May the Signora Luisas of Liguria and elsewhere live long and healthy lives!

Signora Luisa still collects wood in the forest for her wood-burning stove, still maintains a breathtaking garden along the lane of her Ligurian village… notwithstanding her ninety-plus years of existence. We who live fast and ‘technologized’ lives risk becoming out of touch with ourselves and the world around us. Our forebears in many ways had it right, since by necessity they lived in harmony with their land, not against it… we have a great deal to learn from the few remaining exemplars of that age.

May her successors be numerous!!!

New larch needles growing in great!!!

Today we honor the birthday of a promising, young Bolognese poet. Stefano Cavedoni began his career in the turbulent 1970s, as one of the founders and lead performers of the rock band Skiantos. This was a particularly difficult period for Italy, known as the “years of lead” – Stefano and his crew attempted to diffuse the political tension of the time through their irreverent songs and shenanigans. Since then, Stefano has enjoyed success as a stand-up comedian, walking guide and writer, and most recently started a new band called Prosthathas (i.e. the “Prostates”). He will now be joining me as a regular contributor on this blog. As a sneak peak of what’s to come, I’ve enclosed one of his poems below (English translation follows):

Ehi… sono o non sono il tuo ragazzo?!?

L’altra sera mi hai permesso

di portarti in pizzeria

Mi son fatto anche la barba

canticchiando una canzone

Siamo stati in riva al fiume

dove l’erba non è dura

Tu parlavi della luna

per cercare di distrarmi

Ho tentato di baciarti

ho ingoiato sei zanzare

Siamo andati nell’androne

sei scappata in ascensore

Ehi sono o non sono il tuo ragazzo?!?

Mi vuoi spiegare cosa c’entra l’alito?!?

Sono due le cose al mondo

che mi piacciono di più:

l’aglio e tu

di Stefano Cavedoni Bolognese (formatlive@libero.it), dal suo libro “Poesia Cinese contiene poesia italiana minorile del tardo ‘900”

Hey… am I or am I not your boyfriend?!?

The other night you let me

take you to the pizzeria

I even shaved

humming a little song

We went to the river’s shore

where the grass is not hard

You spoke of the moon

in order to distract me

I tried to kiss you

I swallowed six mosquitoes

We entered the apartment building

you escaped in the elevator

Hey! Am I or am I not your boyfriend?!?

What does bad breath have to do with it?!?

Of all the things in this world,

I like most two:

garlic and you

by Stefano Cavedoni Bolognese (formatlive@libero.it), from his book “Chinese Poetry contains juvenile Italian poetry of the late 1900s”

Extraordinary inauguration last night of the Venaria Reale Music 2010 festival! Che emozione!

The ‘Versailles’ of the Savoy – former rulers of Piedmont and Italy – was marvelously restored in 2007, and today both the palace and gardens can be visited. Could there be a better way to appreciate the serene surroundings  than with a delicious aperitivo, a musical fountain & lights show, and a concert with some of the best jazz musicians in the world?

It is sincerely hoped that ‘Trumpet Power’ – which made its intergalactic debut at Venaria last night – will soon make its way elsewhere on the planet (and beyond…). Such powerful emotions cannot be contained within a stately courtyard of Northwest Italy, but should naturally meander around the world, inspiring all those fortunate enough to experience it. Trumpet Power is led by American composer and Klezmatics star Frank London, Italian creative genius Paolo Fresu, Balkan wonder Marco Markovic and funky Latino Jerry Gonzalez, and is chock-full of other superb musicians, including drummer/Northern Italy adventurer-mountaineer Richie Barshay.

Remarkable indeed! Maestro-organizer Daniele Lucca from Agliè – a nearby village in the Canavese, also well worth a reconnoiter – has done a masterful job this year in putting it all together. We managed to take in the opening dinner last weekend, replete with sword-fighting, fire-eating, solemn trumpeters, noble patrons and a singularly spiritoso court jester…

This weekend is the 7th edition of the International Tournament of Historical Duel “FUROR ET FERRUM” © – should be a lot of fun. See http://www.feriemedievali.com/index_uk.asp for more information.

Quite feasible, considering the short distances involved. You could easily ski in the morning in Piedmont and swim in the Mediterranean in the afternoon… but why? Much better to enjoy your free time con calma, enjoy a Piedmontese lunch after skiing, dinner with friends in Emilia (with the typical gnocco fritto) and then the next day head to the Ligurian sea.

And on Sundays now, too! But don’t worry – even if it took Sicilian gelato savant Felice Curtò 37 years in the business before he finally ‘conceded’ to normal Western business hours, he won’t be overworking himself since he has the help of his son and other employees. Those who live in Milan’s Isola neighborhood are thrilled with the decision to remain open later – since the gelateria has some of the best traditional Sicilian gelati, granite (ices), cassate and cannoli in town. As well as brioche col pallino, warm brioche served with ice cream (preferably hazelnut), a real breakfast of champions. Walk into the gelateria and you’ll be immediately transported to Messina, circa 1990 – you’ll forget that you are in the heart of Northern Italy’s bustling industrial capital.

So what does a Sicilian gelateria in Milan have to do with Northern Italy? Everything! Many of the North’s industries were developed thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of those coming from elsewhere in Italy – whether from high alpine villages or southern coastlines a stone’s throw away from Africa. Milan, situated in the middle of the Po River plain at the foot of a number of important alpine passes, has always been a center for European trade – and so it should come as no surprise that it was and still is a melting pot.

Felice opened the first authentic Sicilian gelateria close to the Duomo of Milan in 1985, and for the last 12 years he has been in Isola with his ‘Gelateria Siciliana dell’Isola’. One of Milan’s original working class neighborhoods, Isola has become more gentrified in recent years, with its vicinity to city center. It is popular with the young and hip, as there are number of good restaurants here and even a Blue Note jazz club. Hopefully it won’t lose its appeal as a typical quartiere – but as long as there are places like the Gelateria Siciliana, this does not seem likely.

It is always a pleasure to bring friends to one of my favorite rifugi – a mountain chalet, in this case – in the Valle d’Aosta region. Especially those who maybe on their own would have never arrived here, who are decidedly more ‘Mediterranean’ than ‘mountain’ folk. As anyone residing in Milan during the winter can attest, to maintain one’s sanity it helps to escape the often fog- or cloud-covered Po River plain and ascend into the Alps or Apennines – which often miraculously bask in sunlight above the clouds. A few hours of bright mountain sunshine a week can do wonders for one’s morale.

Rifugio Gabiet is situated at 7,800 feet above sea level at the head of Gressoney Valley and on the slopes of Monte Rosa, Europe’s second-highest peak which towers some 15,000 feet above the Po River plain. The upper valleys surrounding Monte Rosa are the home of the historic Walser people, who in the 13^th century settled throughout the Alps in some of the highest habitable areas. Whereas in the rest of Valle d’Aosta – which extends from Piedmont to the French border at Mont Blanc – most town names are in the local Franco-Provençal language, in this small area we find distinctly German names, like ‘Staffal’, a locality just above the town of Gressoney-La Trinité. The Walser maintained their ancient Germanic dialect through the centuries, as they kept close trade contacts with Switzerland and Germany. While the Monterosa Ski area, connecting the Sesia, Gressoney and Ayas valleys, has brought prosperity to the region, it is still not as overdeveloped as other ski areas, and is definitely worth an exploration, and not just in winter: wildflowers carpet the high mountain pastures in summer and in the fall the larch trees turn a splendid orange-yellow.

I have had the privilege of coming here in every season. Gressoney is particularly special for me, for it marks the beginning of my Italian odyssey: I first skied here 11 years ago, together with a Japanese boarder friend who I had randomly met a short time before. That day, alas, we happened to miss the last bus back to Milan… Takashi was quite worried, but I was already a seasoned hitchhiker[1] at that point, and even if there were practically no cars left in the parking lot and it was getting dark, I immediately started asking around for a ride. All we needed really was a ride down the valley to Pont Saint Martin, where we could have taken a train… but luck was with me, and we happened to find a group of boisterous Italians who decided to go out of their way to take us home to Milan. These very Italians, including incredible snowboarder and kitesurfer Sandro and never-ending talker Corrado (who once ate four desserts in a row in the rifugio without even minimally pausing in his animated speech – we kept lining up the desserts in front of him and he just kept talking-eating, not even noticing that he was downing from different plates each time!) became our first Italian friends. They brought us skiing, rock-climbing, rafting and exploring areas we would have probably never found on our own. The first place they took us, a couple weeks later, was back to Gressoney, specifically to their special chalet Rifugio Gabiet. Since then, I have taken pride in bringing many of my friends (mostly Italian) here – many of whom had never been to the area and maybe not even to Valle d’Aosta. It is a great place to take in some potent alpine sunshine, ski excellent pistes and off-piste itineraries and enjoy fine local cuisine, including the Zuppa Valdostana, a delicious Fontina-bread-cabbage-onion soup.

I think I will wait another 11 years before recounting last weekend’s adventure – apart from the enclosed photos . I’ll just say that a good time was had by all. When I think back over the last 1/3 of my life, spanning from my first Rifugio Gabiet experience in 1999 to last weekend’s, in 2010… I am quite thankful, in awe really, for having had the opportunity to live here, for having been able to experience all of this and more. Grazie all’Italia e grazie soprattutto agli Italiani – mi avete dato tantissimo. Thanks to Italy, and thanks above all to the Italians – you have given me so much. A perfect country doesn’t exist on the planet, and Italy is indeed far from perfect, but I think it may still be one of the most sustainable places to live on Earth. Certainly one would be hard-pressed to find a country with such incredible natural, historical, cultural and eno-gastronomic diversity, over such a small distance. It could have happened anywhere perhaps, but Italy is where I became a man, Italy is where I realized that one of my most important life missions would be to act as a ‘cultural bridge’ – critical in a world where mankind’s historical memory is often close to zero, where one of the most beautiful things in life is maintaining and cherishing our cultural heritages.

We made this video together with a group of Italian and other international friends: Oltre Confine – Beyond Boundaries.

On April 25th, we followed in the footsteps of the Italian resistance, of Jews and other escaping WWII refugees, and of the “spalloni” (smugglers) between the Italian and Swiss border, from Maslianico (Italy) up the splendid Valle Muggio (Switzerland) to the crest of Monte Bisbino and then down to Cernobbio and Lake Como (Italy). Our goals for the day were three-fold:

1) Go “beyond” the politics of April 25, a national holiday in Italy celebrating the country’s liberation from Nazi-Fascist rule. In recent years, however, many right-wing politicians have refused to celebrate it, denigrating it as a ‘communist’ holiday, and thus there is the risk that the actual horrific events of the war are glossed over or forgotten. It doesn’t matter what side you were on, the point is that war turns man into a beast, and the best way to prevent a repeat of such horrors is to actively remember what happened only 65 years ago;

2) Go “beyond” our interior limits, in the attempt to improve ourselves as individuals so we can better take on the outside world, and prevent arrogance and ignorance from holding sway;

3) Go “beyond” the conception of borders as walls which divide us, but rather as opportunities to enrich our lives.

We are saddened that a holiday which should celebrate the end of the war, which should bring the country together, remains highly politicized. Our goal is to reach out to the Italian youth and others, to describe the events of that period (and points 2) & 3)) in an appealing way. The first part of the video is mainly humorous, as we had a really fun time on the hike; the second part is more serious, as we concentrate on what actually happened there. We believe that combining humor with such a serious topic is a great way to penetrate a public (young and old) which might otherwise become disinterested, which is used to “instant gratification” in communication. Overall, we had the great fortune of enjoying a beautiful walk and picnic in peace, and we must never forget that not that long ago such an excursion would have been impossible.

The video is soon to come in a more serious version, since we were granted the rights to use the wonderful Klezmatics song “Gonna Get Through This World”.

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