A relic of the heyday of San Pellegrino, the Grand Hotel was (quite literally) a watering place for the wealthy, in the early 1900s when health spas with natural mineral springs were all the rage. The hotel is an Art Nouveau treasure, built in 1905, but now sadly going to ruin, its fixtures gradually being auctioned off (as shown in the sign above).
If I had a few million euros, I’d buy this poor old hulk and restore it.
I have made variations on this recipe for years, most recently for my own birthday potluck the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My friend Mary, who knows a thing or two about good food, said she’d like to know how to make it. This isn’t a recipe in the strict sense, because I can’t be bothered to measure, but… it’ll get you there. In any case, quantities depend on how many people you want to cook for.
ingredients:
Pre-cook whatever vegetables you’re using: boil or sautee the spinach, slice the zucchini into rounds and sautee in olive oil with a bit of garlic, steam the broccoli and cut small (or blend in with the ricotta mixture for a smoother texture).
Pre-cook the noodles, with a tbsp of olive oil in the water so they don’t stick together.
Blend the ricotta with 1-3 eggs, pesto and/or fresh basil, spinach (if you’re using it), salt and pepper to taste, a bit of nutmeg.
Grate parmesan.
Layer the lasagne: ricotta mixture, noodles, veggies, mozzarella (if using) repeat.
Top with noodles, bechamel, parmesan, and pine nuts.
Bake at 350 F for about 40 mins, or until top is browning and cheese is bubbling up from below.
I’ve never seen a dish quite like this in Italy – there is an Italian green lasagne, but it tends to be simpler. Americans like it a lot, though!
by Edoardo Bennato 
also recorded by Neri per Caso
Only in Italy would you get a pop song celebrating dear old mom! But it’s also a bit of nostalgia for the 1950s, the hectic post-war period when Italy was booming.
The italicized parts are not in the Neri per Caso cover.
Continue reading Learn Italian in Song: Viva la Mamma| above: Here where the Archbishop of Milan held court, where with the bitter duel of Ramengo and Lupo amidst the jokes and songs of Tremacoldo, T. Grossi [the author?] gave a life of courtesy and tragic passions to Ottorino and Bice, a faithful portrait of an ungrateful age in which will dominate the figure of Marco Visconti. Here [in] the hundred and first year since the publication of the novel “The Bellanese”, with wishes for a new century of faith, probity, and glory, this memorial [set] on September 8th, 1935 – 13th year of the Fascist era.This plaque on a building in Bellano commemorates a novel we’ve never heard of – evidently the pious hopes of those who set the stone have not come true (but it appears that they themselves forgot to commemorate the book’s 100th year!). Note that there has been some attempt to whitewash that last line about the Fascist era. | ||
 |
Awareness CampaignI can’t think of a good translation forsensibilizzazione. It means to make someone sensitive to or aware of something. City Government of LeccoComune can refer to the city, the city government, or the town hall building (though the building can also be called the municipio). Want my [parking] place? Take my handicap!Note the use of the English word. A handicapped person is called un portatore di handicap or (less PC)handicappato. The h is usually not pronounced. |
|
|
“In this place where Engineer Edoardo Stoppani accidentally died, His son Eugenio to the eternal memory of his defunct parent, Erected this refuge 1905” – note use of the passato remoto (remote past tense), rarely used in everyday speech anymore, at least in northern Italy. A rifugio is a mountain refuge to give shelter to hikers.
Smoke hurts/is bad for you. sign in a restaurant in Intra (or thereabouts)
^ Committee “Save the Constitution Born from the Resistance” (members of a parade on April 25th, Italy’s Liberation Day)
^ “Rich snobs [who] pretend to be pop artists.” A comment added to wall graffiti, presumably by real pop artists. |
||
The Abandoned Animal
This sign sits in a piazza in Lecco. |
||
