Category Archives: Italy

Everyday Italian: Newspaper Headlines 17

Lecco – Minors mistreated, three arrests

Dervio – The students plant trees

“Massacred” with blows his two children: arrested [massacrato di botte means severely beaten, but not literally massacred]

Sells her shop to cure her sick child in Canada

Italian newspaper headlines

Lecchese [resident of Lecco] donates bone marrow and refuses a reward of 700 thousand euros

Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola: Notte Per Non Dormire

Night for Not Sleeping

Continuing the story of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola… God’s intention is that the inhabitants of the village will repopulate the earth after the imminent flood, and he wants them to get a headstart on it now, so he creates a magically seductive night in which love is in the air (along with a full moon and lots of stars), a night for not sleeping.

Continue reading Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola: Notte Per Non Dormire

Guests of Conti Sertoli Salis: Part 3, Wine!

When we finished seeing the palazzo, we had a little stroll in the garden, in which an intricate, manicured geometric hedge is winningly juxtaposed with overgrown and out-of-control everything else. My favorite photo of the day is above – autumn red vines draping down a stone plaque. The boast of the garden is a glorious, ancient cedar of Lebanon. I wish I owned a tree like that one.

^ a tromp l’oeil gazebo built into a wall in the garden

Then we were invited inside for the wine tasting. A large party of retirees occupied the canua (a semi-underground kitchen/taverna) usually used for tasting, and they didn’t look like leaving anytime soon, so we had to improvise. Pancrazio helped carry a table and chairs from another part of the palazzo

…and we sat in an anteroom full of antique winemaking implements.

We had:

  • Torre della Sirena – white
  • Il Saloncello
  • Canua (a sfursat)

…and two others that I don’t now remember – I’m a very disorganized wine reporter! “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like.” I liked these. And I was very pleased to be given six bottles of the Canua to take home as wages for my translation.

There was also bread, cheese, and salame – had we known to expect that, we could have skipped lunch (though that would have been a pity to miss).

The Sertoli Salis winery is well worth a visit, both as a historical site and, of course, a place to try and buy some great wine. Tours can be arranged in English.

Part 1: Lunch

Part 2: The Palazzo

Part 3: Wine!