Agosto brillante part 3...

the trulli of Alberobello, urban farmer homes of the 19th century...
view from our lunch table of beautiful Gallipoli...
specchia by night, our home base for the next 5 days....
erin cliff jumping in porto badisco on the adriatic coast...
our parting dip on the peninsula gargano, and end of a brilliant summer...

Agosto Brillante part 2....

after a 2 week stay in the states, we headed back to the homeland and started for the south....

a monk enjoying a good laugh in Assisi.....home of St. Francis

a 1 year anniversary kiss

Mark in the town of San Donato, standing on the old street of grandfather Eraclio Coletti.

Castelmezzano, a breathtaking village in the high mountain region of Basilicata...

Matera....site of thousands of sassi cave dwellings, highlighted in movie Passion of the Christ.

Agosto brilliante part 1...

we managed to cover a major part of the western hemisphere in the course of 4 weeks.....

A good reason to go home, Christiane, Isabella, Sabatino and Sophia....
precious....

lizzie, eric, mark, and erin enjoying the oregon summer sun at dave and katie's wedding...
big b shares a midnight dance with the bride....
friends and family gathering in portland....

weekend retreat...

june and july in torino means hot, humidity, and dramatic thunder storms...perfect excuse to escape to the mountains, breathe some fresh air, bond as one only does when driven to physical exhaustion combined with bunkbed dorms, and hearty mountain cuisine....

rifugio zamboni zappa is located at 2,080 meters at the base of Monte Rosa, the second highest peak in Europe at 4,500 meters. We departed from Pecetto at the early hour of 7am with our group of 10. After a 3 hour drive, we found ourselves in another Pecetto near the border of Switzerland, and got in line for the summer chairlift....didn't know hiking could be this easy!

chairlift takes us to 2,000 meters and a 45 minute hike....

catherine and laurie near our base camp summit with a monte rosa backdrop

my joyful sherpa

descending back to rifugio zamboni after exploring the surrounding glaciers

Turin Dream Race 2007

Pininfarina recently participated in a soap box derby race. The responsiblity fell on Mark and a team of designers to come up with the car from concept to completion. Our dear friend Giovanni, known for his speed and excellence on the Go Kart race track volunteered to be pushed down a 2.8 km winding street that ended climatically in Torino's Piazza Gran Madre. Competition included a fleet of four Ferrari clubs who dedicate a good portion of their lives to this sport, Torino's school of design IED, and 4 others.

Besides the course having it's share of curves and descending from nearly 1,000 feet, the additional fact that it was a paved italian road added another twist. italian's never seemed to have mastered the art of laying asphalt, therefore a newly paved surface becomes a series of potholes and cracks within days. Only to be filled with a cheaper substance which is then washed away with the next rainfall. Through it all, Giovanni persevered and Pininfarina placed 5th overall, but 1st behind the Ferrari clubs.....basically a win in our eyes.

side view taken in parco valentino

some of the competition...

team pininfarina, a good looking group

giovanni mentally prepares for the grand descent...

screaming around the last curve before home stretch....

Golden Girls in Italia.....

for two blissful weeks in june, i had my mother, aunt, and grandma here....

how fortunate i was to share my new life here with 3 generations of family. i caught up with the girls in Siena where we stayed a beautiful Frances Lodge overlooking the ancient city from our restored farmhouse and pool. we passed the days driving through the tuscan countryside, listening to gregorian chants, marveling at Michaelangelo's works in Firenze, drizzling extra virgin olive oil over fresh bruschetta, and tasting fine wines. after a brief stop in le cinque terre, mark and i hosted them in our hometown and showed them the beauty of lesser known northern italy. we spent a weekend in lake como, a day in the alps, an evening in the quadrilatero for torinese aperitivo, a walk through the Savoy's royal estate, and a sip of bicerin.

here's a few highlights...

riding in the mini....
cypress walk...
town of pecorino cheese, picturesque piacenza...
barb swims towards siena...

mom shines among her favorite flowers in Torino....

BBQ delle Ciliegie....

to celebrate pecetto's existence, they throw a party each year called the Festa delle Ciliegie,

highlighting the sweet red fruit we know as the cherry. They close down the main street and the streets are overflowing with booths selling odds and ends, cherries, and folks in costume. Mark and i decided to host a party in honor of our Festa with an american favorite, BBQ. Mark began stoking our 30 euro grill at 10am and by 3pm, we had a platter of grilled veggies, hamburgers, sausages, and spicey black bean burgers. Tempted by my God given sweet tooth and love of baking, i made a cherry apricot cobbler, a kiwi lime tart, and chocolate chip espresso cookies....enough to please a crowd of 16, including a scotsman, 2 englishmen, 1 finnish, 1 french, 2 dutchies, 2 aussies, 1 pakistani, 3 vegetarians, and 1 slovak.....only guests missing, all the italians....

tart and cobbler...

anna considers getting some Cinghiale (wild boar) sausages....

cherries on trial...award given to the finest of the year...

eero jamming on the piano....we had better entertainment than the Festa band in town

all in a weekend...

we spent the weekend in the delightful company of the Ambrosini's in the remote country town of Pratolungo near the port of La Spezia. Lunch consisted of farcaciotti...a peculiar stacking of disks heated first on the coals of the fire, then stacked with a mix of flour, water and salt poured in between....the table was set with plates of fresh cut meats, a soft milky cheese resembling taleggio, turnip and sausage. Between the food, the homemade wine, and conversation, lunch lasted until it was time to take a nap or start dinner...

the next day after recovering from farcaciotti coma, Giuseppe proudly showed us his vineyard and 20 free roaming chickens....some for laying eggs, and others grown for his sunday lunch. From the vineyard, we got a tour of the cantina, which led to 6 bottles of wine for us to take home in exchange for help during harvest time in October....

erin discovers her new passion, corking wine.....

with 6 bottles clinking in the trunk, we headed to beautiful Portovenere, just south of the cinque terre....
mark and the church and old fortress of portovenere...

we zipped over to monterosso in the cinque terre in time to enjoy fresh seafood with cousin Alison (4 months preggers!) and her husband Dustin after they had hiked in from Vernazza...so great to have family in town!

signs of summer?

the cherries are ripening in pecetto as we prepare for our annual Festa della Ciliegia, literally the big cherry party! other signs of summer include....

first outdoor apertivo with catherine...a favorite torinese tradition that includes one drink of choice and an extravagant selection of food for around 7 euros....mark missed it because he was stuck in traffic on his way from work, poor guy...

inaugaration of our new grill! everything tastes good on a grill...including cauliflower...

first guests of new grill in honor of anna's birthday party...notice many happy faces...

unfortunately, the weather hasn't change much yet, considering it's been hard to see the church tower lately, but mark tells me, better this than 85 degree humid heat and mosquitoes terrorizing you at night....

melanzane alla parmigiana....

a day in the kitchen with margherita provided unique insight into la cucina italiana....here is one of my favorite dishes that we prepared melanzane alla parmigiana or eggplant parmigian.....

ingredients (measurements are estimates as italians figure you should know)
1 large eggplant
tomato sauce, homemade is best (18oz bottle)
fresh mozzarella, like buffala, cut into thin slices (about 1 lb)
freshly grated parmigian cheese
breadcrumbs (seasoned with pesto, if available)
2 to 3 eggs beaten
serves 6-8 people as a first course

1. Prepare eggplant by peeling skin, then cut into quarter inch slices. Pass each slice through the bowl of beaten eggs, and then through breadcrumbs. Prepare all in this way and set aside while heating a pan of oil (preferably peanut oil or good frying oil on hand).

2. Fry eggplant slices, as shown then place on paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt....prepare all slices in this manner. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius (about 300 F)

3. Take a casserole dish and start by spreading a little tomato sauce along the bottom of dish, now add a layer of fried eggplant slices, and then cover with a few spoons of sauce (as shown). Spread tomato sauce over your first layer of eggplant, now lay several pieces of mozzarella slices over and sprinkle an abundant amount of grated parmigian cheese. Continue this order for 3 more layers (eggplant, sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano).















4. On final layer of parmigiana pour 1 to 2 spoons of olive oil over the top....now place in oven for 30 to 40 minutes until dish has a hard crust like top, turn on your broiler at the end if necessary).















5. Best if not served straight, and sometimes even better the next day. For a slight variation add some thin sliced prociutto cotto (cooked ham) as a layer before the mozzarella. Buon Appetito!

a river runs through it....

to keep mark feeling young and dangerous for his birthday we drove 2 hours north with

a band of 10 friends to go where few foreigners have gone before....

river rafting in italy..... our location was the river sesia in the gorgeous Valsesia...

canyon view of our two humble rafts...

our heroic guide and our team cruising through a level 5 rapid...

one euro ($1.58) if you can spot erin....

La Camminata fra i Ciliegie...

La Camminata Gastronomica fra i ciliegi in fiore, is literally the food walk through the cherry trees in bloom. Over 4300 people showed up for the 27th annual event on Sunday, April 6th, so ive been told by my landlord, the greatest gossiper in town, and mind you there are only 1500 people in Pecetto proper. People came from near and far for the non-competitive 8km race, that gave out a total of 15 prizes, including first Pecettese man, woman, and first three animals to cross the finish line....this was not just a walk through the beautiful hills that sorround pecetto, to attract these numbers, food and wine must be involved, and someone with a megaphone and a lottery. There were six tasting stops....degustazioni....starting with milk, hot chocolate, red wine, white wine (10am start), then it was onto the cherry marmellate on toast with wine, 3rd stop cherry punch with more wine...4th stop, panini with prosciutto and wine, 5th stop...fruit, dont think there was wine.....6th stop, toasted bread with olive oil, garlic, and finally some water.....finish!

elena, amy (still here!), and erin at the start

they are off! view from our balcony....

Cows beneath the cherry trees in bloom....

10.30am...time for cherry marmellate and wine. i was going to give up on the idea of toast when Amy, not having experienced the greed of italian grandmothers insisted to go for it....within 5 minutes the marmellate was dripping down my chin....i was so proud of my friend!

it became clear that we were not going to win any prizes when the golden girls lapped us....