photos of Ferragosto

From what I hear and messages I received from friends in Rome some people are leaving the Città for  the beginning of the Summer Holidays which in fact started as early as Monday 11 August and will continue until at least the 2 September for the very lucky and up to the 18 August for those not so fortunate in more ways than one. Italy has slipped back into a severe recession and the economy is not good, unemployment for young people (under 30) is hovering around 43% which is a disaster. This is due in large part to years of Right Wing Conservative Politics and negligence under Sylvio Berlusconi as Prime Minister.

As a tourist you are not likely to see anything and if you do not speak Italian you will not even be aware of the problems facing Italy.

Nonetheless now is time for the annual vacation and the 15 August which was instituted by the first Roman Emperor Octavian know as Augustus some 2000 years ago. When in the fourth century Christianity became an official religion in Rome the holiday meaning was gradually changed and became a major religious holiday dedicated to the Assumption into Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  nowadays it is the signal for summer vacation time.

Here are some favourite photos of Rome and Italy.

 The Church of St-Agnes in Agony on Piazza Navona, the church dates from the 8th century, the baroque facade from 1652 on the orders of Pope Innocent X of the Doria Pamphilij Family. 

 Our pool in our first home in Rome, Via Asmara 9. It was quite large, no we did not have to clean it.

The old garden area of the former estate on Via Asmara 9, never did discover who had built this garden but it was quite large and pleasant.

Another view of our pool on Via Asmara 9, never used it really.

 Our Reesie, he was a long hair Dachshund. Sitting quietly amongst the white roses in the garden

 The Oculus of the Pantheon in Rome, the opening is 27 feet in diameter or 8.2 meters

  Moon over Rome, if you look closely at the picture the middle dark part you can see the ruins of the Imperial Palaces on the Palatine Hill.

 Seen from the Market of Emperor Trajan a side view of the Italian Altar to the Nation also known as the Vittoriano on Piazza Venezia, the largest marble monument in the world. 

 The window of the French Ambassador's Office at the French Embassy in the Farnese Palace in Rome. The Coat of Arms above the window are those of the Farnese Pope Paul III.
Incidentally the first French Ambassador to rent out the palace as a residence was none other than the brother of Cardinal Richelieu who was Chief Minister of the King of France. Cardinal Alphonse Richelieu (yes it ran in the family) was the religiously inclined one compared to his politician brother.

Street parking in Rome with Olive trees

 Castle San Angelo originally built as the Mausoleum to Emperor Hadrian.

Carabinieri in gala uniform, they are the elite police corps in Italy 

 The famous fountain of the turtles near the old ghetto of Rome

Equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius on the Campidoglio Piazza in front of the City Hall of Rome on the Capitoline Hill. The original statue is 1900 years old and is inside in the museum to the left of the photo.

Blog almost demised

I was told some days ago that my blog might have been hacked or highjacked by some kind of device. I was unaware of anything wrong but I did ask people to try to access by blog from other devices and sure enough they were re-directed to a commercial site and then to some video on Youtube. It turned out that the clock device on my front page was the culprit, apparently of some Russian device. So I asked Mr. W to help me with this and he quickly discovered that it was that clock device, we deleted it and everything went back to normal.

I was considering shutting down my blog or erasing it, luckily that was not necessary, after all the work I put into it.

This weekend we go on Summer time and spring the clocks one hour. That is always a good thing.

From 1968 for those of you who remember.

our road trip to the Stratford Theatre Festival 2013

Settlement in Stratford started in 1828, it is located in South West Ontario with a population of 30,000 persons. Part of the river that crosses the city was named the Avon by Canada Company Official John Mercer Jones, the rest of the river which is 273 KM long is known as the Thames, a name given by Governor John Graves Simcoe. The original name in Algonquin language is Askunissippi (Antler) and the lake in the middle of the town is named after Queen Victoria.

Stratford was an important railway junction as of 1858 and then became known for fine quality furniture manufacturing. In 1953 Tom Patterson, a journalist suggested that a Theatre Festival be mounted and only 2 years later, the dream came through. The Festival has become famous because of the big name actors who perform there each summer, in years past, William Hutt, Martha Henry, Sir Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer, Peter Ustinov, Dame Maggie Smith and the list goes on. But also the quality of the productions, sets and costumes has enhance the prestige of this festival.

This was my first visit to Stratford and for Will it was a return visit the first in 35 years, he attended each year from 1958 to 1978. We saw Fiddler on the roof, Blythe Spirit, The Three Musketeers, Waiting for Godot and Taking Shakespeare.

Will made a donation of theatre material he had collected through the years and we visited the archives of the Festival and met with its Director, Doctor Francesca Marini. The archives building is a very big site and holds costumes, decor, various objects connected with 60 years of Festival performances.

We went to Stratford after I spoke for about two years with fellow bloggers in the USA, Michael http://sporeflections.wordpress.com and David http://harpersvalley.wordpress.com from Phoenix, Arizona. Both have blogs that I read and both suggested we should meet at Stratford. We also met their friend Martin Katz http://songfest.us/martin-katz-piano/ and Dale Zimmerman and this being a small world it turns out we have friends in common.

The City is beautiful and has that feel of a small town in South West Ontario farming community. It is two hours by car from Toronto and is far away to be untainted by that great miasma of a city.

The plays we saw, Fiddler on the roof was the strongest in my opinion, with Scott Wentworth as Tevye  in the title role. Then Waiting for Godot with Stephen Ouimette, Tom Rooney and Brian Dennehy as Pozzo was dark and oppressive, a different presentation from what I had seen in London with Sir Ian McKellen.  I was put off by the constant giggling of a certain number of people who appeared to think that this was a comedy on the scale of Mame. I think that when Beckett wrote this play in 1953 in French, he had gone through the Second World War and its horrors in France. It was a different time and the play appealed to a public who could relate to recent world events. Today all this is very far from us, so far it is difficult to relate to the characters. It would help if the next producer updated the setting to maybe stage it in a refugee camp today.

Taking Shakespeare with Martha Henry as the old professor whose talent is great and a pleasure to see and a young man Luke Humphrey as the student Murph who is starting in the theatre and whose performance is very uneven. We saw him in the Three Musketeers playing D'artagnan it was tedious and frankly I wanted to throw tomatoes, that is how bad it was. Maybe 20 years from now when he grows up....

Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit was a delight, though it is a period piece somewhat removed from our world today. Ben Carlson played Charles and Seana McKenna played Madame Arcati. In the end you realize that none of the characters are very nice people.

We stayed in a beautiful B&B which was more along the lines of an efficiency apartment but very pleasant. We could walk to all venues easily. I liked the fact that it was quiet, more so than Ottawa.

We are scheduled to go back next year to see our friends again and in the meantime I have to investigate more about life in Stratford, Ontario.





 

Canada at the 55th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

Marc Mayer Director of the National Gallery of Canada speaks of the art of Sherry Boyle at the Canada Pavilion in Venice, Italy.

If you are in Venice this summer you can visit this exhibit. 

Cooking recipes

A few weeks ago Will suddenly got up and went looking for an old red binder with the word Air Canada on the cover, inside are old yellow sheets of paper with type written recipes for various dishes from appetizers to main course to desserts. We have had this binder and recipes for at least 35 years. He was looking for a recipe in particular and wanted to see if we could try it out. We did and it was quite good, a simple sauce to accompany a dish of pasta. Many of the recipes are from a time a few decades ago when people ate heavier dishes. Mind you, I know a lot of people who still eat fairly heavy dishes with lots of cream and butter sauces and cheese topping for good measure. It's the same with desserts, many are fudge chocolate like with cream and a side of ice cream. I simply cannot imagine eating any dishes like that today. My desserts now tend to be a fruit usually fresh never in a can or just an espresso
with a spot of milk no sugar.

So far we tried two recipes and both are sauces requiring fresh tomatoes chopped up and at least 500 gr of fresh leafy spinach. In Europe spinach is very popular usually just tossed in a pan with a bit of garlic, in the USA at least in New England, cream spinach is popular but in Canada you do not see it so often on menus or in peoples homes as a side dish. A shame really, it is a very good vegetable and so easy to prepare but you must remember to clean it well, like all leafy greens. There is always a lot of dirt on the leaves and it needs a good rinsing once of twice under cold water.

Among these old recipes are some of Will's signature dishes, like Smoky Pumpkin Soup done usually for Canadian Thanksgiving in October, Sopa de Tortilla from our time in Mexico 1986-89. Or his
Tomato tart with polenta crust and rocket, or Mushroom rarebit. A dessert he use to make was Treacle tart.

                                        Recipe teasers

So he looked up this Pasta with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach.  I got the ingredients at the store and made it for dinner, it was easy and quite good. This recipe can be made in less than 30 minutes if you are slightly organized in the kitchen and have a nice glass of wine at hand.

The recipe is as follows:
Pasta with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach

8 oz of fresh Linguini pasta
1 dried chili pepper, seeded and crushed
5 *anchovy fillets, rinsed under cold water, drained and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lb (500gr) of fresh loose leaf spinach, washed, stemmed and coarsely chopped.
8 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced (you can used the can variety)
3\4 cup of freshly grated parmesan
Fresh ground pepper
1 tsp of good olive oil

* about the anchovy, on the market you can find imported from Italy, fresh anchovies which is a white fish in oil or anchovies only in oil and a little salt. It is very different in taste from the anchovies which are cured and salted, do not use those.


First cook your pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and shake well, coat with 1 tsp of oil and mix up. Cover and set aside.

Heat the chill in 3 tsp of olive oil until the pepper is brown. Remove and discard pepper.
Now using the same large pan used for the pepper you have your base oil flavoured with the pepper.
Reheat the oil, add anchovies, garlic and cook stirring constantly until garlic turns golden brown. Add spinach and tomatoes and cook tossing until spinach is wilted.

Now add your pasta and toss well with the sauce until heated through ( approx 3 min.)

Remove from heat and add the parmesan and pepper. Serve immediately.


This weekend I made Breast Chicken fillets with Spinach and Tomato and for Sunday dinner Sautéd Chicken and Tortilla Salad.
Spring is here now, the Rideau canal water level is back up for boating, The many marathons along the canal have started, we have quite a few in Ottawa. The fishing season has opened and the Tulip Festival starts on 3 May in Ottawa our special connection with the Royal Family of the Netherlands. The weather is now on average 20C very pleasant. So I am switching the sheets to summer cloth and also our dinner menu to more Spring like fare.

photos of summer

Here are photos of us in Tsarkoe Selo (Tsar's village) outside of St-Petersburg and in St-Petersburg on the University embankment with the sphinx, across from the Winter Palace. We wish we had spent more time in that wonderful city. The vision of Peter the Great, a city he built and went to war with Sweden for 20 years to ensure that the city port would have a free access to the Baltic sea, he won eventually. What is interesting in the story of this city is the number of Italian and French architects, engineers and designers and landscape gardeners who worked for Peter and then Tsarina Catherine I, Tsarina Elizabeth and Catherine II the Great. Tsar Peter wanted to ensure that the city would be a Western European looking city. It was not easy to populate the city, the noble families did not want to come and live there, only force, threats and the absolute requirement that if you wanted to show loyalty to the Tsar you had to move and built your family palace in St-Petersburg. It took years to convince and coerce people to come. Today you have a city of Palaces and great imperial government buildings, all more magnificent then the other. As much as Moscow is old Russia of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, St-Petersburg is the Russia of the Renaissance, of the Romanov dynasty, of the new Russia opening itself to the world. The legacy of Peter the Great lives on to this day in St-Petersburg despite 70 years of Communist dictatorship utter neglect, in fact there is a renaissance since 2000 when the city embarked on a program of renovations and embellishment.

On the Neva river at the University embankment with the Sphinx, a must see if you wish to return to the city.

In the gardens of the Catherine I Palace at Tsarkoe Selo, in the background is the pavilion that once housed the Office of Catherine II the Great.

In front of the Alexander Palace built by Catherine the Great for her grandson Tsar Alexander I at Tsarkoe Selo, the last home of Tsar Nicholas II and his family before their tragic exile and death.

National Museums in Ottawa

The Nation's Capital has 3 major National Museums, the Canadian War Museum, the Museum of Civilizations, the National Gallery of Canada. All three were built in the last 30 years and represent an effort by the Federal Government to present Canada to the world in the Capital. The architecture is impressive, top architects were involved in the design and building, they are Moshe Safdi for the National Gallery, Raymond Moriyama for the War Museum and Douglas Cardinal for the Civilizations museum. The collections are impressive, much of it gifts to the Nation from individuals or purchased on the open market at a time before ''art'' became a hot ticket item with outlandish prices.

With all the cutbacks in the last 15 years to the National Museums budget, purchase of new art works or even maintenance and curatorial work has become next to impossible. Staff have been cut, services to the public have been cut and attendance is way down, some 40% according to the Government. So the reaction has been from the Government to declare the museums un-necessary, putting them on life-support and claim that if the public is interested it is up to the public to do something about it. The ''vision'' of Canadian identity and culture is gone from public discourse replaced instead by accountants and politicians who prefer to talk of efficiencies in saving money, all this waste must be gotten rid of, a rather mercenary discourse, but it does find resonance with a certain uninformed public.

I have in the last 10 days visited all three, first I found that the museums are empty, attendance is very low, often finding myself alone in the galleries with a lonely guard as companion. Private security firms have been hired to patrol the exhibit space. There is lots of empty parking space, restaurant facilities are operating at minimum since few patrons come in. The general public perception of these museums, despite the pride people take in them, is that they belong to the ''elite''. The people have no need of culture or art or knowledge, this type of argument reminds me of Mao Tse Tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution when art and culture was destroyed in China in search of the values of the people.

This argument is in part confirmed by the low value placed on education in general and by the very low literacy level amongst children in Canada, if the figure released at the Ottawa Writers Festival are to be believed.

If you cannot read and have little general knowledge then what is the incentive in going to a museum to appreciate what is on offer. Recently a study of students in High Schools reveals that generally speaking few have developed critical judgement abilities and lack focus or attention, do not read, lack vocabulary and have difficulties understanding certain concepts of logic or thought process.

But what about the rest of the population, why are they not going to our National Museums?
Why are the museums having difficulties attracting sponsors in the Corporate world or important donors
with deep pockets? Is it because we constantly looked to the Federal Government in the past to do all the financing. Very serious problems and no response or suggestions are offered to tackle this question. Are tourists not interested? Why are we not marketing the National Museums beyond a website?

I first went to the National Gallery on Sussex drive, it should be noted that this impressive building on what is the Ceremonial boulevard of the Capital, like Pall Mall in London or les Champs Elysées in Paris is not connected to any direct public transport route. The museum was near empty, beautiful works of art displayed in a grand setting with the right lighting and set to be enjoyed. Only a few people here and there visiting, I encountered a group of bored teenagers brought by a teacher on a school outing, they obviously had no idea why they were there. This summer the National Gallery is presenting its summer special exhibit on Vincent Van Gogh, hopefully it will attract a crowd, it opens on 24 May (Victoria Day in Canada).

I then went across the Ottawa river opposite to the National Gallery is the Museum of Civilizations built to resemble a Long house favoured by the Algonquin people who use to gather by the hundreds in the summer time on the banks of the Ottawa river before 1780. A little known fact or a forgotten one, all of the land on which is built Ottawa the National Capital of Canada is un-ceded Algonquin land which still belongs to the Algonquin people. As the saying goes Canada is the only country in the world whose Capital is built on land belonging to another Nation.

The museum of Civilizations houses many stunning artifacts and its great hall is dedicated to the Pacific coast native people like the Haida, Salish, Tlingit and Nisga'a to name a few. Many of Bill Reid's sculptures are on display with the mythological creatures of the old native religions and complex belief structures being represented.

The museum also has special exhibits, currently one entitled ''God an owner's manual"
depicting the different beliefs of people around the world. The function of the museum is to display but also explain aspects of civilizations. The approach is multicultural putting all civilizations on the same footing, something that is out of favour with the current administration in Canada.

The only people in the museum the day I came where Asian Tour groups, 5 buses and a handful of other people.  A telling conversation at the ticket counter, a young couple wanted to buy tickets for the IMAX cinema, the attendant asked them if they wanted to see the rest of the exhibits, the woman who was around 30 said to him in reply that they had no time for all that boring stuff. Maybe that is the problem, culture is perceived as boring of no value. This appears to be a general belief fostered in large part by our modern consumer culture, we need to be constantly stimulated and hilariously excited.

Yesterday, W and I went to the Canadian War Museum built in close consultations with all Veteran groups and the Royal Canadian Legion, they had a large say in how the museum would look. Moriyama the architect certainly produced a building the Veterans were satisfied with, it recalls the trenches of the First World War and the jagged edges of battlefields, rising from an unseen underworld.

Unfortunately there is too much to read and the museum does cover 500 years of Canada's military and political history from the discovery of Europeans by the Aboriginals to today. An enormous amount of information, difficult to digest if you do not have at least a basic in the history of Canada or of the many conflicts we were involved in.  The artifacts are also poorly displayed, one example is a large Mercedes Benz limousine which belonged to Adolph Hitler pushed in a corner. The museum architecture tends to be dark and foreboding, certainly something that was desired in illustrating the dark, deathly side of all Wars, but at times it is overwhelming.

Again few people, except for the school groups who like all teenagers thought war fun, the weapons awesome, sort of like an internet game. It is difficult for a generation who has no knowledge of conflict and whose sole information of war comes from the television news to be interested in something that appears so remote, disconnected from their reality. The museum becomes a theme park to have fun.

I was disappointed in that particular museum, I thought the presentation could have been different. Again the War Museum sits in splendid isolation in LeBreton flats, a vast desolate area west of Parliament Hill and by the Ottawa river, once a neighbourhood, bulldozed in the late 1950's, basically the middle of nowhere in the Capital.

I often think that Ottawa is not much loved by Canadians and not much respected by the politicians who are mostly indifferent to the Capital.

August means summer vacations!

Beach at Pesaro, Italy on the Adriatic.
Today marks the third anniversary of our arrival in Rome. We arrived and little did we realize that we were at the beginning of the long summer holiday in August. Rome was quiet, no traffic, lots of parking and most shops closed until September. As of Monday many shops will be closed, our butcher is gone until September, the drugstore is closed, cafes are closing, in our neighborhood I realize today that all the cafes will be closed including the one who is usually open, because this year it is under renovations. Cash ATM machines will also run out of money and banks are on shorter hours, due to lots of staff being on leave. Grocery shopping will have to be done in the morning.
So we too are going away to the beach with 3 rules to follow for these long days of summer.
1) siesta from 1-4pm (or later), 2) don't dine before 9pm (or later), and 3) la passeggiata e il aperitivo! (An evening stroll walk and an aperitif.)

Buon estate a tutti! (A great summer to all!)

memories of past summer vacations c.1961

I don't know why but today I had this thought, I remember that back in 1960 or 61 we use to go on vacation with my parents to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. We would spend a week at this place right off the board walk, it was very simple, wood cabanas big enough for 2 adults and 2 kids, simple beds and a hot plate to make simple meals on, no TV or radio. The whole point of the vacation was that you would spend your days at the beach, have sandwiches at lunch some french fries, at night have a simple dinner and retire early.
I was a little kid back then maybe 5 or 6 yrs old, but I do remember Old Orchard beach vividly, the place we stayed at was owned by a US veteran from WWII, there was about 20 cabanas all together and in the middle this huge or what appeared to my eyes as a huge green grass area and in the centre this flag pole made of wood and painted white, it was very tall I thought and this pole was surrounded by painted white round rocks and every morning Paul, the veteran would raise old glory and at sunset he would bring the flag down. He did it in silence and us kids knew to be quiet when he did his flag raising or lowering. The beach was clean and it was mostly young families. We got sunburned and we played in the sun and surf all day, that was it, very simple but so much fun, I still to this day have memories of this place every time I smell Coppertone Coco butter Sun Lotion, strange how the memory of those summers on the beach stayed with me all these years.

Favorite Hamburger recipe of the Summer

I learned this recipe from my butcher some 25 years ago, it is really a very good burger recipe and makes delicious burgers.
You need a mix of medium ground beef and ground veal, HP sauce or Worcestershire Sauce and Coleman's dry mustard, one egg and bread crumbs.

You mix your half pound of ground beef and half pound of veal together by adding a slightly beaten egg and 2 tea spoons of HP or Worcestershire sauce and a tea spoon of dried Coleman's mustard. Mix it all well and start making your patties. Your patties will be moist due to the egg and sauce. Take one patty and coat it with the bread crumbs set aside and refrigerate for about 3 hours.

You can now use your bar-b-q to cook these wonderful burgers. Let me know how you find it. To me they are the best of summer.