Zappa D'ouva

Get your aprons out- Jane was kind enough to contribute a recipe! It's an authentic Italian cooking experience for my lovely friends and family back home. She even let me hang around like a crazy American with a camera and photograph all her steps so you could see what I've been lucky enough to participate in over the past couple days. Despite Jane and Peppe's protest that this meal is too simple, I'm sure you'll enjoy it's tasty, Neapolitan flavor

Serves 3

4 large white onions (any onion will do!)

A couple generous glugs of olive oil, enough to completely cover the bottom of the pan

Salt & Pepper

Water (about three-four cups) 

1 can peeled tomatoes (plum tomatoes) 

1 can (or 1-2 cups of strained tomato sauce (also called pomodoro) 

6 eggs

3 slices of rustic bread cut into cubes (1 slice per person)

You'll need a saucepan big enough to accommodate two eggs per person in a single layer. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and heat the olive oil while you add the 4 large onions sliced fairly thinly, if the slices are  too thick you'll be waiting ages and ages for them to cook through. Make sure you have lots of onions as they will reduce. Once all the onions are in add a generous pinch of salt (you'll be adjusting to taste later) as well as some pepper. Add water, about two glasses, cover and simmer until the onions are fairly tender keeping an eye that they don't dry out. If necessary, add more water a little at a time so they have moisture. Cook for at least 40 minutes just below a simmer.

Once the onions are soft, add one can of peeled tomatoes. To make the sauce a bit thicker and richer, add one can of strained tomatoe sauce (it's called here pomodoro and comes in a bottle, but I believe in America you buy it in a can and it's still labeled 'pomodoro'). After that is added, add another cup or so of water, and then the whole thing needs to continue to simmer for another 40 minutes. Break up the plum tomatoes into pieces while it simmers. 

In the mean time, cut the bread into cubes. You'll want to use a rustic white bread cut into 1" pieces and put in the bowls. Check the tomatoes and onions and make sure there will be plenty of liquid. If necessary, add more water and salt. You want there to be plenty of liquid for the bread to soak up, but thick enough to have a rich tomato flavor, and not be considered too thin. 

On low heat, break the eggs into the liquid. They will sit just below the surface, but it's important that the eggs are not broken on top of each other as you want to put them in the bowls individually.

Turn up the heat to a medium simmer and cover. It is important not to disturb the egg so they retain their shape. Once the egg white is cooked, remove from the heat and spoon over the top of the bread cubes. It's easier to spoon the onions, tomatoes and eggs out with a slotted spoon and then the liquid afterwards. 

Enjoy! 

Lots of onions!

Salt, Pepper, water - simmer

Tomatoe, tomato sauce - simmer

Bread, glorious bread!

Break the eggs in a single layer...

Spoon onions and eggs over bread, then spoon the sauce over and - eccola!

Montecassino 

On Monday, Jane, Peppe and I made our own little pilgrimage to the incredible monestary of Montecassino. Built high up in a hill  about an hour north of Naples, the working monestary offers an incredible view of the surrounding countryside and mountains, as well as a tranquil and breathtaking structure. At the end of the photos I've out the little blurb from the Montecassino website which explains the space much more eloquently and with mor thoroughness than I could.

Inner cloisters.

Jane and Peppe in front of the basilica. We couldn't take photos inside as there was a mass going on, but it was quite beautiful. Some views from the grounds-

Taken from the Montecassino blog (http://montecassinoabbey.org/?page_id=48):

"The Abbey of Montecassino is one of the most known Abbeys in the world. We might list thousands of motivations to show you why people travel so much to reach this mountain. The most likely one is they want to be, at least once in their lives, within the walls where the foundations of western culture and monasticism are.

In 529 Saint Benedict chose this mountain to build a monastery that would host him and those monks following him on the way from Subiaco. Paganism was still present here, but he managed to turn the place into a well-structured Christian monastery where everybody could have the dignity they deserved through praying and working.

Within the centuries the Abbey has met magnificence and destruction many times, and has always come out of its ruins stronger. In 577 Langobards destroyed it, then Saracens in 887. In 1349 a violent earthquake occurred and in February 1944 a bombardment almost flatted it.

It is the faithful rebuilding of the twenty thousand square meters that people can see travelling on their way along the A1 Highway. Up on top of the 520 meters high mountain the monastery can easily be seen from far, making it a distinct landmark of the region.

Ora et labora et lege:  this is the motto of Saint Bendict’s Rule that the monks still follow in their daily routine. Some of them study in the library surrounded by ancient books, or make researches in the archive on breathtaking manuscripts. Some others host people seeking for a moment of inner peace and serenity. And if you are visiting the Abbey you might meet some of them having a walk in the cloisters before they go back to their rooms to pray alone or to gather later for the common prayer.

Every day thousands of pilgrims and visitors from all around the world come to this threshold.  They silently go through the cloisters and then up the big ramp to the Basilica at Saint Benedict and Scholastica’s grave. Then the Crypt is there beneath to be revealed with the astonishing golden mosaics.  But it is in the museum where finally visitors can see the magnificent paintings, the wonderful manuscripts and ancient books. They can go through the history of the Abbey from the very beginning till today and grasp why Montecassino Abbey is known as the Lighthouse of Western Civilization."

First Formia Days

My first couple of days in Italy have been everything I dreamed of and more. I am staying with my cousins Jane and Peppe who have given me the royal treatment and showered me with so much, food, sights and attention I feel like the most doted on guest in all of Italy. Upon my arrival at the train station, we went and had real Quattro stagione pizza which means 'four seasons pizza' (think Vivaldi!) and has four different toppings separated into quarters- mushroom, olives, Mozarella, and cuttlefish. It was delicious, so light and the sauce was truly something special. Above is a photo I took on my first full day. After lunch, I went with Jane and Peppe's son, Adriano (in the back holding the two salami) and Alessia, to the home of their friend who was making sausages from a wild boar they had slaughtered the day before. Each person at the table has a job. One fills the casings, one ties the link closed, one pokes the holes for the air to escape and one seperates the big link into smaller links. This is exactly why I came to Italy- to see people and families, continuing traditions and making things on a small scale where they know exactly what is in the food they're eatinga nod why it tastes the way it does. 

Later that night we went for a walk in Gaeta which juts out into the sea. The town is a seaside paradise, with roots dating back to 338 BC, with roman elements still surviving. 

Gaeta goes all the way out to the far point in this photo. The town is beautiful and I look forward to exploring it more. It was an important port in the past and the US military still has a naval base here. The thing I'm looking forward to the most through is the fish market that happens on Thursdsy. Peppe and I are planning on picking out some fish so stay tuned for that.

There's a cat in the blue boat licking itself. There are lots if cats here which is great since I'm starting to pine for my Cakebread....

Trains to Formia

The train ride to Gormia-Gaeta was a wonderful way to see the country side change from north to south, I went from Innsbruck, to bologne where I caught the high speed train, the Frecciargemto, to Rome. The slow train was beautiful and out the window there were lots of scenes like this:

 The ride to bologne was amazing, it was like the alps mixed with little farm house answer villas and vineyards and vineyards- miles of them. At one point in the ride we went over a road and shooting out the other side was a little black fiat that then proceeded to zip along through the vineyard that was parallel with the train tracks and stayed even with my seat for a couple 100meters, it felt like it really couldn't get more Italian than that. In Bologne the sun came out but there also was a shower of rain. 

If you ever get a chance to travel any of the high speed trains in Italy- do. It's amazing, there's a speedometer in the tv screens and they travel around 250km per hr and it's amazing to feel. 

The Sardine Can

Skiing into Switzerland is really quite a thrill. There are bars and shops  and lots and lots of duty free goods- from perfume to chocolate. Even though it's just a couple lifts and ski runs from Austria it feels quite different, maybe because they still use the Swiss franc. 

It's all good and well until you have to go back up. On the Austrian side the cable cars are small and follow the countours of the mountain, but on the Swiss side they go peak-to-peak which isn't ideal for people who are afraid of heights. 

Here's a photo of where it came in to, which was two levels to accommodate the two level cable car. I chose the top because obviously if you were going to crash to the ground from 1,000 feet up you'd probably have a better chance of surviving. Needless to say, I survived the harrowing journey, and I've taken one step closer to conquering my fear of heights. 

This is the peak-to peak route that the Seilbahnen at Ischgl takes. 

Una Penna

I'm determined on this trip to actually use some Italian after all the time I spent practicing it in the car to and from my old job. I'm happy to report that just hours after crossing the Italian border, right after the train departed from Verona, I asked my cabin mate for a pen. The lovely little, older woman in a bright pink sweater and silk scarf heard me speak my first shamble of an Italian sentence 'scusi, per favore, ha una penna?'. I'm sure this is in someway incorrect, but she knew what I was talking about and after un momento and rifling through her purse, she found one! I said 'grazie' and upon return I said it again and she said 'prego' ('don't mention it'), and oh-my-word I cannot believe that this exchange took place without a single word of English in between. Even my Dutch which I heard spoken for two whole years, and studied at college level for another 3 years barely got this much use without dissolving into a 'do you speak English' disaster. So, I will continue to try out my home-grown Italian and hopefully be able to get more than just a pen in the future. 

Skiing Ischgl

Ischgl is an amazing place to get outside. The ski area sits on the border of Austria and Switzerland, and the 44 lifts on the mountains can carry up to 90,200 people each hour. With kilometer after kilometer of groomed trails ranging from a meandering wandleweg (waking way) to a trail with a 70% gradient that has to be groomed with a special groomer and and winch system, this is a paradise for every level of skier. I chose to snowboard this time even though there are considerable flat lengs at the bottom and between peaks where you have to unstrap, and even though it's much less popular than skiing in Europe. I wanted to try something different, and I'm glad I did because the conditions were perfect for it, Here are just a couple of photos of the skiing and I'll post a couple more of more specific things-

These were the lines to get up he hill using the silvrettabahn cable car in the morning. Each cabin holds 24-18 people depending on how you pack them, so it doesn't take as long as you might think, maybe 20minutes...

Views from the silvrettabahn...

 

Top of the mountain reading the map (which I could only do for about 5 minutes before I would give up!)

Everything else...

To Italy! 

 

And I'm off! Out of the lap of luxury and into the European train system. This is me at the Innsbruck train station, and I'll be the first to admit it- I look like such an American!!! And I feel like such an American! With my giant backpack and Merrells it would be hard not to, but I guess you can't change what you are. Anyways, off to Italy in 20 minutes via bologne, Rome and last stop- Formia-gaeta. 

Nachtrodeln

Last night Anna and I braved one of the classic Tirolian traditions - the Rodelbahn. When the sun goes down, a 7km long course of ski trails is illuminated and the sides are built up to create a kind of luge for sleds. The course is one of the longest in the world. Since it combines all the fun bits of sledding (going down the hill) with none of the boring bits of sledding (walking up), it is an absolute dream for any one who wishes sledding was a little more exhilarating. 

At 7pm, Anna and I took the 15 minute Silvretta cable car ride up the mountain. Once you get to the tippy top, you pick up a tobagan, that looks more like a child's toy than a speed demon, but dont be fooled- they are in no way too cutesy to actually be functional. They fly!

The course follows the outside of the ski slopes and is complete with hair pin turns and steep, steep drops.  When you first start moving it's like getting into a car with no brakes, and no steering wheel on a down hill. By trial and error you quickly learn that dropping one foot lightly will point you in the right direction and by digging in both heels you can almost stop. 

Nachtrodelbahn is really one of those things that you just could never see happening in America they way it is done here. Since the only real 'precaution' is at most a two foot high barrier of snow separating you from the precipice on the other side, it makes sense why children ride with parents in most cases. In some places the trail just drops away into the alpine forest. But unlike what my dad tried to get Anna and I to believe, there are no ambulances waiting at the bottom and everyone generally makes it down in one piece. 

If you're wondering how they get all those sleds get back up to the top of the mountain? They put them on a giant sled and pull them up on a trail groomer.

Anna and I made it down in one piece and enjoyed every second of it! Even if you don't have a 7km long course, get out there and sled! This reminded me what a good time it is, even if you do have to walk back up- it's worth it to feel the whoosh of childlike joy that sledding always brings.