Family, Food, Football and Black Friday

Thanksgiving, families getting together, sharing good food, catching up, maybe since the same time last year, and watching football. To me, it’s the Great American Holiday. It’s the one I’ve enjoyed most since getting over Santa Clause.  Speaking of Ol Saint Nick, let’s consider the seasons. 

Christmas is the remembrance of our Savior’s birth and the occasion is well known by most everyone, even those who fail to understand, recognize or accept the Savior. It has, however, become a bastion of mercantilist, “oneupmanship” and begins on Black Friday and ends sometime thirty-days after the purchase dates of gifts bought for the required gifting. Hopefully, those gifts were bought with free returns. 

Thanksgiving, on the other hand has become the recognition of the birth of Black Friday, and until Halloween takes over the honor (remember you heard it here first) Black Friday will remain the reason for the season. 

What is the real reason for the Thanksgiving season?  Ask a Gen Xer or Millennial. Don’t know what kind of answers would emerge but probably different from us “normal” Boomers. 

Siri says, “Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 B.A. harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.”  (B.A. = Before Amazon) Can’t find anything about Black Friday. 

Do not mistake my thoughts as disrespect for the gifts of the Wisemen, gifts of love are quite different from the gifs of requirement, and I believe our Savior would agree. Do take my thoughts as an assessment of the holiday seasons we know and love. 

My thoughts and our realizations will not alter the march of marketing dollars but I hope it will give us pause to ponder the Pilgrims and our Savior’s importance in our Thanksgiving and Christmas prayers. Jim

Jet Lag and Hamburgers

My clock says it’s 12:30 AM, my body says it’s 7:30AM, so I’m up making coffee, checking News pages and planning the day’s activities. 

My clock now says 7:30PM, I’ve been up nineteen hours, and my body is in the dysfunction of loosing seven time zones in less than twelve hours. Maybe by forcing myself to stay up a little later, I can begin to regain a normal central time zone lifestyle. 

It’s interesting that gaining seven time zone hours on the front end of a trip doesn’t have the same body snatching effect as it does on the backend of a trip.  It probably has something to do with the endorphins of excitement in being in a far away land and not having to cut the grass for a while. 

I’m not sure what chasing the sun back home has to do with hamburgers but I seem to always crave a juicy skillet fried hamburger when I get home. Not sure why because we’ve sworn off hamburgers at home for several years now, something to do with eating habits in old age, I guess. But, it’s become a rite of homecoming when we travel overseas. 

Tonight was hamburger night. Pam bought some ground meat and mixed up her better than Krystal burger patties. I heated the black iron pan sufficiently to quickly sear the burger and trap the no way to describe flavor of fried burger. 

The secret to the perfect burger is to kill the botulisms before killing the burger. Nobody likes a dry burger. Just before flipping, throw in a few onions, rounds not chopped, so they will stay put when a you chomp down. Now, flip and lay a square of provolone on top, turn the heat down low and cover the skillet with whatever you can find. Iron skillets never have matching tops. Sometimes I splash a little Dry Sherry in the pan before covering, but that’s your choice. 

There is one sure way to destroy a well prepared burger, toast the bun. Buns should be warmed so the bread is warm and moist, with the outside of the bun firm hot but not crusty. Mayo on both sides, next tomato slice on bottom then meat with mustard on bottom of patty. Top of meat and melted cheese with sautéed onions, dill pickle rounds, lettuce, salt and pepper. That’s it, don’t even think about ketchup. Tomatoes on the bottom will stay put better than on the top. Use a dish towel because a paper napkin won’t keep up. Enjoy, I did. 

It’s now 8:30 PM Central time, I’m hamburgered out. Talk, tomorrow.  Jim

Downtown Starkville Mississippi

Seventeen hours from Starkvegas and ready to be home. 

The daytime flight from Rome was a five movie cruise across the Atlantic. Where the Crawdads Sing, is a pretty good picture show. I’ve been looking forward to reading the hard copy, now it’s a must do. Can’t remember the others. 

Flights were without incident and we didn’t lose any thing unti we left a bag in the Uber from the Jackson AP.  The process for getting in contact with an Uber driver bout leaving spouses makeup bag in the bed of his Silverado is almost as interesting as dealing with said spouse. Let your imagination complete this blog segment. 

Being away for thirty-four days has a number of associated implications. We left in Sumer and now it’s winter  We missed Halloween and have a bare fridge for TG and trees shed their leaves in the Fall. We have a wasp nest in the sunroom and a house is going up next door, but lying down in our own beds and waking up to homemade Americano helps smooth the travel trauma. Great to be home and looking forward to what comes next. 

I’ll be continuing to blog about Pam’s and my travel prep and other super interesting stuff about a few experiences on the road, and at home. I hope folks will check in every so often to see what’s going on. I don’t provide a way for readers to make comments and I don’t send notifications (I don’t like getting notifications either), so we’ll leave it up to readers to choose to be readers. 

Hope to talk with you here from time to time, and now I’ve got to go rake leaves… after finishing my coffee. Jim and Makeupless Spouse, Pam. 

Jesse Does Rome

                                 Baccus
Great sleep and calm morning. Jesse will pick us up at 1:00 for our afternoon tour, so we took advantage of the morning and walked through a very long tunnel and around a turn or two and found our destination; Trevi Fountain.

It’s one of the many 18th century marvels of Rome and setting for the Movie, “Three Coins in the Fountain”. Dorathy McGuire, I’m sure you will remember, was one of the starlets and Frank Sinatra sang the song, I’m sure you will remember. We were there at night a few years ago, a stunning sight, but this morning with the sun glistening across the white marble it was just as perfect. 

Jesse,

his mother and sister and two friends from his real home in the Netherlands picked us up in an six-seat golf cart and we departed for the top Roman sights and vistas  The afternoon was the best we’ve had in Roma and to be with Jesse’s family made it all the better.  Our day’s weather was Chamber perfect.  Jesse is a good friend and if you want an excellent private Roman holiday tour, let me me know and I’ll hook you up  

We ate a large Italian Glam Hotel breakfast this morning, meat, cheese, fish and, of course, pastries, yogurt and strong black coffee, and called an audible to skip lunch and have a last main meal this evening. We ate at a restaurant last time here that is worth a second opportunity,

and it’s close to the Glam. We set the destination on Google maps and in ten minutes we were there. Things start late here, we had a 75 minute cocktail wait, while watching the local crowd use up a cool, clear Sunday evening. We’ve had worse delays, and the eventual broiled sea bass and pasta dishes were outstanding. 

Sleep came slowly as we remembered our past month or so and reviewed a few pics and journal notes to jog our sometimes foggy memories. We have traveled through four countries and several Italian regions; Puglia, Basilicata, Tuscany and several on the island of Sicily.  We are truly blessed and fortunate folks. Thanks for watching, Jim and Pam

Headed home

When in Rome

                             Lunch stop Rome
Fabio, Robert calls the secretary of transportation, picked us up at the villa at 8:00 and deposited us at the Florence train station. Time for coffee and pastry was quickly absorbed by the fast moving Italian folks getting to their morning trains. Our train’s platform assignment popped up on the display board and it looked like everybody in the station headed for bianari 12.

          Train ride to Rome, with our trusty Wet Wipes
Pam had anticipated a busy station when buying our seats and reserved them so we ambled to our assigned coach and boarded. Europeans have figured out train travel and offer bargain prices. 63 euros got both of us to Rome, at 150 mph with free coffee and Italian cookies. Cool. 

Rain greeted us in Rome and after getting turned down by a couple of taxi guys, a broken English speaking driver said, no go… demonstration!  This makes the second country we’ve arrived in to find demonstrations underway. Loudspeakers, flags, drums and lots of fireworks. Carabinieri sirens blaring and uzi toting swat forces standing around their heavy troop mover, smoking.  It’s all relatively peaceful but, I admit, the fireworks might hide some more lethal sounds, but we have no option but to move along in a semblance of normal activity. The bigger issue for us is that we have no idea where the Glam Hotel is and even more daunting is the rain that is continuing to complicate our journey. We get our rain gear on and GPS connected and things calm down to making our 3/4 mile, cobbled walk to this chic uptown boutique hotel (that we had no idea was a chic uptown hotel or that it was in the middle of a very significant demonstration) and get checked into our room. 

Our lodging had been recommended by Jesse Marin, our friend and our guide for tomorrow’s Roma tour. Jesse is a former pro soccer player, turned kick boxer, truly good human and solid nice guy. He also looks like a Greek god, as Pam likes to describe him. Jesse’s sister and mother are visiting him in Rome and will join us tomorrow.  

                                 Jesse Dang Marin

We lunched late and forgo dinner for a glass of vino and Modica chocolate, smuggled in from Sicily. We continue to be more fortunate than we deserve. Jim

Farewell Day in Firenze

It’s good to make Florence our final RSJ trip stop. We arrived about 10:30 and have a couple of hours to shop or hang out before gathering for lunch. It turns out to be shopping for us and finding several take home leather goods to make packing more challenging. 

Lunch at la Menagerie continued our eating successes in a very contemporary restaurant, actually something comparable to an upscale Williams and Sonoma.  

We had been looking forward to visiting the state operated art restoration and preservation facility located in Florence; it did not disappoint.

The only pictures allowed wee outside the building and my writing skills will fail in helping you understand the significance of our visit. 

We stood within touching distance of antiquities that, if in a museum, guards would have gotten some Taser practice.  The center director unveiled a fresco from 600 B.C. (You might want to think a minute about that) and we were allowed to come within a foot or so to get a close look. As we walked through the facility, it became expected that the artifacts being restored or preserved were in the early centuries A.D.  

We were schooled on the processes of preservation and restoration, and the significant differences of the concepts. The most interesting items we saw, and there were many, were painted textiles unearthed from the cooled ashes of Pompeii. Incredibly, many textile artifacts were recovered without being destroyed in the eruption. The work being done to preserve the historical items is measured in microns per day, and powerful optics are being used to aid the artist’s work. The instruments used in these processes range from focused laser light and X-ray technology to Q-tips and drug store rubbing alcohol.  To restore badly damaged art, artist use watercolor on the oil paintings to eliminate any attempt to create a counterfeit classic painting. It also makes the reversal of the process easier if future technologies permit more effective repair methods. 

Our last dinner was held at Anna Gloria’s villa and prepared by her daughters and staff.  Several stand-up courses are served elegantly on a long contemporary table and everyone enjoyed the homemade offerings and local wines.  

We have been told that a surprise happening will occur after dining. Boy, did it ever. How about a four piece rock n roll combo that could not only play like a the you’ve never heard, at least that close before, but were also great entertainers.  Great R&R, dancing, singing and I’ll not answers anymore questions as it could incriminate me worse than I am already incriminated!

Best ever finale to a great tour; Thanks Robert and Jill, and our travel friends  

Next year, Jim and Pam

On to Roma  

Train platform 12, Rome

Me and the guys. Great evening, notice shirttail. 

Silver in Sambuca and then to Sienna

We visited the workshop of Paola the silversmith this morning and for us, it was a fond reunion.  We met Paola in 2019 and in the time between our visits Paolo has been very ill. We understand that his health is better and he is back at work in the workshop he has spent his life creating silver masterpieces. We’re glad to report that he remembered us and seemed to be glad we were there.  We picked up (after paying) a few pieces of his work before leaving.  By the way, the trophy in our picture, is being made for a Formula 1, race (somewhere, I wasn’t able to decipher the interpreter’s interpretation) and will be as grand a prize as the race itself. 

Leaving  Sambuca we motored thirty minutes to Sienna, which is my favorite Tuscan city. 

 I won’t try to put a bunch of adjectives together to express my admiration for the city but, please know it’s one of a kind. 

We lunched at OSTERIA Le LOGGE just off the square and upstairs in the small restaurant.

The meal was hearty and comforting, perfect for a sunny but breezy cool afternoon. Shopping and coffee on the square gave us a good vantage point to watch the beautiful Sienna people before touring the City Palace.  The walls of the palace are covered with 14th century art and numerous white marble statues depicting the decades of war endured by the city. Many of those wars were with their neighboring Firenze. 

The Palio is the Super Bowl of the neighborhoods of Sienna. No ball is involved but there is a goal line or finish line.  Palio is a horse race around the square (actually an ellipse) by ten of the seventeen neighborhoods. Many rules govern the affair and determine which neighborhoods complete but it’s the biggest deal of the year, now the wars are pretty much over, and the Sienna folks take it totally seriously. I suggest the time spent on Google to discover more facts about Palio is well worth your time.  I’m not sure how anyone finds the country-like restaurant we dined in last eve. The road leading to the place was gravel (don’t think it’s called gravel here but similar) and steep with the, made for Italy, switchbacks and hairpins. I don’t know how Robert comes up with these places but the food is always special. This Florentine steak night was another of those striking settings and presentations that we truly appreciate. 

We will return to Florence tomorrow for a free shopping morning, lunch and visit to the state conservatory of art preservation. Should be another good last day. Jim

 Jim 

Forte dei Marmi and Marble Mining

We ranged out from Barbarino today and drove to Fotre dei Marmi, and I would characterize the seaside village as the Palm Beach of Tuscany. Upscale beach homes and condominiums only topped by the purple blue of the Mediterranean. Robert timed our visit with the, also upscaled, street side market. Cashmere seemed to be the offering of choice, closely followed by leather and puffy down jackets. The ride coincided with the rainy day and, to our benefit, the sun was shining on the coast. Our lunch was the appropriate fish on the coast. 

We departed for Carrara and the white statue-quality marble quarries.

We boarded Land Rovers

and began our trek up the one-lane, nosebleed high, sheer drop, exhilarating path to see the quarrymen at their tedious  jobs. 

We donned our fluorescent safety vests and hard hats and hiked up into the white marble mountain.

I should say, inside the mountain. We learn everyday on our trips, I had no idea of the process for mining the marble.  

The big deal here is that it has been going on for two thousand years and our guide tells us that less than .001% of the marble has been taken. We also understand that Michelangelo  and other Medieval masters stood here, personally selected their finest, statue quality stone and supervised its recovery. Neat deal to be here also. 

Our day ended as usual, eating good food we’ve never seen before and having more DOCG. Life is better than it should be.

Sorry, I’m outrunning my lines of supply, before the quarry we visited an artist group carving the beautiful stone into world class art for people, churches and other entities all over the world.  One of the carvers was from Colorado; her work was outstanding.  

 Happy, Jim 

Pics:

The mountain is a National Geographic expedition site. 

To Firenze with Love

Romantic gardens became our first stop this morning. Sixteen acres, smack in the middle of Florence, just a few blocks off the Arno. The gardens owned by the Torrigiani family for many years and maintained by the family as a tribute to the romantic history of one of the most enchantingly beautiful places on earth. Most of the structures on the residence and defensive walls were designed by Michael Angelo and constructed under his guidance. The secluded pathways winding through the gardens bring the illusion of being many miles from the bustling city. The earliest construction began in the fourteenth century and continued to the early eighteenth century.

Alisandro, our host, and Torrigiani family member guided our group through the gardens sharing family memories  and detailed history of the gardens and its medieval structures.  The garden tower is unique in its design and serves a defensive structure as well as an advantageous viewing sight for the family. 

A restaurant Pam and I sampled last week turned out to be our lunch spot today. Ala Vecchia Bettola  should be on everybody’s list while in Firenze, and order Penne ala Bettola pasta, we believe it’s the best pasta dish we’ve had.  

An artisan tour followed  in the heart of the city, where modern day Angelos were continuing the art of medieval craftsman and birthing pieces that will become historical in their own time.  We watched as they sawed, shaved and carefully fit and assembled inlaid cuts of marble, alabaster and other beautiful stone into perfect mosaic images of birds, flora and memorable city structures. 

In another shop we witnessed Marco creating Florentine paper,  which I didn’t know existed until we entered his  shop.  He worked in a low sided pan of fluid, of a type I didn’t catch, and dripped, splattered and sprayed laytex paint onto the surface of the liquid. The liquid was then agitated to distribute the colors in creative ways that soon become colorful patterns on paper that he would float in the paint infused liquid and dry on wooden racks.  Most anyone could explain this process better than I just have, but it’s late and I’ve overeaten and I am tired. 

Piazza del Duomo, identified by the iconic dome on the central church of Florence, is the most visited spot and photographed view in all of Italy.  The baptistry, adjacent to the church, houses some of the most historic and beautiful art of the period and should not be missed 

Doors created by an artist I don’t recall to the baptistry. Pictures do not do justic

while in the city. 

The day concludes with a champagne rest stop in a “glitzy” restaurant on the square and short van ride to an “unavailable anywhere else” fish and other sea animal dinner at La Trattoria del Pesce that will remain a memorable dinner for a while.   Memorable, Jim

Pics

One of Italy’s top retired soccer players, now professional kick boxer, joined our lunch for pics.

More artisans at work

Defensive wall gare to the Torrigiani gardens

La Trattoria del Pesce

Torrigiani Gardens

Enriched in Tuscany

The start of the day is chilly crisp, with clear blue sky’s and the right amount of breeze. Our travels are ranging out from our barn in Tavernelle,  

Morning view from barn (Our lodging)

to see several important UNESCO historic sites. Our vans provide a high level of comfort on the narrow, twisty roads of Tuscany, and to meet our goals, we will travel about three hours over the course of the day.  Robert, as always, has planned rest stop in strategic places and at strategic times, if you know what I mean. 

Our first stop was brief to get pictures of the most photographed vista in the world, as announced by our driver, Anthony.  Marina, our guide says, “lots pics are made here”.   

My photographic skills didn’t do this one justice. 

Our first real stop is at stately Romanesque church at the top of a ridge that travels up to the highest peak in Tuscany. It’s noteworthy, I understand, as few structures in the area have Roman features. 

Again, photo doesn’t tell the story. 

We had lunch at a garden restaurant in the mountainside village of Pienza. We didn’t get the full garden effect as the cool weather meant glass enclosures were lowered to make our noon meal more comfortable. The view was stunning. We did get the full food effect with several courses and an entree of roast duck breast that was about as good as I’ve had.  

I haven’t said much about the little town, but it’s one we’ve put on our return list for a longer stay. 

Pienza

Pienza 

Pienza

A clear bluebird afternoon found us visiting a monastery said to be ordered built by Charlemagne in the tenth century.  Abbey of Sant'Antimo.  Amazing experience to know the history and see a massive marble structure with an interior constructed almost entirely of alabaster.  

I can’t describe the beauty and grandeur with two thumbs on a winding Tuscan road, but was quite an opportunity. 

Charlemagne picked a perfect location as the monastery was surrounded by the rolling hills, tall thin cypress trees, lining the trails and paths, and multicolored fields, some brilliant green some plowed and prepared for spring planting.   Numbers of ancient olive tree’s completed the landscape and provided our group with material for some long-term memories. I’m pleased with that, as my short term memory has become… short. 

It’s been one of those RSJ extended opportunities for enrichment days, and the only sounds in the van are an occasional email alert and some really well-fed, we’ll-enriched, quiet riders. 

Dinner at 8:00.  Enriched, Jim