All posts for the month January, 2013

Venice, Part II (The Peggy Guggenheim Collection)

Ciao Readers!

Today we continue our trip to Venice, specifically to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. As I mentioned, we’ve actually been to Venice twice before (before we moved to Italy), but for some reason this museum managed to escape my attention. Just when I was pretty sure I’d have to wait for a trip to France to see any art produced post-1600, I discovered this oasis of modern art!

Now, if you’re like me, you may have a vague sense of the name “Guggenheim” and be thinking “isn’t there a Guggenheim museum in…..?” If you’re more art-savvy, you already know that there are in fact Guggenheim museums in New York, Berlin, and Bilbao, Spain. You may even know that there have been other Guggenheims that have closed (e.g., Las Vegas), and yet others in construction (Abu Dhabi). As usual, because you can Google this yourself, here’s the short version: The Guggenheims were an über-rich family (made their money in mining and smelting) of Swiss/Jewish ancestry. With lots of that money they became serious patrons of the arts. Solomon Guggenheim started the foundation that now runs all of the museums…. which brings us to Peggy Guggenheim and her collection in Venice.

Solomon was actually Peggy’s uncle (interesting fact, Peggy’s father Benjamin went down with the Titanic). Peggy was an eccentric socialite and art collector who decided to settle down in Venice in 1949, after her divorce from surrealist painter Max Ernst. She lived out her days there (until 1979) with her art and many dogs (who are buried next to her [see grave picture below]). That home is now a museum (run by the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation), filled with all of the (modern) art Peggy collected. It’s pretty mind-blowing that this “museum” and its contents were just one person’s house and stuff! As you’ll see in the pics, there are Picassos (larger of the two pictured), a Chagall, a Dalí (I love Dalí), a Kadinsky, and many others not pictured (Pollocks, Mirós, Ernsts, a Warhol, and more). In addition, there’s a very cool garden with some strange sculptures (a G-rated one [I think] is pictured) as well as the actual burial place of Peggy and the aforementioned dogs. (There’s also a “wish tree” donated by Yoko Ono in 2003.)

Aside from the art and the garden, the other surreal part of the experience was that you really have no idea you are in Venice, Italy. When we approached the ticket counter, all 3 ticket-takers were speaking English to each other (in English accents), and much to our surprise, all of the arts’ explanations were written first in English, then in Italian. The museum’s docents had buttons reading “Ask Me About the Art” (in English). It felt like we stepped through some secret portal to another (English- speaking) country. Weird. In any case, we had a great time in this little secret oasis of modernism in an otherwise ancient city. Thanks for coming along!

3 Comments

by Newmexicotoitaly on January 14, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Art, Trips In Italy

Tagged Guggenheim, modern art, Peggy Guggenheim, Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, Venice

Posted by Newmexicotoitaly on January 14, 2013

https://newmexicotoitaly.com/2013/01/14/venice-part-ii-the-peggy-guggenheim-collection/

The Groceries of My Dreams

Ciao Readers!

In looking back through this blog, it’s almost scary how much time I spend thinking about food… and here I am again (sorry, you have to wait till Monday to read about the Guggenheim!). Sometimes in life ya just gotta give in and spend some time wistfully daydreaming about things; for me that means dreaming of what I would buy at the grocery if I could (i.e., if it were available, not if I could afford it [like caviar]). Here’s the stuff dreams are made of:

Groceries I Dream About Now

Poore Brothers’ jalapeno potato chips
a bag of restaurant-style extra thin/crispy tortilla chips
really HOT salsa to dip those chips in (a nice local NM favorite like Sadie’s or El Pinto)
roasted green chiles (this time of year, ones that were fresh-frozen)
Tostito’s queso (yeah, I know, not very glamorous, but add green chile and YUM!)
a bag of shredded cheddar/Monterrey jack/Colby mix
pecans
ziploc bags
sour cream that’s sour (and yogurt that’s got a bite)
good quality cold cuts of the non-pork variety
Reese’s peanut-butter cups, Andes mints, Hershey’s kisses (it’s weird, they have yummy chocolate here [though rather hazelnut-centric], I just miss my comfort candies)
100% juice other than orange (ooooo, maybe a nice pomegranate/cranberry combo)

(There are many other foods about which I dream – huevos, bagels, pho, pad thai – but this list was solely for the grocery store in my dreams.)

And, as it is my goal to be “fair and balanced,” I also include a list of:

Groceries I’ll Dream of Back in the States

several varieties of fresh pesto
many varieties of delicious prosciutto
countless varieties of pecorino cheese
truffle stuff! (sauce, butter, cheese, spread)
fresh (and CHEAP) loaves of Italian bread
dry pasta in every shape and size you could imagine (also CHEAP), and tons of fresh pasta as well
Ciobar (ridiculously thick hot chocolate mix)
whole rabbits (okay, that one will actually be in my grocery nightmares…)

Ah, the stuff of dreams:

What groceries would you/do you miss if you couldn’t/can’t get them?

13 Comments

by Newmexicotoitaly on January 11, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Culture Shock, Diversions to Other Places, Food

Tagged food, gorceries, jalepeno potato chips, pecorino, proscuito, Sadie's, salsa, tortilla chips, truffle

Posted by Newmexicotoitaly on January 11, 2013

https://newmexicotoitaly.com/2013/01/11/the-groceries-of-my-dreams/

Venice, Part I (The City)

Ciao Readers!

Today I am going to take you to Venice, though I am saving the visit to its Guggenheim until next time (it was so cool it gets its own post). If you have never been to Venice, it is definitely one of those “must see” kinda places. It’s an incredible city, actually made up of 118 tiny islands, linked by canals and bridges. There are no cars, so the only means of public transportation is by “vaporetti” (boat-buses) – definitely the most fun type of public transportation ever! The main focus of the city is the Grand Canal, lined with tons of gorgeous palazzos built between the 13th and 18th centuries. There are only a few bridges which cross the canal, with the Rialto being the most spectacular (and its base being the location of the daily local produce and fish market). Some of the little islands of Venice are semi-famous in their own right (Burano for lace, Murano for glass-blowing and Lido for its beach). All-in-all it is a little fairy-tale place which is hard to describe with words!

In a way, I don’t feel like I’m the right person to take you to this amazing place. You see, I’ve been here twice before (before we moved to Italy), so I don’t have that same sense of “WOW!!!!” as I did the first time (and it really deserves a major “WOW”). Maybe you know what I mean – once you’ve been somewhere so amazing it is hard to recreate the experience – either because you are no longer surprised or because you have pretty high expectations for what a great time you should have. The first time I saw Venice, not only was it the first time I saw Venice, but it was the first time I saw anywhere requiring a passport. We stayed on a little island off of Venice (Giudecca) in an apartment overlooking the water, requiring us to enjoy taking the boat-buses everywhere (pretty hard to top). The photo of Steve and I, and the view from our apartment (pics 2 and 3) are from that inaugural visit, in 2006. Jaded or not, Venice is gorgeous and if you have never seen it in person, no blog post could do it justice.

While we weren’t surprised by how gorgeous Venice was, we were surprised that even though Venice is usually a tourist magnet, this time of year it was much less crowded than Florence and it felt peaceful in comparison (some of this is likely the lack of cars and requisite honking of such cars’ horns). Since there are only 60,000 full-time residents, without most of the usual 50,000+ tourists Venice averages a day, the town seemed almost sleepy (notice the one lone elderly man crossing a bridge in the picture). It gave us plenty of room to meander the streets and take photos uncluttered by crowds.

We discovered that many Venetians close up shop for the winter, which left us without the option of eating at one of the restaurants I had pre-researched. Instead we ended up in what seemed like a popular local seafood place (no English menu, usually a good sign), and while the food was fine, it wasn’t the spectacular food I had in mind from our first visit there (so the picture below is of a memorable meal from 2006). When we entered the restaurant the day was clear and bright, as you can see from the photos; when we emerged after lunch the city was completely shrouded in fog and you could no longer see across the lagoon (notice the solid white behind the row of gondolas). After the Guggenheim (which was new to us), we wondered across the Rialto Bridge (the fog mixed with the Christmas lights created a cool polka dot effect in my photo), warmed up with some hot chocolate, and headed back to Florence on the train (about 2 hours).

Seriously, you gotta see it for yourself, but here’s a little sample:

7 Comments

by Newmexicotoitaly on January 9, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Trips In Italy

Tagged Giudecca, gondolas, Venice

Posted by Newmexicotoitaly on January 9, 2013

https://newmexicotoitaly.com/2013/01/09/venice-part-i-the-city/

(More) Florence Foreign Food Finds

Ciao Readers!

As I mentioned in my New Years’ post, over the holiday break we took time to try out (or re-try-out) the local ethnic dives (Rosticceria). Also as I’ve mentioned in a much earlier post, Rosticceria are Italy’s answer to fast food. However, the ethnic food places are a bit different than the Italian ones. Unlike the spic-and-span take-away-only Italian Rosticceria downstairs about which I have written, these places usually have tiny tables and are total hole-in-the-walls (and are usually more frequented by other immigrants than Italians/tourists).

After reading a sign on the wall of our new favorite Chinese place, I learned that technically Rosticceria aren’t suppose to offer you table service (the sign, loosely translated, said that the tables are there as a courtesy, but by law they cannot serve you at them). I guess this puts them in some more affordable/less regulated category than a restaurant (and explains why you have to get your own drinks from the fridge and can get an entire plate of Sri Lankin food for 3.50 euros!). (After I read the sign I also felt better about/understood why when I tried to hand the owner our empty [plastic] plates she shook her head and walked away in a way that made me feel like I had asked her to commit a crime.) The amenities and service are spartan (putting it nicely), but if you’re willing, there’s a world of delicious and cheap ethnic food to be had (if you can find them)!

For example, we passed the Sri Lankin place on several occasions before daring to enter, the delicious smell finally winning over our fears about its less-than-welcoming appearance (and lucky us – it’s delicious! kinda like less heavy/more spicy Indian food). We were even more pleasantly surprised when our entire bill for lunch and drinks was only 10 euros! Let’s see…we had Indian, Chinese, Sri Lankin (fun fact, Sri Lankin food is customarily eaten with your hands [though we used a fork]), and Peruvian (the last two being foods we had never tried before Italy). Here are the Sri Lankin and Peruvian Places:

Okay, now I think it’s time for lunch….

5 Comments

by Newmexicotoitaly on January 7, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Culture Shock, Food

Tagged Peruvian food, Rosticceria, Sri Lankin Food

Posted by Newmexicotoitaly on January 7, 2013

https://newmexicotoitaly.com/2013/01/07/more-florence-foreign-food-finds/

Behind the Scenes of an Expat Blog

Ciao Readers!

Today is one of those “words only” posts where instead of photos of food and fun you get an unsolicited peek into my psyche. As always, I’m giving you fair warning in case you’d like to stop reading now…

I’ve been an “expat” going on 5 months now, though I’ve been writing this blog for about 9. In that time I’ve gotten a pretty good look into the world of expats and their blogs (and have succumb to some of the associated pitfalls). When you’re an expat with a blog you are simultaneously trying to digest a huge life-altering experience while providing information and/or entertainment to your readers. The trend I have seen (and am guilty of) is that you want to be upbeat and portray your new home in a positive light. The reasons are many – you want to appear well-adjusted, you want to be gracious to your new home, you don’t want to scare your readers away with orneriness, or, maybe you really do find your new home to be a utopian paradise. However, from my experiences meeting the expats behind the blogs, their reality never quite matches what I’ve read on their blogs. Here’s my own personal example – I feel like every time I try and vent/gripe, I get comments reminding me I get to live in Italy, that the food/art/[insert cool thing] here are fabulous, and so on. What I have learned from this is that people don’t want to hear me gripe. As a result, I only write blog posts when I am in an upbeat mood and have had a positive experience. The product is a blog that, while true in its content, is a bit misleading in its silence. Even when I do speak about unpleasant things, I tend to underplay them (like when I said I was “under the weather” over the break, that was to spare you all from reading about how Exorcist-like sick I really was). Today I read a woman’s blog that made me want to break the silence…

The blog is written by an expat who has been here 11 years, so her ruminations are not a result of initial culture shock. I recommend the entire post, but she explains the difficulties of living in Italy in a nutshell when she says:

“[L]iving in Italy is like wearing impossibly high heels–it’s lovely at times, even sexy, but completely impractical. And I don’t mean it’s impossible to live here–just impractical. It takes the mettle of a Joan of Arc to slash your way into the fabric of life in the Bel Paese. What Italy offers–lavishly, deliciously–is culture, of course. Art litters the landscape like weeds. History oozes from every brick. The cult of the table has been well-noted by the gobbling hordes, and though mediocrity is fast becoming the norm in tourist meccas like Florence, in most of the country you can still get a stupendous meal wherever you happen to flop. And meals have a lovely way of unfolding here that feels very civilized, indeed. But for me, one of the hallmarks of a civilized society is the dignity allowed humans in the performing of life’s most basic functions (i.e. paying bills, peeing, grocery shopping, strolling about town–granted, an eclectic litmus, but nevertheless indicative)–and here, my friends, is where Italy fails miserably.” (Letters from Florence, 2011).

I found not only this post, but much of her blog equally honest and intelligent and it made me want to persist in interspersing some deeper thoughts in with my food-filled-photos. I don’t know this blogger, but from people’s blogs you sometimes get a sense that they’re a person you’d like to meet. For example, the folks from goal42 have their entire travel budget right on their blog for everyone to see. I found the openness surprising/refreshing and “liked” the post, which led to an e-mail, a meeting, and a friendship (unfortunately, they are now in Turkey en route to Africa!). So, I am pretty sure there is more of a purpose to this blog than purely entertainment. Or, maybe this is just the kind of post you get when I write after spending 1.5 hours waiting at the health office followed by an hour at the laundromat as opposed to following a lovely lunch with a 1/2 litre of vino…

Funny thing is, the next scheduled post IS about food…until next time…

20 Comments

by Newmexicotoitaly on January 4, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Culture Shock, Italy, here we come!

Tagged blogs, culture shock, expat blogs, expats, life in italy

Posted by Newmexicotoitaly on January 4, 2013

https://newmexicotoitaly.com/2013/01/04/behind-the-scenes-of-an-expat-blog/

Happy 2013! (While you were away….)

Ciao Readers! Happy New Year and Welcome Back!!! I missed you!

I hope everyone had happy, warm and safe holidays. How were our holidays? Well, thanks for asking…

Over the past couple of weeks Steve and I took time to relax (yay!), tour Italy a bit, and eat (too much, as required this time of year). We started off on Steve’s first weekend off by finally having our “Thanksgiving” meal (hey, it was only about 3+ weeks late). Since I already made a pumpkin pie in a test-run, I decided to go for my s’mores pie instead. I made the crust from Filipino graham crackers I got at Vivi Market (also where I got the [Swiss] marshmallows). It wasn’t 100% spot-on, but delicious nonetheless:

We did the usual “Thanksgiving” ritual – eating while we watched holiday movies (less traditionally, on a lap-top). Here’s one of the cats enjoying Pee Wee’s Christmas Special:

In addition to celebrating “Thanksgiving,” we tried out (or re-tried-out) some local ethnic dives (Rosticceria), which are so yummy they get their own post. We also went on a “road trip” to Venice (and are planning one to Lucca this week), and those will also get their own posts in the near future. We took time to revisit and newly visit museums covered by our cool Uffizi card as it expired Dec. 31st. (And, of course, we did less exciting things (read books, cleaned house)).

Finally…for the first time in about 20 years (O-M-G, I am O-L-D!) we left the house on New Year’s Eve. As I’ve mentioned before, it feels entirely safe here walking around just about any time of night (well, any time we’re still awake). At about 9:00 p.m. we ventured out to walk the various piazzas and take in the live music that was scheduled. Little did we realize that 9:00 p.m. was way too early for the festivities to begin. As you can see from the empty band stand behind me, not much was happening at that time (not sure what I was thinking, 9:00 p.m. is barely dinner time here!).

So, after strolling a rather quiet city, we returned home. We did discover that there are fireworks all over town at midnight (though from what I understand, not sanctioned) and from our roof terrace we got to watch the city alight:

All in all, putting aside a few days of my being under the weather and the fact that it was cold and still raining much of the time (seriously, enough with the rain already!), we had a lovely few weeks off. Here’s to the new year!