Madrid, Espana

Tomorrow Tuesday we fly Vueling to Madrid for a few days to celebrate the New Year in Spain. The weather for the whole time is rain,rain, what can you do, it is winter.
We are staying in central Madrid at Plaza San Martin near all the major attractions and the Gran Via. Looking forward to this vacation, also to hearing and speaking Spanish with my Mexican-Cuban accent, the food, the style and the elegance of Spain. Happy New Year, Bonne Année, Feliz Ano Nuevo to all!

The last days of the year

Well it has been an eventful Christmas in Rome, at home we had 10 people for dinner on Christmas Eve and Will out did himself, he made a 4 kilo meat pie, that's about 9 lbs. With beef,chicken,veal,pork and vegetables, it was delicious. The recipe can be found at www.recipezaar.com, recipe number 134315 Lac Saint-Jean Pie or Cipate, it beats turkey any day in my book. It is a dish that has as much historical significance in French Canada as the Thanksgiving turkey for the American pilgrims. Some photos of the wines and champagne we had and our dining room, a very festive affair and lots of fun.

While we were at home, unbeknownst to us the Pope had been assaulted at the central door of St-Peter's basilica as he surrounded by Cardinals walked down the main aisle to the great Altar. Same crazy women as last year who had tried to pull the same stunt but had failed. She was tackled by a security guard before she could actually get to the Pope but in her fall grabbed his vestments and he fell also. The midnight mass is great State Ceremonial at the Vatican a whole section of the basilica is reserved for special guests and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. There has been a midnight mass at least since 340 AD if not at St-Peter's Basilica then at the Cathedral of St-John Lateran. One may disagree with the Pope and with the Roman Catholic Church or even not like the whole institution, but the Pope is 82 yrs old, he is elderly and tired, the schedule at this time of the year is hectic for him, he is a Head of State, such an attack is a serious matter and all the more sad on such an occasion. The Pope continued down towards the Altar and then proceeded with the service but he was shaken by this unpleasant experience. Complete security is not possible given his role and given that he is a religious person. There is already a lot of security at the Vatican and it is relatively new, I would say since 1999.
That too is unfortunate, after all it is a place of prayer and a sacred site, but too many forget that or do not understand what Sacred means anymore. What a sad little world we live in, let's hope this does not happen again. Photos by the Associated Press.

Omnibus salutem plurimam

Is nothing sacred, from the Vatican Museum the first century bronze statue of Emperor Augustus, Father of the Nation as Santa!

Omnibus salutem plurimam dicit Divus Augustus Santa Clausius.


see www.italiannotebook.com

A wonderful Canadian Christmas story

VIA Rail and good Samaritans to bring Fred the dog from Vancouver to his Montréal family

MONTRÉAL – VIA Rail Canada is happy to be contributing to the repatriation to Montreal of Fred the dog. Found November 30 in British Columbia, at the side of his deceased owner, Fred was much featured in the press during the month of December. VIA will provide the train ticket from Vancouver for Fred and two accompanying adults, residents of the Montréal region who have volunteered to take care of the dog during the four day journey starting January 1st. The dog will be united with the family of his deceased owner upon arrival in Montreal.

On December 8, a Montréal daily, The Gazette, ran an article on Fred, a rugged aboriginal Malamute (Kugsha). Many animal lovers were moved by this story, including some VIA Rail employees. The latter were moved to ask VIA to put the dog on the train, while volunteering to take care of him during the trip. But VIA could not jeopardize the quality of customer service to passengers by assigning train employees to take care of the animal. The solution, as explained by Steve Del Bosco, Chief Customer Officer at VIA, was suggested by a resident of Beaconsfield, Frank Palumbo.

"This bighearted person decided to pay the Montréal-Vancouver airfare for his wife, Mélanie Pellerin, and one of her friends, so they could bring Fred by train to his new Montreal home. With these two taking care of Fred during the trip, the train ride became possible, so we offered them free tickets for the trip. VIA accepts pets on its trains as long as passengers onboard can take care of them", explained Mr. Del Bosco.

Ms. Pellerin said she was very moved by VIA's offer. "I am really happy to see that such a large corporation could be so sensitive to our request. The management and employees displayed generosity and kindness!" For her part, Lynda Roy, sister of Fred's deceased owner, Cyril Roy, warmly thanked all involved: "Thanks to VIA Rail, Mr. Palumbo, the media, and all the staff at the animal shelter in Nanaimo (BC), including Stephanie Walker. My family and I will be reunited with a precious piece of my brother. I am really looking forward to seeing Fred. It will help ease our sorrow. My brothers and sister, Karen, Yanic, Ann, Stephen and Fred himself will be forever grateful for everything that people have done for us!"

About Fred

On November 30, Cyril Roy, 58, was found dead in his trailer, near Nainamo. His dog, Fred, who stayed by his side, was taken to a kennel, and then to an animal shelter. The family of Mr. Roy, in Montreal, tried to recover Fred, but ran into difficulties because of the dog's imposing size and the complexity of a winter trip. Subsequently, Max Harrold, a journalist at The Gazette, wrote an article on Fred's uncertain fate, eliciting dozens of offers by caring individuals wishing to transport the dog. But nothing concrete was achieved until the interventions of VIA and Frank Palumbo.

About VIA Rail Canada

As Canada's national passenger rail service, VIA Rail Canada's mandate is to provide efficient passenger train services, that are cost effective and environmentally friendly, both in Canada’s busiest corridor and in rural and remote regions of the country. Every week, VIA runs 503 intercity, regional and transcontinental trains that connect 450 communities over a network of 12,500 kilometres. The demand for VIA's services is increasing, because more and more passengers are choosing the train as a reliable, practical and environmentally friendly means of transportation to avoid congested highways and airports. For further information on VIA's services across Canada, customers can visit viarail.ca.

December 23

Did all my Xmas Shopping today, the stores were not crowded, one thing I like is that store owners do not feel obliged to play Xmas music, you can shop in relative quiet. Even on the radio there is very little almost no Xmas music, it is all reserved for the 25 Dec. one day a year that is all. A real blessing when you think of it, I get so tired in Canada with all the Xmas schmaltz from November 15 onwards. It was a warm sunny day after 2 weeks of freezing weather. In the last 48 hours it was -17 in Milan, -11 in Bologna and -2 in Rome. It snowed in the higher altitude all around us, the mountains are snow capped now. Milan, Florence and Bologna had snow which is not unusual for Milan in winter given that it is located at the foot of the Alps but Florence and Bologna? Good thing Copenhagen was a monumental flop, because there is no climate change.

Bought all kinds of nice things for Will, of course I cannot tell you what it is because it is a surprise for Xmas. Did all the grocery shopping and walked the puppies all around the neighborhood so they had to have a nap afterwards. This evening I polished the silver ware and set the table for tomorrow, we are having 10 people for dinner. Will got busy in the kitchen and prepared the main dish, which is a Cipaille, an old Canadian recipe which dates back hundreds of years when my ancestors were running after the natives in the woods to make good Christians of them or hunting. The recipe calls for 4 kinds of meat, beef,pork,veal and chicken. Of course in the old days c.1685, you would have wild game and wild birds to make this meat pie. It's layered with vegetables, mushrooms, celery, carrots and potatoes. He also made roasted tomatoes.

So we are pretty much set for the big day. The city is quiet tonite, no cars, no one anywhere, it looks like everyone left Rome, which is so nice for a change. Rome should be quiet at least until 3 January.

My favorite Christmas music

A few years ago I was visiting Denmark and went to Roskilde Cathedral, it sits high on a cliff overlooking a fjord where the vikings once use to built their boats, a museum is dedicated to them on that site. The Cathedral itself is gothic and beautiful, full of light, it is now a Lutheran church but was prior to the Reformation a Roman Catholic church, the kings and Queens of Denmark are buried in this great church. On Christmas morning 1620 Michael Pretorius presented his composition for Christmas morning mass. I really like this work and it is one of my favorite of the Season.
Here is the last hymn of the mass, Puer nobis nascitur, to us a child is born.

Panetone, Xmas tree, decorations and the Weather

I find that the variety of Panetone in Italy is almost endless compared to back home with its standard dry and commercial Panetone. I look in Enotecas (wine merchant stores) for good chocolate 70% cocoa + and for other delicacies including original panetoni, I found one made with figs and beautifully wrapped. It is basically a big soft bread but it is so good with coffee.

The Christmas tree is up, it takes up to 8 days to make our Xmas tree, this is faster than in the past when it took 2 weeks to set it up. The tree is only 7 feet tall or 2.14 meters and all the lights are already in place, this is why it is faster now to set-up. What still takes time is the polishing of the 30 (1978 to 2008) Nieman Marcus sterling silver balls and the Towle flower ornaments.
We were concerned that the puppies might want to jump on the tree, but so far they have totally ignored it.

The weather is changing and so is the climate, now in Rome we often have in winter -3 C at night and around 5C in the day time with a lot of cold humidity. It use to rain in winter in years past and the temperature was never under 6 C at night and 11C in the day time. The buildings are not properly heated and there is no insulation, floors of marble and walls of concrete make for a cold house. So we dress up and use one room. The kitchen is really cold if the oven is not turned on, there is no heat in that room of the house. Also by law we can only heat from 6am to 10am and from 6pm to 11pm. The rest of the time there is no heat, the building concierge turns the furnace off. We can also only have heat in buildings as of 15 November until 15 April. It is usually cold as of 30 Oct and at least until 1 May. Many people do not have clothes dryers so they use the radiators to dry their clothes or hang them on the balcony and it usually takes about 5 days to dry. You got to be resourceful but with the changing climate it makes things harder.

So we are having 10 people for Xmas Eve dinner, Will is responsible for the main course, he wants to do a Cipaille, which is a layered meat pie, of chicken, beef and pork, very old Canada. While I will do the starters or Antipasto, I am serving a carpaccio of smoked fish, tuna, salmon and sword fish, very thinly sliced with a bit of green and some nice cucumbers and those little sour pickles. Our friend Lionel is doing two desserts a bûche de Noël with a cream of chestnuts filling and a Vacharin. Got all the white and red wine stocked up and also the Proseco and Champagne.

What is left to do now is a bit of gift shopping but since I am on vacation now I can do that in the coming days.

I do hope that you will all have a wonderful holiday Season with friends and family.