Ringraziamento … an Italian Thanksgiving

By Andrew J. Harvey

The author poses beside a roasted turkey while holding its foldout paper partner.

During the fall of 2008 a dream of mine came true — the opportunity to spend a semester living and studying in Italy. Having learned the Italian language, I specifically requested a host family that spoke little or no English.

I arrived at Gianni and Ana Silvestri’s multi-story home, located in the center of Florence. Lifelong Florentines, they welcomed me into their lives and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable in my new home.  During those months they introduced me to every aspect of Italian life.  In talking to other students later I realized that I had indeed received a much better host family than most.

By November I think I met every member of the extended family. I decided that it would be nice to repay everyone by introducing them to the uniquely American Thanksgiving dinner.  My cooking experience was limited, so I was guided through the meal by recipes found online and email advice from my mother, who is half Italian. Mama Ana did the shopping. When she came home with the groceries I realized my culinary gift was harder than expected.  She arrived with a 21-pound turkey — still in full white-feathered regalia. Apparently, those frozen and fresh market turkeys so common in American supermarkets aren’t easy to find in Italy.

My aim was for Ana to relax while I did the cooking. Getting an Italian mother to watch you cook without helping is an impossibility.  We began by preparing homemade stuffing with a loaf of Italian bread. She really wanted to put meat in the stuffing and was shocked that I’d make it without sausage or some sort of meat.

The only item we lacked was string to tie the legs together.  Ana disappeared and came back with a wide red ribbon. Although it caught fire while in the oven, it got the job done – and maybe it added a bit of flavor, who knows.

Next we made two traditional American side dishes, a green bean casserole with mushrooms and onions and, of course, mashed potatoes. She’d never seen green bean casserole before, so she let me create that dish myself.

Ana set the table with bright orange napkins, flowers, and a folding paper turkey she found in a stationary store. She was excited about that find and insisted on taking my picture with the real and fake turkey. Once that was finished the family sat down and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

Most would consider white wine the better poultry choice. During my entire Tuscan experience I never saw a glass of white wine. My host father, Gianni, would rather eat the label than drink white wine.  So, with this in mind, we drank a bottle of traditional fall wine, Vino Novello, that I picked up outside of Siena the week before.  We ate, laughed, and compared Italian and American experiences. This was, she said, most similar to their Christmas meal.

When I came home from school the day after our feast I found most of Ana’s relatives at the table enjoying the leftovers, while Ana explained the holiday to them.  They seemed especially impressed with the stuffing and casserole and insisted on having me translate the recipes into Italian.   After introducing so much of their culture to me, I took pleasure in introducing something uniquely American.  Ana, Gianni, and the rest of the family truly enjoyed their first Thanksgiving and last fall continued the tradition of what they now call “Ringraziamento.”

Andrew J. Harvey is Globalfoodie’s Italian expert and a senior at Syracuse University. Fluent in the language – and the food – he brings a unique, personal and accurate take on the importance of Italian food within the culture. He can be reached at: Andrew@globalfoodie.com.

By Keith Kellett

Appetizer at dinner. Photo by Keith Kellett.

When we took our first cruise, it was with another line, and we were nearly put off for ever. Although the ship was British-owned, it flew the Greek flag. Not only did we miss, for instance, the fabled sunset on Santorini, we were hull-down on the horizon, tucking into roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

I ask you! We can get that at home any day of the week; I can even prepare it myself, if need be.

Then, in 2006, we visited Santorini again, cruising this time with the Italian cruise line Costa Crociere, or Costa Cruises, to give them its English title, on the Costa Atlantica. This was much more like it! Free coffee whenever we wanted it, and pizza … real, crusty, thin-based pizza at most times, especially welcome if you’d been on a shore excursion, and missed lunch.

Dining Room on Costa Serena. Photo by Keith Kellett.

This year, we sailed on the Costa Serena, bigger than Atlantica, and themed around Greek mythology; Atlantica is themed around Fellini films.

Generally, whether we had Italian food for dinner, or some other cuisine, the menu was arranged Italian-style. First, the antipasto, or appetiser, then the pasta dish then the main course. Cheese was generally served before the dessert; we presumed, to clear the palate before the sweet.

It’s not only at dinner that you get such service. Although a sit-down breakfast or lunch is obtainable at all the restaurants, most use the buffet, which is open longer. And, here, the choice is much wider. You can indulge in your own national preferences if you like … although one of the very few issues I have with Costa is that they don’t seem to be able to cook bacon the way I like it. But, for their ice cream, I can forgive them even that. And, there’s plenty of other things to have for breakfast.

Executive Chef Massimo Molinaro. Photo by Keith Kellett.

In the kitchen, Executive Chef Massimo Molinaro presides over a staff of 115 chefs, cooks, and porters, catering for up to 3,780 passengers in the five restaurants on board, in addition to the 1000 crew, who also need feeding. It’s almost non-stop , starting at breakfast at 7.00 a.m. and ending at 2 a.m.

There’s usually a complicated ‘vegetable sculpture’ on display in the buffet. And, at the ‘sit-down’ meals, the food is always painstakingly plated to make it look as attractive as possible. It’s never forgotten, though, that the main object is to feed the client not just to impress him.

(The kitchen staff on Costa’s ships are faced with something their fathers didn’t consider. Costa is heavily committed to preserving the marine environment, and strives to make the ships as green’ as possible. They no longer use the procedure known in the Royal Navy as “pumping gash’,” or simply dumping the kitchen waste over the side. Every scrap of waste food must be incinerated, and the ash disposed of ashore.)

By Susan McKee

A few years ago, an idea popped into my mind: Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much. Of course, that’s not an original thought. In fact, I stole it from the Scottish novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott.

Roman roads, by Moonjazz (Flickr)

Making a trip to Italy to see Rome is a journey that people who consider themselves educated must do. The art and sculpture, the architectural styles, the dominant religious tradition, the very history of Western Civilization can be traced back to that site as though it were the navel of the universe. Every one soon or late comes round to Rome (Robert Browning, the English poet, said that).  Not that I hadn’t already traveled to Rome – in my mind. All through my decades in school, I’d read about it, saw photographs of it, watched movies about it.

Countless travelers, more literary than I, had been there before to record their experiences. What is there in Rome for me to see that others have not seen before me? What is there for me to touch that others have not touched? What is there for me to feel, to learn, to hear, to know, that shall thrill me before it pass to others? (Mark Twain this time).

Still, as a travel writer, I realized there’s nothing like being there. Knowledge of Rome must be physical, sweated into the system, worked into the brain through the thinning shoe-leather. When it comes to knowing, the senses are more honest than the intelligence. Nothing is more real than the first wall you lean up against sobbing with exhaustion. (so said British author Elizabeth Bowen).

I was ready to do my own sobbing. I had to see Rome for myself.

Even from America, all roads lead to Rome, even when there’s an ocean to traverse.

A nonstop flight … and, there I am in Rome! Whence this excess of joy? What has befallen me? A thousand busy thoughts rush on my mind, a thousand images; and I spring up as girt to run a race! (Samuel Rogers). So much to see and so little time!

I grabbed a couple of guidebooks and threw myself into sightseeing in this eternal city, bound and determined to savor it all.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do – that’s the advice that St. Ambrose gave to St. Augustine back in the 4th century. Who was I to do any differently? I stayed in a hotel owned by Italians, and never, ever ate in a restaurant that welcomed bus tours or posted a big sign that offered an English-language menu.

I threw three coins in the Trevi Fountain and had my picture taken with a “gladiator” outside the Coliseum. I marveled at the Pantheon’s oculus and contemplated the view from the Capitoline Hill. The city was resplendent. Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city (Anatole Broyard).

From the Etruscans to the Black Shirts, from the dank Christian catacombs to the vaulted dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, I raced to see Rome, the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar (George Eliot).

Alas! Rome wasn’t built in a day (Jean de la Fontaine), and there was far too much to see and do to pack it into one visit. I’ll have to go back and do more exploring.

The old world stands serenely behind the new, as one mountain yonder towers behind another, more dim and distant. Rome imposes her story still upon this late generation (Henry David Thoreau).

ESSENTIALS:

Rome Tourism (www.romaturismo.it/v2/en/main.asp) gives links to everything you need to know, from accommodations to tours, including some very useful itineraries for either 48 or 96-hour stops, great for a quick visit to the Eternal City. (www.romaturismo.it/v2/romain48ore/en/romain4896ore.html)

Context Rome (www.contextrome.com) arranges tours (and more) in Rome for those who wish more than a superficial look. I took their Vatican tour — and spent almost five hours roaming the museum galleries and then St. Peter’s with a philosophy graduate student from Duke University who was studying Latin in Rome.

Susan McKee can be reached at Susan@globalfoodie.com.