Scotland!

Referendum day has come and I am listening to the BBC World Service running commentary on what is happening. It is odd really listening to this event taking place, shows how little I knew of Scottish politics in the UK.  It appears that the turnout is high or very high more than 88% in rural and suburban areas whereas in the Cities the turnout is much lower around 75%. Scotland is hoping to have as high a turnout as in the Quebec referendum of 1995 which was 93.5%. It looks likely they will achieve that given the importance of the vote and the question. The big story tonight is how incredible the voter turnout has been. Usually during British general elections the turnout is around 65% the numbers tonight are very high in comparison.

The population of Scotland is small at 5.2 million Scots, somewhat smaller than the population of the City of Toronto. This does not count all the Scottish diaspora around the world, who cannot vote in this referendum. Scotland is portrayed as more left leaning and liberal than Britain. Because of its small population it cannot influence Parliament in Westminster and has little say in the budget. Scottish Labour is seen as unable to disassociate itself from the free-market and austerity policies of the moment, which makes it unpopular. By tomorrow the results either for or against independence, one thing appear certain the old certainties of the past will be dead and gone. The consequence for Cameron and the Conservatives are huge, it would probably mean the government will fall and Cameron will have no choice but to resign. As for Labour it will also be a shock and their future will be also uncertain. No Prime Minister wants to be remembered as the one who lost the Union. However watching the vote results come in Scotland appears divided, there are strong opinions in either camp.

Either way Britain tomorrow morning will be a different country. What I like about the coverage is how there is talk now even before the final results are in of change and how Westminster needs to change, respect for the aspirations of the Scots. It will be interesting to see how this evolves between now and 2016. What is also impressive is the level of respectful dialogue between people on either camp, except maybe for Ukip. There is none of the insults and bad language and immature attitudes we so often find here in Canada when there is differences of opinion after elections.

I would agree with commentators that Canadians and people in Quebec all have a lot to learn on how to run a referendum on such questions, much more mature and respectful in this case.

Auld Lang Syne on Hogmanay

Happy Hogmanay!

The end of the Old Year and the beginning of a New Year always seems to me like a period of quiet during a hurricane, a bit like being in the eye of the storm for a few hours. If things were not so good yesterday then surely tomorrow will be better. However for me and both of us at Palazzo degli Bassotti Tedeschi it has been a good year. So we can just wish for more of the same.
So many years in so many cities around the world with friends and colleagues leaves me in a mood of reflection. We have celebrated New Year's in Mexico City, in New York City, in Cairo, in Chicago, in Warsaw, in Beijing, in Rome, in Madrid.

Robert Burns wrote in 1788 this poem now world famous and it represents, I think, that feeling of the end of the year. Maybe this year I will greet the Old and New Year with a shot of Single Malt Scotch.

Robert Burns

Here the original words of the poem Auld Lang Syne sung by Graham Duncan.

Happy New Year 2014! Best Wishes to all.

Saint Andrew's Feast Day

Today is the Feast Day of the Patron Saint of Scotland, Saint Andrew.

It is also the 83th Birthday of my father. So Will and I went down to Montreal by train to have lunch with him at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel which sits on top of the Central Station in Montreal.

Winter scene around 11am near Alexandria, Ontario.

We had a lovely lunch, starting with a glass of Champagne, all the waiters know my Dad so we were well taken care of.  My father told Will stories of my childhood, I know those stories well, they are all connected to the hotel industry of which my father was part of for many decades. His favourites are the ones about the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. The stories are 50 years old but still funny, of course they involve food and restaurants. Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

 They say we look alike

Le Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City

More Palazzo

This weekend we took a tour with our friend and art historian Nancy de C. who has been living in Rome for 35 years. Nancy told us about her father who is now 104 going on 105, he is on his third pacemaker and it has about a year to go before it needs replacement. He apparently asked the doctor what happens if you don't replace it, the doctor said, well it will stop working. Then what says her father, well the doctor adds you would die, well that would not be so bad really, he says. I suppose not, at 105 you really can say that you have seen it all.

Nancy took us to look at the Church of the Holy Apostles on Piazza SS Apostoli which contains the remains of St-Philip and St-James the less. The church was once connected to the Palace of the Colonna family. A wedding was scheduled for 11:30 that morning so we visited first the remains of the Chapel of Cardinal Giovanni Bessarione who was a Byzantine Orthodox prelate who came to Rome in 1437 with 50 large cases containing rare manuscripts and other works from Constantinople, he gave all of it to the City State of Venice on his death and they remain to this day in a great library, testament to the once great Christian city of Constantinople before it fell to the Ottoman Turks. This small area was recently rediscovered, the chapel was badly damaged during the sack of Rome by Emperor Charles V in 1527 and then floods from the Tiber did further damage. In 1959 while doing some repairs to the main building the historians came upon marvelous frescoes showing St-Hubert at Mont Saint Michel and other fresco of the history of the Archangel Michael in Puglia. Bessarione spent his life trying to convince the Kings and Princes of Europe to come to the rescue of Constantinople to save the city from the Turkish menace, but no one was interested, the 100 years war was on and everyone was much more concerned with petty politics. In 1438, he converted to the Catholic rite and instantly became a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

The church of S.S. Apostoli also has many tombs of Cardinals and Princes and of Pope Clement XIV and of Queen Maria Clementina Sobieska, Catholic Queen of England, grand daughter of King Jan Sobieski III of Poland, she was the mother of Bonnie Prince Charlie of Scotland and wife of James I of Scotland. She lived most of her life in exile with her husband. She died young at 32 suffering from anorexia which was confused for religious fervor, she was apparently a manic depressive and given to bouts of religious ecstasy. While we were visiting the Church, the organist was practicing for the wedding, the music was splendid and added to the solemn magnificence of the Church.

We then went next door to the Palace of the Colonna Family, one of the great families of Rome, they are related to Royal families of Spain, Austria and Italy. They open the great gallery of their palace to the public on Saturday morning only from 9 am to 1pm. The Colonna have lived in Rome for at least 700 years and their Palace took 400 years to build on the site of the great temple of Serapis at the foot of the Quirinal Hill. Most of the magnificent marble columns and colored marble floors come from that ancient temple. Their claim to fame came from the naval battle of Lepanto when the Admiral of the fleet of the City State of Venice, Prince MarcAntonio Colonna (pictured above) defeated the Turkish navy on 7 October 1571.
The great gallery celebrates the victory of MarcAntonio, the ceiling is painted with great frescos commemorating the Colonna family, it is not modest. At one end you see a scene in Heaven, as MarcAntonio dressed like a Roman General is being led by the hand by a very naked and muscular Hercules to be introduced to the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin Mary who points to a chair on a cloud next to her for MarcAntonio to sit. Other figures in the fresco are Gods of the Roman pantheon mixed in with angels and cherubs. Another fresco shows Christ resurrected ascending into Heaven on judgement day and below the dead rising from their graves being helped by angels. If you look closely you see that all the elected to enter Heaven with Christ are non other than the Colonna family. To make sure you got the message of this painting, note that the Cross of Christ stands in Heaven next to the symbol of the Colonna family, a column. Then another fresco of Pope Martin V, Colonna in ecstasy during the moment of consecration of the Mass, God the Father himself appears to him.
The Colonna Palace is truly beautiful with its great gardens, the Colonna family still lives there, it has been restored by the Italian State at tax payers expense, so great is the importance of the family in Roman and Vatican history.

After the visit we went for lunch on Piazza Skanderbeg, named after the great Albanian hero who also lived for a time in Rome before leading a doomed revolt in Albania against the Turkish Sultan. We had the most delicious Artichoke lasagna in bechamel sauce and my favorite ice cream discovery this week, toasted Almonds and orange ice cream with real almonds and tiny bits of orange.

Scotch Whisky night

In Italy there are lots of wine tasting courses from the very exclusive to the every day mundane in any Enoteca. There are also lots of cooking courses where you usually learn to make pasta and ravioli etc.... However in Rome we have Rachel Rennie, who took it upon herself to give courses on the finer points of Scotch. Rachel is from Glasgow and is knowledgeable in all things related to Scotch, she brings a real passion to her presentation. So as part of one of the many activities of the Canadian Club of Rome CCR, we had a course in Scotch tasting at our place for a small group of members. Now Will decided to go out since he really does not like Scotch and went to see the movie Avatar. I am not a great Scotch drinker myself and until now really did not know very much about it. Rachel called her course ''An Island Tour'', and selected scotches from Jura, the Orkneys, Islay and Skye. She first told us how Scotch is made from malted barley. The barley is soaked in water to begin the germination process and then dried slowly. This conditions the starch in the barley for conversion to sugar and then to alcohol. It is then aged in oak cask which have been once previously used for Sherry or Bourbon, this gives its distinctive style. For the last 200 years this has been the process but what of before that time, well people simply drank it straight from the still. Before the liquid is put into a cask, it has the transparent look of water and smells of perfume. Because sherry and bourbon casks are used this is how you get the pale or dark coloring of scotch.

When drinking scotch if you add a drop of water, it will release even more of the flavours, however if you pour scotch on ice then all the flavors are locked up.

She accompanies her discourse with songs and poetry by Poet Laureate, John Masefield (1878-1967), all very lovely and fun. We also had food to accompany the tasting, French bread to cleanse the palate, Deer paté with one scotch we tasted, hard white cheese with another, pickled herring and smoked trout for the others. Very interesting and shows how scotch goes with food. We also had shortbread, though sweet it blends very well.

In the end I really liked the Talisker from the Isle of Skye 10 years old, which has a smokey taste from the peat used in making it. I also liked the Laphroaig from Islay aged in small quarter bourbon cask.

I did not like the Old Pulteney 12 yrs from Wick, too strong a taste, I found it coarse, nor did I like Isle of Jura again too strong tasting.

On 25 January is Robert Burns birthday, so we celebrated the poet with this fine evening. Learned something and had a good drink. One last point, we also learned that you do not say, are they wearing kilts which is incorrect, but rather I am wearing the kilt or they are wearing the kilt.

See the web site: www.whiskywineandwords.com