Italy Rules - Expanded

Spaghetti with Clams - Le Marche

What a wonderful and sometimes intense set of responses from my previous post - The Italy Rules. I want to take a little time today to expand and expound on some of my thoughts and provide further insight into traveling in Italy.

1. Italy Guides - Here is my short list of who I would travel with and why in Italy.

• The Rome Digest - This new and wonderful consortium of talented Rome guides includes my dear friend Katie Parla, who is my champion of all things Roman (pork, gelato, beer, wine, art, history, and life) If you are going to spend time in Rome, and you should, let the Rome digest draw a map for you

• Venice - Row Venice Nan McIlroy is one of the most knowledgeable people in Italy regarding living life, eating well, and getting out on the water. Don't pay 200 euro for a snooze on a gondola. Pay less and get out there and learn to do it yourself. Easily one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in Italy

• Tuscany - Judy Francini will cook with you and teach you what it means to truly experience life in Tuscany. Reach out to her. She has been cooking successfully for her Italian husband for years. She will teach you how to impress anyone.

• Puglia - this is a bit biased but I can vouch for the unbeatable quality of Southern Visions Travel. Antonello Losito leads this superior company leading the most authentic excursions into Italy's tastiest region. From 1 day to 1 month, these guys are amazing

• Le Marche - Mariano Pallottini - the best guides are sometimes not guides. For this truly under-the-radar region no one can show visitors the ropes like Mariano. Please tell him I sent you.

• Travel for Teens - If you would like to send your son or daughter on one of the most amazing experiences to be had. I strongly suggest using Travel for Teens. Managed and operated by a group of passionate, intelligent, and experienced men and women, TFT is the leader in volunteer and cultural travel in Italy for students. Ask for Ned or Nick and your young adult will be blown away

• For other Italian regions I have friends of friends and would be happy to do some research for you

2. Fashion - Italians for the most part are some of the finest dressers in the world. My initial post was not meant to imply they were not good as a whole. However, shitty fashion is a worldwide epidemic. I am guilty of lazy fashion choices more frequently than I care to admit. When Italians dress badly, they do it in typically grandiose furor. There is a store in Monopoli, Puglia called "Banana Store." I assume this is some sort of knockoff of Banana Republic as the clothes tend towards the tighter side, made for people with fine and youthful figures. However, the patterns are simply gaudy and the colors never really seen outside of an old Vegas casino. The parade of muffin-top women parading about in Banana Store attire, 2-3 sizes too small is rough on the eyes. I am confident that while conservative and boring in dress, those of us not up to the task of Valentino, Armani, Dolce and G, etc. can rest easy so long as the Banana Store is in business (and the many stores just like them in the bedroom communities up and down the boot).

[caption id="attachment_2138" align="alignnone" width="400"] The Castle of my Dreams[/caption]

3. Italian Driving - While the idea of driving in Italy scares the hell out of many American visitors, driving in Italy is actually about 20% less likely to result in a fatality than driving in the USA. Italians have very strict rules of the road for highway driving. There is absolutely no passing on the right and tractor trailers must drive only in the right lane and only at a lower speed than auto traffic (which is posted clearly on the back of the truck). While parking rules, signal regulations, and almost any rule inside a city zone are frequently fudged, the rules for the highway are followed in most cases and make for a much more predictable driving experience. I really enjoy driving in Italy and feel safer than I do driving in a place like Houston, for example. Italian bus drivers are simply extraordinary drivers. Watching them drive, gesture, smoke, chat, and flirt all without breaking a sweat taking a Pullman down a narrow alley or into the bowels of a vineyard is simply art.

4. Hope - Italy is in very desperate financial straits at the moment (like 20 years ago) and there is a grim light being cast upon the country in regards to its future. Many young people are jobless and without prospects for a decent wage. Government inefficiencies, crime, and corruption siphon enormous amounts of the country's GDP. Life goes on, and sometimes beautifully, in spite of this austere hell. My comments about this are not intended to suggest this is due to a lack of creativity in the Italian people. However, I will say it is up to the citizens of this important country to right the ship. Defeat is an ugly thing to witness when it comes at the hands of giving up. I believe in the Italians I know and love. I believe in the resiliency of this very talented people. I am an advocate for Italy when it seems there are few natives who are. Beat me up for my opinions on fashion, food, and driving, but do not accuse me of diminishing the chances of Italy because I describe life as chaotic. The Universe was born from chaos and so was the Renaissance. I return to Italy over and over not because I need a food fix, or a chance to play in the fields of folly and fantasy. I return to Italy year-after-year to experience living in a primordial space. I come to Italy to argue without offense, to dine with challenging people, and to grow as a person. I see the world more freshly every time I go and I have never lost my fervor for the peninsula in 20+ years of travel.

5. More Two Week Itineraries - This is where I am going to have some fun. Take a look at these if you want to explore some trips in the way of The Blissful Adventurer.

• Piedmont/Liguria - surprisingly this tremendously rich and hard-working region is not always on the traveler radar. Stay in the towns near Alba and explore Italy's finest red wines in Barolo and Barbaresco. These guys eat unpasteurized cheese any time of day. They have amazing local cows whose grass-fed meat is a dream served raw, and the prices to stay in amazing places like Villa Tiboldi are wonderfully cheap. If one must see the Cinque Terre (thanks again Rick Steves) then why not hike through there, then finish with pure luxury in Piedmont.

• Sicily - 2 weeks is such a brief time to experience the island which a friend once referred to as a "continent". Food: unreal, Wine: near the top on the planet these days. Weather: nearly tropical at times, People: alive and getting more alive with the growth of the economy (many would argue it is not growing but I believe it is really getting better). Land in Palermo and do the west. Go up to the Aeolian islands and sail out to active volcanoes. Make your way East and drink up the fine wines near Menfi or drink in the Tunisian culture in Mazara del Vallo. See the ruins of Selinunte and Agrigento before setting fire to it all on the slopes of Mt Etna. This is one of the greatest places on the planet to experience life.

• Sardinia - another island where 2 weeks is hardly enough. The bets pork I have ever eaten was here. The most dramatic contrast in life and landscape exists from the interior mountains to the sea only 1 hour away. Buy a knife, drink wines from vines older than the state of Alaska, and dip it all up with crispy flat-bread and the charming sounds of the local dialects. Sardinia is an Italy few see beyond the glitzy port towns. Get inside the island and you get inside another century. Take a boat there. Flying is boring and being on the open Mediterranean is a real high. Cagliari, Orgosolo, Orosei, Alghero, and Sassari offer the visitor a different view of the world in each stop.

• Puglia/Basilicata - I like to eat well and without blowing my entire bank account. I like to ride bikes through 1000 year old olive groves. I like grilled meats, pizza, and local beers. I like erudite nightlife and funky old towns. Puglia has it all. From the baroque of Lecce to the Sassi of Matera in Basilcata there is more to do and see along these southern regions than any guide-book can express.

These are my Italy rules expanded and I hope you continue to follow my Italian adventures.

Mt. Etna - Volcanoes, Vines, and the Holy Spirit

Mt. Etna -Volcanoes, Vines, and the Holy Spirit is a 3 part series on how I came to meet Salvo Foti, the preeminent voice on traditional (ancient) winemaking on Mt Etna. I am releasing my post now to celebrate Salvo's visit to San Francisco this week. Tune in tomorrow to learn where you can meet Salvo and taste his wines.

New roads in Sicily wreak havoc upon GPS systems. As a matter of fact, old roads do as well. In the 5 hours it took to reach Randazzo on the north slope of Mt. Etna from the southwestern town of Menfi there were no less than 5 dead ends due to construction of new highways and from old thoroughfares that simply ceased to exist. This was Sicily after all and if invading armies with the latest technology over the centuries failed to tame the roads of the Mediterranean’s largest island then what kind of chance did I expect with my discount Fiat Punto and a 2009 Garmin?

One island does not equal one place and on the slopes of Europe’s most active volcano a sense of place and belonging to it are the driving factors behind perhaps the most exciting wine scene since Thomas Jefferson wrote his supplier in Marseilles seeking a fine white Hermitage. Mt. Etna is home to some of Europe’s oldest grapevines, many predating the devastating phylloxera outbreak that ravaged the wines of France and Northern Italy over 100 years ago. It is these ancient vines buried in the mineral rich volcanic slopes of a fiery giant that have inspired a pilgrimage to create the next great wine.

Tasting the wines of longtime producers Gulfi and Benanti as well as newcomer Tenute delle Terre Nere I knew there was something brewing on the mountain as well as under it. I needed to see for myself what was truly happening on Etna and if wine could be produced from the light bodied and pale colored Nerello Mascalese  that was ageable,  with a sense of place,  and flavors that did not mirror or intend to mirror those of France’s burgundy as they have so often been compared.

I had worked in Sicily 6 years ago based in Taormina with Etna always looming in the distance. After my works and studies here I knew I would return. I did not know it would be for wine. I had lived with an amazing family in Taormina and my host father, Aurelio, would routinely open a plastic bottle of Etna Rosso he kept stored in the fridge to serve with dinner each night. The wine, while foxy (not tasting like wine made from wine grapes) cold, and not of high quality, somehow grew on me over nights of watching Italian “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and eating the most exquisite meals I remember vividly.

Every two or three days during my time in Taormina I would go out shopping and  bring home some fine bottle of famous Sicilian wine to share with the family at dinner. Each time I would, Aurelio would drink a quarter of a glass of my selection to be polite, then open the Etna Rosso made entirely from Nerello Mascalese he filled in bulk from a local co-op. When I began to see evidence of this grape sneaking into wine shops here in America I could not help but be bemused and quite skeptical. Was someone actually importing the moonshine I drank in Sicily to the US and how would they market it?

To my great and happy surprise I learned that Aurelio was simply being a humble and supportive citizen. There were many options for Etna based reds and he just happened to like the cheapest ones. The wines grown near Randazzo are another story altogether and at the end of a very frustrating drive I was ready to know why.

...To be continued

Part 2:

Mt. Etna -Volcanoes, Vines, and the Holy Spirit is a 3 part series on how I came to meet Salvo Foti, the preeminent voice on traditional (ancient) winemaking on Mt Etna. I am releasing my post now to celebrate Salvo’s visit to San Francisco this week. Salvo Foti will be pouring wine and discussing how he makes the magic this Saturday at Biondivino is San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood from 6-8PM. Come out and enjoy the wines and say hello to yours truly as well as the great Salvo Foti.

Part 2

I arrived at the charming hotel Parco Statella and visited briefly with their fine horses while a girl in a neighboring room rattled on in a language I would later come to find out was Georgian. After a bit I sent an arrival text to Salvo Foti, one of the most integral persons in the wine hierarchy of Mt Etna and as I would come to find out one of the most intelligent men I had met in many years.

Salvo arrived in a lived-in SUV with only 2 doors so my wife had to do the 1980s crawl over the seat belt to find her way to the back. Signore Foti is around 5’9” 155lbs, lean, and strikingly handsome. His grey hair would suggest he was over 50 but his youthful looks and svelte build indicate a much younger man. At first he appeared shy, although as I became more comfortable with my elementary Italian his obvious confidence and complete mastery of his own ideas came clearly to light.

The intended restaurant for the evening was closed on this day and Salvo suggested we see his home and enjoy some takeout pizza with him and his wife. In my 20 years living and working in Italy, I had never had takeout pizza that I did not eat right there on the street and certainly never with a family upon meeting them for the first time. Of course I should have known this would not be ordinary takeout. The pizza had cracker thin crust and the Fotis offered us giant capers from the island of Pantelleria and olive oil from 200-year-old trees to add to each slice as a compliment and an expression of Sicilian creativity and hospitality.

During the meal Salvo explained that his company I Vigneri  came from Maestranzi dei Vigneri. A vineyard workers guild founded in 1435 to protect the traditions of grape growing on Mt Etna. Over the course of the time on Etna, Salvo and his team would reference the men or simply I Vigneri almost hourly. The ancestors of modern men seemed to be held in reverence almost like war heroes. It was as if the soldiers of the vines watched over the work done today offering approval and guiding the hands of the current vigneri. While this borders on superstition, the faith that the team put into this philosophy of curation, set aside over 500 years ago, seemed to carry them through the very difficult tasks of vineyard management each day. The overarching belief is that the only way to make great wine was to create great grapes and the only way to do that (on Mt Etna) is to follow the path of the vigneri.

The following day I met Galen Abbott, an American who resides in Catania and oversees vineyards and a 19th century winemaking building called a Palmento; in this case, Palmento Santo Spirito, or winery(loosely) of the Holy Spirit. Galen is brash and straightforward with an honesty that is rare in such a sensitive world. I liked him immediately. Lean, bearded, and wearing what looked like the most comfortable blue suit made in Italy, it is uncommon to meet an American who gets Italy (specifically Sicily) and its people so intrinsically. Galen spoke Italian like a character from Italian cinema’s great period of neorealismo;and like watching a great film I found myself simply wanting to know what was next.

I must have asked him 5 questions a minute in the first 2 hours of knowing him, with each of his answers more compelling than the next. He told me he learned Italian by moving to Padua in northern Italy and locking himself in his room with works of Dante and reading them over and over till he perfected the language; and 6 months later emerged to become a bartender at a local dive. I wanted badly to disbelieve him and dismiss his tall tale as an impossibility or a cutting room scene from Rainman. After what transpired at dinner that night I had no choice but to accept I had met a man of rare linguistic talent.

...to be continued

Part 3:

Mt. Etna -Volcanoes, Vines, and the Holy Spirit is a 3 part series on how I came to meet Salvo Foti, the preeminent voice on traditional (ancient) winemaking on Mt Etna. I am releasing my post now to celebrate Salvo’s visit to San Francisco this week. Salvo Foti will be pouring wine and discussing how he makes the magic this Saturday at Biondivino is San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood from 6-8PM. Come out and enjoy the wines and say hello to yours truly as well as the great Salvo Foti.

We walked all together through the vineyards at Palmento Santo Spirito and saw vines as old as 150 years resting next to new plantings. The cycle of life in Sicily is as clear as anywhere I have seen. Ancestral vines keeping watch over new ones managed by men following ancient rituals to the tune of making wine without the use of electricity. I assumed Salvo was kidding till he walked us through the dark and dank rooms of the Palmento and explained to us how the grapes are carried up the ramp by hand and into the lava stone pool where they are foot tread to break the skins and allow the juice and pulp to run free into the rock tank below. The temperature outside over 90 degrees while the stone and the vented windows keep the inside temps at 75 or less. This was how the Romans made wine said Salvo and yet they say what I am doing is illegal. Two thousand years of winemaking precedence cannot be wrong but the EU says it is illegal. I want to know so much more.

The Georgians met us at dinner. They were in town to bury a religious icon in the vineyards of a French wine distributor from the UK.  His wife, a former winemaker at the famous Solaia in Tuscany and her brother an aspiring winemaker himself from Australia who had interned with the enigmatic Frank Cornelissen were part of the crew that evening along with a contingent of the hardest working members of I Vigneri. We had all convened on Etna like some backroom episode of “Wine Fantasy Island” and Salvo was certainly our Mr Roarke.

We dived straight into a magnum of I Vigneri’s signature Etna Rosso, Vinupetra. It was compelling in its uniqueness and strangely familiar in its weight. This infant vintage was only recently bottled (by Vinupetra standards) and its youthful fruit and exuberant acid were a lovely spoil to the fresh Randazzo sausage on the grill. Galen and I drank like Americans and ate like Italians. Salvo says Galen never stops talking in either language. I laughed heartily when Salvo said Galen spoke Italian better than him and I smiled broadly when Galen affirmed this. Italian was not Salvo’s first language after all, it was Sicilian. After tasting the Vinupetra I am certain his second language was wine.

There were no sparks from the volcano on this night. The smell of sulfur wafted in and out of the air and I wondered if it was all from the volcano herself or was it the sulfur/copper mix sprayed minimally on the vines to prevent rot. The cool night air pushed me to drink more vigorously and I was so pleased to see the ubiquitous bottles of Coca-Cola absent from this Italian dinner. The Foti children have never had McDonald’s and do not get soft drinks. The ancient Vigneri would like this. They would want them to drink wine, to commune with strangers, and perhaps to indulge in the occasional smoke.

At the end of our pizza meal the night before Salvo asked my wife and me if we wanted  a cigarette. When we told him that we did not smoke, he simply asked “why not?” I had to ask myself this same question looking at a man 10 years my senior, in better health, more contented than I, and living with vines, volcanoes, and the Holy Spirit in his backyard.

Please visit us tomorrow evening with the wines of Salvo Foti at Biondivino in San Francisco

Italy Itinerary - May 2012

The Blissful Adventurer returns to Italy on May 7, 2012 for a 24 day run of blissful, wine-soaked, photo-laden, pursuits of new experiences to share with all of you.

Our trip this year is partly vacation and also important research for upcoming writing and photo projects. 

While on our journey I will be enlisting the services of some very fine guest bloggers on TBA as well as posting updates from abroad. Before we leave our new website will be fully functional (I hope) and I am even more hopeful that our first book will be released. Blissful Adventures - The First 5 Years in Pictures

For today I am listing our itinerary which is as much a labor of love as it is a bit grueling. I would not recommend such an undertaking to an unseasoned Italian traveler.

May 7 - Depart Denver for Venice (this will be Juliet's first trip to Venice)

May 8 - arrive Venice and explore all day with a Venice expert. Dinner likely at Al Covo (a place I have longed to try)

May 9 - Venice relaxing and exploration with a long Ventian lunch before boarding a train for Le Marche and the town of Ascoli Piceno

May 10 - Intense day of exploration in Le Marche with a foremost expert on the region, Mariano Pallottini. We will be exploring vineyards, the sea, olives, and especially the food of the region.

May 11- A busy photography morning in Le Marche and a long regional lunch followed by a little more time near the sea before heading to one of our many places we call home: Puglia

May 12-15 We will be in our beloved Puglia with our newest cameras seeking new dining experiences along the way. We have some American friends who will be there at the time and of course our very dear friends Antonello and Laura who own and operate my former company Southern Visions Travel.

May 15-17 ROME! Home to Rome to see our dear friends Katie Parla and Peter Blute. We are hoping to explore the vineyards at The University of Dallas campus at Due Santi for a little photo work and article I would like to write on the lovely wines being produced there. We will finally make it to Hostaria Glass after all these times missing it.

May 17 - We travel north to Verona to spend time with our dear friend Nicolas Emery and to finally meet his lovely ragazza Giulia Laveto. On our way will stop near Parma to dine at the world-class Antica Corte Pallavicina

May 18-19 - Running around the Veneto with our venerable foursome. We are hoping to meet some of the more exotic winemakers doing things naturally and perhaps a little off the beaten track (or a lot)

May 19-22 Friuli Venezia Giulia - Finally after so many years I will make it to Friuli to explore the region's amazing wines (I believe Friuli is at  forefront of white wine making in Europe) and to research a bit about the coffee trade in the region. The four of us will celebrate Juliet's birthday with an amazing lunch in Trieste on the 22nd

May 22nd-31st Sicily here we come! At long last I return to Sicily, a place I swore my allegiance in 2006. This time we will be running around with our favorite Sicilian winemaker - Marilena Barbera who will show us how to live life like a local. At the end of the trip we will hike and explore the amazing vineyards on Mt Etna for a photo and wine experience like none I have ever experienced. Our Etna journey will be hosted by the amazing Thomas Schuster of Quincunx. In Sicily we plan to explore Trapani, Erice, Marsala, Segesta, Palermo, Menfi, Ragusa, Taormina, and vineyards strewn about the largest island in the Mediterranean,

May 31 - We fly from Catania to Milan to DC to Denver (ugh!)

Any suggestions about food, people, or places we should see along this amazing journey please let us know. This is a very brief synopsis and there will be more details down the road.

Cheers!