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IS IT JUST ME? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN ANYONE EAT PANETONE?
Just as Easter brings out the glamorous, big, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs in Italy, this holiday season brings out lovely, shiny gift boxes of Panetone, Christmas bread/cake in all sizes. Everyone in Italy seems to give them and get them. There are times it seems everyone you see on the street has one swinging from their hand as they hurry down the streets. But who is eating them? Sure after the holiday crush at Aldo’s bar you may see a straggler chopped up and put out as free nibbles. A nice chaser to wash down the morning’s cappuccinos or proseccos. But that is pretty much the only time I’ve seen it consumed. All of which strikes me as very strange, because I like Panetone. We even made Panetone one time. And still liked it.

See you in Italy,

Stew Vreeland

Last year Bob asked us to fly with him to Italy to go house shopping. After a whirlwind 36 hours, he knew, “This was the one!” The house and gardens were really speaking to him. They were saying, “Buy us quick before someone else does!” Just seeing these photos taken out his windows, (in February, no less) you can understand why he leaped into action.

He called us last week after spending seven fun-filled weeks in Umbria, surrounded by his many new best friends and new best neighbors. Listening to him talk, I knew this was someone who was getting the most out of life. To say he was enjoying himself would be an understatement.

When Bob’s not enjoying his new home himself, he shares it with other people who love Italy as much as he does. He didn’t plan to rent his home out when he bought – but now he does.

Even if you are not considering buying a house specifically to rent or looking for a rental, check out Roberts Italy House. His story and photos really paint a picture of his new life. The life he lives in Italy.

Since Bob created his website, his home is delighting him even more. It is now paying its way so well that he’s able to reward it by doing all kinds of fun projects and upgrades to what is already a lovely, lovely home.

Complimenti, Bob, complimenti, pure.

See you in Italy, (We have tickets in hand! Leaving Halloween for a couple weeks. Umbria and beyond!)

Stew Vreeland

BOSTON – The North End rocks. Repeat after me, Boston’s North End rocks. How could I have forgotten this? We only live two hours away. What a rush to rediscover it. We found ourselves spending a few days in Boston recently so we headed off to the Italian Zone. Worrying about finding anything open on a Monday. Need not have worried. EVERYthing was open this lush summer evening. The only trick was deciding which place to try. We were flicking back and forth from the “Around Me” app to the very funky, fun”Urban Daddy Boston” app. And finally decided to just enjoy the stroll and let one restaurant “speak to us” as we walked by. And there were plenty to do the talking. All in Italian. It is wall to wall, building after building, street after street of Italian restaurants. Oh, sure once in a while, just to break things up, there will be a Catholic church draped in statues of saints and modonnas. Or a jewel like Mike’s Pastry. Its been there what, a hundred years and the name doesn’t sound Italian but look at the people on the street leaned back against the bricks, smacking their lips over cannolis. Looks pretty Italian to me.

There were lines at restaurants like Gioccomo’s down the street like every night. Sure, this was a not-to-be-missed, lovely summer night. But it was also a MONDAY. Full houses everywhere. We slid into the last open-air bay window seat at the Florentine Cafe. And our Italian, from Italy, waiter took our order. What a night. We were looking out at the crowds strolling by with their blue and white boxes of Mike’s Pastries, and groups touring the St. Leonard’s gardens behind its wrought iron fences across the street (first church built in America by Italian immigrants i think the sign said) and watching the BMWs, Hummers, and Mercedes jockey for parking spaces outside our window, we thought “What economic downturn?” Did someone give not give Boston the memo? I’d love to see a moment like this on the evening news for a change.

We may not have been to the North End for years but THAT isn’t happening again. We will be there with our friends the Lambarts of Steamboat Springs Friday night. They just got back from Panicale, Umbria, Italy and we will be swapping stories over pasta and cappucchinos all weekend. I just hope they will be good sports about our Northwestern Wildcats beating what ever they call their son’s BC team. Shoot, you know what, we will have to be extra gracious too as we are sitting in the BC section. Gulp. I think we can do that.

Roberta of Torino just left a couple days ago, California buddies we know from Italy were here just before that and other San Francisco/Panicale friends are coming in a couple weeks. And we are hoping when it settles down here to get to Actual Italy in late October. Our daughter Wiley, The Wiley Traveler, late of London, is headed there on a cheap flight Friday, lucky girl! We keep realizing that even when we are not in Italy, you can see it is still a huge part of the family photo here.

See you in Italy,
(or, if not, maybe the North End)

Stew Vreeland

PORTLAND, Maine – Somehow we knew it would come to this. And now, in fact, apes have taken over the streets of Portland, Maine. And they are drumming. Beating the drum for the Expo. We are clearly about to get this party started. The Italian Life Expo comes to the Ocean Gateway this Thurs, Friday and Saturday (June 9-11) with a gala opening Thursday night. Right on the harbor. In fact that is the Ocean Gateway behind the Ape in this photo. Yes, the loudspeakers work and will be playing Italian music in the parking lot. And yes, we know we’re parked on the sidewalk.
Can your truck do that?

We did an Apes’ Tour of Portland and that ape’s eye view of Portland is on this full sized slide show. (If you put your cursor on the upper right and hit “show info” it will show you the photo captions) We started on the loading docks at Noyes Movers where the ship container came in direct from Italy full of wine, olive oil, ceramics and copper ware. After that it was visiting sponsors, handing out cards with all the info on them, hanging posters, enjoying the weather, just being out and about on the fun streets of Portland. Paul Turina of Turina Italian Wines and I would go a few blocks and get an Italian sausage from a cart. Or, and then, a cappuccino. And then a gelato. It was progress. Someone had to do it. And since we were the ones with the truck bed full of publicity we thought we might as be us.

mini version of slide show:

Paul was just at the Boston Consulate Thursday evening chatting with MaryAnn Esposito, Ciao, Italia chef for years on PBS. There was a film crew from RAI in Italy covering that Boston event celebrating Italy’s 150th. We heard they will be following the Consulate General up to Portland to film the opening for Italian television Thursday.

Our friend Kathy McCabe has been following our progress here closely and we’ve included a link to her Dream of Italy blog if you’d like to see their coverage of the Expo. She is quite the expert on all things Italian and is an enthused Expo sponsor.

More news as it becomes available. Stay tuned to this channel.

See you in Italy or see you in Maine when Italy comes to Portland.
Tickets available at Italian Life Expo.

Stew Vreeland