button. You will get a map of Italy numbering how many families have your name in each region. Click on a particular region and it will zoom in to show the towns they are living in.
If you want to find out more specifics, you could look up your family name in the Italian White Pages along with the name of a town and get both addresses and phone numbers. In case you want to know what your family names mean, here is a site which lists the Origins and Etymology of Italian Surnames... both the meaning and where the name originated. Good luck in your family research! --Jerry Finzi You can also follow Grand Voyage Italy on: Google+ StumbleUpon Tumblr
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Renato Bialetti, the the inventor of the Moka, the iconic Italian coffee maker, passed away on February 11th at the age of 93 in Ascona. His father Alonso started the business in 1933, with Renato taking over in 1946. Renato's desire was to make the Moka "the" ultimate coffee maker in the whole world--not just Italy. He started by designing a logo of Omino coi Baffi (Little Man with a Mustache), imprinted on each and every Moka manufactured. Of course, as all Italians know, the man with the mustache was none other than Renato himself. In 1933, babbo Alfonso designed the first aluminum stovetop espresso coffee maker. Still today, it has a decidedly Art Deco, mechanical design which suited the turbulent times of change that rocked Italy at the time. This coffee machine, The Moka Express, would find itself in 90% of all Italian homes--forever changing the culture of Italian coffee. This little coffee pot changed the fabric of Italian society and culture... Before the Moka, coffee (typically, espresso) was generally consumed in public coffee bars. These bars sold the vast majority of all coffee consumed in Italy. They were also places of political talk and revolution. But, public coffee bars were typically a place only for men... their home away from home. Once women got their hands on the Moka, they too could have their cup of espresso and discuss worldly affairs with their neighbors and friends. The Moka could be seen as helping women in their emancipation. Nowadays, virtually every household in Italy has at least one Moka pot, but when we voyaged through Italy, we noticed that people seem to have more than one--Even Lisa now has three... a large Papa Moka, Moma Moka and a tiny baby Moka. She loves the flavor she gets out of them, even though I think they are a bit of a pain to keep clean. How to Use a Moka First, unscrew and separate the upper pot from the bottom. Fill the boiler (the bottom compartment of the pot) with water almost up to the safety release valve. Next, insert the funnel shaped metal filter and add fine ground coffee. The finer the ground, the more authentic the espresso taste... but you might have some fine grounds at the bottom of your cup. Lisa suggests experimenting with different brands and grinds to decide which gives you the best flavor. Lisa prefers Cafe Verona from Starbucks. After adding coffee grounds, tightly screw the upper part onto the base. Then place the pot on a small burner on medium flame. If you use a large burner, you'll overheat or melt the handle. The water is brought up to a boil with steam created and sent from the boiler up through the funnel. The steam eventually reaches a high enough pressure to gradually force the surrounding boiling water up the funnel through the coffee powder and into the upper chamber, where the coffee is collected. Here's the important part... knowing when the espresso is finished. When the lower chamber is almost empty, bubbles and steam combine and make a characteristic gurgling noise. This "strombolian phase" (name for the famous Sicilian volcano) allows a mixture of superheated steam and water to pass through the coffee, which leads to bitter, overdone espresso. So don't leave your Moka alone and stop the brewing as soon as you hear this gurgling. Moka pots include a pressure release valve in case the filter area gets clogged--a rare occurrence, as long as you keep your pot clean. require periodic replacement of the rubber seal and the filters, and a check that the safety release valve is not blocked. You might want to consider one accessory for your Moka pot to help with an awkward gas cooktop grate design that might not create a solid base when you put your pot on top. Here is a link to a 5 inch Ilsa Gas Ring Reducer for around $9 on Amazon. You place this over the existing grate and creates a stable platform that won't let your Moka tip over. And if you ever do need parts (handle, filter, rubber gaskets, etc.) Amazon carries just about everything you need to keep your Moka running up to par. On July 4, 1957 the first of the Fiat 500 Nuova were introduced to the public in Turino. In a massive public relations stunt, a procession Fiat 500s, each with a beauty queen on board, drove from the factory. At the same time driving in Rome a similar procession to St. Peter's Square. Coming to be known as the Cinquecento (cheen-qway-CENT-o... Italian for "500"), its sales were slow in the beginning, because prior to its release, the water-cooled Fiat 600 (the Seicento, produced from 1955 - 1969) was enormously popular and Fiat didn't want to swamp the market with yet another model. Eventually, they produced nearly 3.5 million copies of the Nuova 500 until 1975. TRIVIA: Fiat is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino The first Nuova 500 was referred to as "N" model, with backwards opening "suicide" doors, no heater, fixed rear side windows and a fabric roof opening all the way to the rear. It was spartan, to say the least--and tiny--a mere 9'9" long. It was designed as an every-man's car... a family car for essential trips around town. Besides the two-door coupé, the Cinquecento was also available as the Giardiniera Estate. It featured the standard engine mounted on its side, and a longer wheelbase (about 4") which allowed the designers to put in a larger rear seat. To top it off, a full-length fabric sunroof completed the picture, and made it easier to transport tall objects. Made famous in classic auto races, performance models were produced by Abarth, as well as by Giannini. A close cugino (cousin) to the original Fiat 500 and 600, the Multipla (commonly known as the Seicento Famigliare--"Family 600") was primarily based on the Fiat 600 and sat six people in fairly small size. The driver's compartment was moved forward over the front axle, effectively eliminating the front storage trunk, but giving it a modern "minivan" appearance. It could be configured with either a flat cargo area behind the front seats or a choice of one or two bench seats. This popular people and cargo mover was a very popular taxi in many parts of Italy up until the 1970s. There even was a beach car version called the Marinella created by car design shop Carrozzeria Ghia. I personally love practical cars, and loved driving the new Fiat 500L (called the "Large" in Italy) during our Voyage through Italy. We've owned three minivans in our family and would love to see a new version of the Multipla brought to the U.S. in a family minivan configuration. Fiat did introduce a modern version of the Multipla from 1998 to 2010, but despite acclaim for it's bold design (I loved its amazing visibility due to huge windows) slack sales outside of Italy doomed the model. The legendary automobile coachbuilder Ghia (of Volkswagon Kamann Ghia fame) also created one of my all time favorite cars based on the Cinquecento... the fun-sounding Jolly. The chassis was made by Fiat but everything else was built by Ghia. The little car with a surrey on top was really designed for the rich--as a small car that could be hoisted on and off mega-yachts tooling around the Mediterranean. Even oil magnate, Aristotle Onassis (Jackie Kennedy's second hubby) owned one. It was a perfect seaside runabout to go from marina to golf course to dinner and back to the marina... while keeping the sun off of the heads of the rich, famous and film stars. Because of the elite that usually bought them, each one was customized. Besides the canopy, it had no doors and wicker seats. Very cool car... nowadays going for a couple of hundred thousand dollars at classic car auctions. Supposedly, there are less than 100 left in the world. Of course, this brings us to the current incarnation of the Cinquecento... the Fiat 500 (Type 312). Introduced in 2007, its new styling is reminiscent of Fiat's original 1957 Nuova. It holds four passengers fairly comfortably with a front rather than rear engine, has front wheel drive, and is offered in a three door hatchback and two door cabriolet styles. It was great to see Fiat's return to the American market after 27 years... I owned a red Fiat 128 station wagon back in the Seventies during the oil embargo and odd-even gas rationing days. I got 30 miles to the gallon while most back then got about 6. I've test driven the modern Cinquecento and love it... although it small, even for our "we three" family. The advent of the Fiat 500L and 500X change all that. These are bigger, four door models with plenty of room for small families. Lucas loved having a raised rear "theater" seat in the "L" while we traveled through Italy... giving him much better views. We also liked having the glove box drink chiller--a very welcome thing in hot Italia. All in all, the Fiat 500 was--and still is--one of the most important, practical designs for people movers on the planet. When you live in a country Italy with winding roads, limited parking spaces, narrow streets in most villages and the price of fuel always grabbing cash out of your wallet, the ubiquitous Cinquecento simply makes sense... Bravo Fiat! Bravo Italia! --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. And don't forget to tell your friends about our blog... Ciao! Fiat Wall Art... find them HERE...
Nowadays we buy all sorts of toys for our children, starting them off with the simplest ones: balls, pull-toys, rattles and such. When Lucas was a baby boy, his favorite was a cushy soft ball with a rattles inside--"Shakey Shakey"--he always like to squeeze it tight and shake it. Then there was his spinning top, the kind you pump down on for it to spin. Lots of twirling colors delighted him. Then there was his bouncer, with it's assortment of colorful gizmos for him to touch, hear and chew on. And at 12, he still sleeps with his oldest and dearest friends... his plush "Cushy Bear" and "Moo-Cow". Kids were always kids... even in the ancient world parents gave their kids toys... First of all, the Romans had something for baby... the Crepundia. This was a string or leather lace strung with small toys and ornaments in the form of flowers, swords, axes and other tools, and lucky charm shapes, like a half moon. The resulting necklace was hung around a baby's neck to amuse him with their shapes, colors and rattling sounds. Of course, many first toys used by plebeian children were made from things found in nature: rocks, sticks, clay, acorns, pine cones, or vines or husks made into primitive dolls. Sometimes childhood fun is as simple as that. A game called Battledore, resembling badminton, used flat paddles hitting pine cones back and forth, or cork with feathers stuck into them used as the shuttlecocks. Pebbles could become a game with the dirt becoming a game board or a place to draw with a pointy stick. . And of course there were dolls... made from fabric and stuffing, carved from wood or made from terracotta. Modern parents would have a hard time picturing a child cuddling up to a terracotta dolly. I wonder how many must have been broken in a tantrum during the Terribili Due (the Terrible Twos). For the toddlers, there were pull toys made of terracotta or wood in all sorts of animal shapes. Some pull toys were horses and chariots... one can imagine a young boy playing the part of the latest charioteer champion. As a boy got older, he might build a little cart to hitch a mouse to. As a kid, I remember putting my hamster behind the wheel of a remote control Model-T Ford model that I had... I loved watching him with his little paws on the steering wheel, going round and round. He seemed to like it, too. The older boys and girls had outdoor toys... sticks and hoops, balls, yo-yos, swings, bow and arrows, sling shots, hobby horses, marbles, and games similar to kick-the-can, hide-and-seek and tag. And you can imagine some great racing games using toys with wheels on them... "My chariot can beat your ox cart! I'll bet 5 marbles that I can!" Sling shots--the same type David used to slay the Giant--came in useful to teach young boys how to hunt. And swimming was enormously popular for Roman boys. They would either go to a special swimming pool (Roman baths were too shallow for "plunging") or to the river. Boys were taught to swim as part of their formal education. Of course, all a kid needed to do was have a ball and a stick and he'd make up a game. If he didn't have a ball, a rock or pine cone would do. When I was a boy we played stickball with an old broomstick and a cheap 10 cent pink ball called a Spalding (Spaldeen, we called it). Even thousands of years ago kids had games similar to field hockey or baseball or basketball--they had baskets, after all. Games were popular too, just like today. One of the most common was tic-tac-toe--played just as we do today, with Xs and Os. Some were carved into walls while most games were just scratched into the ground for temporary fun. Another similar game, Rota, was played with small stones on a layout that looked like pizza cut into 8 slices. Cube shaped dice, as we know them, were around for at least 5000 years. There were always dice games, many for children and others for adult gambling. A precursor of dice, and a popular game, in and of itself, is Knucklebones (also called astragaloi), a game usually played with five or ten small bones. In ancient times, the "knucklebones" were the the actual knucklebones (astragalus), small ankle bones of a sheep, although there are ancient "bones" made from precious gems, bronze or glass. The oldest version of a knucklebones game determined a winner depending on which side of the knucklebones landed facing up. (Both sides are distinctly different in shape.) In another, the bones were tossed up in a manner similar to modern Jacks, with one knucklebone tossed into the air, and the player trying to pick up as many others as possible while it is airborne. Curiously, differently shaped bones would be worth different points. In another Roman game called Tali, the knucklebones are marked as dice are, with dots representing numbers--the resulting toss gives a player a hand to beat, similar to dice or playing cards. You can actually still purchase Knucklebone pieces. There was also a game called Tabula that was very similar to backgammon of today, except it was played with three dice, but for most part, dice games of chance were left to adults--especially soldiers--for gambling. Still, boys have to learn the game from someone. I can imagine a father teaching his son how to play, as I've taught Lucas to play backgammon. An interesting fact is that when Greek and Roman girls, "came of age" (at 12-14 years old) it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood. And yes... girls were married off after the age of 12. Here are some other facts about what childhood was like in the Ancient World:
If a kid got bored with his toys, there was always spending time with his best friend, Il Cane, who might be called Craugis (Yapper) or Asbolos (Soot) or Scylax (Puppy). The ancient Romans loved using Greek names for their pet dogs. I sure did... first with Teddy, then with Prince and most of all with Sargent Pepper when I was a teen.
Have fun! Ciao bambini! --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. And don't forget to stop back soon... Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon No one really knows when chariot racing started, but the Greeks had chariot races during the first millennium BC and made the races part of the Ancient Olympics in 680 BC. Of course, chariots themselves were in use 4000 years ago. The most important development was a wheel with spokes. Carts being pulled by animals--mostly oxen--were in use as early as 6000 years ago... but having an oxen as your main engine was very low torque--like a Mac truck. "Engines" improved slowly... at first a donkey or even a goat... sort of like early Model-T Ford runabouts. Then higher horsepower came in the form of mules and horses, one horsepower to start. The first chariots were used as delivery and work vehicles. The history of NASCAR racing started with delivery vehicles, too. During the period of Prohibition in the 1920s, a bunch of backwoods good ol' boys smuggled liquor in from Canada or bootlegged whiskey (moonshine) from the tobacco fields of Georgia through to Chicago, New York and other big cities. Especially in the deep South, illegal booze was transported with with stock cars... they needed to look like every other car so as not to attract much attention. But special equipment was needed for the task at hand: heavy shocks and springs were added for the weighty loads of filled bottles and jars, and for smoothing the ride when driving fast on bumpy, unpaved roads; a high-powered engine was needed to deliver their booty quickly and to leave chasing authorities in the dust. High performance stock cars were born when Federal agents took chase... You can imagine that chariots started out also as "stock" units, with additions and modifications needed to accomplish their task. Adding a horse in place of a goat (more horsepower--literally) meant goods could make it to market faster and beat the competition. Perhaps this is where chariot racing started... two lemon growers meeting on the road and trying to beat each other to market. I'm certain that Greek and Roman officials taxed wine heavily, giving the ancient wine producer reason to race their "special" supply of wines past tax collectors to their regular clientele. Up until the 1st century AD, chariots were also used in the military--racing to overcome the enemy, or perhaps betting on who would get to the battlefield first, might have also planted the seed of chariot racing. Special performance equipment on chariots continued to advance. In Ancient Rome, a two horse chariot was called a biga, a three horse chariot was a triga, and a supercharged, four horse power chariot was called a quadriga. Vroom, Vroom! The horse chariot was a fast and lightweight vehicle and was indeed Spartan inside... again, like a NASCAR vehicle. There was barely a floorboard, no windows, and a waist-high guard at the front and sides. It must have been as uncomfortable a ride as what NASCAR race drivers have to put up with. Unlike other Olympic events, charioteers in Greek races did not perform their sport in the nude. Like NASCAR drivers, they wore safety gear: The clothing was itself their safety gear... a sleeved garment called a xystis went down to the ankles and had a belt fastened at the waist. Two criss-crossed straps across the back prevented the xystis from filling up with air during the race. Roman charioteers wore more protective gear--perhaps because most were not slaves, but paid professionals. They word helmets, leg guards, body armor or chain mail and wrapped the reins around their forearms. In case of a crash they would be dragged along the ground and could be killed, so one final bit of protection was to carry a falx (a curved knife), used to cut their reins away in an emergency. When official chariot racing became popular, it wasn't the driver who owned the horses and chariot. Just as in NASCAR, there were team owners. In 416 BC, the Athenian general Alcibiades had seven chariots in the race, and came in first, second, and fourth. He obviously hired drivers to be at the wheel... er... at the reigns, that is. Unlike NASCAR drivers who some might argue are slaves to their sponsors, many drivers (who remain unknown to this day) were actual slaves. The racetrack--called a Hippodrome (Greek) or a Circus (Roman)--was oval with tight turns on either end, just like (getting tired of saying this) NASCAR courses. Chariots went around and around, counterclockwise, with nothing but left turns (sound familiar?) These turns were deadly and many crashes occurred. Although running into an opponent with the intent to cause a crash was strictly forbidden--it was tolerated because it made the crowds go wild. The ancient Greek and Roman spectators loved crashes, as they loved any blood sports of the day. Modern NASCAR spectators are conflicted--as loyal fans, they don't want to see their favorite drivers injured or killed, but just as the ancient spectators, when a crash happens, they get an Adrenalin rush and a thrill they'll remember for a lifetime. Chariot races began with a procession into the hippodrome, while a herald announced the names of the drivers and owners--he had to be a very loud public speaker, indeed. NASCAR tracks have lots of loudspeakers. On the flip side, aside from cheering crowds and the sound of horses hooves on a dirt track and the occasional cracking of wood during a crash, a chariot race must have been a quiet affair when compared to the off-the-scale high decibel assault the NASCAR fan must endure as car after car go revving by for hours on end at up to 200 miles per hour! The smells were very different too... horse poop versus the exhaust from 110 octane fuel and burning rubber... A race called the tethrippon (in Greek regions) had twelve laps around the track, while Roman races often had 7 laps to allow more races in a single day for betting--Romans and gambling went together more than in the Greek culture. Even more interesting is the way the races were started. In the same way that NASCAR uses a pace car to get cars up to starting speed before checkered flag starts the race, the Ancients used mechanical devices to accomplish a similar task for a rolling--or rather--galloping start. The starting gates were lowered and staggered in a way so the chariots on the outside lanes began the race earlier than those on the inside. The race only began when each chariot was lined up next to each other--"keeping pace". Chariots in the outside lanes would be moving faster than the ones on the inner lanes. While flags are used in modern auto racing, mechanical devices shaped like eagles and dolphins were raised to start the race. Dolphins were lowered with each successive lap. In Rome, often the Emperor himself would start the race by dropping a white cloth called a mappa. In the end, the winners were given their awards right away. A olive wreath was placed on their head. In the Roman Empire there would be cash awards or possibly a gift of a slave for the charioteer. Fame was alsoo part of the game, as is the case today. Scorpus, a celebrated driver won over 2000 races before being killed in a collision at the ripe age of 27. Most charioteers had a short life expectancy. The most famous driver was Gaius Appuleius Diocles who won 1,462 out of 4,257 races. When Diocles retired at the age of 42 (after 24 years) his career winnings 35,863,120 sesterces--approximately 15 billion dollars today--making him the highest paid sports star in human history. A couple of more interesting differences: Women weren't permitted at the races as they are today; and while today's largest NASCAR racetracks hold under 150,000 spectators, the Circus Maximus in Rome held 250,000! Gentlemen, start your... er... feed your horses! Go! --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. And don't forget to stop back soon... Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon When I first learned how to drive a motorcycle in the Early seventies, one of the more difficult skills to master was not driving fast, but driving at what is typically called "parking lot" speed... s l o w l y... yet still being able to keep the bike upright and make turns without putting your feet down. I'm pretty good at it, even if I must say so myself. But just wait til you see this... Here are a couple of videos from the 1950s showing an elite synchronized police motorcycle team, driving Motto Guzzi Polizia Stradale bikes. Some of their maneuvers are driving precisely and very slowly. Amazing stuff. Enjoy! --Jerry Finzi
If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. And don't forget to stop back soon... Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon Lisa and I have always loved the Godfather series of films. It's Shakespearean in its characters and has all the same pathos, murder, mayhem, family jealousies and political posturing as the old I Claudius series about Roman Emperors on BBC and PBS years ago. But one thing had always bothered me... the out of sync chronological order of the plot line between Godfather and Godfather Part II. We don't get to know how young Vito dealt with his early life until Godfather II. Back in 1977, NBC aired a 4 night mini-series called The Godfather Saga that addressed this problem.... putting the scenes in chronological order. The film starts with young Vito as a boy in Sicily in 1902 and moves the story along seamlessly until 1959. I loved that series but was never able to find it on videotape or disc. Well, HBO has done something very special in offering The Godfather Epic, a 7 hour version which combines Godfather and Godfather Part II--chronologically. As a bonus, there also "additional material" included in this release. I can't wait. I've already kicked my HD Tivo unit into gear to record the show, with its second airing on normal HBO channels this weekend, but both HBO Go and HBO Now are making a new streaming offer (press releases are saying it's an "offer you can't refuse", but I won't go there.)
The Epic has already aired on HBO on Jan. 17, but is being shown again on Saturday, January 23rd at 9pm on HBO. Now, I'm not sure if it's the original version aired on NBC years ago, but on Friday night, January 29th at 9pm, HBOZ is showing The Godfather Saga. Since a 7 hour HD recording takes up a lot of hard drive space on my Tivo unit, I'll only record the Epic version. I wonder if they are much different anyway. Supposedly, Epic is remastered and re-edited with those additional scenes so perhaps the Saga is really the older, 1977 version. In my opinion, either one is a better way to watch the Godfather story told in both films. So, here's my challenge: Set aside 424 minutes this Saturday night (or Friday, if you're Saga-inclined) and see if you can make it all the way through the showing in one sitting. I have a feeling that many of you have honed your tolerance by binge watching multiple episodes of your favorite streaming shows anyway... Afterwards, let us know what you thought about it! --Jerry (Sleeps with the Dishes) Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon If you want to get a good feel for what Rome looked like about 2000 years ago, check out this wonderful animation with architectural recreations of the city... some things look remarkably like the Rome of today while other things will surprise and delight you. Click the video to travel back in time... The Trinacria (or triskelion) is recognizable to every Sicilian and Sicilian-American. The ancient symbol represents the three sided island at the tip of Italy's boot (sorry for the metaphor). The word, from the Greek, means triangle and refers to the shape of Sicilia-- referred to by the ancients as the Star with Three Points. The three bent running legs represent the three capes of Sicily, Peloro , Passero and Lilibeo--all creating the points of the triangular island. The three legs, like the beautiful legs of a woman, are said to symbolize the three coastlines of white, sensual, sandy beaches that run along all three coastlines (nearly 1500 miles of beaches!) Perseus, after cutting off the snaked head of Medusa, gave the head to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In the Trinacria, just as on Athena's shield, the head of Medusa wards off any invaders, lest they be turned into stone. The three leafy flourishes intermingled with the legs represent the fertility of Sicily--stalks of wheat. At one time, Sicily was the bread basket of the Roman Empire. Historians tell us that Spartan fighters carved a white leg bent at the knee (a symbol of strength) onto their shields. So perhaps there is also another meaning to the legs. Some say the legs are running while others say the legs are spinning. The Trinacria has been on the Sicilian flag since 1943, when Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile lead an independence movement with the allies. After WWII, it was officially used in the design of Sicilian flag when the Republic of Italy recognized Sicily as an autonomous region. The use of the Trinacria is much more ancient, however.... it appeared on Syracusan coins from the 4th century BC. Just like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I'll prove to you that the word "Trinacria" is Greek: Homer, in the Odyssey, writing about Sicily's triangular shape used the the Greek word Thrinakie, which comes from the Greek thrinax (three peaks). This proves origins of the Trinacria is in ancient Greece. OK, enough the film's ideas from a Greek Dad. (Next I'll be telling you how spraying Windex on a pimple clears it right up!) The origin of Trinacria is more widespread and complex than that. The Trinacria's shape is often referred to as a triskelion; this shape can be found in many places among the general Mediterranean Basin region and in many European countries like France, Sicily, Crete, Greece, the North African coast, and the Isle of Man. Celtics use a similar shape in their coins and decorative motifs. Ancient coins depicting Trinacria were found in present day Turkey. The symbol has also been found on many ancient Greek ceramics... in southern Italy and Sicily. Keep in mind that Sicily, along with Italy, was once part of ancient Greece. Some triskelions found in these locations date from as early as the eighth century BC. A modern day triskelion from the 1950s appears in that little plastic insert adapter needed to play large hole 45 rpm records on a thin spindled turntable. Although the Trinacria appeared on coins and other archaeological artifacts in Mediterranean cultures for thousands of years, the Isle of Man has been using the symbol in an official capacity long before Sicilians. The Normans arriving in Sicily in 1072, borrowed and modified the design of the the Trinacria and brought it back to the Isle of Man, and since 1270 used it to replace the Viking ship on their previous flag. Their similar three legs wear armor and the boots have spurs, but Medusa and the wheat are missing. The Latin motto surrounding the Trinacria on the Royal coat of arms for the Isle of Man reads, “Quocunque Jeceris Stabit”--“Whichever way you throw, it will stand”. The true origins of the Trinacria are debated because of it's widespread use in some form or another in the ancient world. But there is no argument that this strange looking symbol has become emblazoned on the hearts and minds of every Sicilian. Here's a little music video with cheery Sicilian music and a showcase of Trinacria of all types... --Jerry Finzi
If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon Ok, so maybe when I was a kid I was not exactly like other kids. I didn't really go for baseball or football. My Mother told me that I could draw long before I could talk. I was an artist and a sculptor my early life and then became a photographer. Art has always attracted me--good art, that is. So what does this have to do with olive oil tins? Well, growing up we always bought our olive oils in metal, rectangular tin cans. Most of them had amazing beautiful graphics decorating them. Imagine that... the same thing that made my Mother's meatballs taste great, also had some dreamy, other worldly art on the outside of the tin. I couldn't resist. I loved the classical scenes or Old Italy, family crests and heralds, the fancy script fonts used in the words, the scroll work borders and those amazing, bold Italian colors. To me, the images spoke of far away places. Some of the artwork actually looked three dimensional to my young artist eyes... but I didn't know if they were popping out into my world or trying to pull me into theirs... Here's a little sampling of some wonderful olive oil tins... Enjoy. --Jerry Finzi
If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon --Jerry Finzi
If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon As a boy, olives were one of my favorite things. I especially loved black olives. I'd eat them at holidays, but I'd also have them for snacks. I loved black olives in the can mostly, but also loved those little green olives stuffed with little red sweet jewels of pepper. Then there were the special olives we'd get at the Italian deli--the wrinkled looking salty gems. Once in my awkward years of puberty when I had gained a bit too much weight, I fasted for two weeks doing yoga at the beach and eating nothing but black olives. It's no wonder they kept me alive (and allowed me to lose 22 pounds in 2 weeks)... they contain all the basics of life: fat (monounsaturated, the healthy stuff), sugars, protein, many vitamins and all sorts of minerals. Still today, olives are an important part of our pantry... we love them on pizza... of course, the pizza is also drizzled with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil... Growing up in an Italian household, olive oil was King. Mom used it in her "Sunday Gravy", to fry meatballs and chicken, in salads... Dad fried his peppers and brains and liver in it. I can't remember a time when our kitchen pantry didn't have at least a few large, beautifully decorated rectangular cans of imported olive oil sitting inside the bottom cupboard. Olives have a very long domesticated history going back over 6000 years. Humans didn't start to make olive oil until only 2500 years BC... it took about 1500 years for Man to figure out that pressing olives produced the nectar of the Gods--Olive Oil. The olive tree first was cultivated in the Middle East. From Greece it went to Spain in the 4th Century B.C. It was introduced to France around 650 B.C. and finally found its way to Italy around 550 B.C. During the Renaissance, Italy became the largest producer of olive oil in the world, renowned for its rich and flavorful oils that graced the tables of nobles and royalty throughout Europe. In this same period, olive trees were brought to the new world, where the trees flourished in the California mild weather--a climate very similar to that of the Mediterranean. Early in history, olive oil was used for much more than cooking: lamp fuel, lubricant, to keep the body warm, perfumes, pharmaceutical ointments, anointing royalty and warriors, as a cleansing agent for the body and as a medium for long term food storage. Modern Palmolive soap was originally made from olive oil... it's even in the name! PalmOLIVE. Cooking with olive oil began in the 5th century BC as talked about by Plato. Plato even taught his students under the canopy of an olive tree. The Roman historian Pliny wrote, "Except the vine, there is no plant which bears a fruit of as great importance as the olive." The Greek philosopher Democritus believed a diet of honey and olive oil would allow a man to live 100 years. Currently, the second oldest person in the world is Italian. (Click here to read about her) Perhaps there is some truth in that after all. Is What We Buy Fake Extra Virgin? If the recent 60 Minutes report entitled Agromafia is to be believed, the Mafia in Italy is taking cheap North African olive oil, sunflower or canola oil and modifying the oils to fake the taste of genuine Extra Virgin Olive oil. Some estimates say that up to 80% of all extra virgin olive oil sold in the US could fail to meet the standards of Extra Virgin olive oil. Italy has actually started investigations into seven of the country's largest olive oil producers for cutting their expensive exports with lesser oils. There's lot's of money to be made by faking the real stuff... The best can sell for $50 per gallon, but a fake costs just seven dollars to make. The profits can be three times the profits made by dealing cocaine. More than 60 police officers make up a Task--or should I say--Taste Force to find, taste and stop the export of bogus oils. Independent tests at the University of California found that 69% of all store-bought extra virgin olive oils in the US are probably fake. The following brands have been suspected of either trying to deceive consumers with deceptive wording on their packaging, or outright using lesser quality oils or blends and marketing them as Extra Virgin olive oil--shop carefully!
The report form the University of California Davis Olive Center (College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) referenced an earlier report from April 2011 titled, "Evaluation of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Sold in California." This document provided the basis for the claim that 69% of store-bought olive oil is either fake or not made from olives. The Olive Center's testing took place between 2008 and 2010 and examined whether oils labeled as "extra virgin" actually met the strict criteria required for that designation: "While there are many excellent imported and domestic extra virgin olive oils available in California, our findings indicate that the quality level of the largest imported brand names is inconsistent at best, and that most of the top selling olive oils we examined regularly failed to meet international standards for extra virgin olive oil." "Extra virgin" is the top grade of olive oil according to standards established by the International Olive Council (IOC) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In addition to establishing chemistry standards for extra virgin olive oil, the IOC and USDA have established a sensory standard — the oil must have zero defects and greater than zero fruitiness." While the tests in 2008 and 2010 revealed that many olive oils did not meet the criteria set by regulatory agencies for the "extra virgin" label, the testing did not determine that the oils were "fake" or not made from olives. The tested samples did not always meet the stringent extra-virgin standards for taste, aroma, and color, and the flavor profiles of some olive oils were likely overstated, but the samples were not oils produced from another source masquerading as olive oil, nor did the study raise concerns about purity, adulteration, safety, or substitution of various brands of olive oils. Click HERE for the full report. And Now for the Real Deal... How to tell if it's really Extra Virgin? To start off, let's make one thing perfectly clear--light or extra light olive oil is just that--clear and light in color. It doesn't refer to calories. It refers to lack of color--and flavor. Extra virgin oil should be a strong color and flavor, and often has an opaque appearance. (See "cloudy olive oil" later in this article). This is because to be labeled Extra Virgin, an oil needs to be from the very first pressing. There are a lot of particulates that are in the first pressing that impart loads of flavor into the oil. Even when filtered, the micro-particles remain in Extra Virgin imparting more flavor. This first pressing is also commonly known as a "cold" pressing. For Extra Virgin oil, you want the label to say "First Cold Pressed" to distinguish from oils (often sneakily labeled extra virgin) that are a heated pressing, where the mats are heated to pull more oil out of them. In fact, most later pressings are done using a heated pressing procedure. You have to be careful, though, because many larger producers add things to color and enhance the flavor of lesser quality oil. Here's the bottom line:
Is Cloudy Olive Oil Good Oil? My rule of thumb about a cloudy Extra Virgin oil... the more stuff in the liquid, the more flavor. I want to explain first, that an olive oil can turn cloudy if stored in a cold place, but it will return to a normal state when put into a proper storage environment. This is not the type of "cloudy olive oil" we are about to discuss... In fact, "cloudy olive oil" as many call it, is becoming popular with both chefs and foodies. You see, this type of oil (usually first pressed, extra virgin) is unfiltered oil, and as such, it contains more of the real stuff directly coming from the olives themselves during the pressing. It's the initial cloudy oil produced immediately after crushing or pressing. Normally this oil is either filtered immediately (removing flavor and what many think of as authentic qualities), or stored in tanks to settle for a period of weeks or months (is this really fresh oil?) to allow sediments to be separated from the oil. Unfiltered olive contains plant material in suspension along with micro-drops of vegetative and non-vegetative liquids forming a water-oil emulsion. As with other professional "studies", the studies of the effects of filtration on olive oil durability is controversial, with different studies coming to different conclusions. Still, some studies have found that unfiltered olive oil contains many chemical compounds that are healthier for us. It seems to be common sense that if you over-filter olives, you'll be removing some of what Nature put in their to benefit us. I can tell you from my own experience, the first time you taste an Extra Virgin olive oil that has some cloudiness to it, you'll more than likely be amazed at the different taste. It's more fruity, less oily, can have herbal qualities and is something you never want to cook with, but instead want to top off bread, cheese, pasta and pizzas with it. I just thought to mention here, that in Italy, no one puts olive oil in little plate the way Olive Garden (ugh) does... In Italy, the good oil goes on top of food. So, drizzle on your bread, don't dunk. What is the Difference Between All Those Names? The "pressed" method means that no heat or chemical additives were used to extract the oil from the olives, which can alter and destroy the flavor and aroma of the oil and that a centrifuge was not used. This does not mean that the oil was pressed in an antique wooden press--most pressed oils are done using modern presses. Without adding heat to the processing, the olive oil also retains its full nutritional value. "Virgin" (without the word "Extra") olive oil has a slightly higher acidic level and does not meet the same requirements as "Extra Virgin" does. Regular, or plainly labeled "olive oil" is a blend of slightly defective or low quality olives with much less flavor and color in the final oil produced. "Light" olive oil has gone through even more processing techniques and contains little or no color or flavor. Once again, "Light" does not mean less calories. Oil is fat. Fat is high in calories. Period. You also have to understand the basic culinary difference in the use of Extra Virgin versus other lesser grade olive oils. Extra Virgin oil is not used for cooking. It is used fresh... in salads, drizzled over pizza or steaks and pasta. You can drizzle it over crusty, toasted bread or cheese. Chefs use it to finish off a plate... to finish a soup or a stew. Extra Virgin olive oil has a very low smoke point... 320F as opposed to 420 degrees for a lesser graded olive oil. Basically, Extra Virgin burns too easily for cooking in. Cooking Tip: If you are used to frying in olive oil, don't waste you're best Extra Virgin olive oil, but buy a higher quality "olive oil" grade to fry with... and to lower the smoke temperature, use half olive oil and half canola oil (a colorless, flavorless oil). You will have more success frying when using this olive/canola mix. How Do I Find the Best Extra Virgin Oil? To make sure you're really getting a high quality Extra Virgin oil, look at the labeling carefully. Check to see if it lists the region in Italy, not just that it was imported from Italy. Producers of high quality olive oil are proud of their regions and will definitely say where their oil originated. You should also see the harvest date somewhere... or in the least, an expiration date, but keep in mind, the oil might have been harvested a year before the expiration date. The next thing to look for is the type of olive the oil was made from. You want to see one cultivar of olive named... cheaper oils use a blend from many types--usually of lower quality--so they won't list all the cultivars used in the blend. You have to picture all the local olive growers bringing their olives to a regional production facility where their olives are graded and mixed with those of other growers. "Extra Virgin" from this type of operation will not be of high quality. If you look at the label on the supermarket brands you'll notice that most will saw "imported from Italy", but then list a bunch of letter codes for the countries the oil or olives came from. For instance, one Colavita Extra Virgin that I have in my pantry lists Italy, Greece and Spain as the countries where the oil came from, even though it says imported from Italy. And even though it lists "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" as the only ingredient, I can guarantee that this was not from a "first cold pressing"... the oil is clear and fairly flavorless. You have no idea if your "Imported from Italy" oil was grown and produced there, grown and bottled in another country but shipped from Italy, was grown in another country with the oil produced in Italy, or merely just shipped from there. Remember, Italy is part of the Euro zone, and as such, it's like saying a product was made or grown in one state in the U.S. while packaged and exported from another. Another gallon bottle I have labeled plain "olive oil" is even more clear with a brighter color, is almost flavorless, comes from 5 different countries, and lists "a blend of olive oils and extra virgin oil" as the ingredients. Note that "extra virgin" is listed last which means that it's the lesser ingredient--perhaps a little bit in large production runs to help add a hint of flavor and add validity by including a bit of Extra Virgin. Now, about color... Does the color of the oil matter? Yes and no. Olives harvested earlier in the season produce a greener oil because there is more chlorophyll in the fresher fruits. Olives harvested later will produce a more golden oil. Different cultivars of olives also can change the color of an oil. By the way, the dark colored green bottles do serve a somewhat good purpose too. They help prevent light exposure to the oil which can make it oxidize (and spoil) faster. It's a two edged sword... it tends to hide the true color of the olive oil inside the bottle from the consumer, but can make the oil last a bit longer in storage. (Still, most olive oils when stored properly last up to a year anyway). Beware though, that some unscrupulous makers will put leaves into the olive mash to release chlorophyll which helps color the lesser quality oils. What About the Flavor? Flavors of olive oil are all over the place. They differ because of cultivar of olive, where they ares grown, how they're processed, the methods used in storing the oil before it comes to your table... and of course, personal and cultural preferences. For instance, some cultures prefer a slightly musty flavor--something that most Westerners think is distasteful. It also depends on the variety of cultivar grown and the time of the harvest. Some olives are big, while others are small. Some have higher acidic flavors than others do. Tasting olives right from the trees in Puglia, we can tell you that they can be very acidic! Weather also plays a big part in the harvest time. And keep in mind, even the same tree can have many different colors of olives in varied degrees of ripeness... we saw this ourselves in Italy. Depending on the time the grower decides to collect the olives really affects the flavor of the resulting oil. It's best to think of olive oil--especially Extra Virgin--as a spice added to food to enhance the flavor. Olive oil types can be paired to foods, just the way wine is paired. For cooking, the lesser oils are better anyway due to their higher smoke point... I'd just recommend staying away from "extra light" because they might have remaining of true olive flavor. For Extra Virgin, read the labels and buy small bottles to experiment with. Find out what you like on various foods... pasta or salads versus fish or beef. A more delicate oil might go best on a white fleshed fish or salad... you might even like flavored oils for this... citrus, for example. I personally like more fruity flavors in my Extra Virgin for use on bruschetta or pizza. The three flavor ranges of olive oil can be described as: delicate, medium, and robust. Fruity flavors tend to be more robust. This is not something that can be labeled, however. The flavor of olive oil can change from harvest to harvest in the same way a variety of wine can change from vintage to vintage. The best thing to do is start buying Extra Virgin oils--the best you can afford--tasting and deciding for yourself. Here's a guide listing the cultivars of olives and the flavor profile category:
Is "First Pressed" Really a Good Thing? Ok, now this is really going to confuse you. Earlier I talked about how a "first pressed" Extra Virgin is best. But there are those that debate whether this is really good for the overall health and longevity of the oil. The words “cold pressed”, “first press” or “first cold press” sound great, and are a sign that the olive oil in the bottle is indeed Extra Virgin oil. The words paint a picture of the old world method of using a rustic wooden press, with olives between woven mats being lovingly squeezed until the luscious, iridescent green or gold oil flowed out the bottom. Families all over Italy have been making oil this way for thousands of years. Up until about 50-60 years ago, most olive oil was in fact made by using vertical wooden presses with the olive paste spread on many layers of mats and pressed to make “first cold press” olive oil. This was the best Extra Virgin oil. After this, hot water or steam was introduced to the remaining olive paste and and the stack was compressed again to remove even more oil. This is the second pressing which produces a less flavorful--and some claim--a less healthy olive oil. Nowadays, most olive oil is produced not in vertical presses, but in large centrifuges that spin at very fast rates of speed to get the oil out of the paste. It's similar to how beekeepers spin their honeycomb racks in a centrifuge to release the honey from the cells. Some claim (probably the mass producers) that oil from presses are less quality than when made in modern centrifuges in large factories. One reason they point to is that the mats are difficult to clean and can create off-flavors as the mats age. However, there are many high quality producers that still use the mat-press method and maintain meticulous standards of cleanliness in their smaller fattoria (a small farm "factory"). They also claim that vertical presses are open to the air and thus allow faster oxidation, creating an oil with less antioxidant content than in oils made with centrifuges--the oil is not as healthy and the shelf life is shorter. Understandably, the larger producers of supermarket olive oils insist that words “first press” on a label should be seen as a reason not to buy that particular oil. In both cases, neither process--press or centrifuge--tends to use any chemicals or solvents to extract oil from the olives. Here are some additional tidbits:
The Final Word on Olive Oil...
The more I researched this subject, the more it sounded like lots of trade war organizations' hype and return fire between worldwide olive oil producers, California producers and smaller artisanal olive oil producers from Italy. In fact, if you look at vintage cans of olive oils from 50 to 100 years ago, you will see imported olive oils listing blends of all varied types of oils. So, I believe they've always been selling blended, mixed oils as "olive oil"... it's just nowadays, the marketing and labeling is less truthful... trying to trick the consumer into believing the descriptive wording on the labels mean the oil contained is higher quality than it actually is. The sad thing is, the prices are very high even for lesser quality oils. Hopefully, the research I've done will help you be a smarter consumer and select the right olive oil for your particular use. Don't fret too much... just be smart, shop around and buy at the best price. The highest quality Extra Virgin oils will cost more--that's a given here. If you find great tasting oil, buy it again. And I'll be honest, I've also read that olive oils from Spain and California are beating Italian olive oils in taste tests. I'm going to open my mind to the possibility that Italian olive oil isn't the only type of oil I'd allow in my own pantry. I'll let you know when I try some... --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon When I was growing up in our neighborhood in New Jersey, there were several types of street vendors that appeared every week, each selling wares from a truck: the fruit and vegetable truck was a favorite because of the way he sang his prices; the ice man too, because in summer he'd always leave chunks for us to cool off with; the sound of the coal truck dumping coal down the chutes of the few remaining buildings still using coal as a fuel is also burned in my memory. But the most interesting to me was the arrontino--the knife grinder. He trudged through the neighborhoods past the Victorian era apartment buildings on foot. I would hear him coming because of the bell he rang while walking--a rather large brass school bell that he swung in sync with his walking gait. When people heard that bell with its distinctive ca-clang-ca-dang pattern, they would grab their dull knifes and scissors or tools and head down to the street to meet him. Once in a while my mother would hand me the big kitchen knife and a quarter to go and have him sharpen it. This particular man was fairly old (at least to my young eyes) and a bit arched in his back, but yet he carried his entire sharpening rig and stone on his back via two long leather straps, hitched to him like a big-wheel backpack. I remember the grinding wheel being about 18" in diameter attached to a framework of wood. When a customer wanted something sharpened, he'd unhitch himself from the rig, turn the stone upward and start pumping the treadle with one leg while sparks flew. By the time he was finished, we had a shiny, very sharp knife once again... all for 25 cents. In Italy, the arrontino has a long history. You can even see a sculpture of L'Arrontino in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence from the days of the Roman Empire. For a few thousand years, people have needed their knives and swords sharpened--a skilled trade not everyone could do well. In many towns and villages throughout Italy, you can still see arrontini, some with their old grinder rigs, some attached to bicycles or mopeds or scooters and others with their grinders set up in the back of three-wheel vehicles, cars or small vans. Even in a neighborhood like Trastevere today, you might still hear chanting, "Donne!, E Arrivato... L'Arronto!" ("Ladies! The Knife Sharpener has arrived!") or simply shouting "Ah-ROO-TEE-nooo!" and see a man riding slowly through the streets on a bicycle with some odd-looking contraption jury-rigged to it. And often you might see an older casalinga (housewife) lower down a basket with her knives in it to the waiting arrontino on the street... there are still these touches of Old Italy if you just look for them. Walking all day long, often through hilly, cobbled streets was hard work, especially while either carrying or pushing a heavy grinder--some having more than one polishing stone and a box to hold more tools of the trade. The push type rolled along inverted and pushed by holding wooden handles. Once the arrontino found customers, he would turn the grinder rig right-side up and start work. The sharpened kitchen knifes for the casalinga, scythes and butchering knives for contadini (farmers), knives for pescivendolo (fish mongers), cleavers for macellai (butchers), scrapers for stuccatori (plasterers), large knives for cacciatori (hunters) and pocket knives for gentiluomini (gentlemen). The grinding wheel is attached to a rudimentary treadle board which he pumps with one leg to keep the heavy wheel turning. There are either ropes or rubber belts that attach to the various wheels and axles. A can of either water or oil is mounted above the working part of the stone to drip lubricant on the stone while sharpening.. In the old days, l'arrontini were vagabond craftsmen, going from village to village to find clients. He might set up in a village square and eat and sleep where he found food and a hay bed to lay down in. You can imagine that some of his best clients were farmers, not because they might be able to pay his fees, but more often because they could offer food and a comfortable place to sleep. Otherwise, he was mainly self-sufficient, carrying a craticula (an ancient type of BBQ grill), cooking simple meals during his voyages. He cleansed himself at public fountains or in a stream. He returned to his home several times a year, definitely at Christmas and Easter, when a child was born or a relative died, but also for harvesting crops (most in rural Italy still have olives, nuts or grapes to tend). During the 1950s and 60s the advent of the bicycle grinder rig helped arrontini go further, get more work and return to home more often. The grinding wheel was mounted over the front wheel and attached to the pedals by a second drive chain that could use the pedaling action when a lever was flipped. Next came the Vespa scooter and the Treruote Ape (three-wheeled vehicle). In both cases, the motor also drove the grinding wheels. The rear compartment of the Treruote was large enough for arrontini to expand their services--refurbishing and refinishing traditional knives, selling new knives and scissors, offering repairs and parts for old style gas kitchen cookers, and selling and repairing umbrellas, of all things! Some arrontini opened shops in busy shop areas of villages. When people came to do their daily shopping, they'd drop off their knives to be sharpened. By this time, these shops were offering more and more kitchen products and utensils... pots, pans, drain boards, towels, etc. Some have turned into workaday Drogheria (household & kitchen items) shops that are seen in most towns throughout Italy. Still today, however, you will find that there are still arrontini performing their craft old school style, usually on a bicycle rig, but more often you will see a car driving slowly through a neighborhood with a loudspeaker on it's roof, announcing: "Donne! È arrivato l'arrotino! Arrota coltelli, forbici, forbicine, forbici da seta, coltelli da prosciutto! Donne è arrivato l'arrotino e l'ombrellaio; aggiustiamo gli ombrelli. Ripariamo cucine a gas: abbiamo i pezzi di ricambio per le cucine a gas. Se avete perdite di gas noi le aggiustiamo, se la cucina fa fumo noi togliamo il fumo della vostra cucina a gas." Translation: "Ladies! The Grinder is here! Sharpen knives, scissors large and small, sewing scissors, prosciutto knives! Women, the Grinder and Umbrella Repairman is here; we fix your umbrellas. We repair gas cookers: we have spare parts for your cookers. If your gas is leaking, we'll fix it, if your kitchen is smoking we remove the smoke from your gas cooker." I don't know about you, but I sense a little naughty double entendre in the wording of the announcement... Perhaps the arrontini have sharpened some of their other skills and offer even more personalized services to le donne over the years... putting out the smoking fires in the kitchens of casalinga all over Italy... Sharpening blades, indeed... Reminds me of that old blues song: "Yea, Babe, I'm your Handyman..." --Jerry Finzi
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We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon The wheel has been around for at least 6000 years... from Mesopotamia in the Middle East all the way to central Europe. No one really knows when it was "invented". Wheels move people, wood for making fires and the construction of useful items, animals, and products of the harvest. The first wheels were wooden disks... the first spoked wheels came from the Caucasus region down toward Greece and the Mediterranean cultures about 4000 years ago. Of course, the Romans developed their two wheeled chariots... ...perhaps a precursor of the painted Sicilian Carretto, one of the most beautiful of all folk crafted technologies in all of Italy. Their bright primary colors (yellow, blue, red, green) celebrate the sun, the sea, lemons, the glowing lava from Mount Etna, the richness of green olive and grape leaves and the passions in the Sicilian soul. The carts contain remnants of Christianity, paganism, war, passion, nature, opera and mysticism... influences that illustrate the various cultures that have left their mark on Sicily: the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, The Turks, the Bourbons, Arabs, Normans and Spanish. The battles of Charlemagne and his Paladin Knights remain the most popular theme for decoration. It's a colorful culture, indeed... The French writer Jean Baptiste Gonzalve de Nervo (that's a mouthful) visited Sicily in 1833 and is claimed to be the first to write about decorated Sicilian carts--but that doesn't mean they weren't there long before his arrival in some for or another. He described seeing carts decorated with scenes from many subjects: the story of the New Testament and Jesus, the Virgin Mary, many different saints, the Crusades and Napoleon's conquests. Some insist that after the decline of the Roman Empire the roads in Sicily were left to ruin and fell apart, not allowing small horse, mule or donkey carts to be used on roads between towns and villages--until the "early 1800s" when de Nervo wrote about them and drew attention to them. Just as Columbus "discovered" America--it was always there, with Native Americans before Europeans even knew about it. It's the same with these carts... more than likely, they were in Sicily for many hundreds or even thousands of years. Wherever you go in Italy, it's amazing to see how ancient donkey paths have been lovingly and beautifully maintained over the course of history. They are still used on a daily basis--a necessity, since most of the towns throughout Italy are up on rugged hilltops, with many homes clinging to the side of cliffs. These paths link house to village and vilalge to towns, and are definitely wide enough for donkey carts. Even though Carretto are pulled mostly by horses or large mules nowadays, if you look carefully at the two wooden shafts that the horses are attached to, you will notice in most cases (especially with vintage carts) they are mounted to the horse in an upward angle. This is because the carts were originally designed for use with donkeys--a much shorter animal more suited to the switchbacks common on donkey paths. There might have been gaps in the use of Carretti during history, but they didn't disappeared when the Roman Empire did... they just continued to evolve, as most technologies do. Depictions of ancient Roman carts bear a striking similarity to modern Sicilian carts. As to the history of their being decorated in such a distinctive, colorful style... well, that's something else to investigate... De Nervo told of the cart's horses headbands, dressed up with leather plaques, gilded nails colorful feathered plumes in Sicily's colors... red and yellow. Horses were mostly used in the city and flat plains, while donkeys or mules were more often used in rough terrain for hauling heavy loads. Carts were used for hauling loads such as grain, lemons, wood, vegetables, almonds, grapes, wine, and people--these were called Carretto del Lavoro (work carts). There were also for festive occasions such as weddings and parades called Carretto de Gara. The Carretto was used in the same way the three-wheeled treruote (Ape) gas powered vehicle is used throughout Italy today on farms and in towns as delivery vehicles. In 1881, the Sicilian Carretto was brought into world acclaim when included as part of a Sicilian folk art display at the Esposizione Nationale in Milan. It became nearly as popular a symbol of Sicilian life as the Trinacria, the three-legged icon that appears on the Sicilian flag. Nearly every visitor to Sicily in the late 1800s were compelled to come away with photographs or postcards of the Caretto. Another way the world became aware of Carretti is when voyagers brought home small models called Carrettino, complete with models of passengers and goods carried on the carts. Even Queen Mary brought one home as a souvenir after a visit in 1925. Another French writer, Guy de Maupassant, in 1885 described the carts as a “a walking puzzle” because of the abundance of decorative elements. Many wood parts are carved elaborately, some items are applied to the surface of the wood (like carved figures, shells, stone, mirrors or saint figurines), the wheels are painted in wild geometric or floral patterns, animals and tassels are often attached to the hubs. Many types of artisans take part in creating these works of art: coach builders (carrozzieri), wheelwrights (artigiano di ruote), carpenters (carradori), carvers (intagliatori - they use walnut or beech), blacksmiths (maniscalco), leather craftsman (pellettiere) and to finish it off, the decorator (decoratore) and painter (pittore). Fir is used for the cargo trunk area, beech wood for the other parts and ash for the wheels. The blacksmith makes all the metal parts, including the wheel rims and rings to hitch the horses. The pellettiere creates the amazingly decorative harnesses with feathers, colorful wool, silk bows and fringes, mirrors, ribbons, and metal studs. With all these artisans and varied skills, it would typically take three months to complete a cart. Cart accessories often include a hanging rope net mounted just under the cart to hold food, wine, water and feed bucket for the animal. A chain for a dog, a basket, a lamp hanging on the front side (a sort of headlight), and an umbrella for protection from sun or rain complete the outfitting of the cart. The Sicilian cart is no longer used today for carting heavy loads but has gained a proud place in the folklore and history of Sicily. The carts are used for festivals, religious events and other special occasions. A well known festa is in S. Alfio, in Trecastagni, Catania in which carts leave from Catania and other areas at night and arrive in the morning to assemble in the village square. In different areas of the island it is possible to distinguish between four basic types of cart: palermitano (Palermo), castelvetranese (Castelvetrano), trapanese (Trapani), and catanese (province of Catania). Two museums are dedicated to preserving the memory of the Sicilian cart tradition exist: The Museo del Carretto Siciliano in Terrasini, in the province of Palermo, and The Museo Gullatti in Bronte, in the province of Catania. Nowadays the carts can be admired in museums and during folklore events. In Sicily nowadays, the colorful tradition of the Carretto is carried on (pun intended) by painting small, motorized vehicles called Treroute (literally, three-wheeler) or Ape (pronounced AH-pay... a brand name). In Sicily, these three-wheeled work vehicles are called lapa. You will also find Vespa scooters and Fiat 500s painted in the glorious carreto style. There is one more custom associated with the Sicilian Carretto that needs to be mentioned... Canto di Carretto.... the Carretto song tradition of cart drivers. Carrettiera (cart drivers) cup their hands behind their ears and sing chants similar in sound to those coming from the towers of Mosques--perhaps an influence of the merging with the Arab culture long ago. They challenge other drivers in this way to do better in their own songs. They sing without any instrumental accompaniment of love, war or hard times. This is truly Sicilian blues. The Festa di San Giuseppe in Bagheria in early August is one place where you can not only see many fine examples of Carretti, but also hear the songs of the carrettiera during a singing competition. Check out the videos below to hear the songs and see Carretti hitched and in motion...
The history of the Sicilian Carretto is a compelling one and worth searching out when voyaging to Sicily for the first time...
--Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Ciao! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon Emma Morano who is Europe’s oldest person and the second-oldest in the world, recently marked her 116th birthday. She is the oldest verified Italian person ever and the last living European person to have been born in the 19th century. Morano reached her latest milestone on Sunday, November 29th in her one-bedroom apartment in Verbania, a small town in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. "I’m fine and as long as it stays that way, I will remain with you,” she was quoted as saying. “If you like I can sing Parlami d’amore Mariù (Talk to me about love, Mariu).” In a vibrant mood, she added, "My singing voice used to stop men in their tracks!" After singing a bit in her weak voice, she admitted that her voice isn't as good as it used to be. When asked about the secret to her long life, she gave her simple rules: never use drugs, eat three eggs a day, drink a glass of homemade brandy daily, have a chocolate now and then, and think positive. "For breakfast I eat biscuits with milk or water, then during the day I eat two eggs—one raw and one cooked—just like the doctor recommended when I was 20 years old (in 1919) and was anemic. For lunch I'll eat pasta and minced meat, then for dinner, I'll have just a glass of milk." Sleep is another important factor in her longevity, going to bed before 7 each night and waking before 6am. Kicking her husband out of the house in 1938 (but staying legally married) is another factor she claims added to her long life. Morano is medication free and has been in good health for years. Emma Martina Luigia Morano was born on 29 November 1899 in Civiasco, Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy to Giovanni Morano and Matilde Bresciani, the eldest of eight children, five daughters and three sons. When she was a child, she moved from the Sesia Valley to Ossola for her father's job, but the climate was so unhealthy there that a physician advised her family to live somewhere with a milder climate so she moved to Pallanza, on Lake Maggiore, where she still lives. She had a long-lived family: her mother, an aunt and some of her siblings turned 90 and her sister, Angela Morano (1908–2011) died at 102. In October 1926, she married Giovanni Martinuzzi (1901–1978) and in 1937 her only child was born but died when he was only six months old. As is the custom in Italy, she retained her maiden name. Until 1954, she was a worker for the Maioni Industry, a jute factory in her town. Then, she had another job, in the kitchen of "Collegio Santa Maria," a Marianist boarding school in Pallanza, until she was 75, when she retired. Morano was still living alone in her home on her 116th birthday. This video will delight you with her singing as well as her describing her diet... (In Italian).... --Jerry Finzi
If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE it and LIKE it on your favorite social media site. Buon Natale! We also have pages on: Google+ StumbleUpon I am a second generation Italian-American with parents from Southern Italy--my Mother's family was from Naples and my Dad was born in Molfetta, Puglia. Both are seaports and both cultures love fish. Both my parents loved fish... all sorts of fish. They'd eat them in cans, shells, with tentacles, with the heads and tails on, smelly or not smelly, dried or oily and bony. My Dad would go down to the docks on the Hudson River and catch eel, crab and whatever else he could catch in his traps, reel and line or drop line and bell screwed into the dock. He always ate what he caught and couldn't understand the concept of "catch and release". My Mother had a bad reaction to most shellfish, but that didn't stop her from eating them. Yes, both of my parents were obviously Catholic from long lineage of seaport dwellers. The sea's bounty holds great significance for Catholics, with fish being the preferred food during times of fasting. You see, Jesus died for our sins on a Friday, and as was written as far back as the first century AD, Christians honored his sacrifice on Fridays by only eating fish. Here's the logic: a cold blooded creature doesn't sacrifice any warm blood for our meal (as Jesus sacrificed his own blood for us), so it was fair game during fasting. A warm blooded animal sacrifices his blood for our meal, so they are off limits on Fridays and during Lent and other religious holy days. When I was a kid, eating red meat on Friday was absolutely forbidden--a sin, the nuns told us. In more orthodox households, fasting might also exclude poultry and dairy.... yes, cheeses, too. Our Friday meals were as simple as opening a can of tuna and having a cold summer salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and olives (my favorite) or with my Dad frying up some floured or breaded smelt (the whole fish) in olive oil and having it with some spaghetti and marinara. I loved the taste of smelt--hated the bones. Another favorite of mine was breaded and fried flounder or sole--no bones! Friday nights were fish, fish fish--until the 1960s when Pope Paul VI did away with Meatless Fridays. (A side note here: one reason why pizza take-out became so popular in the States was because of all the Catholics ordering pizza for Friday dinners! After the rule was lifted, many Catholics started going our to burger joints on Fridays... Now, back to this fishy story... ) But come Christmas eve--in Italian, Vigilia di Natale--we'd see just about every kind of fishy thing you could pull up out of the Deep Blue. Mussels (cozze) cooked in tomato sauce, spaghetti with clams (molluschi), fried calamari, octopus, filet of sole (the safest fish for me to eat), baccalà (salted cod, soaked and de-salted overnight), pesce stocco (dried cod), raw clams (sorry, not a fan), crab, stuffed-baked clams, scallops and shrimp. I even remember a couple of years where they splurged and bought lobster tails. Then there was the ever-present eel... yes, that slimy, bottom dwelling creature that my Dad would cut into chunks and fry in olive oil. (When I caught them with Dad, I hated the way they would wrap around your arm as you tried to get them off the hook... yuck). Mom and Dad really loved that oily fish! I know, that's more than seven fish... the menu would change up year to year. I'll be honest, eating each and every type of fish on the table was not my thing. I had some pretty traumatic episodes with fish bones in my childhood that scared me off fish for a couple of decades. But Why Seven... and Why Fish? I think I remember asking my Mom once, "Why seven fish?"... she didn't know. My Dad told me it had something to do with the seven days in the week, and God resting on Sunday. That didn't make much sense to me, but then again, none of the odd traditions did back then. I just wanted to eat the spaghetti and get to bed before Santa came to put my presents under the tree. In Southern Italy, the Festa dei Vigilia meal might include seven, eight, nine or even twelve types of fish (one for each of the Apostles) depending on what village you lived in. As for seven fish... there can be many meanings and no one knows for sure which is the real reason. There are the seven sacraments: Baptism, Penance, Holy Eucharist (First Communion), Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders and Sacrament of the Sick. God took seven days to create everything that exists. Biblical scholars consider the number seven as a symbol of perfection. In the Bible, the number seven appears over 700 times--more than any other number. Perhaps my Dad's theory about it being because of God resting on the seventh day has some merit, especially if you consider his finest "work" in creating the miracle of baby Jesus. Now, the fish... One of the more popular fish to have for La Vigilia is baccalà (salt cured and dried cod fish) or pesce stocco, the unsalted version. It's also one of the cheapest and most plentiful fish that you could keep for long periods of time--the stuff feels like a piece of wood when you buy it. Need a bit of protein? Break a piece off and soak in water and presto--nearly fresh fish! Even today in a specialty Italian shop, you will see large boxes filled with baccalà. Italians emigrating from the South were coming to America for a reason--to escape poverty and hunger. If you really think about it, red meat would be a real treat for these people of the South. It would be a long time between pigs or cattle being slaughtered, so pork and beefsteak were rare indeed. Even bread and flour was being over-taxed during the late 1800s, making it difficult to even afford bread. So, in essence, this fish "feast" was actually fasting... no red blood. Just cold blooded fish. Where my Dad was born, fish was right there for the taking. The sea is all around where my ancestors came from. My grandfather lived a couple of blocks from the old port of Molfetta. Fishing was easy. Fish could be free for anyone with a line and a hook or a net. Nets might catch a small school of smelts (sperlano), and any child can catch their fair share of crab (granchio). A drop line and a bell would surely catch an eel after a while. And in Molfetta, at the corner of the main harbor sits the Mercato del Pesce (Fish Market). I wanted to go inside when we visited Molfetta, but my son Lucas's nose told me "No Way, Dad!" I admit, the smell in the air was fairly... er... ripe that morning. Fish must have been fairly affordable, even for the poor back in my Grandfather's day. La Vigilia
Vigilia di Natale translates as the Vigil of The Birthing--waiting for Jesus to be born at midnight on Christmas Eve. It is also known by other names, depending on which part of Southern Italy you are from: La Vagilia di Natale (Vigil of the Nativity), Cenone (Great Supper), Cena della Vigilia di Natale (Supper of the Vigil of the Nativity), and Festa dei Sette Pesci (the Festival of Seven Fish). This feast is not only an Italian-American event (as some think), but is celebrated by many Italian descendants around the world as well as Italian natives. Oddly, once you get north of Rome you hardly hear of La Vigilia. But in Southern Italy and here in Italian-American homes, it's a meal planned long before Christmas Eve, with Nonnas, Moms, Aunts and sisters breading the fish, calamari and shrimp and putting on large pots of pasta and marinara. And all this is done as early as possible so everyone can eat, celebrate, discuss, argue and of course, get ready for Midnight Mass... In our little household, "We Three" have trimmed down the fish choices to perhaps three kinds--representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit... and for Lucas, Lisa and me. Only for us, we eat after our Parrish's 5pm Christmas Eve Mass services. Traditions are worth keeping, aren't they? And even if you don't keep all of them or your traditions have evolved into a mere shadow of the traditions of your ancestors, they are still valid and worthy of passing along to your children. When learning about tradizioni del passato (past traditions), we learn more about ourselves and where we came from... and perhaps where our family is headed... Buon Natale, tutti! --Jerry Finzi If you enjoyed this pose, please feel free to SHARE it with your online friends... Ciao! |
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