Memorial Day in Florence

Monday, 29 May 2006 was pretty much a routine day in Italy. It being a Monday most of the museums were closed in Florence of course, as are many of the shops, and even some of the restaurants. Mondays are typically an extension of Le Weekend as the French (don’t) like to call it, and so seems a bit slower paced than the rest of the “work week” in Italy.

Anyway we had arranged with to meet Warren and Gladys at a little after 1:00 pm at their apartment near Santa Croce and then go to the American National cemetery which is just a little over seven miles south of the city for the Memorial Day ceremony. We waited a few minutes for one of their friends to join us. The five of us then headed off across the street to the cabstand to grab a taxi out to the cemetery.

This being Florence we all enjoyed a circuitous 20-minute taxi ride out to the national cemetery but it was clearly worth the trip.

When we pulled into the cemetery entrance there was already quite a lot of bustle going on, lots of different military types from at least two countries, as well as members of various military organizations and of course quite a few Americans. Veteran members of the US 10th Mountain Division was there in force, along with their families – as were a large group of Boy Scouts (of America not Italy), more than a dozen Italian veterans’ organizations with their flags of course, plenty of local politicos and naturally the US consul general, the US ambassador to Italy (he was the only one to come by helicopter provided by the Italian “carabiniere”, or national police), generals from both US and Italian armies as well as US and Italian army units, a brass band, and plenty of Italian civilians, all here to set the stage for laying of wreaths at the Memorial. There was even a small group of Italians and one Belgian who are WW2 US Army reenactors!

The day had begun overcast and frankly we thought rain might be headed our way, since it looked quite dark to the south. But then the Florentines always think it looks dark toward Siena so we didn’t put much stock in what things “looked like”. And anyway this being Italy it always changes – the weather I mean, and in fact it almost always changes from overcast to sun chronologically: that is from morning to afternoon. And so it did today.


Since we got to the cemetery about an hour before the service was scheduled to start we all wandered around the grounds, strolling among the stones. We mingled with many of the other visitors, some of whom, like the veterans of the 10th Mountain Division, had come to pay their respects to the more than 400 of their comrades who lay buried there. (photo: Warren checking out a name and Susan strolling.)


The cemetery is quite striking; very well laid out, and artistically appealing to our sensibilities, the sweeping arcs of the rows of stones were most engaging to the eye, and meticulously maintained. The some 70 acres of beautifully manicured green and tree-lined open space sloping gently down from a thickly wooded hillside to the Greve River is truly a spot of peace and tranquility. This is certainly a perfect place to honor the memory of the 4,402 men and women who rest there, most of whom perished during the last 8 months or so of the Second World War. Included in the burials are five pairs of brothers buried side-by-side. Construction on both the cemetery and memorial were completed in 1959.


The Memorial service began on time, with the posting of the colors and then the opening prayer by Mons. Luigi Mora, Chief Italian Army Chaplain for Tuscany. This was followed by followed by the US ambassador to Italy, Ronald Spogli, Brig. Gen. Michael Tucker, the Lord’s Prayer read by three daughters of deceased soldiers buried in the cemetery and then a few words from John Duffy, president of the 10th Mountain Division Association. There were a few words by Italian General Luigi Colaneri and then the laying of the wreaths by some 14 different groups from the Florence area.


A choir from one of the local churches sang “Amazing Grace”, and prayers were read by Dr. Joseph Levi, Head Rabbi of the Florence Jewish Community and Chaplain Charles Barnam who is stationed with the US Army garrison in Livorno.

The US Army’ rifle squad from Vicenza provided the traditional 21-gun salute, which was followed by the playing of Taps, then the playing of both Italian and American national anthems, and the raising of the flags from half-mast to the full-mast.


After the ceremony as everyone dispersed many turned their attention to the stones once again. It was clearly an opportunity for many of the old veterans who were there to pay what may very well prove to be their last respects to those veterans who will be forever young.

And you could see the old gentlemen with their list in hand,
moving from section to section,
each one or two trying to find a name or two
of someone they remembered
from that day or two more than 60 years ago,
but like it was today.

It was a great day to be alive, the sun out at last, and walking among such evocative symbols of sacrifice in such a beautiful garden of stone.


Eventually of course we had to go. We said good-by to Warren and Gladys as they caught a ride back to the city with some friends – the tiny car would only hold four – and since we wanted to stroll the grounds for a bit longer we thought we would just take the bus back. Which we did of course.

Recipe no. 1 from Florence

Here is a wonderful recipe from Florence. Susan made these rolls on Saturday, 27 May 2006, and they are delicious. Try 'em!



"Oat bread"

Ingredients:

500g of flour "0" (tipo 0, or type zero in Italy, all-purpose in the US)
125g oat flakes (or muesli)
50g butter
25g sugar
10g salt
25g brewer's yeast (fresh cake yeast)
300g water
dried cherries (optional)

Process:

Soak oat flakes in water for 10 minutes, melt in sugar and yeast, and add the other ingredients. (I added about a 1/3 cup of chopped dried cherries.)
Knead until smooth.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Make 300g pieces and let rest for 10 more minutes.
Make 50g pieces and form small rolls or braids, place on lightly greased baking sheet
Let rise for 20-30 minutes.
Egg wash and sprinkle with chopped nuts (I used almonds but pistachios would work fine).
Bake at 200C (400F) for 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned

This recipe makes about 20 small braided rolls and can easily be doubled.

Enjoy!

A beautiful Sunday in Florence

It’s a gorgeous Sunday morning in Florence; clear blue sky, cool air and all the sun you could want. It’s nice to just relax after the rush of the last week and a half, since we returned from Paris (motto: “bring plenty of cash”).

Much of the last 10 days or so has been devoted to getting ready for our upcoming move – and of course to our visit to the US. We still haven’t decided on an apartment yet and continue to surf the Internet for possibilities. The security deposit (which apparently is translated from the French as enough money to completely refurnish the apartment if necessary) and rental agent fees are scandalous; but hey, life is so very full of tradeoffs, right? In any case we are eager to do this – and the anticipation grows with each passing day.

Here in Italy we contacted a local mover by email to get an estimate for our move north. They called back a day or so later giving us the specifics on how this is going to work. We have to put together a written list of what we want to move and fax it to them. After that they will send us an estimate. When I spoke with the woman on the phone she seemed keenly interested in how many flights up our apartment is here in Florence as well as our new one in Paris (which of course we don’t know where that will be yet). So we started boxing some things up, taking measurements and marking down what we have and hope to get that off to the mover by midweek. We don’t expect to find out anything definitive one way or the other for a week or so after that.

We just can’t get over the fact that we have “stuff” in storage in Vermont – and who knows when we’ll see that again – and yet here we are arranging for someone to come and move more “stuff” here in Italy to another foreign destination and for how long we don’t know. Not that we are complaining mind you – we cannot believe how fabulously lucky we are and what a grand avventura this all is – but it is, well, amazing.

Besides the Paris move our trip back to the states in June is also demanding more of our attention as well: from trying to figure out what to pack (computer yes camera maybe that sort of thing) to finding a place to buy US SIM cards so we can use our phones to deciding on the best time to advertise our car in the newspaper – and which paper, and where? (OK that’s an easy answer: The Boston Globe.)

But while much of our attention has been focused on our US trip and our move to Paris at the end of July, we also have to keep refocusing ourselves on the fact that, hey, this is our home here right now, we live in Florence.

So it was a treat when we finally caught up with a couple of other Americans who have lived here for some time, Melinda and Dave. Susan and I met Melinda at a book signing at McRae’s books a couple of weeks ago. At one point Melinda leaned over and asked Susan if they knew each other from somewhere, and quickly discovered that Melinda is a good friend of one of Susan’s teachers, Simone; in fact Melinda and her husband are renting Simone’s apartment here in Florence. We talked for a bit and then made plans to meet at Simone’s restaurant, Il Canapone, which is on the south side of the river (“oltrarno”) for dinner later on in the month – it seemed that all of us were heading for France in the next week or so, Susan and I to Paris and Melinda and Dave to a conference near Nice.

Anyway we stayed in touch by email and soon after we returned from up north we set up a time to meet at Simone’s in early June -- but also thought why not get together for an aperitivo sooner?

So we met at (another) book signing, Friday evening, this one at the Paperback Exchange. Linda Falcone, who is the editor of the local English language newspaper, The Florentine, was signing copies of her new book, “Italians love to dance and I’m a wallflower”, a collection of her witty and touching newspaper articles about the unique and often intimate meanings found in Italian figures of speech.

So the four of us met just outside the quite full bookshop, and stepped inside where we listened to Linda read from one of her chapters, “non si fa”, which in essence means “you don’t do that” or “that just isn’t done,” a popular figure of speech which describes certain things that, well, just aren’t done in Italy. Period. End of discussion. No “whys” or “because ofs”. It just isn’t done and that’s it.

Afterwards the four of us strolled to the Arno and went to the Golden View Bar to have a drink – and since the time got away from us we decided to stay and have dinner.

It was a great opportunity to swap travel stories and with a bonus: it turned out that Melinda had lived in Paris for some years so of course we started pumping her for information about our impending move there. Melinda has spent much of her life abroad, in London, Paris and now in Florence. She writes one of the most sophisticated blogs I have yet to read, and one that is extremely well designed as well. Check it out!

It was plenty of fun, and a grand evening spent in lively conversation.

Above everything else, one thing stood out in the evening’s discussion: the traveler’s determination “to learn”. We continue to learn and develop that peculiar frame of mind which all independent travelers strive to possess, no matter who they are or where they begin their journey, a frame of mind that seeks out new avenues of discovery, new things to see. Not necessarily in the obvious “things” but in those that are subtle, like in Linda Falcone’s stories about figures of speech that are not necessarily clear even to foreigners fluent in Italian but which nonetheless go far in describing a cultural identity that surrounds us everywhere.

Last night, Saturday we did a rather strange thing -- for us at any rate. We watched a French film, Blue, in French but with Italian subtitles. Fortunately the dialogue was sparse and we had seen the before but we found ourselves saying that it was nevertheless an odd thing to do. Pleasantly odd.

We will certainly miss Italy.

Although Monday, May 29th, is just another day for Italians, for the local American community it is of course Memorial Day. We hope to meet with Warren and Gladys and head to the Florence American National cemetery just south of the city for the Memorial Day service. We have driven by the cemetery on the bus to Siena numerous times and it is most striking. Set against a small hillside as a backdrop the memorial is beautifully framed by the green slope while the stones themselves seem to cascade toward you, rather like a carpet of thousands of white crosses. We are certainly eager to spend some quality time in this particularly unique “garden of stone”. I hope to have some photos to share with you later this week as well.

Until then, take care, stay well and

Wish you were here.

Steve

Oh and here's a visual PS from Paris: susan, me paying our respects to Fred Chopin.

Paris is a go

Flash!

Florence is out, Paris is in.

That’s right we will be moving to Paris in late July. Susan has been accepted to the Patisserie Diploma program at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, starting August 7 and finishing December 15. She is also considering doing a three-month internship probably in Paris, but that wouldn’t begin until sometime in January, giving us a chance to come back to the states for the holidays.

Leave Italy? Yep, we’re going to have to, but as much as we love this corner of the world, we cannot pass up this opportunity to broaden our horizons, change our perspective, widen our outlook, you name the cliché and it probably fits. And Italy will still be here.

We will remain in Florence until the end of July when we start the Big Move North.

So stay tuned for photos and trip notes from our latest jaunt to the City of Lights, and of course for more details on why Susan will be leaving the program at Apicius in Florence.

Back in Florence

We returned to Florence from Paris late Wednesday evening after a short flight on Easyjet, one of the European discount airlines. We much prefer them to Ryanair, which we have flown twice now, and, I might add, a conclusion shared by the young American woman sitting next to Susan on our flight back to Italy.

(Plus the attendants on Easyjet had cool outfits, orange and black, like some sophisticated fashion statement for mechanics. They looked really comfortable and the attendants were pleasant and some were actually friendly. Imagine that. Easyjet has nicer planes; friendlier service and they don’t seem to have bizarre ideas about airline travel. One example. When we were returning from Frankfurt on Ryanair, which is course is not really in Frankfurt nor is it even close to Frankfurt, being probably closer to Switzerland or France or whatever, but certainly not Frankfurt, although someone allows them to say they are. Anyway on our return flight last December the last five rows of the plane were roped off. Now the plane was packed – and of course everyone tells you that revenue is everything to the airlines so why are these seats empty, I asked, implying that no one was paying for sitting there. The surly attendant informed me that it was to maintain the plane’s balance in the air. “Balance?” I jokingly said something toe effect “oh so the plane won’t break in half”? Yes, was the reply.)

Anyway, we landed in Pisa at about 8:30 pm, picked up our bag and got on the next train to Pisa Centrale, a ride of about 5 minutes form the airport, where we had about a half hour wait for the Florence train. After another hour or so on the train we arrived at Santa Maria Novella station in Florence. It was a lovely evening as we walked home, picking up a couple of pannini on the way. What a grand time we had had.

Before going to bed I checked emails and updated my newsreader (my rss links to headline news stories). For some time now I have been getting a word-a-day sent to my newsreader from dictionary.com and interestingly the latest word was palimpsest, defined as “something reused or altered but still bearing traces of its earlier form.” Palimpsest perfectly described not only Paris but of course our entire experience in Italy. It also of course perfectly described the two of us, since both of us have felt that we have been profoundly “altered from our earlier form.”

Altered, changed, modified. Such words have been the touchstones for our trip here, the foundations on which our motives for living in Florence presently rest. And of course the very reason we are moving to Paris in August – OK the end of July probably. But in any case we are going leaving here and going there, where we will live has yet to be determined, and how we will get there who knows. But go we will.

As I said in my previous post, the reason we went to Paris this past week was for Susan to visit Le Cordon Bleu, speak with an advisor about their Patisserie Diploma program and submit here application. Of course we also wanted to revisit the city where we had such fond memories of an all-too-brief stopover so many years ago. But first and foremost it was to see Le Cordon Bleu. But we saw, no, experienced so much else besides.

But, you might ask, what about the yearlong pastry and baking program at Apicius, the Culinary Institute of Florence? I have tried to answer that question in another recent post, “Some thoughts about Apicius,” which you can find in the archives. You can check there for a more detailed discussion of the problems that Susan discovered during her first part of the two-part program. In a nutshell, the lack of seriousness on the part of many of the college-age students attending Apicius was certainly one factor in her decision to go elsewhere.

But at bottom, it was the school’s failure to commit itself to Susan’s interests. She began the “year-long” program in January, hoping to finish through an intensive second half by the end of the summer. By mid-April it was clear that would not happen. By early-May it was still unclear whether the advanced, second half program would even happen in the fall. We wouldn’t know one way or the other until when? Late July? August? The school simply could not tell us for sure if the program was going to happen. We decided to move on.

So if Susan gets accepted it’s off to Paris we go. We should know any day now.

Still we have lots to do here in Florence; food to eat, places to see, an entire culture to savor every day. We hope to join our friends Warren and Gladys for the Memorial Day ceremony out at the American Soldier’s Cemetery in Florence, the end of the month.