Tuesday 18 February 2014

AN AFTERNOON IN CHIAVARI

Last Saturday I had a pleasant afternoon stroll on the streets of Chiavari, only an hour by train from Brignole station with an Italian friend, Sonia. We have a little pact: she wants to practice English and I want to learn more Italian, so we combine this with visits to interesting places. This works well as we always have a lot to chat about history and architecture. Chiavari has plenty of both. There is a seaside promenade and many historical sights, including an impressive looking cathedral, Santuario di Nostra Signora dell'Orto, which has been in the same spot since 1633.


  Sadly, we only had  a couple of hours and mainly walked along the main street, Via Martiri della Liberazioni. It was buzzing with people looking for bargains at the market stalls selling food, clothes, shoes and other hard-to-resist items. One of the main attractions of this particular area are several long and narrow porticos offering plenty of  protection from the elements. Some of the heavy stone columns are from medieval times. People must have been quite short then as the porticos are quite low.


    In many places the historical shop signs have been left in place. A shop currently selling clothes and shoes may have been a pharmacy or a grocery store in the past. These signs are reminders of a different time, perhaps of an era of ladies in long dresses wearing hats and carrying umbrellas on their way to the shops.
  Some places have even tried to keep the historical interiors in tact. For example, the deliciously decadent looking cafe/bakery called Defilla with heavy golden framed mirrors on the walls and massive chandeliers should not be missed. It is worth going inside just to admire the interior of this famous cafe.


    I also could not resist taking a photo of this particular shop window. You never guess what is their main  line of business: electrical goods and hardware!!
   Not a bad way to spend a leisurely afternoon. Plenty more to discover the next time.






Thursday 6 February 2014

THE DAY IN MILAN THAT NEVER HAPPENED

I was supposed to be in Milan yesterday. Got on the train very early in the morning at Brignole station and settled down to read a book. I love travelling by train and despite all the bad publicity trains get here for being constantly late, I still much prefer trains to planes and cars. Couple of minutes later we arrived to the next station, Piazza Principe. An Italian man came to the cabin (there are six seats in one cabin) and said that I was sitting on his seat. I took out my cellphone with the SMS from Trenitalia and checked my number and it was correct.The man went to get the conductor, who arrived just when the train left the Piazza Principe station. He had one look at my ticket and declared that it was for the next day (meaning today) and therefore, I did not have a ticket. And he was right. Naturally, by this time all the other passengers in the cabin were mighty interested in what was going on. 
As this was an Intercity train, the next station was Tortona, an hour away. Luckily, the conductor did not start demanding that I should pay a fine, which would have been quite a lot (I think 80 euro). I am sure he had seen it all before and realised that this was a genuine mistake. I got off in Tortona and returned to Genoa, the day ruined!!! But I learned my lesson: when buying a ticket on the internet, check what you click on the travel date section before proceeding to pay... 


Tuesday 4 February 2014

MY LITTLE POT OF ESPRESSO

People, I know what you think. "This woman has been in Italy for well over a year and not - repeat - not made a cup of espresso at home yet." Iknowiknowiknow. But I have owned an espresso pot for well over a year and that counts for something. Today was the day I decided to use it for the very first time.
  In the beginning, I actually did not like espresso much. Too dark and bitter coffee for my liking. But the coffee culture in Italy is so addictive. At 10 am every morning I either want to go to a coffee shop and have a shot of espresso, often with a cornetto (brioche) - or I make coffee at home, usually an instant...
  Naturally, there are now very fancy coffee making machines in the market and capsules with different flavours so that you can be your own barista, but I like the shape and size of my espresso pot and prefer to make coffee this way. Especially now that I know how easy it is. 


I found excellent step-by-step instructions from this blog  www.thehungrymouse.com - so well worth checking it out, if you want some re-assurance on the actual process of making a decent cup of espresso. 
  There are couple of things to be aware of. An Italian friend told me that when making espresso in a never before used pot for the first time, you have to throw away the first cup of espresso because it often tastes bitter. Did that. The other thing is to make sure that you do not boil the water too fast or on a too big flame of gas. Again, the espresso will become bitter very quickly. You are also not supposed to peak inside the coffee pot all the time. Leave the lid on and the little pot will do its job. So, all this advice in mind, I set to make  a shot of espresso.


   I put cold water on the bottom part of the pot, up until the little screw mark. Then I added 3-4 teaspoons of coffee to the second part, enough to fill the small container. All that was left, was to tighten up the top part in place and set the pot on a moderate flame of gas on the stove.



 After couple of minutes, there was a bubbly sound. When that finished I took the pot off the flame and took a peak inside: there it was, my very first home made espresso. It tasted very good, too!!! Success!!