Italy

Yesterday (June 25th) was M's birthday, and as is our custom, the birthday child gets to choose what restaurant they want to eat lunch at.  On my birthday three weeks ago (June 5th), I chose Rosie's.  I love their enchiladas, their salsa and guacamole, as well as their sopapillas.

But yesterday was M's special day, and I had an idea of where she might go.  She didn't tell me until we left our home in Tuscumbia.  We went to Ricatoni's on Court Street in downtown Florence.  I will happily admit once she told me her selection, I was thrilled.  I think I may have audibly mumbled "nice choice", when she said where she wanted to go.  The fact is, I love Italian food.  I have a soft spot for pasta and Italian sauces.  It is so much more than spaghetti or lasagna or meatballs.  When M asks me to cook at home, probably 90 percent of the time I will create some sort of pasta dish.

But another reason I applauded her choice, is Ricatoni's reminds me somewhat of Italy.  As most of you know I spent 17 years at TWA (Trans World Airlines) and was able to travel a great deal, both domestically and internationally.  In the mid 90's, I made three trips to Italy, not just because I wanted to see Italy, which I did, but I wanted to see my folks.  In 1994, my dad, who worked for McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, was asked, and accepted a transfer to Italy for three years.

Now if you are an Air Force veteran or aerospace geek, you know that McDonnell designed and built the F-4 Phantom, the F-15 Eagle and the F-18 Hornet and A/F-18 Super Hornet.  They also built an aircraft that was originally designed and built by Hawker-Siddely in England, the AV-8B Harrier, which was a vertical take-off and landing jet.  In the early '90's, the Italian government purchased 20 Harriers from McDonnell Douglas.  Part of the deal was, the Italians got to do the assembly.  So McDonnell sent, for lack of a better term, 20 airplane kits to Alenia, an Italian aircraft manufacturer.  McDonnell also sent about 15 management personnel to Alenia to act as advisors.  My dad, who was a manager in Tooling, was one of the first to go.

My folks lived in an apartment in Torino (Turin) overlooking a city park and the Po River.  My three trips over there with my first wife Trish and the boys were a delight.  They were educational, recreational, and culturally rich.  Torino is located in northwest Italy near the base of the Alps.  On a clear, smog less day, it was easy to see the snow-capped peaks of the Alps in the distance.  We would fly TWA non-stop from JFK in New York to Milano, where my folks would meet us, and then drive the 90 minutes or two hours northwest to Torino.

Mom delighted in cooking for us, having us try new recipes she had discovered.  She would go to the street market every other day or so and buy what she needed.  Everything from bread to fresh veggies, to fresh meat.  What a treat that was.  Mom knew just enough Italian to get by.

They also introduced us to their favorite restaurant in Torino, a small place called L'Idea.  I have no idea what that means.  Paola, who was actually Spanish, was a middle-aged woman who was the owner of the establishment.  Two brothers ran the place.  Mario, was the one who welcomed everyone, and his brother, whose name I can't remember, was the cook.  One thing I do remember about him was he played football (soccer) for a local club.  I remember one time he invited Clayton, who was probably five at the time, behind the counter to help make the pizza before it went into the brick oven.  He would put an apron on him and a chef's hat.  We called him Claytoni.

One side note, pizza in Italy is nothing, I mean nothing like pizza in the United States.

At L'Idea, I almost always had a margherita pizza, which is a pizza with an olive oil base, spread with a mixture of four cheeses and topped with basil and a bit of oregano with thinly sliced tomatoes.  It was "Molto Bene."

On one of the trips when we were there in the summer, like many eating establishments, L'Idea would rent parking spots in front of their restaurant and set up tables and chairs.  I know we took advantage of this.

Another cool thing was right next door to L'Idea, I mean right next door, was a gelato store.  So after you finished your pizza or calzone or clams, whatever, it was only a few steps to fresh Italian gelato.  I particularly remember a coconut gelato.  Dad and I were/are coconut fanatics, so I got the same thing every time.

Nearly every afternoon, Dad would take Clayton across Via Ventimiglia to the park to watch the older Italian men play bocce.  They did not mind him watching but frowned at the "bambino Americano" when he would cheer.

We would use Torino as a base, and travel all over that part of Europe, but for the purposes of this blog, I will only focus on Italy.  We drove some, we rode the trains some.  It is really an embarrassment how good the trains in Europe are compared to the U.S.  There really is no comparison.

We never went to Rome or southern Italy.  There were no trips to the Colosseum, the Vatican, Naples or Mt. Vesuvius.  There were however trips to Milan, Florence, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Vicenza, and my favorite place in all of Italy, San Gimignano.   More on that in a bit.

One time we were in Milano during Carnivale, which is held during Lent.  Think of a toned-down Mardi Gras.  I also remember touring the Grande Duomo and Barclay, who I think was seven, coming home with a full AC Milan kit (uniform).

Venice is well, Venice.  It is everything you would every dream it to be.  I remember being in St. Mark's Square, along with another thousand tourists and just as many pigeons.  It really is breathtaking.  Walking the sidewalks, with the water on one side.  No, we did not take a gondola ride.  Honestly, we were afraid one of the kids might want to see if he could walk on water.

Florence is also a must see.  M and I both attended Harding University, and their first foreign campus was in Florence, the capital city of Tuscany.  It is easy to see why.  A beautiful city, at one time it was the center of medieval trade.  Home to the Medici family, who during the Renaissance, were probably the most powerful family in Europe.  Yes, we saw the statue of David, and I recall taking at least an hour, maybe longer, to cross the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.  Google it, it will amaze you.

Southwest of Florence and southeast of Pisa is the town of San Gimignano.  A walled city sitting atop a hill in the Siena province. The city is on the ridge of a hill and is encircled by three walls and has at its highest point, to the west, the ruins of a fortress dismantled in the 16th century. There are eight entrances into the city, set into the second wall, which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries.  I believe there are four piazzas (plazas) in the city, which dates back almost to the time of Christ.  

What I loved most about San Gimignano is the view from outside the city.  When we visited, we stayed in a Barnhouse converted to a B and B a couple of kilometers south of the walled city.  Between the Barnhouse and the city was a valley, filled with olive groves.  I remember each of the three mornings we were there being the first one up, getting some coffee, and sitting outside just after the sun came up.  The walls of the city looked golden as the morning sun shone upon them.  A thin fog would settle over the olive groves in the valley, and the dew would sparkle as the sun's first rays hit them.  That was 29 years ago and I can still see it, I can still sense it, and I still miss it.  It was a scene you never forget, and a place you never want to leave.   I'm not sure if M is ready, but I could move to San Gimignano next week.

You know, it's funny how a pizza in Florence, Alabama can trigger of treasure load of memories from the last century.  If you go to only one place in Europe, make it Italy.  You will not be disappointed.

Thank you for spending some time in this little corner of the world.  Be kind to each other.